Myanmar anti-drug group targets opium crop as standoff ends

By AFP
24 February 2016
Myanmar anti-drug group targets opium crop as standoff ends
Police remove barricades after they decided to let members and supporters of a Christian based anti-narcotic group pass through a blocked area in northern Kachin State, Myanmar, 23 February 2016. Photo: Seng Mail/EPA

The leaders of thousands of anti-drug vigilantes vowed to destroy opium poppy fields in northern Myanmar after they said they reached a deal Tuesday to end a standoff with authorities blocking their path.
Members of Pat Jasan, a hardline Christian group whose followers don military-style uniforms and are known to flog drug users, had camped for several days outside the town of Waingmaw in war-torn Kachin state.
They had been stopped by authorities who feared clashes with poppy farmers.
Myanmar is the world's second largest opium producer after Afghanistan.
Tan Goon, a senior member of the Pat Jasan group, told AFP they had received permission to continue on their way from the Kachin state minister for security and border affairs.
"Now we have got access. We will be accompanied by security personnel including the police, firefighters, and other social organisations. There are a lot more poppy fields to destroy," he said.
No one from the local police was immediately available to comment.
The narcotics trade has spread addiction across Kachin state, where conflicts have raged between the government and ethnic minority rebels since a 17-year-long ceasefire collapsed in 2011.
This week's showdown has raised questions over the effectiveness of government efforts to combat rampant opium production in border regions.
The drug trade in those zones is linked both to ethnic rebel forces and to the military or its allied militias.
Pat Jasan has taken matters into its own hands, with methods that often veer into violence.
It was founded two years ago by the powerful Kachin Baptist Church and now claims tens of thousands of members, a swift rise that has added a new layer of community tension in a state already battered by conflict.
Impoverished farmers in mountainous and remote areas of northern Myanmar have few viable alternatives to growing opium.
One Waingmaw resident told AFP that authorities were concerned local farmers would fight back if their fields were attacked.
"(The farmers) asked Pat Jasan to forgive them this year because they have invested a lot of money in their poppy crop," the resident, who asked to remain anonymous, told AFP.
Experts say Pat Jasan's methods of forcing addicts off heroin -- such as beatings and public humiliation -- have been counterproductive, pushing users underground, reducing the reach of needle exchange programmes and causing a spike in HIV rates.
© AFP