Tension Between Burmese Junta, UWSA

Don Pathan

The Nation

24 Mar 1999  

Doi Sam Sao, Burma __ Something is cooking in Burma's northeastern frontier along the Thai border, and it's more than just chemicals being boiled in one of the numerous heroin labs belonging to Burma's narcotics trafficking groups. 

For the past year or so, tension between the Burmese junta and the United Wa State Army (UWSA) has been building up, threatening to end a decade-old ceasefire agreement between Rangoon and the armed ethnic group--dubbed the world's largest armed narcotics' trafficking organization by the United States government. The generals in Rangoon have ordered the UWSA to move back to their stronghold in Panghsang on the Burmese border with China, so far issuing two ultimatums without specifying the consequences should the armed rebels not comply. 

Naturally, the UWSA chose to ignore the demands and instead beefed up its logistics along the Thai-Burmese border opposite Chiang Mai province. At the same time, the group has begun to welcome outsiders, allowing Thai merchants to transport everything from household goods to construction materials. Twice a week, hundreds of local Thai merchants line up at the checkpoint just north of Chiang Mai's Ta Thon district to be screened by immigration and customs officers before entering what has long been a no-go area and only a couple of decades ago a place where headhunters roamed. 

Border officials said thousands of Thai nationals are currently working in the Wa-controlled territory, building everything from a small dam to hospitals and schools. The checkpoint, located in Mae Ai district, was opened last August. A road construction project--financed by both the junta and the UWSA--which will link Chiang Mai's Mae Ai district to Mong Yawn and Mong Hsat, some 90 kilometers inside Burma's Shan State, is expected to be completed this year. A loop linking Mong Hsat to the popular border town of Tachilek opposite Chiang Rai's Mae Sai district is also on the way. 

"They are here to stay," said Maj Gen Chamlong Photong, chief-of-staff of the Thai Army's Third Region. "The pressure is on us to do something about it." 

In fact, the Thai general added, the UWSA is on the verge of becoming the next druglord of the Golden Triangle, replacing Khun Sa and his Mong Tai Army, who surrendered to the government three years ago in return for amnesty. 

Thai and US drug agencies estimate that about 1,700 tonnes of raw opium were cultivated in the Triangle last year, down from 2,300 tonnes the previous year, partly because of bad weather. About 10 kilogrammes of opium is needed to make a kilogramme of heroin. 

"The Wa are responsible for nearly half this amount," said Sorasit Sangprasert, deputy chief of Thailand's Office of the Narcotics Control Board. 

The UWSA came into existence shortly after the Communist Party of Burma crumbled a decade ago. A ceasefire agreement, orchestrated by Burma's security chief Lt Gen Khin Nyunt, was reached soon afterwards. The idea, say Burma watchers, was to neutralize a 20,000-plus strong army that had enough weapons to last them at least a decade. Rangoon didn't want these weapons, most of which came from China, to fall into the hands of other rebel groups. For the Wa, it was an opportunity to expand their heroin empire from their stronghold in Panghsang to a new frontier along the upper Thai-Burmese border. 

But nothing comes easy in trouble-plagued Burma. The expansion meant that a war between Wa and the Khun Sa's Mong Tai Army, the Wa's arch-rival and business competitor, was inevitable. Three years ago, Khun Sa and his army surrendered to the junta and the territory once controlled by the former opium warlord was left up for grabs as Burmese, Thai and Wa troops rushed in to plant their flag poles. 

A Wa commander overseeing the crossing point to Thailand said the UWSA will not make the same "mistake" as Kun Sa. Indeed, it's a very different story nowadays. With Khun Sa and his army out of the picture, the decade-old agreement is losing its appeal as territorial control along the rugged conflict-plagued borders becomes a higher priority for certain sectors in the junta's ruling body known as the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC). 

The SPDC has demanded that the UWSA retreat to the Chinese border. Essentially, this would mean that their heroin and methamphetamine network through Thai gateways would be shut. Thai military officers, however, say the implications are too great for the Burmese to begin a war with the Wa. 

"The situation makes it difficult for us," Chamlong said. "Besides, the Chinese don't want them along their border either." In fact, the growing drug problem in Yunnan province forced the Chinese authorities to summon UWSA leader Pao Yochang for a stern warning. At one point, the Chinese threatened to cut off the flow of food to Wa territory. 

Nevertheless, the pressure is on Thailand to do something about the flow of drugs into the Kingdom. No longer is the group producing heroin for European and American markets. Instead, narcotics officials insist, millions of methamphetamines--known locally as yaa baa--produced cheaply by the group have flooded into Thailand. 

"It's cheap to produce and the market is right here in Thailand," Sorasit said. 

During a recent two-day visit to Thailand, Burmese Foreign Minister Aung Win dismissed allegations that Rangoon is to blame for the rise in the methamphetamine problem in Thailand, saying the precursor chemicals needed for producing the stimulants come from abroad. 

