BURMA'S UNEMPLOYED TURN TO DRUG PRODUCERS FOR SURVIVAL

Tea Plantations Can't Compete on Wages

High unemployment and the rising cost of living in Burma have forced
thousands of Palaung people to turn to drug producers for jobs in
border areas, according to a Palaung meeting.

Palaung State Liberation Front secretary-general Mai Aik Phong told
last weekend's PSLF meeting that it was becoming more difficult to
combat the drugs menace because of mass unemployment, leaving many
with no choice but to serve drug producers, dealers and
traffickers.

"Thousands of people from remote villages in the north and central
region of Shan state have abandoned the tea plantations to serve
Chinese-run drug rings in border areas adjacent to China," he said.

The reason was they were only being paid between 300-400 kyat per day,
from 12 to 16 baht, at tea, bean and onion plantations compared to
600-800 kyat, or 23-30 baht, they are earning at opium plantations and
drug factories.

Workers employed in Burmese state projects involving the construction
of roads, reservoirs and public facilities were even more badly hit.
They have not been paid for almost 10 years.

Sponsors of drug production were mostly the Chinese who have long been
residing in Burma and those who crossed the border from China into
Burma's Muse town via Shwe Li three years ago to set up opium
plantations.

He said the eastern region of Shan state was a major production base
of methamphetamines destined for Thailand and third countries.

"Many countries are trying to seek Burma's cooperation for the
region-wide crackdown. But things are getting more complicated as
these workers are serving the drug industry just to earn a living,"
Mai Aik Phong said. Other Palaung leaders told the meeting that
Burma's economic crisis would multiply the social and drug problems in
the country and force more Burmese to sneak into neighbouring
countries for jobs.

Enoi, a 22-year-old Palaung woman who left a bean plantation in Shan
state three years ago for a job at an opium plantation in Kutkai
village, said some 30 people from Ta Mi Yae and Loi Kwang villages
were now working at opium plantations and drug factories in the
Kutkai, Kya Mae, Nam Kham and Muse areas next to China.

When she first started, her wages were 300 kyat per day. Now she is
being paid 800 kyat.

The ethnic minority group signed a peace pact with Rangoon in 1991.