Pubdate: Wed, 13 Oct 2004 Source: Bangkok Post (Thailand) Copyright: The Post Publishing Public Co., Ltd. 2004 Contact: http://www.bangkokpost.co.th/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/39 POPPY FARMERS NEED SUPPORT The United Nations' report that more than one million impoverished farmers in Burma are facing a ''humanitarian disaster'' for giving up opium cultivation is the bad news in a story that could otherwise give the world's anti-drug campaigners cause for celebration. The significant decline in poppy fields and opium output in Burma's Shan state revealed by the Opium Survey 2004 of the UN's Office on Drugs and Crime is encouraging. It shows the agency's efforts to eradicate opium cultivation through crop substitution programmes are moving in the right direction. Regretfully, the shortfall in the financial support from donor countries, particularly the United States and the European Union, are undermining the UNODC's attempt to build a safety net needed by these people who have given up their illicit crop. The agency revealed on Monday it was seeking $26 million over the next five years to fund UN-related crop substitution programmes and to ensure people have enough food, but has received only $12 million, from donors such as Japan. The dismal support means that an estimated 260,000 households, or more than 1.2 million people in the Wa region of the Shan state, where more than 90% of the country's poppy crops are grown, will stand to be adversely affected. The prospect that these people may end up facing the same fate befalling the poor Burmese farmers who gave up opium cultivation last year was disheartening. Shan's Kokang region gave up poppy cultivation in 2003, and the results have been devastating. Thirty percent of the region's 200,000 people left the area in search of work and food, two-thirds of the pharmacies closed and school enrolment plunged by 50%, according to UNODC. Burma, Southeast Asia's largest opium producer, has taken substantial strides since 1996 in reducing opium production as it aims to eradicate the crop by 2014. The areas planted with opium poppies in Burma were cut by 29% in 2004 compared with the previous year, according to a joint survey by UNODC and Burma's military government. Burma has set a target to eradicate all opium cultivation in the Wa region of Shan state by next June. Without help, the poor farmers who live on or below the poverty line will lose their livelihood and face greater risk of human rights abuses, human trafficking and forced relocation. The reluctance by the US and the EU to provide the funding support for the UNODC is understood to be part of their policy to boycott the military regime in Rangoon to speed up the democratisation process in that country. However, the political pressure on the ruling Burmese generals should not also be applied against poor, innocent villagers who have given up their long-time traditional cash crop, and perhaps the only crop they know how to grow. Thailand, with a less sophisticated political backdrop and ethnic differences, has a spent a long time battling against opium cultivation among its highanders using the same approach. The kingdom's success story, thanks to the support from the UN and a major ally such as the US, has resulted in a significant drop in the opium cultivation and heroin production along its border adjoining the Golden Triangle. This has set a model for Burma. But eliminating opium cultivation in our western military state where many of the ruling generals are widely alleged to have close ties with drug lords is a far tougher job. The UNODC will need the full support from all countries, particularly the US and the EU, to make its programmes in Burma a success. More importantly, the poor villagers of Shan state must be given all the assistance necessary to enable them to make a normal living after giving up the opium crop. The world community cannot celebrate the progress in its drive against opium cultivation if 1.2 million farmers are made to suffer as a consequence. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin