Declaración del Cuarto Foro de Cultivadores de Opio de Myanmar

Los cultivadores de opio de Myanmar instan a su Gobierno a evitar la erradicación de campos y a proporcionar soluciones para el desarrollo. Más información, en inglés, está disponible abajo.

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Opium farmers and representatives of their communities came together to discuss the challenges they face in their lives, and to share experiences and find ways to solve their problems. This is their statement.

We, opium farmers and representatives of Kayah, Kayan, Shan, Pa-O, Lahu, Ta- ang (Palaung) and Kachin opium farming communities from Kayah State, Southern, Eastern and Northern Shan State, and Kachin State, came together in Loikaw, in Kayah State in Myanmar, to discuss the challenges we face in our lives, and to share experiences and find ways to solve our problems.

We would like to make the following recommendations to the new government of Myanmar:

We grow opium because we are poor and do not have other livelihood opportunities to feed our families and send our children to school, as well as for medicinal and traditional uses. We are not involved in the drug trade, we are not criminals, and we are not commercial farmers. Some of us also grow it for traditional and medicinal uses. It is important to differentiate between small- holder farmers like us, and those people who grow opium commercially and/or who invest in it.

The government should not carry out any force eradication of our opium fields unless and until they have provided access to sustainable crop substitution programmes and alternative livelihoods to our communities. Eradication should especially not take place during the harvest season. By that time we have already invested a lot and also cannot grow another crop anymore that season.

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