The Burmese Army and the United Wa State Army (UWSA) are said to have been put on high alert and are intensively preparing for an anticipated military showdown, according to a reliable source coming to the Thai-Burma border.

Over 10 tanks of the Burmese Army were said to have been despatched to Tangyan, 83 miles south of Lashio, Shan State North, since the first week of October.

It is now redeploying its troops, rebuilding bunkers and trenches around Wa territory with food supplies mainly at its Loi Panglong base, northwest of the Wa capital Panghsang, said a source close to the Wa leadership.

Likewise, the UWSA units on both the Thai-Burma and the Sino-Burma border are also into preparations since they were informed that the Burmese Army was intensively reinforcing its troops and weapons in border areas facing its mountain bases.  

According to senior officers from the Wa, there is an 80 per cent likelihood of an impending offensive by the Burmese Army.     

“We have informed all our units to pay more attention,” a source quoted one of the Wa senior officers as saying.

Meanwhile, its southern fighters along the Thai-Burma border are reportedly shifting their families to safer areas since last week, said the source.

The relationship between the Burmese Army and the Wa Army has been increasingly souring after the Wa  told Lt-Gen Ye Myint, Naypyitaw’s chief negotiator that it would stand by its 14 November presentation that junta officers would not be allowed to run the Wa forces at the battalion level. They would however be allotted two seats in either of its two military regions: one for deputy commander and the other for deputy chief of staff.

Ye Myint had earmarked the end of December as the new and the final deadline for the acceptance of its proposal for the group to be transformed into the Burmese Army-controlled Border Guard Forces (BGF).