[Tlc] T-Southern violence

[justinm at ucr.edu]

Forwarded from Al Valentine.
Thanks,
justin


http://www.bangkokpost.com/160908_News/16Sep2008_news18.php


EDITORIAL

Terror gangs linked to drugs

In recent years, the number of governments aiding terrorists and subversives has dwindled, and support by the few recalcitrant regimes has become far more secretive. That has come largely because such governments are internationally reviled, subject to high-profile United Nations sanctions and shame. As the utter horror of terrorism has become better known, no government and few groups can be seen to lend their backing. Unfortunately, the terrorists and agents of repression have not followed the road to respectability. Because even terrorism and rebellion cost money, violent gangs have turned to another source of funding. Around the world, drug and terrorist gangs have formed links or joined up.

The evidence is clear enough. Governments and political parties who used to openly brag disgracefully that "the object of terrorism is to terrorise", now claim to be strongly opposed to such doctrine. Libya and North Korea, each in their own way, have made deals to drop all support for terrorist gangs, as have the Irish rebels and Japanese gangs these regimes once openly supported. Chinese bookstores no longer offer Communist Party manuals on terrorism; the last Asian Maoist rebels in the Philippines loudly declare that no terrorism is allowed, that its Manila terrorist wing has been dismantled.

But from Afghanistan to Thailand, from Colombia to Burma, there is hardly any distinction any longer between drug gangs and rebels. The Taliban began trafficking opium and heroin as a rogue state prior to 2001. Now the group has become one of the world's biggest drug gangs, while continuing to battle to regain political control. In Colombia, there are no more drug cartels. Police and public opinion saw off colourful Pablo Escobar and his ilk without a tear. But the rebel group known as Farc from its initials in Spanish has become, in effect, South America's biggest drug cartel - financing its opposition to the government with big-time drug contacts.

Much the same thing has happened in Burma, with dire danger for Thailand and neighbouring Indian provinces. As Thai authorities and the government rolled up the Burmese drug gangs of Lo Hsing-Han and Khun Sa, for example, groups which had been political rebels stepped in to soil their hands. After the Burmese government eliminated the last of the big-time drug merchants, trafficking gangs in Burma not only continued - they grew bigger.

A group of former political rebels known as the United Wa State Army works mostly inside Burma to sell drugs mostly outside Burma. Once, the UWSA were the chief fighting arm of the Burmese Communist Party, with close ties to Chinese communists and known popularly as the Red Wa, a name still heard today.

Today, the Burma-based political-drug gang has at least an informal alliance with the Islamist gangs in southern Thailand. In the past, separatist rings had support from outside, notably including Libya and Iran. With that backing removed, the often shadowy gangs have found other ways to finance both their violence and their political-religious uprising - crime, and specifically drugs. Clearly it is profitable.

Authorities late last year seized 30 million baht hidden under floorboards in a Sungai Kolok district home in Narathiwat province. The suspected drug dealer had known ties to the insurgents.

These days, when battling organised pro-terror groups like the Taliban or Thailand's southern insurgents, security forces must also consider drug ties. The fastest way to a gang's defeat is through their funding.



______________
Dr. Justin McDaniel
Dept. of Religious Studies
3046 INTN
University of California, Riverside
Riverside, CA 92521
951-827-4530
justinm at ucr.edu