Précis

Hope is running high right across Myanmar (Burma) – after the historic election that saw the end of military rule. The new democratically-elected government must bring stability to a nation where few remember peace.

However some just aren't prepared to wait.  In northern Myanmar anti-drug vigilantes have begun destroying poppy fields and banishing drug dealers... fighting back against a trade that has ruined thousands of lives.

"When I look around the field, to me it looks so beautiful" – Nang, young mother and opium poppy grower, Myanmar

Nang has never tried opium. She has only the vaguest idea that the alluring flowers she tends so carefully do any harm to anybody, or that what she does is technically illegal. As she sees it, opium is the only crop that puts food on her table and keeps her child in school.

"What else can I do? It’s made my life better." – Nang

Nang’s is just one of about 200,000 families that the UN says are involved in poppy cultivation across Myanmar, the world’s second biggest opium producer. Production has more than doubled in recent years

"We are talking about tonnes and tonnes of heroin. I think most Australians would probably think it’s coming from Afghanistan, but it’s not true. It’s actually from Myanmar." - UN official in Yangon

South East Asia Correspondent Liam Cochrane ventures into the remote Myanmar valleys that produce so much of the world’s heroin. He then takes the trail to the China border where the bulk of the processed heroin heads to the outside world.

But as Cochrane discovers, not all the heroin is sold abroad. Pure, cheap and plentiful, the drug is scything through Myanmar’s townships.

"My sons were washed away on a tide of heroin." – Daw Lie, grieving mother, Nant Phar Kar town

In Nant Phar Kar the pastor reveals that he has buried 336 drug users from his congregation. By his reckoning, close to half the townspeople use heroin. He fears for his town’s very survival.

Nant Phar Kar symbolises an entire country’s addiction to the poppy. Opium money helped bankroll six decades of civil war. It has underpinned much of Myanmar’s economic development and has fed corruption even as the country makes its painful transition to a fledgling democracy.

No one really expects Myanmar’s new government to raze the poppy fields. But after a series of failed attempts to coax poppy farmers into trying other crops, hopes are rising that the newest UN experiment might finally succeed.

Fisherman on Inle Lake/Cochrane in boat paddling through crops and houses

Music

00:00

COCHRANE: After decades of dictatorship, Myanmar is opening to the world.

00:38

Once a backwater, places like Inle Lake are now on the bucket list for hundreds of thousands of tourists every year.

00:46

Music

00:54

Cochrane to camera from boat

COCHRANE: Inle Lake is one of the treasures of Myanmar. For generations the Intha people have lived and fished and even farmed on these waters. There are vegetable gardens floating all round us here and that’s where they grow tomatoes, garlic, onions, everything they need for their daily life. There is a tourism boom underway and things are changing, but for now there is a semblance of traditional life.

01:01

Village life GVs

Music

01:22

Sunset over water and mountains

COCHRANE: This is the Myanmar that the government wants foreign visitors to see. But not far away --  just over these mountains in southern Shan State, lies another world where tourists are definitely not welcome.

01:38

Aerial over opium crops

Music

01:53

COCHRANE:  This is opium country, tucked away near the notorious golden triangle, almost 600 sq km carpeted by poppies.

02:00

Women harvesting poppies

Music

02:10

COCHRANE:  Myanmar, better known to many people as Burma, is now the world’s second biggest producer of opium after Afghanistan. Most of the heroin on the streets of Australia comes from here.

02:17

Cochrane in field with poppy

We’ve come to the source of that heroin to meet the people who depend on the poppy – those who grow it, and those who use it – and we’ll journey to a remote village where some are trying to change.

02:30

Nang in poppy field

NANG HKAM HSREH: “When I look around the valley, to me these fields look so beautiful.

02:46

Music

02:50

NANG HKAM HSREH:  When the poppy plants flower, the harvest begins. We scratch the bulbs and collect the sap in cans. When the traders pay us we’re happy”.

02:57

COCHRANE: For workers like Nang Hkam Hsreh, poppies are simply a valuable crop.

03:06

Nang

NANG HKAM HSREH: “We’ve tried to grow other crops in these valleys, but none of them make enough income. I need to feed and educate my children and poppy farming pays for this. It makes our life easier. It gives us hope for the future”.

03:13

Nang working in poppy field

COCHRANE: Nang has never tried opium and has only the vaguest idea of what happens to the cans of sticky sap once the trader collects them from her village.

03:34

Village

The United Nations estimates around 200,000 households are involved in poppy cultivation across Myanmar. The harvest has more than doubled in the last decade.

03:44

Nang

NAN KHAM SAM: “My parents farmed poppies, and it’s been passed down to my generation. I know that the sap we collect is processed into drugs, and it can harm people. But what can I do? If I didn’t do this work, I would have no other source of income and my family would go hungry. It is what my village has done to survive over the years.

