According to a senior Thai border security official, both China and United Wa State Army (UWSA)’s denial of a report saying China had delivered a number of ‘Hip’ helicopters equipped with air-to-air missiles to the latter warrants further investigations.
“You cannot just ask China to send you gunships because the Burma Army has used gunships against the Kachins and the next target will probably be you and China says, ‘Okay, here goes some gunships for you to defend yourself. It is not that simple.’” he said. “You need to send your officers to China first to familiarize themselves in handling the aircraft. That takes time, at least a year, unless China is ready to give you both the helicopters and their pilots.”
Meanwhile, sources that visited Mong Pawk, the headquarters of the United Wa State Army (UWSA)’s 468th Brigade, say they had seen a helicopter during a festival held in April last year.
“There was a dragon fly (Shan nickname for a helicopter), a plane with wings and a ship with 4-5 decks,” explained a visitor. “We were told the Li Ai Su (then commander of the 468th Brigade) was planning to construct a lake and make Mong Pawk a tourist attraction.”
His statement was in response to SHAN’s inquiry about the UWSA reply to Naypyitaw delegation on 10 May concerning Jane’s Intelligence report about recent Wa acquisition of Mi 17 gunships from China.
Wa spokesman U Aung Myint aka Li Julie, reported Voice of America, said the UWSA had purchased 1 helicopter, 1 Fokker and a small ship and brought them through Laos. Both the helicopter and the Fokker were engine-less. “They are for our people who have never seen a plane or a ship,” he explained.
Sources were unable to say whether or not the said vehicles were engine-less. “But we had taken for granted that they had engines,” another visitor explained. “However, we were not sufficiently near enough either to prove or disapprove the Wa statement.”
It is an open question whether or not the government delegation led by U Thein Zaw, Vice Chairman of the Union Peacemaking Work Committee (UPWC), accept the Wa explanation. But the UWSA statement was reported in its official paper yesterday.
Jane’s Intelligence reported on 29 April that China had delivered several Mi 17 ‘Hip’ helicopters armed with TY 90 air-to-air missiles to the Wa in late February and early March.
When SHAN asked one of the senior members of the National Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA), through whose territory the said gunships must have passed if Jane’s report were true, he replied, “It is hard to say, because we have no information about them.”
