The Burmese junta repeatedly claims it is taking steps to stem the massive outflow of heroin and opium from its borders.
Yet in recent years the country has been enjoying much greater profits from drug sales than ever before, according to a recent report by the United States Embassy in Rangoon.
The document states that behind the rhetoric of the State Law and Order Restoration Council there appears to be a willingness to do deals with known or suspected narcotics traffickers. These include former drug warlord Khun Sa who surrendered over New Year in 1996 and is now said to be engaged in transport and gems in the capital.
'Reports suggest, however, that he had his Mong Tai Army colleagues continue to be involved in the narcotics trade,' said this year's Foreign Economic Trends Report.
The military regime cut cease-fire deals with notorious ethnic drug dealers such as the Wa hill tribe and the Kokang Chinese community in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Recently the junta effectively encouraged traffickers to keep their ill-gotten gains in Burma when they stopped confiscating bank deposits that could not be shown to have been legally earned.
'During the mid-1990s there was abundant anecdotal evidence . . . that a growing proportion of Burma's narcotics export receipts were staying home rather than being kept abroad,' the document said.
