Pubdate: Sun, 30 Jan 2005 Source: Bangkok Post (Thailand) Copyright: The Post Publishing Public Co., Ltd. 2005 Contact: http://www.bangkokpost.co.th/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/39 Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine) TODAY'S BURMA FUNDED BY DRUGS Thailand and the United States have taken legal steps against the biggest, richest druglords in Asia. A US federal court accepted a case against eight leaders and drug peddlers with the United Wa State Army for making, smuggling and selling opium, heroin and amphetamines. Thailand, which already has criminal cases against several of the Wa, took a direct and active interest in the US case. This case is not just a symbol but an important milestone in a crucial battle. The single reason these dangerous, long-term drug traffickers continue to run drug cartels for profit is because of the protection of the Burmese dictatorship. The indictment was announced at parallel news conferences in New York district by the US attorney Roslynn Mauskopf and in Bangkok by deputy national police chief Pol Gen Priewpan Damapong. Both had senior drug officials by their side. The two big names on the indictment were Wei Hsueh Lung and Pao Yu Hsiang. Mr Wei is by far the more notorious. He was arrested in Thailand in November 1988 on charges involving 680kg of heroin, but jumped bail. Mr Pao is the lesser known but more infamous of the leaders. In Burma, Mr Pao is not just a drug trafficker for the government and Wa army commander; he is one of the country's top businessmen and investors. Mr Pao recently estimated he is the owner outright or is a member of the board of directors of 43 large Burmese companies. They include many firms under the umbrella of the large and influential May Flower Group, which includes Burma's third largest bank. He is the head of Yangon Airlines, one of two domestic airlines in Burma. According to recent visitors to the Wa region, Mr Pao has an estimated 20,000 men under military arms, has taken over and industrialised the jade mines once controlled by Shan and national Chinese groups, and is the overseer of all Wa drug-growing and manufacturing, which is to say all important drug trafficking in Burma. According to Mr Pao, the decision to eradicate opium growing and heroin trafficking this year _ the current harvest is to be the last _ was easy from a financial viewpoint. He made "only $5 million [192 million baht]" from opiate sales last year, just a relative drop in his still growing business empire. Much of this empire is considered legal and, in some circles, even respectable. Mr Pao and his partners frequently dine and do business deals with not just the government but other businessmen from abroad, including from Thailand. In this, Mr Pao and the other accused and indicted Wa leaders are following past precedent. The original opium warlord, Lo Hsing-han, is one of the biggest businessmen in Burma. He recently opened an entire port in Rangoon, the rough equivalent of a Chon Buri province mafia gangster chief building a rival port to Laem Chabang on the eastern seaboard. Mr Lo's successor as opiate trafficker, the heroin king Khun Sa, also has been turned into a supposedly respectable businessman, based in Rangoon and as safe as Mr Lo from the many foreign warrants for his arrest, including in Thailand. All of this happens, of course, thanks to the government of Burma. For the past 43 years, military dictators have nurtured close relations with drug traffickers, and encouraged them to grow, make and smuggle opium, heroin and methamphetamines to the world. The Golden Triangle of old has long shrunk to just one country. As Mr Lo, Khun Sa and then the Wa built and ran vicious drug cartels, the Rangoon regimes from Ne Win's in 1962 to Than Shwe's today have profited from the drug trade. A notation after each name in the drug indictment is telling: "Residence Burma". Anyone or any government doing deals with Rangoon should realise that most local investment in that country is laundered drug money. Some five-star hotels, many finance houses and a large percentage of all tourist facilities are built by money from druglords. It is unacceptable that Burma should protect some of the world's top drug traffickers just because they pass some of their profits through the generals. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake