Myanmar Spring Chronicle – May 24 Scenes
MoeMaKa, May 25, 2024
Armed Conflict, Over-Exploitation of Resources, and Drugs
The term “armed conflict” refers to war, armed attacks, ambushes, bombings, and territorial occupation.
Within a few months of Myanmar’s independence, a political cause for armed conflict emerged, leading to a civil war in 1949. For over a decade, rather than addressing political problems through discussions and referendums, the ruling governments arrested and imprisoned dissenters and suppressed rebels with armed forces, fueling the civil war for decades.
At that time, the ruling political party or military believed that armed rebellion could be controlled and resolved with their forces. Conversely, armed resistance organizations believed they couldn’t achieve their political goals within the ruling government’s legal framework. Although peace talks were held during the AFPFL regime and the Revolutionary Council period, they failed due to the ruling government and military’s desire to negotiate from a position of dominance rather than genuinely seeking peace.
Peace talks with armed groups against the government and military, which have been in power for decades, have consistently failed.
The financial resources for the military expenses incurred in waging a civil war come from:
1. Resources
2. Taxation
3. Customs generated from drug production or trade.
While a country’s armed forces are necessary for defense, during a civil war, they often need to deploy significantly more troops and resources than in peacetime.
In the decades following the civil war from 1949-1952, the most armed conflicts occurred in Shan State, eastern Myanmar. Armed groups in Shan State expanded their forces by collecting taxes from drug production and trade, and conducting business themselves. Under this situation, some ethnic armed groups, initially formed for ethnic revolution, emerged as drug traffickers. Figures like Law Sit Han and Khun Sa were identified as wanted persons by international organizations for drug trafficking.
Some armed groups that were initially formed to liberate their respective ethnic groups became involved in drug manufacturing and trade. If they did not seek financial resources this way, they relied on collecting taxes from the public, extracting and selling resources from their controlled areas, or collecting taxes from border trade stations.
Most armed groups based in Shan State have relied heavily on income from opium and narcotics, while armed groups in southern Myanmar or the northwest have depended on resource and border trade taxes.
In the civil war that reignited after 2021, armed organizations are trying to generate funds from drugs, taxes on border trade between countries, taxes on goods and vehicles transported across regions, and resource extraction.
In central and northern Myanmar, where there is no cross-border trade and drug trafficking, funds are sought from resources such as jade, timber production, and goods transported across territories.
In Sagaing Region, Kachin State, and Bago Region, not only are forests used for timber production being rapidly cut down and sold, but also forests in protected areas. In the past two years, remaining reserved forests in areas such as Alaungdaw Kathapa, Bhamo, and Mansi in Kachin State, as well as in the western part of Bago Division, have been rapidly diminishing. Armed groups urgently need weapons and ammunition to win the current war, leading to increased taxation on timber producers or sellers and causing extensive environmental damage.
While the fall of the military council and the end of the military dictatorship is crucial, it is equally important to consider the long-term consequences of environmental damage and natural disasters, which are not easily repairable.