Increased drug threat due to instability in Burma: report

by Mungpi
Friday, 27 November 2009 21:25

New Delhi (Mizzima) - Political instability in Burma could lead to an increase in trafficking of illicit drugs and may result in the shifting of clandestine manufacturing facilities across the borders of neighbouring countries, a new report by the United Nations Office on Drug and Crime said on Thursday.

The UNODC, in its report “2009 Patterns and Trends of Amphetamine-Type Stimulants and Other Drugs in East and South-East Asia”, said the unstable political situation in Burma in 2009, could serve as a push factor to the current illicit drug production and trafficking dynamics in the region.

With ongoing hostilities between the government and ethnic armed groups, who had a ceasefire agreement, the political situation in Myanmar in 2009 is turbulent.

“This instability could affect the current illicit drug production and trafficking dynamics in the region. There is a likelihood that these changing conditions will serve as a push factor for increasing the trafficking of illicit drugs and could result in the relocation of clandestine manufacturing sites across the border,” the report, released on Thursday in Bangkok, said.

Besides, areas along Burma’s border with Lao Peoples Democratic Republic and Cambodia could experience increased trafficking activity with the possibility that clandestine laboratory operations may be established in these areas.

The report said, “Illicit manufacture of Methamphetamine, primarily in pill form (Yaba), continues, particularly in the Shan, Wa, and Kokang autonomous region.”

The report, which analyses the trends of production and trafficking of Amphetamine-Type Stimulants (ATS) and other Drugs in 15 East and Southeast Asian countries, said though Methamphetamine still remains the third most used drug in Burma following Heroin and Opium, increased use has been indicated every year since 2003.

However, the report said, Methamphetamine seizures declined by 34 per cent in 2008 compared to the previous year, while Heroin seizures increased by 29 per cent.

“Preliminary data from the first two quarters of 2009 suggest that trafficking is increasing for both Methamphetamine pills and Heroin,” the UNODC said in the report.

The report, produced under the global Synthetics Monitoring: Analyses, Reporting and Trends (SMART) programme, said a recent estimate of injecting drug use prevalence in Burma between 15 and 64 years of age is between 0.18 per cent and 0.27 per cent, accounting for about 60,000 to 90,000 people.

“The HIV prevalence among IDUs [Intravenous Drug Users] has been estimated to be very high at 42.6 per cent,” the report said.

The report contains detailed findings on 15 countries - Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, the Lao People's Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, the Republic of Korea, Thailand and Viet Nam.

The report said, during the past five years, while much of clandestine synthetic drug manufacturing facilities have been dismantled in East and South-East Asia, they have been replaced by the larger, industrial-size operations.

“Discovery of "meth" manufacturing facilities in recent years in South Asia may indicate the intent by organized crime groups to base their manufacturing and trafficking operations in the region,” the report said.