U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly recently praised Burma’s fight against illicit drug trafficking.

 

“Over the past year, the area under poppy cultivation has declined by 26%, and opium production in the country as a whole is now less than one-quarter its level in 1996,” br true that the drug situation in Burma has started to improve-if you only talk about opium production figures. However, the outflow of an equally dangerous substance, methamphet-amines, is repidly increasing. Overall, Burma’s abysmal record as a center for drug production isn’t changing.

 

Since the 1980s, Burma has been a major exporter of heroin into the U.S.., with opium production nearly doubling to 2,430 tons from 1,280 tons after the military junta seized power in 1988. And today the country still ranks among the world’s biggest heroin producers. But the ruling military junta now says it wants to fix the drug problem and promises to reduce the opium crop by another 50% next year, down to a about 400 tons. Media reports in Washington suggest that some U.S officials are so remove Burma from the list of major drug producers. Burmese officials have been lobbying hard through the Washington D.C.-based public relations firm DCI Associates to win more lenient treatment from Ther U.S.

 

However, this isn’t the whole story. To be fair to Mr. Kelly, he has also noted that methamphet-amine production in Burma is on the increase. But this affects Burma’s neighbors more than it does the U.S Thailand expects the flood of methamphetamine entering the country from Burma’s jungle based laboratories to soon hit one billion pills per year, and the epidemic of violence as a result has shocked Thais. Locals and observers on the Thai-Burma border in Mae Sai say that the Burmese authorities are continuing to turn a blind eye to the top drug traders.

 

Burma’s warlords and militias, many of whom have reached cease-fire agreements with the junta, enjoy the freedom to conduct their own unlawful businesses, including drug trafficking. The United Wa State Army, notorious as one of the world’s largest suppliers of heroin, recently switched from opium to the more lucrative business of producing methamphetamines. The UWSA signed a cease-fire with the regime in 1989 and is widely suspected to be behind the recent surge in drug production. Rangoon, however, has done little to halt the UWSA’s illiegal operations.

 

With the junta’s blessings, the UWSA has expanded its opium based business into other lucrative enterprise like casinos, hotels and other forms of entertainment. Thai officials say that the UWSA’s “commercial arm,” the Hong Pang group, was set up with drug money, and they have called on Burmese leaders to take action against it. Burma’s junta has chosen not to act, just as it has failed to arrest Wei Hseuhkang, a UWSA commander and known drug trafficker wanted by U.S. officials.

 

Khun Sa, a.k.a Chang Si Fu, who is also wanted by U.S. authorities, is now protected by the junta and has been treated as a “blood brethren” since his surprising surrender to Rangoon in early 1996. Other former drug lords, warlords and their associates, including Sai Linn and Lo Hsing-han, freely roam Rangoon’s streets.

 

Over the past decade, Burma’s drug trade has been integrated into the country’s economy, and traffickers are now part of the nation’s “legitimate” business community. Some are building new business empires with drug money and nurture special connections to top-ranking military leaders. They are investing aggressively in hotels and the construction business in Mandalay and Rangoon. They make frequent trips to Singapore and other Western countries for business meetings and shopping, and send their sons and daughters to boarding schools and universities in Australia and Singapore.

 

To compensate for such unsavory behavior, the junta publicizes news about raids and arrests against small-time drug offenders on staterun television, and foreign journalists often get invitations to drug burning ceremonies inRangoon. Meanwhile, the big producers operate with impunity. The UWSA’s trucks and other vehicles have special license plates and are not stopped at checkpoints. Worse still, in remote areas in Shan and Kachin states, local militia and Burmese army soldiers encourage farmers to grow opium before taxing them, all as part of an “understanding” with the drug producers.

 

It is imperative that the international community does not repeat the mistakes of the past. In the 1970s, Murma’s socialist government claimed to be getting tough with the drug producers. But after the Nixon administration provided military assistance, Gen Ne Win and his associates used the weapons to attack ethnic insurgents, while Khun Sa, then a notorious drug trafficker and leader of Mong Tai Army, was spared.

 

Burma fully deserves its reputation as a haven for drug lords. Now is not the time to ease the pressure on Rangoon.

Felstavat namn stangde tidning

Att jobba som journalist I Burma ar en kafkaistisk upplevelse. Det kravs mod och en stor portion svart humor for att sta ut med militarjuntans absurda censurlagar. Ett felstavat namn kan leada till att en tidning stangs.

