In the wake of a meeting with Wa leaders in Shan State North’s Tangyan in April, Naypyitaw’s chief negotiator Lt-Gen Ye Myint reportedly told them that the ceasefire era was in effect over.
When the Wa not so diplomatically turned down his proposal to transform the United Wa State Army (UWSA) into a Burmese Army controlled Border Guard Force, Naypyitaw went on to prove it meant business.
In 2005, a consignment of 496 kilograms of heroin was seized from the Wa in Mongpiang. The culprits among whom was Bao Ai Pan, the supreme Wa leader’s relative, were sent to jail, but the overall relations between Wa with Naypyitaw did not change significantly.
But after the Wa’s rejection of the BGF proposal, things began to sour.
On 11 September, three million Yaba pills were seized in Tachilek, opposite Thailand’s Maesai. The police source, when interviewed by Irrawaddy, said the pills came from the Wa capital Panghsang. His unexpected answer had reportedly stunned veteran Burma watchers in Thailand.
On 27 September, another 200 packets (400,000 pills) were seized in Wanpong, east of Tachilek and on the Golden Triangle together with the detention of seven villagers working in the Wa agricultural project. “The Wa’s days (as drug entrepreneurs) are definitely numbered,” said a border watcher.
(N.B. 200 pills make one bag
Five bags make one roll
Two rolls make one packet
50 packets make one backpack)
On the same day, a place near the ceasefire Shan State Army (SSA) North’s 7th Brigade base in Kunhing had to contend with a surprise raid by Burmese Army troops. “The place was reported to have been the site of a refinery,” said a source close to the SSA North. “But they found nothing.”
An official document received by SHAN also accuses the Kachin Independence Army (KIA)’s Shan State –based 4th Brigade of involvement in the drug trade. As for the reputedly pro-junta Kachin Democratic Army (KDA), the document says it has been cooperating with the military government in drug suppression activities.
The KDA became notorious when it attacked a police column in Kutkhai on 27 May 2007 after their financial officer Yaw Chang Wa was arrested with drugs, killing five and injuring at least five, according to media agencies in exile.
“The message is clear,” a businessman working in Taunggyi told SHAN. “To deal in drugs, you must first place yourself on the right side – the junta’s side.”
On the issue of drugs, Senior General Than Shwe’s mantra has always been ‘narcotics harm no Burmese. Drugs harm only the United States and Thailand. So let the Americans and Thai die!’ wrote Aung Lynn Tut, former intelligence officer and Charge’d Affairs in Washington.
