Thousand of activists, a Christian-based anti-narcotics group, are to have police protection after getting the go-ahead from the Kachin State government to destroy over 1600 hectares (4000 acres) of opium poppy fields.
Permission was received yesterday to mount the mass operation in Waingmaw township this weekend. Poppy clearing by the Pat Ja San group had been put on hold after a 19-year-old activist eradicating the flowers that produce opium for heroin was shot dead by the suspected owner of a poppy field last week in Hukawng valley in Tanai township.
Pat Ja San said a 50-strong police force would escort the poppy destroyers. Pat Ja San is an anti-narcotics organisation set up in 2014 by Christian communities in Kachin and northern Shan State. The group also has 90 recovery centres for addicts supported by churches.
The group submitted a letter on January 20 to the state government asking for security and met yesterday with the state minister of border affairs and police officials in the capital Myitkyina.
Tang Gon, secretary of Pat Ja San (Myitkyina), told The Myanmar Times that the Tatmadaw’s northern command had not responded to their separate request for security.
“We had information from our Pat Ja San member in the area that the poppy field owners have weapons. They might attack us if we destroy their farms. That’s why we need security from the police and military,” he said.
Last year two men were killed and about 10 injured when drug dealers and users attacked the vigilante group in Hpakant, which is notorious for heroin addiction among migrants who scavenge for jade in vast open-cast mines.
U Thu Raw, the chair of Pat Ja San, said yesterday that the group was trying to clear Kachin State of all heroin and other drugs because illegal narcotics had killed many Kachin people. Their teams planned to keep cutting down poppy fields until mid-February when the harvesting of opium resin begins.
“For more than two years we have been teaching residents not to grow poppy, but we also need to raise the awareness of the government so that it cooperates with our operations against narcotics,” he said.
Police Lieutenant Colonel Myint Htoo said they would provide security for the poppy destroyers and were in discussions about operational details with other police officers in Myitkyina township.
By clearing 1600 hectares in one township operation, Pat Ja San would eradicate more than all fields destroyed across Kachin State last year.
Myanmar is the largest opium producer in southeast Asia and the world’s second-biggest after Afghanistan.
According to government statistics provided to the UN, some 1495 hectares of poppy fields were eradicated in Kachin State in the 2015 season compared with just 395 hectares the year before.
The UNODC’s Southeast Asia Opium Survey 2015 said four townships in Kachin State produced opium from 4200 hectares of poppy fields, out of a total of 55,500 hectares in the whole country.
http://www.mmtimes.com/index.php/national-news/18603-police-to-protect-kachin-poppy-destroyers.html
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