03:55

Nang harvesting poppy sap

COCHRANE: On average each worker makes less than a thousand dollars a year – taxes from the trade have helped to bankroll one of the world’s longest running civil wars between ethnic Shan and the Burmese military.

04:31

NAN KHAM SAM: “Every year, we’re forced to pay tax. I am not sure who I pay tax to, but when the collector comes we just pay him”.

04:45

Sunset behind poppy fields

Music

04:59

COCHRANE: All sides in this conflict are believed to have lined their pockets with drug money including some in the military regime that ruled the country until recently.

05:08

Music

05:19

Cochrane in poppy field to camera

COCHRANE: Standing here as the sun goes down over this absolutely beautiful valley, surrounded by poppies, it’s hard to believe that this area has seen so much conflict, all of it driven by opium.

05:25

Sunset behind poppy fields

05:37

TROELS VESTER: [United Nations Office on Drugs & Crime, Myanmar] “The opium is fuelling conflict, but conflict is also fuelling opium production. So in that sense it’s... it’s right there - it’s at the core. The local farmers are not getting rich on this opium production. Not at all. This is a way to survive.

05:44

Vester. Super:
TROELS VESTER
United Nations Office on Drugs & Crime, Myanmar

Of course the higher you get in the ranks the more money that get into it. So if you are transporting

06:01

Aerial over poppy field

the drugs at a higher level you might get some more, if you’re talking about the top, for sure it’s organised crime”.

06:08

Truck carrying opium/Man on motorbike carry goods

COCHRANE: Once the opium is harvested the traders collect the product from the farm gate, sometimes in exchange for pre-ordered goods. It’s the Shan State equivalent of online shopping.

06:14

Mules carrying opium

The opium is carried down from the mountains by traders, trucks and literally by drug mules.

06:28

Poppy fields

Closer to the border it’s turned into heroin and smuggled through China, Thailand and onto the global market, including Australia.

06:38

Cochrane walking in poppy field

TROELS VESTER: “We are talking about tons and tons of heroin and unfortunately for Australia that... that heroin is on a large scale going to Australia.

06:47

Vester

It’s not coming from Afghanistan. So I think most Australians would probably think it’s coming from Afghanistan, but it’s not true. It’s actually from Myanmar”.

06:55

Aerial. Women working in poppy fields

COCHRANE: As much as 80% of Australia’s heroin comes from here, but most of the crop doesn’t make it that far. It ends up in China, which has by far the largest number of heroin users in Asia.

07:05

Travelling to Shan state

We’re heading to northern Shan State following the busy trading route that carries Myanmar’s timber, gold, gemstones and opium to the outside world.

07:22

Travelling along mountain road/Truck accident

This narrow mountain road was once a key supply route for allied forces in World War II. Thousands of, mostly Chinese, labourers died building it. These days the victims are usually the trucks. A misjudged turn can be fatal though more often it means a long traffic jam. In our case, 22 hours.

07:41

Road closed with truck accident

Music

08:08

Travel continues along now open road

COCHRANE:  At long, long last we move again – the traffic event has been the talk of Myanmar. After two nights stuck in the van,

08:33

Crew joking in van

the conversation has lost its way.

CREW MEMBER: Love you man.

08:45

Muse GVs

Music

08:51

COCHRANE:  At the end of the road is the bustling border town of Muse. It’s Myanmar’s busiest border crossing into China. Trade both ways is approaching five billion dollars this year. The locals all want a piece of the action.

08:58

Myanmar-China border

Music

09:11

Cochrane at border to camera

COCHRANE:  This is the border between Myanmar and China and you can see through the gate just a glimpse of the prosperity beyond. The people on this side, the Myanmar side, are lining up to get day visas - if they are lucky, a week visa - so they can go over to China to work and make some money.

09:19

People at border crossing

Music

09:35

COCHRANE:  But not all Myanmar’s opium leaves the country. Locally, the supply is cheap and all too abundant as we discover just a short distance away.

09:4

Nant Phar Kar GVs

Like so many small towns here in Northern Shan and bordering Kachin State, Nant Phar Kar is in the grip of an epidemic. It’s isolated, there are very few jobs and it’s flooded with pure heroin.

09:51

Daw Li standing in yard

68 year old Daw Li has buried two of her sons.

10:10

Syringe lying on ground

DAW LI: “My sons were washed away on a tide of heroin.

10:17

Daw Li

I only started to notice their drug use once they began using syringes. At first they tried to hide their addictions from me. But I am their mother - I knew something was wrong.

