One detail high on the agenda on Thursday, 12 March, marking the 20th anniversary of the overthrow of Communist leadership by Kokang forces in northern Shan State, is a colorful military parade, according to ceasefire sources.
“This, Kokang leaders hope, will dispel general conception that the MNDAA (Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, the official name for the Kokang armed force) exists only on paper,” said a highly-placed source who arrived in Kokang’s Laogai yesterday. “According to our own information, it must be at least 4-5,000 strong.”
12 March, by request from several quarters, has been renamed MNDAA Day to mark its founding, according to another source.
The festivities will last three days, 11-13 March, and not 10-12 March as reported earlier, he said.
Most of the MNDAA’s allies, especially members of the Wa-led Peace and Democracy Front (PDF), have already arrived, according to another source. He declined to say whether or not there will be a joint meeting to discuss current political situation in Burma.
Kokang, located on the Sino-Burma border, was one of the three major producers of opium until it declared opium free in 2003. (Other major produces were Wa and Loimaw.) Failures in the implementation of crop substitution program have forced thousands of families to move out, according to Amsterdam-based Transnational Institute’s Drugs and Democracy Programme.
