Disputes - international none

Illicit drugs world's largest illicit producer of opium (cultivation in 1997 - 155,150 hectares, a 5% decline from 1996; potential production - 2,365 metric tons, an 8% drop from 1996) and a minor producer of cannabis for the international drug trade; surrender of drug warlord KHUN SA's Mong Tai Army in January 1996 was hailed by Rangoon as a major counternarcotics success, but lack of serious government commitment and resources continue to hinder the overall antidrug effort; growing role in the production of methamphetamines for regional consumption

Current issues in a number of waves since October 1993, hundreds of thousands of refugees have fled the ethnic violence between the Hutu and Tutsi factions in Burundi and crossed into Rwanda, Tanzania, and Zaire (now called Democratic Republic of the Congo); since October 1996, an estimated 92,000 Hutu refuguees have been forced to return to Burundi by Tutsi rebel forces in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, leaving an estimated 35,000 still dispersed there; in Burundi, the ethnic violence between the Hutus and the Tutsis continued in 1996, causing an additional 150,000 Hutus to flee to Tanzania, thus raising their numbers in that country to about 250,000

NOTE: The information regarding Burma on this page is re-published from the 1998 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Burma Transnational Issues 1998 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Burma Transnational Issues 1998 should be addressed to the CIA.