BURMA
New US Dugs War
21’
August 2001
| | Burma - Drugs | |
| Suggested Link: | It’s mad, it’s bad, and it’s taking Thailand by storm. It’s Ya Ba, or Crazy Drug, and it’s probably coming to a nightclub near you soon. Australian Federal Police apparently believe that Asian crime syndicates are targeting this country as the next big market for Ya Ba, a particularly potent type of speed made mainly in Burma. Burma produces about seven hundred million methamphetamine tablets every year. At the moment, most of them end up just across the border in Thailand, where Ya Ba and other similar drugs are causing big problems. | |
| | The Thais have ordered their army to crack down on the drug traffickers, but in effect, that means an undeclared war with the military regime in Burma. For, as Evan Williams reports, there’s now hard evidence that not only are Burma’s generals turning a blind eye to the drug trade – they’re actively protecting and personally profiting from it. | |
| Shan State Army | Music | 00:00 |
| | Williams: High in the hills of the Golden Triangle this small ethnic army is re-emerging to become the new front line troops in the world’s war against drugs. | 00:16 |
| | They are the Shan State Army, seen here overrunning a Burmese army post in a daring daylight raid just a few weeks ago. They’ve been fighting for years but, as we’ll see, these guerrillas are now being re-armed and trained by Thailand as a cross-border strike force against the drugs flowing from Burma. | 00:32 |
| | Their raids are not only interrupting the flow of heroin, but also producing the first hard evidence that Burma’s military government is not only protecting, but directly profiting, from the flood of drugs including a new scourge – amphetamines. | 00:57 |
| Prof. Des Ball Super: Professor Des Ball Strategic Analyst A.N.U | Ball: According to the US State Department, drugs provide more than fifty percent of Burma’s foreign exchange. Given the scale of this activity and the sheer dependence of the Burmese economy on that drug money that we’re really talking about it infusing the whole government in Rangoon. | 01:17 |
| Mountains of the Golden Triangle | Williams: These mountains of the golden triangle have long been notorious for the drugs produced by ethnic armies fighting Burma’s military dictatorship. | 01:35 |
| Williams | but it’s the surge in methamphetamines from this area that’s now heightened military tension between Thailand and Burma and it’s in this area that both countries are now being dragged in to a broader stand-off in the emerging cold war between China and the United States. | 01:43 |
| Prof. Des Ball | Australian Des Ball is a strategic analyst who’s developed an unlikely interest -- in drugs. | 02:08 |
| | Ball: Further south, where it gets very close to the border, you'll see there's a whole lot more BPP and Ranger roadblocks and things. | 02:14 |
| Border Post | Williams: Professor Ball’s research on military tensions along this border have brought him to tiny border posts like this one, where the frontier is no more than a creek, and crossing it no harder than walking. | 02:26 |
| | While heroin has been coming across this frontier for years, it’s the explosion of amphetamines – or a potent version of speed – that’s caught his eye for one reason -- it’s being run by Burma’s ruling army. | 02:42 |
| Prof. Des Ball | Ball: In the case of many of the methamphetamine production labs, you’ve got Burmese troops actually guarding the plants, you’ve got military intelligence guys who are providing the escorts of the trafficking caravans you’ve got MI people allowing it to actually cross the border in to Thailand. | 02:57 |
| Army confrontation | Williams: Two years ago Foreign Correspondent revealed the drugs threat to Thailand was not heroin – made mostly for the western market – but amphetamines -- Ya Ba or Crazy Drug, as it's known. As these pictures dramatically illustrated regular Ya Ba use can trigger psychosis, inducing a terrifying paranoia, and for all users it’s addictive and quickly damages the bits of the brain it stimulates – those controlling emotions | 03:17 |
| Burmese Army | Yet Ya Ba is being pumped out of labs in Burma at such a rate – and its use now so widespread -- Thailand has now ordered the army to stem the flow – appointing a tough-talking general to challenge Burma’s military dictators directly. | 03:53 |
| Wattacnachai | Wattacnachai: The amount of drugs is increasing every year from about 200-million amphetamines a year – we expect around 600-700 million amphetamines coming in to Thailand this year. So it’s a very serious problem - a real national threat, especially for the young Thai people. | 04:10 |
| Tourists walking through bush | Music | 04:33 |
| | Williams: To reach the source of the crisis you have to enter Burma the same exhausting way the drug smugglers leave -- on foot. | 04:41 |
