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In Golden Triangle, troops fight sh



Subject: In Golden Triangle, troops fight shifting tactics of drug trade



In Golden Triangle, troops fight shifting tactics of drug trade 
Boston Globe; Boston, Mass.; Jan 17, 1999; James East, Globe Correspondent; 

Sub Title: 
          [City Edition]
Start Page: 
          A3
ISSN: 
          07431791

Abstract:
PAI, Thailand -- Helicopter gunships swoop in over the mountains and touch
down in a
jungle clearing, disgorging an elite team of Thai Army drug enforcers armed
with
M16s and crop cutters.

Koson [Pratoomchart]'s men are flying into the remote north on their latest
mission
to destroy the opium fields of the notoriously lawless Golden Triangle,
bordering
northern Thailand, Laos, and Burma.

The red and white opium poppies look innocent enough, swaying in the gentle
wind on
the remote 3,300-foot hillside plantation. But the heroin refined from the
poppies is
said to be the best in the world. The Golden Triangle accounts for 70
percent of
heroin in the United States, according to estimates by the US Drug Enforcement
Administration.

Full Text:
Copyright Boston Globe Newspaper Jan 17, 1999


PAI, Thailand -- Helicopter gunships swoop in over the mountains and touch
down in a jungle
clearing, disgorging an elite team of Thai Army drug enforcers armed with
M16s and crop
cutters.

Lieutenant Colonel Koson Pratoomchart and his men race for cover as the
rotor blades kick up
a swirl of dust and debris. As one helicopter takes off, another whips in,
laden with troops and
equipment.

Koson's men are flying into the remote north on their latest mission to
destroy the opium fields of
the notoriously lawless Golden Triangle, bordering northern Thailand, Laos,
and Burma.

The red and white opium poppies look innocent enough, swaying in the gentle
wind on the
remote 3,300-foot hillside plantation. But the heroin refined from the
poppies is said to be the
best in the world. The Golden Triangle accounts for 70 percent of heroin in
the United States,
according to estimates by the US Drug Enforcement Administration.

Armed with satellite pictures supplied by the United States, on- the-ground
intelligence, and
information from spotter planes, the Royal Thai Army has just a few weeks to
destroy the crop
before it can be harvested. November to February is the main opium-growing
season.

Workers of the area's powerful drug lords move the sap from the poppies down
rugged
mountain paths and then refine it before feeding it into the international

drug-trafficking chain.

Perched on a ridge overlooking one poppy field, Koson says: "This is an
ideal place to grow
opium, because it is cool and the soil is so good. The poppies are now ready
to be scored and
the sap taken.

"There are four hill tribe villages around here, and we do not know which
one planted this crop.
They plant the poppies among vegetables to make them harder to spot and then
deny planting
opium when we interview them."

Hill tribe planters, among them Lisu and Hmong, are getting wise to the army's
search-and-destroy missions and are now planting crops in smaller, more
remote plots. They are
also growing outside the cool season, using fertilizers, and watering with
sophisticated sprinkling
systems.

"We come here by helicopter because it is too difficult to walk here and
there are no roads," said
Koson. "In the last five days, we have destroyed 49 fields."

Over the last 15 years, Thailand has been hugely successful in destroying
the opium fields, with
the help of US funding and training. Thailand's Office of the Narcotics
Control Board says there
are only one-fifth as many acres devoted to poppy cultivation now as in
1984. Still, those fields
produce an estimated 10 tons of opium, and the army hopes to stop more than
a third of that
from being harvested.

Since October, 391 grams of heroin and 974,319 amphetamine tablets have been
seized and
970 people arrested. Three people have died in clashes over drugs.

But the drug fighters know the difficulty of their work.

"Opium will always be a problem, because its price goes up when the supply
is limited," said
Lieutenant General Sommai Wichavorn, who is an area army commander.

"The army has started with the premise that the law says there should be no
planting of opium,"
Sommai said. "We will continue to destroy the crops if the villagers keep
planting it. There is no
other way to stop them."

He said the economic recession gripping Thailand has made opium a more
attractive crop. The
fact that villagers are now using fertilizers shows they are being funded by
outside drug lords, he
said.

Soldiers also say that armed gangs threaten to harm villagers if they do not
plant opium.

Drug specialists working at the US Embassy in Bangkok say that Thailand's
drive to wipe out
opium sets an example to other countries in the region.

The United States spends $600,000 a year on training and funding Thailand's
efforts to cut off
heroin at the source. The money goes on fuel for the helicopters, crop
substitution work, and
educating hill tribes. US special forces also train Thai troops.

In a draft report on Thailand's suppression work, due to go before Congress,
the US Embassy
says: "Thailand has one of the most effective narcotic crop control programs
in the world. US
government analysts estimated that Thailand's opium production in the 1998
growing season
declined 36 percent, to 16 tons."

It has been so effective that heroin refineries have been forced to shift
their operations into
neighboring Laos and Burma's Shan State, where the United States has less
influence and
where armed insurgents and drug gangs operate with virtual impunity.


Refined heroin is then smuggled into Thailand, where it is sped along the
country's modern road
and rail network to ports and airports.

Burma's rebel Shan State Army, which is pressing for autonomy and which
controls much of the
state, estimates that 2,000 tons of heroin will flow out of Burma's part of
the Golden Triangle
this year.

Thailand's 3d Army now has 100 armed squads patrolling the rugged border
with Burma and
Laos. They are flown into remote regions and spend days on patrol, sleeping
at night in foxholes.
The lack of a clear border with Burma puts soldiers at risk from attack by
the troops of the
Burmese junta.