"Besides, how do you know the drugs are not made here (in Thailand])" he added. "They could be produced anywhere." 

Burma has come up with an ambitious plan to end opium cultivation nationwide within 15 years. The plan has received praise from some in the international community. 

Critics say the ruling junta is too willing to appease insurgent groups as foreign condemnations take a back seat to stability in the hinterland. 

"They choose to ignore the reality (in Burma)," Win Aung said. Nevertheless, it remains to be seen if the junta is willing to pick a fight with one of the world's largest producers and traffickers of illicit drugs. 

Besides, the generals in Rangoon have other pressing issues to deal with, namely the dry-season offensive against armed ethnic groups who refused to sign a cease-fire agreement with the government, Chamlong said. 

Meanwhile, all parties agree that it is a matter of time before the Wa and Burmese begin fighting each other again.

NEW DRUG ARMY RULES ATOP 'GOLDEN TRIANGLE'

Seatle Times

Don Pathan
The Associated Press

UWSA soldiers in Panghsang HQ (Credit: Don Pathan, 2003)

LOI SAM SAO, Myanmar - Cradling an assault rifle, a teenage rebel sits at a guard post watching trucks hauling consumer goods and construction material into northeastern Myanmar over the dusty road from Thailand.

Across the border sits a Thai army command post that overlooks the hills of Southeast Asia's "Golden Triangle," the region where experts say nearly half the world's heroin is produced and then smuggled out to the streets of America and Europe.

The young rebel is the first line of contact between outsiders and the United Wa State Army, one of the numerous ethnic groups not controlled by the central government of Myanmar, or Burma.

"Welcome to the land of the Wa," Capt.  Sadorn Sae-chang, the taciturn commander of the Wa army battalion in this area, tells a journalist allowed a rare, brief visit.

A generation ago, the Wa were feared headhunters.  Now, they are the world's largest producers of heroin and a major supplier of amphetamines in East Asia.  But a cozy arrangement with the Myanmar military government that allowed their rise is fraying, and the Wa are preparing for war.

Sadorn and the 1,000 Wa soldiers positioned along this part of the border are part of what the U.S.  State Department calls "the world's biggest armed narcotics-trafficking organization."

Thai officers monitoring the border say the Wa are becoming the masters of the Golden Triangle, where the frontiers of Myanmar, Laos and Thailand converge.

"They are definitely moving in that direction, establishing a sound network with outsiders," said Thai Maj.  Gen.  Chamlong Phothong.  "The pressure is on us to do something about it."

Thai officials and the State Department estimate about 1,900 tons of raw opium were cultivated in the Triangle last year, down from 2,300 tons the previous season, partly because of bad weather.  About 10 kilograms of opium are needed to make a kilogram of heroin.

"The Wa are responsible for nearly half of this amount," said Sorasit Sangprasert, deputy chief of Thailand's Office of the Narcotics Control Board.

The Wa filled a vacuum left by Khun Sa, the warlord who once ran the largest narcotics outfit in Myanmar at the head of an army of ethnic Shan.  Khun Sa surrendered to the government three years ago in exchange for amnesty and now lives in the capital, Yangon.

Wa fighters were once the foot soldiers of the now-defunct Communist Party of Burma, whose insurgency sputtered out a decade ago.  Soon after, they formed the United Wa State Army and worked out a cease-fire with the military government.

For Myanmar's army, the truce neutralized a rebel group that had a weapons inventory large enough to last 10 years.

For the Wa, it was a green light to expand heroin activities southward from their stronghold in Panghsang on the Chinese border, gaining additional smuggling routes across the Thai and Chinese borders.  Along the way, they clashed with Khun Sa, hastening his surrender.

But with Khun Sa out of the picture, the truce is losing appeal for the government, which would like to extend control over the troublesome border territory and the ethnic groups it has fought for decades.

Tensions have risen over the past year, with the government demanding that the Wa head back toward their old strongholds near China.  The Wa, unwilling to lose heroin gateways through Thailand, have ignored the order and begun beefing up their supplies.

The Myanmar government insists it is working with the Wa to bring development to the area.  Some Wa, however, suspect the roads being built in the hills will eventually bring Myanmar troops against them.

The government may think twice about tangling with the Wa.  The United Wa State Army is believed to be able to field 20,000 fighters.  Myanmar's army approaches 500,000 men, but its troops are committed throughout Myanmar.  Some corrupt Myanmar troops are also believed to profit from letting the drug traffickers do business.

Westerners see heroin as the biggest threat emanating from the Golden Triangle, but for Thais and other Asians, it's something else - cheaply produced amphetamines.

Use is exploding, from 250,000 amphetamine users in Thailand in 1995 to between 500,000 and 1 illion today.

But as the fall of Khun Sa demonstrated, putting the Wa out of business might just open the way for another armed group.