The illegal drug trade in Southeast Asia: Growing or Slowing?

Everyone today seems to have some Idea of the drug trade south of the US border or perhaps Afghanistan. However, If you were asked about where the drug trade in Southeast Asia is going? If you replied with a sense of complete confusion, you would be totally forgiven. A changing political climate in two of the major countries in the region, Myanmar (formerly Burma) and Thailand both seem to strangely and contradictorily give both a boon and bust to the trade of Narcotics in the region. In the case of Myanmar the situation seems to at least nominally improving on the face of things. A new move towards democracy hopefully means more involvement by the international community in curbing Myanmar’s narcotics problem. Even on a smaller level, the people seem to be taking the action of fighting illegal drugs into their own hands. However the many reforms the government in Myanmar have been taking to create a more liberal-democratic state seem to be aiding the drug trade as the numbers of methamphetamines being shipped out of Myanmar to neighboring Thailand have increased, seemingly with the help of military units trying to achieve ceasefires with multiple ethnic resistance groups.  The expansion of production among these various groups looks to exacerbate the problems, much to the disdain of Myanmar’s neighbors. Most of these drugs then find their way to Thailand where political changes don’t really sit right. The current leader of the military Junta that controls Thailand (which took control in a coup in 2014), General Prayuth Chan-ocha, shows strong indications of illegal activities and corruption. In the General’s defense, corruption in Thai security forces stemming from the drug trade, looks to be a common occurrence with little sign of slowing,  especially as the Junta struggles to revert back to democracy. The end results seems to keep the infamous “Golden Triangle” region of drug production and trafficking alive and well for years to come.

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/myanmar-clamps-down-on/2538980.html

http://www.mmtimes.com/index.php/national-news/nay-pyi-taw/19116-anti-drug-vigilantes-turn-to-the-nld.html

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/02/as-burma-reforms-its-narcotics-trade-might-be-worsening/253279/

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/22/world/asia/reporting-on-life-death-and-corruption-in-southeast-asia.html?_r=0

Scores Killed by Suicide Bomb in Pakistan—NYT

A suicide attack on a historic church in northwestern Pakistan killed at least 78 people on Sunday in one of the deadliest attacks on the country’s Christian minority  in years. The attack occurred as worshipers left a church service in the old quarter of the regional capital, Peshawar. Up to 600 people were leaving when two explosions ripped through the crowd. Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, who arrived in Peshawar on Sunday evening, said that 78 people had been killed, including 34 women and 7 children. Akhtar Ali Shah, the home secretary of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, said that more than 100 people had been wounded. Mr. Khan said that 37 of those were children. Witnesses reported mayhem as rescue workers ferried victims from the church, which was scattered with body parts, shrapnel and bloodied clothing. Read more here.

India arrests Indian Mujahideen terror suspect—CNN

(08-29-13) Indian intelligence agencies have arrested Yasin Bhatkal, one of the country’s most wanted terrorism suspects, Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said Thursday. Bhatkal is believed to be a co-founder of the Indian Mujahideen, a militant group banned in India and listed by the United States as a foreign terrorist organization. Intelligence officials arrested him Wednesday in the eastern state of Bihar, near India’s border with Nepal, Shinde said.  Read more at CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/29/world/asia/india-terrorist-arrest/