Myanmar’s military chief says a major offensive by ethnic groups was funded by the drug trade

By GRANT PECK
Associated Press

BANGKOK (AP) — The head of Myanmar’s military government has charged that a major offensive in the country’s northeast by an alliance of armed ethnic minority organizations was funded in part by profits earned by one of the groups from the region’s lucrative drug trade. A state-run newspaper reported that Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing made the allegation at a meeting of the National Defense and Security Council. The group he accused, the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, denies his allegation. The newspaper said the defense council’s meeting discussed the fierce fighting in several towns in the country’s northeastern border region since Oct. 27, when the three ethnic groups announced they had launched a coordinated offensive.