To match Special Report MYANMAR/OPIUM
ATTENTION EDITORS THIS IS 34 OF 35 PICTURES FROM MYANMAR'S OPIUM WAR BY REUTERS PHOTOGRAPHER DAMIR SAGOLJ Policemen patrol near the village of Kyauk Ka Char, in the mountains of Shan State January 27, 2012. Representatives of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and Myanmar's police visited the village only a few weeks after fighting between local ethnic groups stopped. Myanmar has dramatically escalated its poppy eradication efforts since September 2011, threatening the livelihoods of impoverished farmers who depend upon opium as a cash crop to buy food. With new ceasefires ending years of conflict between the government and ethnic insurgents, Myanmar police and United Nations officials are travelling through opium-rich Shan State to ask farmers what assistance they need. Picture taken January 27, 2012. To match Special Report MYANMAR/OPIUM
REUTERS/Damir Sagolj (MYANMAR - Tags: DRUGS SOCIETY)
