MAE SAI, THAILAND — The news coming out of Myanmar these days is of hope and reconciliation as the country moves from military dictatorship to fledgling democracy. But what is actually coming across Myanmar’s border here is a surge of illicit drugs.
One of Myanmar’s biggest businesses — heroin and methamphetamine manufacturing — is thriving in the area along the Thai border known as the Golden Triangle, led by members of well-armed minority ethnic groups.
“They are pushing out a vast amount of pills,” said Maj. Gen. Somsak Nilbanjerdkul, director of a command center set up by the Thai government to coordinate anti-drug efforts. “Democracy is flourishing in Burma, but illegal activities are moving to areas where there is a lack of law and order.”
The drug increase underlines the depth of the challenges facing Myanmar, also known as Burma, as President Thein Sein pushes ahead with his reform agenda. Impoverished areas where the central government has little control remain the largest base of drug production in Southeast Asia. If he cracks down on drug syndicates, Mr. Thein Sein, who was previously a military commander in the Golden Triangle, risks alienating the ethnic groups he is trying to woo for his program of national reconciliation.
In the dark underworld of illicit drugs, no one can say for sure what is causing the current upswing in trafficking, but Thai officials describe it as a kind of perverse peace dividend. Mr. Thein Sein, who has been in power for 13 months, has pushed hard, and in many cases succeeded, in signing cease-fire agreements with rebel groups.
