SHAN REBELS BLAME MYANMAR MILITARY FOR OPIUM BOOM

MONG PAN, Myanmar, Dec 20 (Reuters)

Rebel Shan State Army (SSA) guerrillas have said oppression by the Myanmar
military of the northeastern state's native population has caused the boom
in the local opium and heroin trade.

"Myanmar (government) troops unrelenting oppression of the Shan people and
other ethnic nationalities has forced them to continue growing opium," SSA
commander Colonel Yod Suk told Reuters at his jungle hideout in Shan state
on Saturday.

"This is because they need permanent plots of land to grow rice and other
crops and they don't have them," he said.

"People in the Shan state have turned to growing poppy because it takes a
short time or few months to harvest and they can shift the location of opium
fields in the jungles," Yod Suk, said.

Shan rebels had no permanent land because of frequent attacks by the Myanmar
military against the SSA and its followers as they fought for their own
homeland and autonomy, he added.

The SSA claims to control about 40 percent of Shan state and is one of a
handful of armed rebel groups that have not signed ceasefire pacts with the
Yangon government.

Shan state is on the fringes of the infamous Golden Triangle poppy growing
area which straddles the borders of Myanmar, Laos and Thailand. Drug
traffickers move large quantities of opium and heroin from the mountainous
zone.

The U.S Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) estimated that some 70 percent of
heroin in the street market in the United States originates from the Golden
Triangle.

The SSA's Yod Sok used to be a lieutenant of the former drug warlord Khun
Sa who controlled the state's opium trade before surrendering to the Yangon
government two years ago. Khun Sa now lives in Yangon.

SSA was formed by Yod Suk and the remnant guerrillas of Khun Sa's once
powerful Mong Tai Army (MTA) which claimed to be fighting for Shan state
autonomy but was deeply involved in the drug trade.

Yod Suk, 40, dressed in army fatigues and guarded by about 40 armed
guerrillas, estimated that in 1998, Shan state would produce more than 2,000
tonnes of opium. He gave no comparison figure for last year.

One tonne of opium can be refined in factories into 100 kg of pure heroin.

"There are 40 heroin factories in Shan state near the (eastern) border with
Thailand, opposite the Mae Hong Son and Chiangmai provinces," Yod Suk said.

He accused the Myanmar army of providing security for the heroin factories
and collaborating with ethnic Chinese and Thai businessmen to produce
heroin.

Yod Suk, said he had about 12,000 guerrillas under his command in the SSA
and was ready to help in drugs suppression in the Shan state.

In return, he demanded cooperation and support for his movement from the the
United States and the United Nations.

"The Americans have dumped millions of dollars on the Myanmar government in
their attempt to eradicate opium fields and heroin production in Myanmar but
it has not worked," Yod Suk said.

"So if the U.S. really wanted to eradicate opium and heroin in Myanmar they
should come to us, cooperate with the SSA and we will help eradicating opium
with them in 1999," he added.

He also urged U.N. assistance for Shan state to improve the living
conditions of the Shan people so they could be discouraged from cultivating
poppies.

Checked-by: Rolf Ernst