The reason for their dissatisfaction was that the white cards issued to them were only "temporary safe conducts" and not the standard pink cards regarded as permanent IDs.
The nine registration teams, each with nine officials, were all being detained at the school compound in Mongpawk, just south of the Wa capital Panghsang on the Sino-Burma border from March 2 to 29. Only 20 to 30 Chinese citizens from Daluo, opposite Mongla, were able to obtain temporary cards before the officials were rounded up and sent to Mongpawk.
"Till the end of March, the stalemate continued with one side demanding permanent ID cards while the other said they were only authorized to issue temporary ones," said a local source.
The white card, a copy of which SHAN has received, states clearly that it cannot be used to prove one's citizenship.
Another reason for the ceasefire groups' dissatisfaction was the designation of townships which they regard as not in keeping with the actual situation on the ground.
Saleu, for instance, is the headquarters of Mongla's 369th Brigade, but it is not in Mongla Township but in neighbouring Mongyang. Mongpawk also has not been designated Wa territory although Markmang (Metman in Burma) under Burma Army control since 1980, was named as a township in the Wa Self-Administered Region by the junta-sponsored National Convention.
Wa and Mongla, better known as United Wa State Army (UWSA) and National Democratic Alliance Army Eastern Shan State (NDAA-ESS), had ceasefire agreements with Burma's ruling military council in 1989.
