Insurgencies blamed for rise in opium, coca production
Updated
![The UN claims rebels in the southern Shan state in Burma are a main cause behind a 29 per cent incerase in opium cultivation in the country. [Reuters]](http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/img/news/base/burma_opium_rtr_260608.jpg "The UN claims rebels in the southern Shan state in Burma are a main cause behind a 29 per cent incerase in opium cultivation in the country. [Reuters]")
The UN claims rebels in the southern Shan state in Burma are a main cause behind a 29 per cent incerase in opium cultivation in the country. [Reuters]
A new UN report says the rise of insurgents in conflict zones has directly contributed to the increase of drug production and trafficking around the world.
The UN World Drug Report 2008 describes the current glut of opium and coca as "a very recent surge" and draws a direct link to Taliban militants in Afghanistan, armed revolutionaries in Colombia and several ethnic insurgency groups in Burma.
Afghanistan had a record opium poppy harvest in 2007, nearly doubling worldwide illegal opium production.
UN experts say 80 per cent of the poppy was grown was done in five southern provinces where Taliban fighters profit from drugs.
In Burma, opium cultivation increased 29 per cent in 2007, mostly in the southern Shan state, where rebels seeking autonomy from Burma's ruling junta have clashed with the military.
Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the UN Office of Drugs and Crime, says there is a direct correlation between the rise of insurgencies and opium cultivation.
"The symbiosis between drug cultivation and production on one hand and insurgency on the other," Mr Costa said.
"Namely, when governments lack control of the territory, of course illegal activity tends to spread, and this has been the case in Afghanistan, in Colombia, in Myanmar [Burma].
"So key to control organised crime and illegality is control of the territory," he said.
The report comes just days after China praised Burma's efforts to fight drugs, lauding the actions of a military government often criticised in the United States and Europe for not doing enough to tackle the problem.
Yang Fengrui, head of the Ministry of Public Security's Narcotics Control Bureau, said on Wednesday the amount of drugs entering China from the Golden Triangle, which includes Laos and Thailand, had fallen.
Mr Yang said in 2004, China seized 10.8 tonnes of heroin from northern Burma, but that had dropped to just 4.6 tonnes last year.
Last September, Washington said that the former Burma had "failed demonstrably" to fight illegal drugs and that it had been "very lacklustre" in interdiction and fighting corruption.