I over tio ar har burmese Aung Zaw givit ut tidningen Irrawaddy fran grannlandet Thailand. Nagon mojlighet att bedriva nagon form av fri och oberoende journalistik I burma ar omojligt. Radio, TV och alla dagstidningar ags eller knotrolleras av juntan som styrt landet sedan slutet av 1980 talet.

 

Militaren har total kontroll over allt som trycks eller sands I etern, sager Aung Zaw, som nyligen besokte Sverige inbjuden av organisationen Reportrar utan granser och Svenska Burmakommitten.

De finns nagra fa privata magasin vars artiklar noggrant granskas av den statliga censurmyndigheten innan tryckning.

 

Utgivningstillstandet fornyas var je ar sa det galler att vara forsiktig. For att jobba som journalist I Burma kravs kan det leda till tio ars fangelse, sager Aung Zaw.

 

Reportrar utan granser har kallat Burma for varldens storsta fangelse for journalister. For tillfallet sitter 18 journalister fangslade.

 

Burmas relation till Thailand har varit anstrangd de senaste aren och militarjuntan har darfor beordrat alla tidningar att I vartikel om grannlandet. Thailand inte far anvandas utan istallet ska ett pejorativt uttryck brukas. De tidningar som inte lyder dessa direktiv kan fa sitt utgivartillstand indraget.

 

Nar Militaren utfardade denna order hade ett magasin redan gatt I tryck. Redaktionen var tvungen att med tuschpenna retuschera bort ordet Thailand. Sammanlagt rorde det sigom narmare 10 000 exemplar, berattar Aung Zaw.

 

Medierna ar forjuda att namna den indonesiska presidenten Megawati Sukarnoputri eller nagon annan kvinnlig asiatisk politiker vid namn. Militaren ar nervos for att folk da ska associera den burmesiska oppositionspolitikern och nobelpristagaren Aung San Suu Kyi.

Det galler ocksa att inte halka pa tangenterna. Av misstag stavade entidskrift fel pa ett namn. Istallet for U Thaw, som det var tillatet att skriva om, blev det U Thang, en burmese som lever Ii exil I USA och som ogillas av juntan. Tidskriften stangdes direkt av militaren.

 

Med sadana absurda regler ar det omojligt att bedriva nagon form av journalistik vart namnet I Burma. Enda alternativet ar att arbeta fran ett annat land.

 

Aung Zaw tidskrift Irrawaddy trycks pa engelska, men en nyhetssajt pa burmesiska finns pa internet. Militaren har dock kopt sofistikerad mjukvara fran Singapore som blockerar tillgangen till vad militaren anser olampliga sajter, som exempelvis Irrawaddy och de Thailandska tidningarna Bangkok Post och The Nation.

 

Aven information via mejl kontrolleras. For att fa ett mejlkonto kravs det tillstand av militaren som aven har tillgang till innehavarens losenord, vilket innebar att de kan lasa alla mejl. Det ar ocksa dyrt att fa ett mejlkonto, minst 500 dollar, vilket motsvarar fem arsloner for en vanlig burmes.

 

Den enda oberoende information som befolkningen hart tillgang till ar radiostationer som har sina redaktioner utlandet, sager Aung Zaw.

 

Det finns fyra stationer som sander pa burmesiska fran utlandet och som har stora lyssnarskaror I Burma: Democratic Voice of Burna, som har sin redaktion I Oslo, BBC World, Voice of America och Radio Free Asia. Det ar inte forbjudet att lyssna pa dessa radiokanaler. Men de som lyssnar Pa dem gor det I hemmet och pa lag ljudniva for att inte vacka misstanksam het. Det her forekommit att de somskrivit radionyheterna och distri buerat dem har attesterats.

De utlandska journalister som skriver nagot negativt om militarjuntan blir bannlysta och nekas visum. Reportrar fran Voice of America, Far Eastern Economic Review, Le Mond, Liberation, New York Times, BBC och TV-kanalen France 2 ar portforbjudna. Enda sattet for journalister att ta sig in I landet att resa pa turitvisum och job ba utan tillstand.

 

Aung Zaw hoppas en dag kunna ater vanda till Burma och lagga grunden for en stark och oberoende journalistik.

 

Vi kritiserar aven oppositionen. Demokrati innebar en fri och oberoende press. Utan den kan inte demokrati byggas.