Chasing the Burmese dragon

The Thaksin government is poised to launch a major anti-drug offensive against the Burma-based Wa army. It stands a real risk of failure, Don Pathan reports.

Two years ago when the bodies of nine Thai villagers, beaten to death with their hands tied behind their backs, were found scattered along the northern border, all fingers pointed to the Wa army which is based just on the other side of the border.

It was a drug deal gone bad, and members of the United Wa State Army did it, Thai officials said. Though no one has proven exactly who carried out the brutal act, nevertheless the blame was conveniently placed on the Wa. After all, this 20,000-strong outfit has been dubbed the world's largest armed drug-trafficking group, and a number of its leaders have already been indicted by a US federal court on drug charges.

Thai security agencies found themselves in a situation where they had to act and act fast. The army was brought into the picture, border crossings leading to the UWSA areas were ordered shut, and over 1,000 Thai workers building everything from roads and hydroelectric dams to schools and hospitals in nearby Wacontrolled areas were told to come home.

For the Thai troops along the border overlooking Doi Sam Sao opposite Thailand's Mae Ai district, this meant that their daily volleyball games with the Wa soldiers had to end. The Thai public and the media went along for the ride, and the Thaksin government, as well as the previous Chuan administration, couldn't resist jumping on the bandwagon in spite of its racist connotations. "Wa" immediately became a household name. And just like that, an entire ethnic group became demonised.

To show that he meant business Thaksin, shortly after taking over as premier, launched a highprofile drug seminar in Chiang Mai. Photographs showed Burma's security chief, Lt-General Khin Nyunt, shaking hands with Wa leaders in Mong Yawn, a newly built town adjacent to Chiang Mai's Mae Ai district. Thai officials said Mong Yawn was the source of millions of methamphetamine pills heading for the streets of Bangkok and other major cities in the country.

At the end of the two-day seminar, Thaksin boldly told the public that he would take the matter straight to Rangoon. China, said Thaksin, will also be brought into the picture to help with the counter-narcotics efforts.

Thailand's latest move is to form a 400-strong anti-drug task force made up of staff from the Army Special Forces, infantry and Border Police units. They will be trained by a team of about 20 soldiers from the US Special Forces, starting this October under the supervision of the Third Army.

But while the public ate up the anti-narcotic rhetoric, little discussion was given to the implications and the possible fallout with Rangoon and Beijing, two sovereign governments whose priorities happen to be other than the Thai people's bad habits.

A Bangkok-based foreign diplomat overseeing drug issues called Thailand's declaring war on the Wa a "knee-jerk" reaction without real understanding of the situation on the ground. For any anti-narcotic policy to be successful, according to Burma experts, it must include a meaningful political solution for all insurgent groups in the ethnically diverse country. Drug trafficking and insurgency, they say, are two

sides of the same coin.

In a recent interview with The Nation, the UN Drug Control Programme's regional representative Sandro Calvani said a strong foundation for regional countries to cooperate in their anti-narcotic efforts "exists in joint agreements, but real united action requires significant improvements".

"Finger-pointing to drug-producers or drug-users helps no one. History in other parts of the world has shown that isolating a group does more harm than help," said Calvani, suggesting that

regional UN coordinated action on the Wa and Burma might be more effective than fragmented

moves by Thailand, Malaysia, China, India and other countries concerned.

As for the country's anti-drug policy, an alliance that unites the government, the UN and the entire civil society must be created, while the private and public sectors, as well as government agencies and the community, must be included in this endeavour, he said.

For years Rangoon has consistently come under attack by Western governments for allowing drug armies and opium warlords to operate with little hindrance. They point to the presence of the Wa army along Burma's northern border with Thailand and China, as well as the Kokang Chinese, also known as the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army.

But the reality on the ground, say Thai and foreign drug officials, is that the Burmese government has little control over the Wa's activities. For one thing, Burmese troops must have permission before entering areas occupied by UWSA troops.

Wa fighters were the foot-soldiers of the now defunct Communist Party of Burma. In 1989 the CPB fractured along ethnic lines, and the group formed the United Wa State Army, before working out an attractive cease-fire agreement orchestrated by security chief Lt-General Khin Nyunt.

For Rangoon the truce neutralised a 20,000-strong insurgent group that had enough weapons to last them for another decade. For the Wa it was a green light to expand their heroin empire southwards from the Chinese border to areas adjacent to Thailand's northern border. Along the way they clashed with former drug kingpin Khun Sa, hastening his surrender in January 1996.

Today, besides filling a vacuum left by Khun Sa, the presence of the |Wa army along the Thai border is deemed a security threat to Thailand. The group is also perceived to be a significant factor in the tit-for-tat relations between Thailand and Burma. 

The Nation

https://sandrocalvani.it/archivio/docs/20080918_News_chasing_dragon.pdf

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.