Anti

Kayah State are the regions where poppy plants are grown. During the British colonial era, poppy

was grown extensively in those areas. After independence, because of the KMT aggression,

the internal armed insurgency, and the lack of effective administrative power of the Government

in those areas, poppy cultivation could not be prevented successfully. Moreover, the armed

insurgent groups themselves levied taxes and commercialized the poppy cultivation. They

expanded their activities in drug trafficking, exchange of opium with arms, purchase of arms

and ammunitions, which had increased the poppy cultivation. For the armed insurgent groups, opium

became the main source of income and their livelihood. On the other hand, opium trade

also had flourished by the activities of the armed insurgent groups. Thus there was

interdependent between opium trade and the armed insurgent groups, which mutually nurtured and sustained one another.

On 18 September 1988, the Tatmadaw took over the State

power, adopted the three main national causes a the national political policy, and adopted

the political objective of national

reconsolidation. In 1989, the Burma Communist Party collapsed and thereafterl7 armed insurgent groups returned to the legal fold and lived in peace Except the areas belonging to the Mon

New State Party and the Rakhine State BCP, the rest of the areas were poppy cultivation regions. The border of the Kachin and Shan State, the Northern and Southern Shan State the

Government designated the groups’ base regions as Special Regions and undertook the local development

plans. Plans to eradicate narcotic drugs are being implemented as a national duty. Actually,

the implementation of local development plans in those regions IS tantamount to eradication of

narcotic drugs. In parallel to the Government’s undertakings, the armed national groups also,

under the guidance of the Government, participated actively in the efforts to eradicate

narcotic drugs. Moreover, with the assistance of the various organizations, measures have

keen taken to raise public awareness on prevention and eradication of narcotic drugs, to

prohibit poppy cultivation, opium consumption, and drug trafficking, to arrest and

sentence those convicted, to encourage crop substitution, to set up centres for treatment of

drug addiction, to implement local development programmes in different sectors such as transportation, agriculture, livestock breeding, and mining. Some groups had launched Short and

Long-term programmes with the aim of having their regions declared as Opium Free Zones. The Mongla Region known as Eastern Shan State Special Region (4) had already designated their region as Opium Free Zone in April 1997. Efforts are being made with objectives to declare Opium Free Zones in Kokang region in the year 2000 and Wa region in the year 2005 respectively.