In a development, which does not bode well for the Burmese ruling junta, thousands of Chinese Vietnam war veterans have joined the ethnic Wa rebels in Burma in the wake of the contentious Border Guard Force issue, said border sources.

About 15,000 military personnel from China entered Wa or United Wa State Army territory east of Shan State in Burma by crossing the border recently, said sources close to the rebels.

The military reinforcement comprises mainly Chinese Vietnam veterans who fought against US soldiers on the North Vietnam side during the war between 1965 and 1970, and Wa students who did higher military training in China and other foreign countries, added the sources.

The Wa is also recruiting and mobilizing retired soldiers from the former Communist Party of Burma (CBP) in Shan State and bordering China’s southwest Yunnan province.  All this is in preparation for a war looming on the horizon with the Burmese Army, said sources close to retired CBP soldiers.

In November 14, UWSA, Burma’s largest ethnic armed group submitted the nine-fact proposal to military leaders in capital Naypyitaw through Lt-Gen Ye Myint, chief of Military Affairs Security (MAS) but it was rejected by the junta.

Wa’s proposal said it would accept transformation to the junta-controlled Border Guard Force in principle. It proposed a change of the armed-wing’s name without changing its current military status and recognition of the current Wa’s territory as well as return of former Wa territories, occupied by the junta.

After the junta promptly rejected the Wa’s proposal, the latter went in for high military alert in its territories. However it will not start hostilities first, said rebel sources.

UWSA was formed soon after the CBP broke away in 1989. The CPB was supported militarily and politically by the Chinese communist government.