The United Wa State Army (UWSA), which has joined forces with its Kokang ally against the Burmese Army yesterday alleged a shell aimed at its mountain base near the border had overshot the mark and killed a People’s Liberation Army (PLA) soldier while injuring two others.

“When the Burmese Army launched an attack against the mountain base near Qingsuihe (Chinshwehaw) in the afternoon, we had no choice, but to join the fight,” said a UWSA officer who asked not to be named.

Kokang’s Qingsuihe, also known as Nampha in Shan is opposite the Wa’s Namteuk (written Nanding in Pinyin) in the south. The two towns are separated by the Namting, a tributary of the Salween, and connected by a bridge. The fall of the strategic mountain base would have threatened Namteuk, according to the UWSA.

“We captured more than a hundred POWs, whom we turned over to the PLA,” he claimed.

No independent confirmation of the rebels’ statement could be obtained as yet. (Latest information says the casualties were civilians, not PLA soldiers)

Resumption of hostilities between the Kokang-Wa-Mongla forces and the Burmese Army (after 20 years of an uneasy but working truce) started yesterday morning when a police patrol that had strayed too near the Kokangs’ temporary headquarters was attacked. Three policemen were reportedly killed and the rest fled across the border where they were disarmed by the PLA. (Kachin News Group reported they were soldiers in police uniforms.)

Meanwhile, the Burmese Army that had ousted Kokang leader Peng Jiasheng has appointed his former deputy-turned-defector Bai Souqian as the new leader. “The Kokang Army (also known asMyanmar National Democratic Alliance Army) has about 1,000 troops,” said a businessman who had just gone out of business in Kokang. “Not more than 200 had joined Bai. The rest are still with Peng.”

The Burmese Army’s next target after Kokang that covers the Wa’s northern border could be Mongla that protects the Wa’s southern border, said the anti-Rangoon Shan State Army (SSA) ‘South’ source. The closure of two borders could have strangled the UWSA to death without fighting, according to a Thai security source.

However, according to reports coming from the Thai-Burma border, the Burmese Army’s next target could also be the UWSA’s 171st Military Region, opposite Thailand’s Maehongson, Chiangmai and Chiangrai provinces.

The Operations Commander in Mongton, opposite Chinagmai, reportedly demanded on August 26 that the Wa withdraw from all their bases west of the Mongton-BP1 (Thai border) road. “He didn’t give any deadline as in the past,” said an informed source in Mongton. “He just said ‘at once’. Naturally, the Wa, instead of complying with his order, merely reinforced their positions.”

On the other hand, no reports of the new Burmese Army units into the area have been received, said the SSA South. “But all our units have been placed on alert,” said Col Yawdserk, the SSA’s supreme commander.

Meanwhile, Hkun Okker of the National Council of the Union of Burma (NCUB) said Burma’s military rulers could find itself fighting on two fronts as in 1988. “September is the second anniversary of the Saffron Revolution,” he told SHAN. “I certainly hope the two parties (those protesting in the towns and cities and those fighting on the borders) can find ways to cooperate and coordinate their activities.”

The military regime that was facing the 8888 uprising on the one hand and facing the Chinese-backed Communist Party of Burma (CPB) on the other was saved by the mutinies that sparked off within the CPB’s ranks in 1989. The ensuing ceasefire pacts between the mutineers and Burma’s military government had been celebrated by Kokang, Wa and Mongla in March, April and June respectively.