A new program has started this week to support Myanmar’s law enforcement system to crack down on drug trafficking and transnational crime. The poverty stricken nation remains the second largest producer of opium, from which heroin is made. The UN’s Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) says criminal activity is discouraging the country’s development, growing human insecurity, and threatening peace talks aimed at ending ethnic insurgencies. Dr Lee Jones points to the central government: “Kyaw Swe [Home Affairs Minister] is right that eradicating drugs requires their “cooperation”, but this cooperation will only be reliably secured if the central government addresses the grievances that fuel the insurgencies.”More »