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Ouane Rattikone (Ouan Rathikoun; Uan Rāttikun; * 1912 in Luang Prabang , † October 1978 ) was a general of the Laotian Air Force, later commander in chief of the Force Army . He used these positions to become the most important heroin producer in Indochina by 1975 , selling his own brand of heroin.

Live and act

Ouane Rattikone went to school in his hometown and in 1941 joined the Garde indigène police force . In 1945 he deserted to join the Lao Issara independence movement. 1946-49 he was involved in guerrilla activities in southern Laos.

After an amnesty, he joined the newly founded Laotian army ( Kôngthap Haeng Xāt ) in 1949 , which initially consisted of 1,200 men. After the independence of the Kingdom of Laos (October 22, 1953, confirmed July 21, 1954), he was quickly promoted to brigadier within the rapidly expanded army - entirely from American funds.

Since 1958 he was a member of the "Committee for the Defense of National Interests" ( Khana Kammakān Pônghan Phoyphanyot ). In 1959 he became Chief of the General Staff. After the Kong Les coup d'état in August 1960, he became Foreign Minister and Defense Minister in Souvanna Phouma's cabinet . He soon switched sides to right-wing Phoumi Nosavan .

During the Lao Civil War , Rattikone maintained close ties with the American Ambassador William H. Sullivan and the CIA station chief Ted Shackley . With their support, he rebelled against Phoumi Nosavan in April 1964. He was finally forced into exile in Thailand in February 1965. In the years 1965-69 Rattikone was commander in chief of the armed forces and acted as a kind of warlord in the northern military region . He was an ally of Hmong general Vang Pao, also supported by the CIA .

Rattikone was officially retired as commander in June 1971. In 1973 he was elected to the National Assembly ( Saphāa Haeng Xāt ).

After the country was liberated on December 2, 1975, Rattikone was sent to north-eastern Laos for re-education, where he died in October 1978 before the measure was successfully completed.

drug dealer

Laos officially abolished the opium monopoly ( Opium Régie du Laos ) inherited from French times in 1961 and made trade a criminal offense from then on. Cultivation and export, which had originally been massively expanded to finance the GCMA until 1954, continued, however.

Under General Phoumi he was commissioned from 1962 to manage the government's opium business, for which he received a monthly salary of US $ 200 and established contacts with the Shan and KMT in Burma as suppliers. At that time, about 1 ton of opium was delivered to the cronies of Nguyen Kao Ky in South Vietnam every month . Exports tripled by 1964.

After Rattikone had expelled Prime Minister Phoumi Nosavan in 1965, he took over the opium trade himself, especially in the north-west. Initially, he switched off as a carrier for Air Laos Commerciale , which initially resulted in logistical problems. In future he only planned to use the T-28 aircraft of the Royal Lao Air Force . His American friends feared, however, that this would impair the capabilities of the Air Force in secret . They therefore raised the funds to purchase two Douglas C-47 Dakota transporters from the US development aid program USAID . These machines were operated under the cover name Xieng Khoung Air and, together with Air America, formed the ultimate Air Opium.

Rattikone ran a heroin laboratory in Ban Houi Sai (= Ban Houayxay ), another in the capital. With his partner, the Chinese businessman Huu Tim-heng , he had a factory that also produced heroin under the Double-UO Globe brand from 1965 onwards . Most of the consumers were the members of the US troops in Vietnam, where the level of infection in the front troops reached 15-22%. In order to be able to get the chemicals ( ether and acetic anhydride ) needed for production, Huu and the prime minister's son had acquired the Pepsi-Cola franchise for Laos. Even after 5 years, the factory had not filled a single bottle. Nguyen Thi Ly, the older sister of the Vietnamese prime minister, directly coordinated the export (via Pakxé and Phnom Penh , from there with Air Force machines - Operation Haylift ) until she returned to Saigon in 1967.

A raid by the KMT with 1,400 men at the end of July 1967 on a large opium caravan Khun Sas in the Laotian border town of Ban Khwan turned into a six-day battle. The Laotian general asked both sides to leave the country. When the SNA asked for $ 500,000 and the KMT for $ 250,000, he seized the opportunity and had six Air Force aircraft bomb the fighters. The 1,800 men of the advancing Laotian army fell into the hands of 200 corpses and 16 tons of opium. In the following years, Rattikone finally rose to become the most important heroin producer in the region.

literature

  • Alfred McCoy: The Politics of Heroin. New York 1991 (rev. Ed .; orig. 1972); ISBN 1-55652-126-X ; S 331-: General Ouane Rattikone
  • Historical Dictionary of Laos. 2nd edition, Plymouth UK 2008, ISBN 978-0-8108-5624-0 , "Ouan Rathikoun"

Individual evidence

  1. ^ McCoy (1991), photo after p. 300
  2. ↑ Cockburn, Alexander; St. Clair, Jeffery; Whiteout; London, New York 1998, ISBN 1-85984-897-4 , p. 247.
  3. ↑ McCoy (1991), p. 302, detailed list, fn. 64
  4. ^ New York Times , Aug. 30, 1971, p. 1; McCoy, p. 206
  5. ↑ whole section after: McCoy (1991), pp. Xiv, 227f, 302-7
  6. ↑ Whiteout (1998), pp. 228-30.
  7. ↑ McCoy (1991), pp. 332f
personal data
SURNAME Rattikone, Ouane
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rathikoun, Ouan (alternative transcription); Rāttikun, Uan (alternative transcription)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Laotian General of the Laotian Air Force and drug dealer
DATE OF BIRTH 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH Luang Prabang
DATE OF DEATH October 1978