THE
BONDAGE OF OPIUM:
THE AGONY
OF THE WA PEOPLE
A PROPOSAL
AND A PLEA
THE PROPOSAL
We,
the leadership of the United WA State Party (UWSP) and the United WA State Army
(UWSA) propose to anyone who might be interested, that we eradicate opium
growing and stop the production of heroin in all the territory controlled by
the WA. This we are willing to do. It
can be done very quickly. I have full
authority to speak for the United WA State Party and the United WA State Army
which has ample power to carry out this proposal.
THE PLEA
The
plea is a necessary part of the proposal.
We need food for our people while we develop substitute crops. Our people are already so poor that to take
away opium production without giving them food would mean starvation. Beyond that, we need help of every
appropriate kind to make the transition from an opium-based economy to a new
agricultural economy.
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"The Bondage to Opium"
For
thirty years the WA have been trying to eradicate opium growing, but instead we
have become continually more dependent on it.
Like the heroin addicts that result from the opium we grow, we, too, are
in bondage. We are searching for help to
break that bondage.
Currently,
the WA area is one of the heaviest producers of opium in Southeast Asia. The official policy of the Burmese government
is to suppress opium growing. This is a "window dressing" policy only
to impress the West. In the past, the
United States has even given the Burmese aid to carry out the policy. While, in
fact, the Burmese officials encourage opium growing and enable its marketing
for their own benefit. They take their
"cut" -- the major "cut".
The
WA people have been pawns in the violent, destructive games of others. We have been used as fighters for both the Ne
Win government and in the Burma Communist party's military arm. Neither army was under WA officers. The WA fought other people's wars in return
for food and clothes. Finally, we have
come to realize that we were being used to kill each other off.
Ne
Win through the Burma Socialist Program Party indirectly encouraged the growing
of opium while Ba Thein Tin of the Burma Communist Party urged the WA people to
do so.
When
we WA came to understand that we were being used to kill each other, we decided
to revolt. In April 1989 we rejected the
BCP leadership and sent the leaders to China.
We made a peace agreement with the SLORC in October 1989 not because of
any sympathy with the Burmese but to preserve what we had left of our people
and homes. We were left war weary --
twenty-two years war weary -- destitute, and opium dependent. We were also left with an army large enough
to control our own area and to assure a time of peace.
Since
1989 we have become a unified WA people, with WA leaders. For the first time
ever we can speak and act as one people.
For the first time, we can hope to escape opium dependence. It is now possible to stop opium growing in
our area.
Development:
Now
we want to free ourselves from slavery to an opium economy. It is in our interest and, we think, in the
interest of the rest of the world to stop opium growing. This we cannot do by ourselves. Like the heroin addict who wants to
"kick" his addiction, we need outside help to be successful. We have the determination; we need the
support.
First,
and most immediately, we will need food for our people. If we ask them to relinquish their present
means of livelihood, we will have to provide subsistence. Our people are so poor that they cannot risk
any kind of change in agriculture unless there is assurance that they will not
starve. Also, where they are pressured
by outsiders to grow opium, they cannot risk stopping without the protection which
assures their safety.
During
the twenty-two years of warfare more than 12,000 WA were killed leaving
thousands of orphans and widows and countless wounded-disabled. We struggle to care for these dependent
people without any outside agencies to help and with no internal care structure
or agencies.
For
a transition period we will have to feed our people. We have neither the food to give nor the
money to buy it. Food is necessary to
start the process of opium eradication and rehabilitation of the WA
country. Relief food is sent all over
the world from generous donor countries to starving peoples, some of whom
currently are turning back relief convoys for political reasons. We would not be like Bosnia. We would welcome and expedite the distribution
of food, but we will not want our people
to starve first in order to get it. Food
must come along with the cessation of opium growing not sometime afterwards.
In
contrast to the usual famine relief, temporary food support for the WA people
would do more than just feed hungry people.
