The Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO) has called on the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to correct a recent report that claims that the armed group controls areas with some of the highest prevalence of opium cultivation in the country. Colonel Naw Bu, spokesman for the KIO, told The Irrawaddy that a UNODC report on the issue had “relied on information from a person or organization”, and not been based on surveys conducted on the ground. “They should confess their mistake and they should tell the people they made a mistake,” he said. The KIO claims that 6,000 acres are under poppy cultivation in an area controlled by the Kachin Border Guard Force. It is a former militia now under the control of the Myanmar Army. The KIO’s armed wing, the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), is one of the largest ethnic armed groups not to have signed the government’s Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA). The UNODC has not yet responded to the claims.