For thirty years the WA have been trying to eradicate opium growing, but instead we have become continually more dependent on it. Like the heroin addicts that result from the opium we grow, we, too, are in bondage. We are searching for help to break that bondage.
Currently, the WA area is one of the heaviest producers of opium in Southeast Asia. The official policy of the Burmese government is to suppress opium growing. This is a "window dressing" policy only to impress the West. In the past, the United States has even given the Burmese aid to carry out the policy. While, in fact, the Burmese officials encourage opium growing and enable its marketing for their own benefit. They take their "cut" -- the major "cut".
The WA people have been pawns in the violent, destructive games of others. We have been used as fighters for both the Ne Win government and in the Burma Communist party's military arm. Neither army was under WA officers. The WA fought other people's wars in return for food and clothes. Finally, we have come to realize that we were being used to kill each other off.
Ne Win through the Burma Socialist Program Party indirectly encouraged the growing of opium while Ba Thein Tin of the Burma Communist Party urged the WA people to do so.
When we WA came to understand that we were being used to kill each other, we decided to revolt. In April 1989 we rejected the BCP leadership and sent the leaders to China. We made a peace agreement with the SLORC in October 1989 not because of any sympathy with the Burmese but to preserve what we had left of our people and homes. We were left war weary -- twenty-two years war weary -- destitute, and opium dependent. We were also left with an army large enough to control our own area and to assure a time of peace.
Since 1989 we have become a unified WA people, with WA leaders. For the first time ever we can speak and act as one people. For the first time, we can hope to escape opium dependence. It is now possible to stop opium growing in our area.