Burma may revive opium cultivation

New York - Burma, one of the three Southeast Asian nations that form the Golden Triangle, may revive opium cultivation after years of drastic decline due to effective eradication programmes that forced all three nations to destroy their fields of the deadly plants, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said.

Thailand, Laos and Burma were the top producers of opium decades ago, but their total production dropped to a mere 5 per cent of the world's total production last year after Afghanistan.

UNODC said Thailand has been opium-free for almost 20 years while Laos cut production by 94 per cent in less than a decade. Burma's share of global opium market collapsed from 63 per cent to 6 per cent between 1998 to 2006.

"The Golden Triangle is no longer a major supplier of opium," UNODC said in an annual report.

But while UNODC praised Thailand's and Laos' eradication efforts, it raised the alarm that Burma has increased areas of cultivation by 29 per cent this year, from 21,500 to 27,700 hectares, and opium production was up 46 per cent as a result of higher yield.

If the trend continues, Burma will be second to Afghanistan in terms of opium production, with annual yield of 460 tonnes.

"Over the past few years Burma was priced out of the opium market by much higher yields and cultivation in Afghanistan, leading to a drop in production," said Antonio Maria Costa, Executive Director of UNODC.

"Nevertheless, the sharp increase in the amount of opium grown in Myanmar in 2007 is worrisome and undermines progress towards a drug-free Southeast Asia," Costa said.

UNODC said Burma has shifted cultivation to the South and East Shan states from the eastern borders with China, Laos and Thailand, and production there now accounted for 90 per cent of all opium grown in the country.

UNODC said drug trafficking in Burma has increased because of weak border security, driving up corruption and high-level collusion. Distribution of drug incomes was taken over by criminal groups specializing in the lucrative methamphetamine production, the synthetic drug, during the time opium cultivation dropped drastically.

It urged Burma's neighbours in particular and other countries to tighten up on shipments of precursor chemicals needed to make heroin and methamphetamines, and crack down on drug trafficking, and reduce demand for drugs. (dpa)