10:22

Daw Li walks

My older son had been using a lot of heroin. He became weak and died at home. My other son was injecting heroin outside the village in the rice fields.

10:42

Daw Li

Villagers found his dead body out there”.

10:56

Cochrane with Daw Li

COCHRANE: “I understand you have three sons and one of them is still alive, still with us. Can you tell me about his situation”.

11:02

DAW LI: “Yes, I am really worried about him. He has already left home. But I know he has seen what heroin did to his older brothers and I know he does not want to suffer the same fate”.

11:10

Cemetery

COCHRANE: Daw Li’s oldest two sons are buried here. It takes a while to find their graves. Incredibly, the local pastor says he’s buried 336 drug users from his congregation alone.

11:40

Cochrane at gravesite

For so many people caught up in the heroin scourge here in the town in Nampaka and in other places around Shan State, this unfortunately is how it all ends up. This is incredibly simple grave is just the most recent person that Pastor Braung Aung has buried. Here in this graveyard that’s filled with the victims of drug abuse.

12:02

Cemetery

There’s no escaping the epidemic. As we’re about to finish filming in the cemetery, a man wanders in to shoot up.

12:21

Cochrane visits village rehab centre

Some heroin users do seek help. This is about as basic as rehab gets. It’s run by the local church. Users are forced to quit cold turkey.

12:31

Pastor Braung watches boys play volleyball

In a community of just 20,000 people, there are 22 church run rehab centres maintained by Pastor Braung Aung and other ministers.

12:49

“So if you were walking down the street and you met five men,

12:59

Cochrane and Pastor inside church

how many do you think would be using heroin?

13:04

PASTOR BRAUNG AUNG: “Yeah two or three, yeah”.

COCHRANE: “Two or three out of every five people here?”

PASTOR BRAUNG AUNG: “Yes”.

COCHRANE: “Are probably using heroin? That’s huge. It’s a huge problem”.

PASTOR BRAUNG AUNG: “Yeah”.

13:06

Cochrane greets addicts

13:18

Cochrane meets with addicts

COCHRANE: All of the addicts here are Kachin Christians. Nowra has been using for 20 years.

13:25

Nowra

NOWRA: “My life became all about heroin. I spent all my money on my habit. This meant none of my seven children could go to school. Even though I wanted them to get an education, I just couldn’t support them while chasing heroin. Now, none of my children live with me. I am very sad, but I know God has not abandoned me”.

13:33

Man in rehab #1

MAN IN REHAB #1: “When you are craving the drug your whole body hurts - neck pain, headaches, stomach, legs, your nerves. All over your body, everything hurts. This is heroin. You have to go through this to get better”.

14:01

Man in rehab #2

MAN IN REHAB #2: “I’d been working as a poppy farmer. I used heroin once or twice and I was hooked. It took over my life. I tried to beat my addiction for the sake of my family. It was just too difficult to do at home. I couldn’t beat it”.

14:26

Men in rehab sing

[singing]

14:43

COCHRANE: The government does nothing about the spiralling addiction here. Drug traffickers operate freely while this clinic is left to struggle with nothing more than goodwill and song.

14:55

[singing]

15:06

Cochrane with Pastor in church

COCHRANE:  “If there’s no change, what happens to this town?”

15:18

PASTOR BRAUNG AUNG: “This town where we are now - gone”.

15:21

COCHRANE: “Because of heroin?”

PASTOR BRAUNG AUNG: “Yeah, because of the heroin”.

15:26

Three Shan women

[singing]

15:29

Market GVs

COCHRANE: The Shan people are Myanmar’s largest minority. For centuries they have occupied the Shan Plateau that descends from the mountains of Western China. Like many of Myanmar’s minorities, they suffered under the Burmese military. They have few economic prospects other than opium production.

15:44

Three Shan women

[singing]

16:08

Cochrane in UN car travelling

COCHRANE:  We’re on the way to meet a determined group of villagers who’ve decided to try something new – and if it works, there’s hope it could bring change to the entire region.

16:13

It’s only been in the last few years that the United Nations has had access to this part of Shan State which is where the bulk of Myanmar’s opium is grown. It’s an extremely mountainous rugged area. The roads as you can probably tell are pretty wild and not for the faint hearted. In the wet season they’re impassable in many places. But at this time of year it’s okay, we can get through. The poppies are in full bloom and the harvest is under way.

16:25

ARCHIVAL. Conflict footage

Music

16:50

COCHRANE:  Until recently this area was the frontline. For more than 60 years the Shan State Army and other insurgent groups fought the Burmese military for an independent homeland. The conflict claimed thousands of lives and forced many people into makeshift camps.

16:55

UN car travelling

To the north the fighting continues, but here a ceasefire means it’s mostly calm for now, but no one really knows how long it will last.