| | For years the conduit for heroin, this network of winding paths now also flows with Ya Ba. But they are also the re-supply routes for the Golden Triangle’s resurgent ethnic army, and I’ve been invited here to meet them | 04:54 |
| Shan State Army | Singing/Marching Shan State Army: For our people and our Shan State we will sacrifice. We will be an army until we get independence. | 05:14 |
| | Williams: These men used to be the private army of drug warlord Khun Sa. When he retired to the luxuries of a government amnesty in Burma four years ago, many thought his Shan State Army – or SSA - would simply disappear. But from their entrenched mountain bases the SSA have regrouped to continue a 43 year struggle for independence from Burma -- and today their leader Colonel Yewd Suk reminds them why. | 05:25 |
| Colonel Yewd Suk | Suk: The people in Shan State today have houses we can’t live - we have farms but we can’t work… we have literature but we can’t study – we have a life of suffering. | 05:56 |
| | Music | 06:08 |
| The Shan People exhuming the dead | Williams: For years, the Shan like other ethnic groups, have suffered in silence behind the border of Burma’s military dictators. | 06:14 |
| | Music/Woman wailing | 06:20 |
| | Williams: Filmed at great risk deep inside Burma, Shan human rights workers exhumed these most recent victims as evidence of regular executions of Shan people by Burma’s army. Every year, they report, hundreds are executed this way – either accused of supporting separatism or simply refusing to submit to a soldier’s bullying. | 06:27 |
| Colonel Yewd Suk | Suk: If the SPDC doesn’t relinquish power, if they don’t stop supporting the drug trade and don’t stop killing the people these problems will continue for a long time. | 06:54 |
| Shan camp in Burma | Williams: At least 100-thousand Shan have been forcibly relocated inside Burma to create strategic free-fire zones --rape, plunder and forced labour are common. A few lucky refugees have ended up at this squalid camp near the Thai border under the protection of the Shan State Army. | 07:08 |
| | Wood cutting | 07:30 |
| Sai Waling | Williams: Among them, 31-year-old Sai Waling lost everything – including his parents -- the day a Burmese army column entered his village looking for young men to take as army porters. | 07:32 |
| | Wailing: The army tried to find us in the village, but couldn’t so as they set the village on fire people ran in different directions. When I went back to the village to see what had happened the army was waiting, I couldn’t see my parents and my tears flowed – all I saw was their bones … in a very black hole, it was very black. | 07:47 |
| | Williams: But Waling, a farmer, has even more damning testimony. A first-hand account of how the Burmese military actually organizes the drug trade. | 08:04 |
| | Wailing: They made us plant opium saying they would pay us for the labour or be partners after the drug grows but when it’s ready they take it away and we don’t get anything, it becomes their property but we do all the work. | 08:14 |
| Drug burn | Williams: Burma’s ruling generals deny any involvement in the drug trade, and in the country’s capital Rangoon, once a year hold a spectacular drug burn for foreign diplomats and dignitaries as proof of their innocence. But this is just a show. | 08:44 |
| | Official: Three… two… one… Explosion/Applause | 09:00 |
| Lt-General Khin Nyunt | Williams: Presiding over the ceremony, it was this man, Lt-General Khin Nyunt, the head of Burma’s military intelligence and number three in the ruling junta, who brokered cease-fire deals with ethnic armies fighting for independence from Burma. The deal was simple - stop fighting - and you can do whatever business you like – including the drug trade. | 09:12 |
| Bertil Lintner Super: Bertil Lintner Far Eastern Economic Review | Bertil: There's no doubt that the drug traffickers are enjoying the direct protection, immediate protection of General Khin Nyunt, and that is shown in the special number plates which the cars carry the special ID cards which all the leaders of the cease-fire armies carry, which are signed by Khin Nyunt and it gives them immunity to any kind of searches at Burmese army checkpoints anywhere inside the country. So Khin Nyunt is definitely involved in facilitating the movement of narcotics across the country. | 09:37 |
| | Music | 10:07 |
| Lt-General Khin Nyunt with the Wa ethnic group | Williams: Khin Nyunt’s biggest success was ending the war with these people – the Wa ethnic group – seen here receiving Khin Nyunt in their stronghold near the border with China, and he has good reason to seem so pleased. | 10:11 |
| Prof. Des Ball | Ball: He has very personal investments in the drug traffic. According to various Shan and Wa organizations who have direct knowledge of some of these activities, he does have investments in these labs and makes money directly out of them. | 10:25 |
