Poppy cultivation in areas where PaO, a non-Shan nationality, are dominant, has been steadily climbing since 2010, according to a study by the PaO Youth Organization (PYO).

The PaO, who are concentrated in three southern townships: Hopong, Hsihseng and Panglawng (Pinlaung), but also spread out in other townships, were forced to either quit or reduce their production of opium during the 2006-2010 period. “But following the election campaigns in 2010, the poppy fields returned,” said a young surveyor who asked not to be named.

“Vote for us and you’ll be free to grow poppies” was one of the campaign promises given by candidates of the military proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP). It was also used by other parties affiliated to the Lion Party, as the USDP is popularly known.

Opium cultivation, sporadic in the area before 1991, became widespread following a ceasefire agreement between the PaO National Organization (PNO) led by Aung Kham Hti and the Burmese government in that year, according to PYO that cited several reasons for the increase:

• Taxation of poppy farmers and traders as well as protection for drug producers
• Ineffectual drug eradication programs
• Lack of roads
• Land confiscations since the 1962 military takeover which became worse following the advent of the nominally-elected government in 2011
• Widespread corruption and weak law enforcement
• Illegal taxation (“Every 5 times a farmer’s hoe go into the earth, only one is for him,” said a 45 year old former village headman in Hsihseng township. “The first one is for the Burma Army, the second for the PMF (People’s Militia Force), the third for the rebels and the fourth for the village development funds. Only the fifth is for himself and his family.”
• Lack of markets for agricultural products (which was made worse by floods of cheap tea and garlic into Burmese markets)
• Suppression of farmers, instead of traders

Other evil consequences, cited by the PYO, include:

• Environmental damage
• Decline in public morals
• Increase in human rights violations
• Dying of age-old traditions
• Weakening cohesion in the PaO society
• Rising corruption and
• Human trafficking

“There are some 30,000 PaOs from Burma working in Bangkok alone,” said the surveyor. “Their families back home are happy because there are less opportunities for their children to become drug addicts there, but they also send money back home.”

The two-year study, tentatively titled “Sobs from the opium quagmire”, is due to be published before this year’s Anti-Drugs Day, 26 June, according to the PYO.