THE FALL OF A WARLORD

Wa commander - and Thai 'mole' - Wei Sai-tang's jailing by the UWSA offers a rare glimpse inside the narco-army's power structure 

Don Pathan
The Nation

The recent sentencing of Wa commander Wei Sai-tang to 75 years in jail for a number of offences has puzzled senior Thai Army and narcotic officers. 

Wei, 35, was officially convicted by the United Wa State Army (UWSA) for, among other things, printing fake Burmese kyat notes, a currency that is not highly sought after either inside or outside Burma 

The real reason behind Wei's fall, said Thai and Wa sources, appears to be his alleged dealings with the Thai Army. 

UWSA Chairman Bao Yuxiang (Pathan - 2003)

The commander had turned rogue, viewing himself as the leader of a breakaway faction, they said. 

A closer look at Wei's story provides a glimpse into the UWSA's secret power structure. It also lends support to reports that the 20,000-strong organisation is split between two chief players: Chairman Bao Yu-xiang in the north and notorious opium warlord Wei Hsueh-kang, who commands the Wa's Division 171 in the south, near the Thai border. 

For commander Wei, the desire to cut a deal with Thailand was inviting. It could have provided him with much-needed economic and logistic links through Thailand and ensured his future in a terrain shaped by decades of opium politics and insurgency. 

The UWSA has been accused by Thai authorities of flooding the country with methamphetamine pills and some of the world's best heroin. 

With Wei, their UWSA "mole" ousted, the Thai Army must now seek new options. 

There have been a couple of consultations with the Chinese military to tackle the UWSA but so far, there has been no sign of a breakthrough. 

In recent years, the UWSA has positioned some 10,000 troops along the Thai border, and forcibly relocated nearly 100,000 villagers from its traditional stronghold along the Chinese border to areas along the Thai border. 

The Thai Army insists on taking a hard line on the UWSA. But the Thaksin government, keen on mending fences with Rangoon, has opted for promoting a crop substitution programme in conjunction with the Burmese government in a Wa-controlled area adjacent to Chiang Rai. 

A senior officer at the Office of the Narcotics Control Board, said his agency might be able to cool down the conflict if the UWSA was willing to cooperate to curb narcotics. 

But the Wa have proved a tough nut to crack. 

For local and international drug agents, Wei's conviction effectively puts his rival, Wei Hsueh-kang, the most notorious heroin kingpin in the Golden Triangle, in a very comfortable position. 

The kingpin and his two brothers came to the region decades ago to seek their fortune. Intelligence sources say he has investments in Bangkok, Hong Kong and Shanghai. 

Thaksin had vowed to hunt down the drug lord "dead or alive". 

Wei Hsueh-kang has also been convicted in the United States and Thailand on charges of heroin trafficking and there is a US$2 million (Bt83 million) bounty on his head. 

Rumours that he was detained in the outskirts of Panghsang have been dismissed by both Wa and Thai intelligence officials. Given his stature and power, they said, it was unlikely he would surrender without a fight. 

A Wa insider said that although there may be "complications" between the northern command under Chairman Bao and the drug lord and his brothers both sides now needed each other's support more then ever. 

If the UWSA continued on its present course and expands its turf from the Chinese border to Thailand, it was unlikely that the two Wa regions would split any time soon. 

In an interview with The Nation from his headquarter in Panghsang late last year, Bao dismissed Thai claims that UWSA presence along the Thai border was a security threat. 

Bao and dep Wa leader Li Zuru in northern Wa region

Bao insisted that the effort was part of the UWSA's opium eradication programme. 

Old Burma hands, meanwhile, see the expansion as a strategic move, saying it made a lot of sense as it gave the UWSA two outlets - China and Thailand. 

Complicating the issue, however, was a move by Rangoon to position one of its units right in the middle between the two Wa regions. 

The UWSA's border presence continues to be a thorn in Thai-Burma relations. 

Armed clashes between Thai units and Wa militia from Wei Hsueh-kang's outfit flare up almost every month. On a couple of occasions, they have escalated into full-scale battles and drawn Burmese troops into the fray. 

In Panghsang, Bao continues to work hard to win the hearts and minds of the international community. He receives visiting foreign diplomats on a regular basis and encourages the United Nations and other international agencies to help him with crop substitution and development projects in the opium area. 

Bao has downplayed the drug charges against drug lord Wei as Thailand's problem, saying it was the authorities' own fault for letting him escape from a Thai prison in the first place. 

The Rangoon government has said a military move against the Wa is out of the question. 

The chairman knows quite well what kind of political liability drug lord Wei poses to the UWSA, said a Wa source. But what choice, he asked, does he have? 

Any attempt to take him down could drive a wedge between the northern and the southern Wa regions, and destroy the UWSA itself.