| Building site | Williams: Within a year of the deal with Khin Nyunt, the Wa emerged as the region’s biggest drug producers – suddenly rich enough to build their own mini hydro-power stations, transforming forlorn backwaters in to border boomtowns, all built on drug money, and assisted by Burma’s army. | 10:52 |
| Bertil Lintner | Bertil: They have actually assisted the Was in providing protection for heroin convoys, methamphetamine convoys, and that money generated from the drug trade is being reinvested in Burma's legal economy. | 11:12 |
| Shan State Army base | Williams: Back at his mountain base, Shan State Army leader Colonel Yewd Suk refuses to sign a cease-fire with Khin Nyunt. | 11:25 |
| | Suk: I would have to trade drugs with them, and anyway a cease-fire doesn’t solve the people’s problems, the army does terrible things to people, cease-fire groups can’t complain to anyone, so doing a deal is useless. | 11:37 |
| | Williams: Instead Colonel Yewd is trying to convince the world his army no longer runs drugs and is looking for Thai help in his independence struggle. But Thailand’s support is highly sensitive, as seen as Colonel Yewd meets Thai army officers in civilian clothes here at his base. | 11:52 |
| Prof. Des Ball | Ball: They’re providing training, they're providing weapons and ammunition, they’re providing intelligence. Williams: These are for ethnic armies to attack Burmese government posts in Burma? Ball: To attack those areas which are involved in the production of drugs, some of which do have Burmese military elements collocated with them providing protection and support. | 12:13 |
| | Music | 12:43 |
| Shan State Army in mountains | Williams: With new arms, ammunition and support from Thailand - Yewd Suk’s Shan guerrillas are now taking the fight to the Burmese, and in a bid to convince the world these drug runners have turned drug fighters, they’re filming it. | 12:53 |
| Shan raid on a drug lab | And this recent Shan raid on a drug lab nets fifty kilograms of A-grade heroin. | 13:14 |
| Bertil Lintner | Bertil: The SSA has, over the past year, frequently attacked Burmese army positions where they know narcotics are being stored. They have intercepted convoys coming down to the Thai border. They have destroyed a number of refineries and labs. | 13:21 |
| Shan raid on a Burmese army post | Gunshots | 13:39 |
| | Williams: At midnight, the Shan mount another merciless raid, this time on a Burmese army post. The manoeuvre is quick and well-organised. | 13:43 |
| | Their prize – a well-stocked official Burmese government army position right on the Thai border. It’s a bonanza of weapons, intelligence and ammunition, all of which they’ll turn against the Burmese -- but there’s something else much more valuable for the Shan in their bid for growing Thai and outside support. | 13:58 |
| | Soldier: Maybe it’s money, nut I’m not sure. Oh yes,… it really is ya ma… now put it back. | 14:23 |
| | Williams: Drugs – a huge haul of methamphetamines bound for Thailand and stored at an official Burmese army position right on the border with Thailand. | 14:36 |
| | Morning reveals the grim reality of this border war -- young Burmese troops caught totally by surprise, their captured weapons and family photos displayed with the drugs they were storing for shipment to Thailand. Such evidence is impossible for Burma’s generals to dismiss. But Burma’s desperation to protect its economic dependence on the drug trade has provoked a belligerent backlash against the raids and their Thai support | 14:54 |
| Bertil Lintner | Bertil: The Burmese army has accused the Thais publicly of assisting the Shans or accompanying the Shans on raids inside Burma and of taking part in attacks on Wa and Burmese army installations. This is what prompted the statement from Rangoon-- I think it was last week by General Kway Win, deputy head of military intelligence, that the Burmese army, his army, would fight together with the Wa against the Thais and the Shans so the battle lines are fairly clear here. | 15:25 |
| | Bertil: This is the first time I have seen a Burmese newspaper openly attack Thailand and the Thai army. | 15:58 |
| | Williams: In twenty years Bertil Lintner has never seen anything like the current tension. | 16:05 |
| | Bertil: I mean the rhetoric is unprecedented – it’s like whipping up the whole country for war against Thailand – it’s war-mongering. | 16:10 |
| Burmese troops | Williams: Already sparking some serious clashes between Thai and Burmese troops along this border, Burma’s threats have provoked an equally aggressive response from Thailand. | 16:19 |
| Wattanachai | Williams: Military intelligence in Rangoon – I think general Kyaw Win – was quoted as saying that if Thailand didn't withdraw from disputed positions, it could be war. Wattanachai: I said it could be war. Williams: You said? Wattanchai: I said, not he said. | 16:33 |