Beyond that, it would enable the destruction of the opium economy and be the critical
starting place for the recovery of the WA people and the development of a whole
new economy.
Second,
beyond subsistence, we not only want to rehabilitate our area, we want to
develop it. The cultivation of opium
substitute crops is crucial. Crop
substitution has worked in Thailand. It
can work in the WA area. We want the
help necessary to make it happen.
We
need to diversify our agriculture. We
need improvements in seed stock and in breeding livestock. We need to learn more productive agricultural
practices. None of the international aid
programs that have helped other peoples develop their agriculture have reached
us. First, due to war and now due to
isolation enforced by the Burmese.
Third,
we sorely need to construct roads and to develop infrastructure that will
support a new economy. At present there
are no paved roads in WA area, not even any graveled roads. The roads that
exist are hand hewn and follow pre-existing footpaths or are strategic roads
designed only to get artillery to the top of the hill. These are passable only
during the dry season. There are no
engineered roads designed for vehicular traffic. Roads and other improvements reported in the
Burmese press were constructed only in the news media.
Fourth,
modern medical care is non-existent.
There are no hospitals, not even any clinics. We need medicines. We need medical treatment facilities. We need medical training facilities. We need rehabilitation for our disabled, and
care centers for our orphans. We are
doing what we can on our own. We will
establish sixteen care centers for the blind and the disabled. We have started to level the ground for the
first center.
Fifth,
we need schools. The vast majority of the WA have no formal education. There are only a few informal primary schools
taught by teachers who themselves have been only to primary schools. These have to be self-supporting. There is no educational system. Few children can attend a school even where
there is one. They are needed to work to
get food. We want schools to train
leaders. We want to make our people
literate. We also want to preserve,
develop and spread our culture, our traditions and our customs. We want to
focus and highlight our WA identity. We want to give our people what is
rightfully theirs but what had been shattered by constant war.
Sixth,
we need help to reforest our denuded hillsides, and to find what natural resources are in our area. We desperately need all kinds of
developmental help -- grants, loans, technical advice, agricultural aid. We welcome it from any source.
Democracy:
Our
political goal is to restore real democracy for all of Burma, a democracy in
which the majority rules, but equally important, where minority rights are
protected even if the minority is a minority of one person. We will strive for the equality of all
citizens.
The
democracy we seek is not the sham "democracy" of SLORC. Their bogus election was a charade for the
purpose of pleasing the West. It did not
result in the transfer of power to those
overwhelmingly elected. It did, however,
identify the leaders of the political opposition who were then systematically
threatened, jailed, put under house
arrest,
or hunted down. Aung San Suu Kyi, U Nu,
and U Tin Oo are only the most noted examples.
Others less well known did not fare so well.
We
want the restoration of WA State within Burma.
We are not separatists, but we want some autonomy for our people. Under the British and until 1962 there was a
WA State in the northeastern corner of Burma.
After Ne Win's 1962 coup, his government redrew the map. WA State just disappeared. It was swallowed up in Shan State. We have historic roots in and an historic
claim to the area east of the Salween River from Ko Kang south to the Thai
border. We want to administer the area
as part of a federal union in Burma.
We
are not asking for arms. We are not
asking the United States to buy our opium crop as Khun Sa does. We do not want to put on a show as SLORC does
for the West. We are taking the
initiative of offering to stop opium growing.
The WA leadership can stop the opium growing and refining at any time,
but our people must eat.
Finally,
the top priorities of the United WA State Party and United WA State Army are:
1. Eradication of opium
in the WA State.
2. Achievement of the WA
Autonomous Region.
3. Rehabilitation and
development of WA State.
4. Restoration of real
Democracy in Burma
We
want a better life for our people which can only begin by breaking the bondage
to an opium dependent economy. You want
a better life for your people which means a life without heroin. It is to our mutual advantage to work together. Please, accept our proposal and respond to
our plea.
Yours
truly
Saw
Lu