LOI CHYARAM VILLAGE, Myanmar — The rebel soldiers climbing this mountain, rifles at their shoulders, are going into battle not with government forces, but against opium crops that are destroying communities in eastern Myanmar as they succumb to drug addiction.
Captain Glang Dang of the Taang National Liberation Army, the armed wing of the Palaung ethnic minority, claims his men are making progress, thanks in part to local villagers, who are helping knock down and burn waves of poppies now in full bloom.
It’s unclear, though, whether the rebel troops who rely on the drug trade as their main source of income can or will do more than just wipe out a few fields here and there to placate villagers desperate over the toll drugs are taking.
Myanmar was the world’s No. 1 producer of opium, the main ingredient in heroin, until 2003, when it was surpassed by Afghanistan. After a few years of decline, regional and local demand has revived poppy production in recent years. In 2013, Myanmar produced 870 tons of opium, up 26 percent from 2012 and the highest figure in a decade.