Ethnic armies in north Burma are reportedly buying arms with opium profits.Photo from The BBC
Opium cultivation in Myanmar has increased for the third year in a row, with the number of hectares rising by 11 per cent – a total of almost 50 per cent since 2006 – although production was down due to a fall in yield per hectare, the United Nations anti-drug agency reported today.
Opium hectares now total 31,700 and while this is still just a quarter of the amount grown in Afghanistan and a far cry from the early 1990s when Myanmar was the world’s biggest opium producer, “the trend is going in the wrong direction,” a UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa said.
Read more ….
UN Reports Rise in Opium Cultivation in Burma — Voice of America
U.N. Says Opium Trade Is Expanding in Myanmar — New York Times
Myanmar rebels grow more opium to buy arms – report — Reuters
Burma opium production up amid tension in north — BBC
Opium cultivation doubled — Straits Times
LAOS-MYANMAR: “Worrying trend” of rising opium poppy cultivation — IRIN
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