India may close border with Myanmar to keep drugs out

A B Mahapatra in Churchandpur, Manipur

India opened its 1,300 km-long border with Myanmar in 1995 with great fanfare. Now, with more drug smugglers than traders crossing over, Indian officials are considering closing it down again.

There is almost no bilateral trade taking place but the entry of narcotics and drug-related contraband has reportedly registered a five-fold increase since 1992.

A joint India-Myanmar team had identified eight transit points to facilitate trade in essential commodities and consumer goods like rice, medicine, chemicals, cloth and agro-forest products. Smugglers, however, have been using these routes for narco-smuggling.

"Since the very purpose is lost we may close the entire border for an indefinite period. But before that we have decided to hold another round of talks when we meet in early July," said a senior interior ministry official. China had opened its border with Myanmar for trading four years ago. It closed it down after the number of HIV patients rose dramatically in its Sichuan and Yunan provinces, according to officials of the Indian Narcotics Control Bureau.

Four Indian states, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland have a common border with Myanmar and each shows an alarming influx of drug peddlers and an increase in HIV-related diseases, according to an National AIDS Control Organisation report.

Despite strained relations since 1988, when the military junta assumed power in Yangon, an Indian delegation visited Myanmar in March 1993 to discuss bilateral commerce. After 13 rounds of talks, aimed at preventing illegal activity by local gangs in remote areas, the border was opened for trade and transaction in late 1995.

Sha Unn, a drug dealer, said his friends had already established more than 280 pick-up points along the border for illegal trade and smuggling. "The Indian government move has helped our business in big way," he added with a faint smile.

Drug dealers recruit local youths, already hampered by unemployment and poverty, to avoid trouble with security personnel. "My mother gets only seven dollars per month as salary," says Luchba Inga of Imphal, who hopes to supplement that income by peddling drugs.

If trade picks up, the local economy too may prosper, But the opening of the border has largely benefited local drug dealers, says Resiang Deorei Singh of the Manipuri Social Institute, a local NGO.

Tse Mung, a drug dealer from Mizoram, says an open border has simplified things for many like him who earlier used to traverse difficult mountainous terrain to get their supplies. Things are made even easier by three Indian banks set up in Manipur and Mizoram for better transaction facilities near the border.

NCB officials admit it is virtually impossible to guard the entire region. There is no check-points between Moreh, Bishoi and Champahia, a 270 km stretch adjacent to the Shan province of Myanmar. Moreh, an important border town, doubles up as a transit point for heroin and other drugs coming in bulk from the infamous 'golden trangle', comprising Myanmar, Laos and Thailand, they said.

Most drugs make their way from Myanmar through Moreh to the Champai and Churchandpur districts and out of Manipur from there.

Myanmar's opium cultivation has grown sharply over the past few years. The area under poppy cultivation increased from 78,900 hectares in 1986 to 161,012 hectres and further to 210,039 hectares in 1996. NCB officials believe Myanmar druglords turned to India after a crackdown on them along the Thai border.

Even a UN International Narcotics Control Bureau report published in March claimed India was a significant trans-shipment point for heroin from south-west and south-east Asia. It accuses the Myanmar of patronising narcotics smuggling and failing to tackle the growing HIV menace in the region.

Heroin production rose to 289 tonnes from 53 tonnes during 1987-93, the US state department said in its international narcotics control strategy report last year.

Acetic anyhydride, a chemical essential for the manufacture of fine grade heroin, makes its way clandestinely through the Indian border to 42 illegal heroin conversion laboratories along the Myanmar side of the border.

In 1997, these drug laboratories mushroomed-there being only 21 such modern factories in 1993.

Recently, the Myanmar army confiscated 9,000 tonnes of the chemical on the way to Tamu from India. Indian authorities have seized 43 kgs of pure grade heroin and rounded up 1100 people along the line of control between 1996 and 1997.

Drug addiction is rampant in north-eastern states. In Manipur alone, every family has at least two addicts. "Their daily quota is easily available at the nearest betel shop," a Manipuri school teacher said.

Locals in Tamu, a border town in Myanmar through which a high percentage of drugs pass, said Myanmar army personnel get involved in the drug business to buy sophisticated arms to fight the numerous ethnic groups in their country.

The Myanmar army, which also runs its own mafia with the help of local unemployed youth, is strongly defended by Ruska Saw, a poppy cultivator who often crosses over to India for shelter when disputes arise with the Myanmar army. "The Army is at least honest in paying off our dues," he says.

On the Indian side, the local people also allege a strong nexus between the local police, politicians and drug barons.

Two years ago, an truck sporting the police emblem and escorted by 12 soldiers of the Assam Rifles police unit, was apprehended by the police in West Bengal. Within was a cache of modern arms for Bihar extremists.

Seizures too have dropped sharply in the last four months, allegedly due to a lack of co-ordination among regional police forces. Also, barring some small peddlers, no drug baron has been arrested in this area.

In 1996, a local politician, widely believed to have underworld connections, was shot dead in Imphal -- the capital of Manipur. But the police refused to investigate the case.

Insurgent groups in the area are also involved in smuggling. "These groups have been maintaining a fine balance between fighting drug dealers and collaborating with them," said a human rights activist.