| | Wattanchai: So if they attack us we have to fight them, but the disputed area is considered our soil – Thai territory. | 16:53 |
| Thai Troops in trench | Williams: And Thailand has considerable backing; what started as disputed border over drugs has become a new front between the world’s two superpowers. | 17:01 |
| Thai promotional video | Music | 17:12 |
| | Williams: As seen in their typically slick PR video, just last month five thousand American troops were in central Thailand for joint exercises with the Thais. | 17:17 |
| | American spokesman: Our combined armed forced conduct this annual exercise to enhance allied combat readiness and interoperability and to demonstrate United States resolve in support of the security and humanitarian interests of our regional friends. | 17:28 |
| | Williams: But despite the feel-good propaganda – there’s a new urgency to these war games. | 17:42 |
| US war games | Music | 17:48 |
| | Williams: This year – for the first time – US Special Forces instructors will stay behind to train their Thai army counterparts how to stop the narcotics flooding in from Burma. | 17:51 |
| Blair. Super: Admiral Dennis Blair US Pacific Command | Blair: We have provided the training teams, we’ve consulted with them on upgrading equipment for these teams, and in fact we’ve increased intelligence sharing, which is really the third important component in order to understand where the drugs are going and also practical information to be able to stop the flow. | 18:05 |
| Wattanachai | Wattanachai: It is military assistance in which the US government will provide weapons training concerning the fight to suppress drugs, because the US is very specialised in this area - they have experience in Colombia. | 18:26 |
| | Music | 18:40 |
| Chinese Troop carriers | Williams: But unlike Colombia, Burma is backed by America’s new strategic rival – China – both officially and secretly on Thailand’s border. | 18:41 |
| Bertil Lintner Super: Bertil Lintner Far Eastern Economic Review | Bertil: To have Chinese personnel from the Chinese security services and from the Chinese army right down on the doorstep on the border, set-off the alarm bells here in northern Thailand. | 18:53 |
| Prof. Des Ball Super: Professor Des Ball Strategic Analyst A.N.U | Ball: It gives Beijing a window into the Indian Ocean, enables them to monitor Indian naval and missile test activities in the eastern part of the Indian Ocean. It provides China with access in to this part of the region which they otherwise would not have. | 19:05 |
| Bertil Lintner | Bertil: And they’re defending those interests with massive arms supplies to the Burmese government at the same time as they're supporting the Wa. | 19:29 |
| Burmese Hinterland | Music | 19:39 |
| Shan State Army Troops | Williams: From their ridge-top redoubts the Shan pay respects to those who’ve already fallen – and there’ll likely be many more. With Burma’s descent in to narco-dictatorship, and Thailand’s determination to stop the trade, the chances of a more fighting and conflict are increasing by the day. | 19:47 |
| Bertil Lintner | Bertil: You’ve got the Burmese army, the United Wa State army backed by the Chinese, you got the Shan state army backed by the Thais, you got the Thais and the Thais backed by the Americans. It is not far-fetched to believe things could go awfully wrong if not handled carefully | 20:11 |
| Monks chanting | Monks chanting | 20:29 |
| | Williams: Praying for a more firepower, the Shan are putting their faith in the new US-Thai partnership against Burma’s drugs. But if Thailand and the west are serious about halting the drug trade along this wild frontier they’ll have to do more than provide a few guns to these isolated, outnumbered guerrillas. A more determined push to replace Burma’s dictatorship with accountable, democratic government - would be a good place to start. | 20:38 |
| | Music | 21:14 |
| Credits: | Reporter: Evan Williams Camera: Mark Laban David Leland Sound: Kate Gunn Editor: Garth Thomas Research Kate Gunn | 21:21 |
| | | |
| Suggested link: | Afghanistan - DroughtAnd now to what’s possibly the world’s worst humanitarian crisis – not as you might expect – some African hell hole like Rwanda or Somalia. Rather, it’s Afghanistan – where the deadly nexus of war, politics and now terrible drought has forced thousands to flee. But where to? A refugee camp on the Pakistan border so inhospitable they call it “a graveyard for the living”. | |
| | Foreign Correspondent’s Jonathan Harley got rare access to Taliban controlled areas inside Afghanistan to report on the true extent of this most under-reported crisis. | |
| Afghanistan's Beshud district | Music | 22:00 |
| | Harley: In central Afghanistan's remote mountain district of Beshud, the local Taliban boss has a crisis on his hands. He needs the world's help, and he's not going to let the Taliban's rigid ban on photography get in his way. | 22:01 |
