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Golden
Triangle
Burma
Thailand
Laos
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Golden Triangle, Burma, ,
Laos, Thailand, World war 2,
Kuomintang, Shan State,
Kachin,
poppy cultivation, opium, Chinese
market
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The
designation, Golden Triangle -
a remote area covering
parts of Shan State in Burma and smaller, adjacent
areas in Laos and
Thailand — conveys mystery and
intrigue. The Golden Triangle, reputed to be a large
opium producing area, is a thickly forested and
mountainous region beyond government control.
Since the end of World war 2 the Golden
Triangle has been a haven for various groups
including: the Kuomintang or KMT, Nationalist
Chinese troops who escaped to Burma after their
defeat by the Chinese communists;
Shan and Kaching
insurgents and the Communist Party of , CPB,
who established a base among the Wa people on the
Golden Triangle Burma-Chinese border.
These groups financed
their needs through drug production and trafficking
in the Golden Triangle.
The fear of spreading communism even spurred
American and French involvement in the region’s
nefarious and lucrative business, in order to pay
local mercenaries fighting in Southeast Asia. Local
hill tribes including the Wa, Kokang, Lahu, Lisu, Lu
and Akha have also been drawn into the trade.
In addition to armed
ethnic insurgents fighting the government,
independent opium
warlords with private armies held sway over much
of the Golden Triangle. Law Hsin Han and Kung
Sa, for example, are notorious for posed
difficulties to successive Burma regimes and
western countries in which their illicit drugs are
sold. |
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Golden Triangle Opium Poppy Flower Burma.
Incisions are made in the walls of the green
opium poppy seed pods, and the milky exudation
is visible, collected and dried
Opium Poppy field in the golden triangle area in
Burma
A latex containing several important alkaloids
is obtained from immature opium poppy seed
capsules one to three weeks after flowering |
After operating for some two decades
in the Golden Triangle,
Law Hsin Han was arrested in
Thailand,
extradited to Burma and sentenced to death. His sentence was commuted in 1980 and
subsequently Law Hsin Han took up residence in
Taunggyi. Kung Sa backed by his own Muang Tai
Army of some 20,000 fully armed troops, carried
on when Law Hsin Han was arrested. His army even
had the temerity to make occasional forays into
government controlled territory.
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Golden
Triangle, Burma, , Laos,
Thailand, World war 2, Kuomintang, Shan
State, Kaching, Communist Party of
, Chinese communists, Wa, hill
tribes, Kokang, Lahu, Lisu, Lu, Akha,
drug production, trafficking, Law Hsin
Han, Kung Sa, Taunggyi, Muang Tai Army,
illicit drugs, drug problem, drugs, tea,
jade, teak, English colonists, poppy
cultivation, opium, Chinese market,
British East India Company, British
government, KMT, drug users, United
States, Europe, Narcotic Drug Law,
Tachilek, Thanlwin Shan State, Mae Sai,
Wanpon port, Mekong River. |
Burma received material and
monetary aid from external sources to combat the
drug problem in the Golden Triangle
including a one
million dollar reward for Khun Sa’s capture put
up by the United States. Burma successfully
negotiated with fifteen armed groups to renounce
insurgency; and, in 1996, the government was
able to persuade Khun Sa to give-up his army of
more than 14,000 men and almost 9,000 heavy and
small arms. Khun Sa, once variously known in the
international and Burma press as Prince of
Death, Scourge of Mankind and Drug Kingpin, is
now on good terms with the Burma government
and is even accorded the honorific prefix U or
Uncle. Burma has refused to extradite him to
the U.S. on grounds that there is no extradition
treaty between the countries.
For hundreds of
years the main commodities traded in the Golden
Triangle were tea, jade and teak.
Drugs were
introduced by outsiders — English colonists
encouraged poppy cultivation in order to produce
opium for the Chinese market, the profits of
which enriched the British East India Company
and the British government.
The U.S. financed the KMT to pressure the
Chinese communists under Mao. After Nixon and
Kissinger established stronger relations with
China under Mao, the U.S. withdrew support from
the KMT who then turned to raising poppies to
finance their activities.
Some argue that the United States Government
could have put a stop to poppy cultivation in
the Golden Triangle years ago. In 1991, Khun
Sa welcomed a crop substitution plan proposed by
the United Nations. Earlier, in 1989, Khun Sa
had indicated to President Bush that he would
cease planting poppies and in 1975 Law Hsin Han
offered to sell the complete opium crop of the
the Golden Triangle Shan State to the United
States in exchange for
another cash crop. These suggestions and others
have been arrogantly rejected by the United
States who blame
Burma for not solving the
problem in the Golden Triangle, Khun Sa "the
king of the Golden Triangle died in October 2007
peacefully in his house in Rangoon.
The United States
government does not seem to understand the
demand and supply principles of the economic
system they have sought to introduce all
over the world ! Those who supply drugs are
simply responding to the demand of drug users in
the United States and Europe.
Why doesn’t the United States government
focus on educating people not to use drugs
instead of blaming poor Asian countries from the
Golden Triangle for
causing the problem? Is it because there are too
many powerful groups in the United States who
profit from the drug trade?
Americans living in fine homes and driving
beautiful cars in “God’s own country,” are
demanding that hill tribes in the Golden
Triangle who can hardly afford one full meal a
day, give up a key source of income to solve an
American problem.
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The government of
Burma enacted a Narcotic Drug Law in 1974 and
the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances
Law in 1993 to combat drug trafficking. The
Central Committee for Drug Abuse Control (CCDAC)
is charged with the responsibility of enforcing
the laws and of encouraging crop substitution
and livestock farming.
The government also provides treatment as
well as conducting information and education
programs. Rehabilitation, information and
education have been undertaken in the Golden
Triangle . Burma is also
actively co-operating with countries in the
region as well as with UN agencies in drug
control work in the Golden Triangle .
From 1990 to 1997, seized narcotics valued at
over $52 million were publicly destroyed at 11
exhibitions before state, diplomatic and UN
officials. During the same period 32,777 persons
were jailed for drug abuse offences including 20
sentenced to death and 48 to life imprisonment.
Tachilek - the
Golden Triangle Capital.
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Tachilek, located
in the Golden Triangle on
the Burma-Thai border in the eastern sector of Thanlwin Shan State,
is a gateway to the heart of the
Golden Triangle. The Friendship
Bridge across the small Mae Sai
stream links Tachilek with the northern Thai
border town of Mae Sai. The area is currently
being developed for tourism and cross-border
trade with Laos, Thailand and China.
One can fly direct from
Rangoon to Tachilek
in an hour or drive 450 kilometres into the
Golden Triangle, east from Taunggyi
to Kentung, then 163 kilometres south to
Tachilek. There is a ferry landing site at
Wanpon port on the Mekong River at the
Burma-Laos border in the Golden Triangle, 29 kilometres from Tachilek.
The port also handles goods shipments to and
from Thailand and China. Work is under way to
develop the town as a exchange centre for
trading goods. |
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Golden Triangle
Burma Thailand Laos Golden Triangle |
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