Southeast Asia

Burmese opium farmers protest eradication

As ethnic insurgencies continue, opium-growers in Burma's northern mountains issued a statement demanding a halt to eradication programs as essential to any peace deal.

Southeast Asia

Burma: will ceasefire wind down opium war?

Burma’s regime signs a "national ceasefire" with ethnic rebels in the opium-producing north ahead of historic elections—but the biggest rebel armies didn’t sign on.

Afghanistan

ISIS burns opium to gain Afghanistan foothold

Fighters loyal to ISIS have seized substantial territory in Afghanistan, burning opium fields in an apparent bid to stigmatize the Taliban as corrupt and soft on drugs.

Southeast Asia

Burma opium war spills into China

After weeks of escalating tensions along the remote mountain border, a Burmese MiG-29 fighter jet carried out an air-strike on Chinese territory, killing four farm workers. 

Southeast Asia

Will Burma opium war draw in China?

The latest fighting in Burma's opium-producing hinterlands involves a Han Chinese ethnic group, the Kokang. Some 50,000 have fled across the border into China.

Southeast Asia

Harsh abuses seen in Burma opium war

Despite a democratic opening and hopes for peace with ethnic insurgencies, horrific accounts of rights abuses continue to emerge from Burma's opium-producing hinterlands.

South Asia

India: Bodo militants massacre tribal people

National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) militants shot dead at least 50 adivasis, or tribal people, in a wave of coordinated attacks across India's northeast state of Assam.

Afghanistan

Afghan opium boom again breaks record

For a second consecutive year, Afghan opium cultivation broke all previous records, according to the latest report from the  UN Office on Drugs and Crime.