Burmese Military Implicated in Opium Trade as Production Booms

INTERNATIONAL March 1993

Burmese military leaders with official $400 per month salaries are becoming millionaires, while opium production in that nation, has doubled during that period (Mary Kay Magistad, "Myanmar Loosens Up But Burmese Still Feel Grip," Washington Post, 2/24/93, A14).

There is little firm evidence of military collusion with drug traffickers, according to foreign correspondent Mary Kay Magistad, but observers note that government transport is regularly used to shuttle well known opium warlords from their northeastern fiefdoms to the capital and back.