Drugs issue haunts Thai-Myanmar ties

SINGAPORE: It would take someone with an esoteric interest in the long history of Thai-Myanmar border squabbles not to get glassy-eyed over the latest skirmishes in recent weeks.

Has not the Myanmar military been fighting the Shan, Karen, and Mon insurgents for ages? Has not there been some kind of an "understanding" between the Yangon junta and the Wa, a well-armed insurgent group which holds sway at the border with China, to beat back the Shan in north-eastern Myanmar?

Has not hot pursuit often resulted in Myanmar forces crossing into Thai territory? Just such an incident is now causing a new rift between the uneasy neighbors. Thailand closed a bridge linking Mae Sai, its northernmost border town, with Tachilek in Myanmar after a series of border incidents last month.

Shells had struck Mae Sai as Myanmar troops and their allies in the Wa militia fought Shan rebels in Thai territory. Thailand has since reopened the crossing but strangely, not Myanmar, which wants formal talks held before it would act.

Bound up in the sometimes petty, sometimes complex issue, is the lucrative drug trade which worries Thailand no end, and which is bringing relations between the two ASEAN allies to a new low.

If this was a formulaic border matter, there is little incentive for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations as an entity to get involved in a long festering quarrel. That ASEAN members do not interfere in each other's affairs is not even an issue.

But for some time now, the rising tension occasioned by border shootings has really been a proxy fight over what the Thais regard as a menacing flow of drugs from Myanmar. It is this that should make ASEAN sit up.

Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has rightly taken a hard position on the deadly flood of methamphetamines (commonly known as speed), which is turning a generation of young Thais into addicts.

Earlier this month, he asked his military and police command to come up with a co-ordinated strategy to shut down the trade. He said he would ask the Yangon junta to "explain" how the Wa insurgents' drug-making capability could have developed unimpeded.

Thai sources estimate that 700 million methamphetamine pills will be produced by the Wa factories this year, against 500 million last year. That output will flood Thailand and the rest of Southeast Asia and further afield. Intelligence sources say the relocation of Wa people from the China border to areas near Thailand would bring an explosion in drug supplies.

The Myanmar generals' reaction has been predictably sharp. They have lambasted Thaksin for dumping his internal problems on Myanmar. For spice, they allege that the Wa and Shan militias are operating from Thai bases. Such well-rehearsed exchanges do not advance a cogent response.

The two governments ought first of all to acknowledge that the narcotic supply is a life-threatening menace that would consume much of their military resources to tackle effectively. And that can come only through cooperation.

There are already serious complications arising from persistent allegations about the involvement of some Myanmar and Thai military figures in the drug business. Only an ASEAN-wide effort can make any headway in tackling the scourge. ASEAN has set a 2015 deadline for ridding the region of drugs.

This is heroic, but a smaller step such as getting Thailand and Myanmar to sign an agreement to suppress the menace is more realistic. This is what Thailand will propose to Myanmar at an upcoming East Asia-South America dialog in Chile. ASEAN should help make it happen, as this is pivotal to the cause.

-- The Straits Times/Asia News Network