17:19

Army roadblock

As we make our way along the dirt track, our convoy encounters a Shan State Army roadblock. They’re not about to admit to a foreign film crew that they have anything to do with the opium crop.

17:33

Soldier with Cochrane/Soldiers

SHAN STATE ARMY SOUTH: “Our fight is not about opium, or the money it generates. Our fight is against the Burmese military for an independent homeland. The Shan State Army is trying to eradicate the poppy fields. We want to find an alternative crop and break the dependency on opium production. It’s something we’ve promised to do, but it will take some time”.

17:48

Men on motorbike

18:12

Music

18:17

Farmers tending crops

COCHRANE: Alternative crops are an idea that’s been tried before – with rubber trees, sesame, even citrus fruit – all failing to deliver farmers an income that matches opium. This time the United Nations is banking on coffee. So far, 800 opium farming families have signed up to the UN’s crop substitution program and the first small batch of coffee is expected at the end of the year.

18:21

Monks at Pang Lyam

18:54

Here in isolated Pang Lyam village, locals have few foreign visitors other than the occasional UN official.

18:59

Cochrane and UN official in village

19:09

Cochrane at village meeting

After years of being trapped in the opium trade they’re keen to take control of their lives. Opium has underpinned much of Myanmar’s recent economic development, but they’re not seeing the benefits in remote areas like this.

19:14

Cochrane with Woman

WOMAN: “Come and build a house here!”

COCHRANE: “I think I am ready to live in Shan State now.”

WOMAN: “How about a holiday resort?”

19:31

Village GVs

19:38

Cochrane walks with Panu

COCHRANE: One of the early adopters of the UN coffee program is Panu, who’s lived here all of her 67 years.

19:44

“Is there where you live, is it?”

PANU: “Yes, this is my house. You are welcome here”.

COCHRANE: “Thank you very much. Thank you”.

19:52

Panu and women by fire

PANU: “It’s nice to warm up. It’s cold up here.

20:01

My father was born here, as was my mother. We’ve lived here all our lives. After I inherited the family home, it burnt down. We lost everything”.

20:06

Women around fire. Night

COCHRANE: After the fire, Panu’s husband died leaving her to raise the children in the midst of a civil war.

20:26

PANU: “The Burmese military cut off these Shan villages from trade.

20:34

Cochrane and Panu around fire. Night

We had no food at that time so like many, I started to grow poppies. I know poppies are turned into opium and it’s traded. This is not a good thing. These drugs can have a terrible impact on other families – their children, their husbands. That’s why I don’t want to be part of this industry. I don’t want my family to be involved in this business any more”.

20:39

COCHRANE: Like many Shan men, Panu’s son left for Thailand to find employment. She hopes that one day she’ll sell enough coffee to bring him home.

PANU: “Most of our village want to make the switch to farming coffee. We support this project. Our hopes for change are high - as high as the sky which covers the whole earth”.

21:12

Stupas

Music

21:37

Monk sitting

COCHRANE: Hope is running high right across Myanmar after the historic election that saw the end of military rule. The new democratically elected government must bring stability to a nation where few remember peace.

21:49

Music

22:03

Man in poppy field

22:08

Cochrane walks in poppy field

COCHRANE: Some just aren’t prepared to wait. In Northern Myanmar anti-drug vigilantes have begun destroying poppy fields and banishing drug dealers, fighting back against a trade that has ruined thousands of lives. Many here want change.

22:12

Farmers harvesting poppy sap

DAW LI: “The government just lets this happen. Farmers have no choice but to grow the poppies to survive, and support their families. On one hand the government claims it’s destroying the trade,

22:09

Daw Li

but on the other hand they let it flourish. Their job is to protect us, but they haven’t. It is ruining our community.

22:41

Aerial. Poppy fields

Music

22:52

DAW LI: Whenever I meet the parents of drug users or their kids, I always try to educate them not to be like my sons.

23:01

Daw Li

I think I will meet my sons again in heaven. According to our faith, everyone in heaven is equal, all the same age. So people say we’ll meet again in heaven. Yes, we’ll meet again”. [smiles]

23:12

Fire

Music

23:35

Panu and Cochrane around fire

PANU: “If we all work hard, if we can get this coffee program off the ground, this will benefit the whole family for many years to come. We will have jobs and money – it’s for our future. Even if I die, my children will have something to carry on.”

23:42

Aerial over poppy fields

Music

24:03

Shan women singing around fire

[singing]

24:16

Credits:

Reporter: Liam Cochrane
Producer: Matt Davis

Camera: Matt Davis
Editor: Garth Thomas

Executive producer: Marianne Leitch

abc.net.au/foreign

© 2016

Outpoint after credits

24:38