Bangkok – Burma’s political reforms and new ceasefire agreements with ethnic armed groups are raising hopes that the country will also be able to reduce illicit opium cultivation. Ron Corben reports from Bangkok.

This week Burma’s government signed another peace agreement with an armed ethnic army. Leaders reached a deal with the Shan State Army, a militia based in the northern Shan State where much of the country’s opium is produced. (more…)

Ceasefire negotiations between the Shan State Army–South (SSA) and government will continue to the next stage after the two sides agreed a tentative truce late last year.

Additional conditions of the agreement include the handing over of cachés of drugs seized by the group.

More talks will take place between 15 and 20 January in the Shan capital of Taunggyi as both sides push for lasting peace in the volatile state. These would be the highest-level talks to date after negotiations on 19 November brought to a halt 15 years of fighting.

The group’s spokesperson, Sai Lao Hseng, told DVB that they had agreed to give up narcotics seized from the Wan Pang militia last year, as well as cooperating with the Burmese government over the elimination of drugs.

That latter pledge will attract scepticism given ongoing accusations that Burmese officials are heavily involved in the drugs trade – the Shan Drug Watch released a report in November claiming that at least seven MPs in Burma’s three parliaments are complicit through their ties with militias in Shan state.

How the ceasefire will affect the SSA is unknown: part of the agreement will see troops from both sides able to move around unarmed in one another’s territory, while it’s likely the SSA were offered business concessions along the Thai border and into Shan state.

The SSA’s base along Burma’s border with Thailand and their use of Thai territory was quietly allowed by the Thais due largely to the work they did in stopping Burmese drugs entering Thailand. Thai support was crucial to the SSA’s ability to remain afloat during 15 years of conflict with government forces.

The government under President Thein Sein has made several pushes over the past few months for dialogue with Burma’s multiple ethnic armies, following years of stalled talks and a recent upsurge in violence, particularly in Kachin state.

While some have met with success, fighting still rages in parts of Burma– the Kachin conflict is thought to have been some of the most intense and bloody seen in Burma since the mid-1990s, while talks to bring an end to protracted fighting with the Karen National Liberation Army have so far failed.

The government has also approached the Chin National Front (CNF) in northwestern Burma for peace talks, although little is known of the discussions. The CNF took up arms after the 1988 uprising, and last year joined the United

Poppy cultivation has doubled in Southeast Asia since 2006, according to a report released by the United Nations Office on Drug and Crimes (UNODC) in Bangkok yesterday.

Burma accounts for most of the opium traded and over the past five years, cultivation in this country has risen remorselessly. The regional cultivation figure for 2011 is 16 per cent higher than in the preceding year, the report says. (more…)

At least seven MPs in Burma’s three parliaments have been implicated in the country’s lucrative narcotics industry, according to a recent report that again cast doubts on government pledges that it is stamping out the trade. (more…)

While chairman of company, Hu bought stock using online account of a woman he met through a dating service (more…)

Opium cultivation is on the increase in the Palaung communities in the northern Shan State of Burma. This fact was revealed in a study published last month by the Palaung Women’s Organization. Indeed, it would seem the local authorities are not only aware of the problem, but are aggressively promoting and protecting the opium trade there. (more…)

Opium production and drug addiction have dramatically increased in the Namkham area of northern Shan State since the election of a local warlord in last year’s general election, according to a new report by the Thailand-based Palaung Women’s Organization (PWO). (more…)

A new briefing paper by the Palaung Women’s Organization (PWO) exposes a dramatic increase in opium cultivation in Burma’s northern Shan State in the constituency of a drug lord elected into the new military-backed parliament. (more…)

In early 2002, when the Chinese authorities were breaking huge boulders to improve the navigational route between China and northern Laos and Thailand on the Mekong River, local residents and environmentalists were half joking when they said they would be standing by with their slingshots to attack the project engineers and crew members. (more…)

The United Wa State Army (UWSA) has reportedly been destroying many acres of poppy plantations in its controlled areas in Shan State East’s Mongton township, opposite Thailand’s Chiangmai province, saying anyone who complain about its action will be placed under custody, according to local sources. (more…)

Washington—Burma, along with Bolivia and Venezuela, have “failed demonstrably” to meet its counter-drug obligations, US President Barack Obama said in a presidential determination, following which the US State Department said Burma would face additional sanctions. (more…)

The United Nations says the use of synthetic illegal drugs such as ecstasy and methamphetamine has overtaken cocaine and heroin. (more…)

Bangkok – Thai authorities have seized illegal drugs including heroin and methamphetamine worth an estimated $33 million that are believed to have been smuggled from Burma, officials said on Thursday. (more…)

Senior police officials from Thailand were in Naypyidaw yesterday for a meeting with their Burmese counterparts over the perennial issue of cross-border human and drugs’ trafficking. (more…)

Bangkok – Global production of opium fell 38 percent in 2010 as plant disease hit crops in top producer Afghanistan, but output in second-largest producer Myanmar jumped after a big increase in land under cultivation, the United Nations said on Thursday. (more…)

A port on the Naf river near Teknaf alleged to be used by methamphetamine smugglersarriving from Burma (Joseph Allchin) (more…)

Soldiers of the Pha Muang Force seized a large quantity of drugs while on patrol along the border with Burma in Mae Sai district of Chiang Rai on Tuesday night. (more…)

Burmese army troops and local militias in southern Shan state are reportedly taking bribes from local farmers in return for allowing the continued cultivation of opium, despite government assertions that it is stamping out the trade. (more…)

It is easy to miss the spirit gate that guards the entrance to Phiyer, a remote village in northern Laos. Half submerged in weeds beside a field of towering sugarcane, the simple wooden structure resembles a set of miniature rustic goalposts. Look closely, however, and you will notice it is strung with roughly carved swords and assault rifles made of bamboo. The villagers believe the gate wards off disease and evil spirits. (more…)

Phiyer – It is easy to miss the spirit gate that guards the entrance to Phiyer, a remote village in northern Laos. Half submerged in weeds beside a field of towering sugarcane, the simple wooden structure resembles a set of miniature rustic goalposts. Look closely, however, and you will notice it is strung with roughly carved swords and assault rifles made of bamboo. The villagers believe the gate wards off disease and evil spirits. (more…)