| | Taliban boss: Tell him to film this area, because it’s beautiful…but the ground is all barren and the situation is very bad | 22:17 |
| | Taliban boss: Last year was worse than the year before but this year is worse than last year. | 22:33 |
| Small village | Harley: He's brought me to the tiny village of Day-now (pron), deserted but for those too old, weak or broke to leave. | 22:40 |
| Village elder | Village elder: I’m 70, and I’ve never seen anything like it. Nobody’s ever left because of draught. | 22:48 |
| Woman in village | Woman: There’s so little water – and in early spring it’s filled with worms. It’s the third year our land has been dry, and nothing but thorns. | 22:58 |
| | Harley: Help's barely trickling into these remote villages. Government, for want of a better word, consists of an endless stream of talk and tea -- the Taliban message -- its job is fighting, not feeding. | 23:15 |
| District Governor Super: Bazil Taliban District Governor | Bazil: We, the Islamic Empirate of Afghanistan can only ensure security of the area. But we’ve got no money to solve the most common problems of the people. | 23:31 |
| | Harley: But there can be no end to their problems without an end to the civil war, and there's no sign of that. | 23:53 |
| Harley Super: Jonathan Harley | This crisis is defined by waves of refugees. As one moves out another moves in just as quickly. The people who normally live here have fled the drought, only for 18 even more desperate families to move in, escaping the civil war. | 23:58 |
| | This place offers little relief for people who've seen unspeakable things. | 24:13 |
| Islamic Woman | Woman: They beat all the man. The fighting was heavy. We women and children were forced to flee. Woman: Man: Did people die? Woman: Yes, many people died. Those who managed to leave somehow survived – the others were killed. | 24:19 |
| | Harley: These ethnic Hazaras are part of the Shia Muslim minority, and claim they're being singled out by the Sunni Taliban, most of them ethnic Pashtoons. | 24:51 |
| Human Rights Watch Video | This clandestine footage shows mass graves being exhumed in a nearby area. It was released by the American based Human Rights Watch, which reports 170 civilians were massacred by Taliban forces in January. It seems some civilians were even skinned. | 25:00 |
| the Shia Muslim people | Terrified, people need little persuasion to leave. | 25:17 |
| | Nine months pregnant, this woman walked through snow for two days -- her child did not survive. Others have their lives, but not their health. | 25:26 |
| Jalozai Village | Those who can, come here; on the outskirts of Pakistan's border city of Pesharwar, Jalozai is a plastic sea of 80,000 people that sprung up at the start of the year. | 25:37 |
| | There are next to no facilities, as Nazar Mohammad is taking drastic measures to keep his children clean. | 25:50 |
| | Jalozai's already claimed the life of their three year old daughter, due to dehydration and a chest infection. | 25:57 |
| Nazar | Nazar: My father said don’t leave Afghanistan – stay with us, in spite of the hunger, war and everything. I told them I want to save my children. I ignored my father’s orders and now I’ve lost my daughter. | 26:04 |
| Harley | Harley: Many of the 80,000 people here at Jalozai have come by foot, fleeing conflict, drought and the intolerance of the Taliban. But instead of finding refuge, they've only discovered that they're not welcome. | 26:23 |
| Riaz Khan Super: Riaz Khan Pakistan Foreign Ministry | Riaz: We already have more than two million Afghan refugees in Pakistan. And the assistance that we are receiving for that is -- to be accurate -- one dollar per refugee per year. So basically, they're a burden on us. | 26:34 |
| Jalozai Village | Harley: Pakistan's so fed up it's locked its border gates. And the UN says it's being stopped from helping these people, because it can't take down their names. No registration means no relief. | 26:53 |
| Riaz Khan | Riaz: We are not going to allow registration, because that is only a recipe for further influx of Afghans into Pakistan, who are basically economically displaced. | 27:05 |
| Yusuf Hassan Super: Yusuf Hassan, UNCHR | Yusuf: They are refugees, they are no economic migrants. They need protection from the international community and that's why they're coming to Pakistan, and that's why we're concerned about them. | 27:16 |
| Jalozai Village | Harley: As long as the war of words rages, at Jalozai, nothing changes. Afghans are among the world's most hungry , war weary people. And with dwindling economic interest in their plight, they can only wonder if it's better to suffer outside Afghanistan, or amid the dust and devastation at home. | 27:31 |
| Credits: | Reporter/Camera: Jonathan Harley Editor: Brad Thomas Producer: Mavourneen Dineen | 27:59 |