SCOPE: ADB says sex industry continues to thrive in Myanmar

Asian Economic News, Nov 15, 2004

MANILA, Nov. 12 Kyodo

Myanmar has a thriving sex industry despite vigorous denials by its military government, and a recently released report by the Asian Development Bank says soldiers and policemen are among the major procurers of commercial sex.

''There is a complicated but sizeable domestic sex industry in Myanmar,'' said the Manila-based bank study titled 'Mobility and HIV/AIDS in the Greater Mekong Subregion.'

''A demand situation, along with a supply of women, ensures that the trade expands.''

''There is hardly any brothel-type service or red-light district,'' said the study penned by Supang Chantavanich of the Asian Research Center for Migration, adding karaoke bars and restaurants along Myanmar's major highways and trading places are often transformed into prostitution dens.

''Small (hotel-like) guest houses operate where men can take women (to have drinks and sex),'' says the report, adding that some border towns even have ''special entertainment'' centers for ''cross-border sex workers'' that cater to visitors from neighboring China, Thailand and elsewhere.

The report warns the continued migration of Myanmar nationals, particularly women, to the borders with Thailand, China, India and Bangladesh to seek jobs has abetted the transmission of the AIDS-causing virus and could lead to a serious HIV-AIDS epidemic in that Southeast Asian country.

''The continuing political struggle and the ensuing economic hardship have forced millions of people to move from place to place for jobs and income,'' the report notes.

There are 530,000 Myanmar people who are sick with AIDS, according to UNAIDS 2000 estimates. More than 26,000 people have tested positive for the virus during the last 12 years and more than 3,500 AIDS cases have been confirmed, according to National AIDS Program statistics.

The feared explosion in HIV cases casts another dark cloud over the future of Myanmar, which is already saddled with a stagnant economy, widespread poverty, political instability and a poor human rights record.

Since the reporting of the first case in 1988, it says the number of AIDS cases has continued to rise throughout the country due mainly to intravenous drug use and unprotected sex.

''The epidemic is no longer limited to these specific population groups,'' says the report, adding it has now spread among people who live and work in ''high-risk situations'' such as transport workers, fishermen, traders, seafarers and migrant workers.

The report says the HIV prevalence among commercial ''hospitality girls'' showed a dramatic increase from 4.2 percent in 1992 to 36.5 percent in 1999. Overall, it says that HIV prevalence among the adult population is estimated to be at 1.99 percent, very close to Thailand's 2.15 percent.

''But the main difference is that the epidemic in Thailand started about eight to 10 years ahead of Myanmar. With this rapid pace of transmission, HIV prevalence in Myanmar is expected to exceed Thailand soon and, perhaps, catch up the regional leader Cambodia in the future,'' the report says.

The report adds that HIV infection among military recruits, who roughly represent the rural male population, has steadily increased from 0.56 percent in 1992 to 2.22 percent in 1999.

''The prevalence among commercial hospitality girls showed a dramatic increase from 4.2 percent in 1992 to 36.5 percent in 1999. The linear trend in this particular group is very steep.''

The report adds, ''The Burmese military is one of the largest forces in the region and dominates the present government. Because of the continuing border and ethnic clashes, about 330,000 armed forces are deployed in remote areas. They are periodically rotated to different stations.''

''National sentinel surveillance shows a consistent rise of HIV seropisitivity among military recruits, in 1999, representing 2.22 percent of the people tested,'' it says.

In fact, the report says ''military and policemen are described as one of the largest groups of clients in the sex venues, which is much more common in remote border areas than in close vicinity to large army bases.''

The report says Myanmar's high HIV transmission is due to its large number of mobile population and widespread human smuggling or trafficking, especially of women.

''A very large number of the mobile population groups -- internal and external -- are involved in HIV high-risk situations that will continue to spread HIV to the general population,'' it says.

''The HIV epidemic is closely associated with the Thai and Chinese border areas. Many IDUs live in and around the Golden Triangle and some of them have links with drug traffickers. From here, drug trafficking and use of spreads to nearby Mandaya, Muse and then to Yunnan,'' says the report.

''HIV transmission will continue among people through casual and regular- partner sex unless effective prevention methods are in place to limit such transmission,'' warns the report.

Myanmar is among the six countries in the Greater Mekong Subregion that also include Cambodia, China's Yunnan Province, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam.