A town for no one

September 15, 2008

By Lawi weng:

The Three Pagodas Pass crossing on the Thai-Burma border has been officially closed for almost two years, . Many businessmen despair because they cannot trade, and many people despair because they cannot work. The Burmese town, former home to a burgeoning furniture manufacturing industry, offers little employment and many people have to cross into Thailand to earn eighty baht a day at a sewing factory.

Three Pagoda Pass is a quintessential frontier border town, and a variety of groups have, and continue to, vie for its control. The New Mon State Party controlled the town for decades, until the SPDC wrested it away during fighting in the early 1990s. Karen groups have also laid claim to it, including both the Karen Peace Force and the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army. The NMSP houses a liaison office in the town, and all three cease-fire groups maintain influence.

But, in the estimation of one resident, “the town belongs to no one.” Or, perhaps more accurately, the town seems to belong to amphetamine traffickers. The drugs, manufactured inside Burma by armed groups including the Burmese army, are sent to Three Pagoda Pass before passing illegally pass into Thailand.

Worried families report that, though township authorities have been repeatedly told and know who is responsible for the drug trade, nothing is done. Most of the township authorities are bribed, they report. The problem is so endemic, they say, that few authorities complete their terms because they are charged with bribery. NMSP officers in town say that SPDC authorities care little for the community. “They didn’t intend to help us when they came here,” said a local businessman. “They just broke the town.”

The town has become a high-risk amphetamine area, and many parents worry about their children. Three families last week went so far as to report to the police that their high-school age children were using drugs, and ask that they be detained. The authorities, however, took no action and simply juggled the families between different departments. With nowhere else to go, the families asked the New Mon State Party for help. The NSMP detained the students for three days, and asked why the used amphetamines. Everybody is doing it, the students said, so why not us?

Written by HURFOM · Filed Under Feature