Members of the Christian anti-drug group Pat Jasan were meeting with authorities in Kachin State’s Waingmaw Township on Saturday to try to come to an agreement.
The military and police had intervened on February 16th to prevent Pat Jasan from continuing their poppy field eradication mission in the area. The group, known for taking drug abuse matters into their own hands through questionable tactics such as public floggings and extrajudicial crop destruction, held a press conference the next day. More people arrived. Tensions rose, but peace prevailed.
“We are going to hold further discussions,” a police official reportedly said at the time.
Then somebody threw a punch.
As the two sides were holding discussions on Saturday, there was a commotion outside, according to one of the Pat Jasan leaders, who spoke to Coconuts Yangon over the phone today.
Dr. Swan San said a journalist affiliated with the Kachin Baptist Convention – which created Pat Jasan – was taking photos of the military presence. He was told to delete them. When he refused, someone punched him and a scuffle ensued, leading to a larger military presence and escalating an already tense situation.
Swan San said that Pat Jasan members “don’t understand why they are stopping us from demolishing those poppy fields.” His account could not be verified with authorities.
And so the standoff continues.
The military says it is preventing conflict between the growers and the vigilantes.
“Actually, we are not blocking,” a senior official told the Voice Weekly. “The poppy grower also said that they would defend their fields if Pat Jasan comes. It’s like we are taking control to avoid conflict. The military is not blocking them.”
Swan San is not convinced, alluding to the urgency of the drug problem in Kachin State. Myanmar has the dubious distinction of being the second largest producer of opium in the world, trailing Afghanistan. The supply has caused widespread drug abuse problems in Kachin.
“They explained that they are not blocking. But we want to go forward as poppy is the enemy of all human beings,” he said. “First, they proposed to join 60 of us and then we can call our people after them. We don’t want to accept that because they could say there is nothing left to demolish after we demolish a few poppy fields.”
