The Border Guard Force (BGF) under control of the Burmese military, formerly known as the New Democratic Army-Kachin (NDA-K), called for deployment of more government troops to their area to assist in the protection of opium fields, said sources close to the BGF.

The official letter calling for troops was recently submitted to the Burmese junta’s Northern Regional Command based in Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin State, in the country’s north by BGF officials, sources said.

According to officials of the Drug Eradication Committee of the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), the main purpose of the request by the BGF is protection of opium fields in the BGF-controlled areas from the KIO’s opium eradication mission.

The BGF cultivated the largest production of opium in Kachin State since 2004 in its controlled areas in Sadung, Waingmaw Township in eastern Kachin State.

Burmese troops from the two battalions under Regional Operation Command based in Danai (Tanai), Shahtuzup-based Infantry Battalion (IB) No. 297 and Danai-based IB. No. 238, are operating in the BGF’s controlled areas currently, local people said.

The BGF also sent letters to the KIO opium eradication mission calling for it to cease destroying crops in the BGF’s controlled areas, according to KIO officials.

KIO officials said it is ignoring the demand and is destroying crops in the BGF’s controlled areas which are close to KIO territory.

The KIO did not enter the NDA-K controlled areas to destroy crops before it accepted the regime’s proposal to transform into the BGF in 2009. However, KIO officials said it has to destroy crops now because the BGF is controlled by the regime.

Naw Bu, spokesperson for the KIO Drug Eradication Committee in Laiza said Burmese troops and government drug eradication forces in the Sadung area are demanding cash from local growers to protect crops from Kachin forces destroying fields under the KIO’s War on Drugs, implemented in October 2010.

Opium production has increased in other regions of Kachin State under control of the junta, including the Hukawng Valley, Mohnyin District, Sumprabum Township and Puta-O District, according to local people.