Here they watched soldiers and local tribespeople destroy fields of opium-producing poppies. The government in Rangoon, trying hard to improve its international image, said that by 2005 no more opium would be produced within the country's borders. Officials implicated The international drug enforcement agencies are not celebrating yet. Though UN drug experts say Burma does seem intent on cutting back on its opium production, over the years there have been persistent reports that senior officials of the military regime are involved in the drugs trade, and that funds from the drugs business still find their way into government coffers. The other critical factor is that the government in Rangoon is both militarily and financially unable to tackle the power of the country's drug barons.
Opium production takes place mainly in the hilly country near Burma's border with China.
It is a beautiful, remote region of mist-shrouded peaks and jungle valleys. For years Rangoon has been fighting a series of seccessionist battles in these territories. Rangoon is virtually powerless to tackle the region's drug trade Chronically overstretched and underarmed, the Burmese military has sought to either play one insurgent group off against another or do peacemaking deals with various rebel factions. A state within a state' Since that time the Wa, led by remnants of Burma's old communist party and known for its ferocity in combat, has built a formidable state within a state, complete with its own army, on the profits of the drugs trade. Rangoon, extremely reluctant to provoke any conflict with the Wa, is virtually powerless to tackle the region's drug trade.