The Burma Army has deployed some 400 troops backed by hundreds of local militia troops to check the movements of the Shan State Army (SSA) North’s First Brigade, commanded by Maj Gen Pangfa, in Tangyan and Mongyai townships, according to SSA sources.

The brigade’s movements are now limited to Kehsi and Monghsu townships, where the bulk of its units are active, they said. The non-ceasefire SSA South, commanded by Lt-Gen Yawdserk, is also active in the latter two townships.

The latest development took place following a confrontation on 18 December between the SSA North and the Burma Army’s 516th Light Infantry Battalion in Monghsu.

The two sides have already fought 5 times since the deadline for the SSA to disarm expired on 1 September. “They are not major operations,” commented Yawdserk, “just tests of strength.”

According to him, Naypyitaw is planning to tighten the circle on the SSA North once its preparations are complete.

The SSA North and the SSA South that operate west of the Salween are important to the United Wa State Army (UWSA) and its ally National Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA) as their first line of defense against the Burma Army’s future military plans against them, a Thai Burma-watcher recently told SHAN.

“The more the Burma Army is busy with the Shans and the Karens elsewhere, the more secure they are from its attacks,” he said.

The Burma Army has around 100 infantry battalions in Western Shan State and about 60 in Eastern Shan State plus a host of artillery, tank, armored and supporting battalions.

The UWSA and NDAA have so far refrained from joining the new alliance set up in November, Committee for the Emergence of Federal Union (CEFU), led by the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), another ceasefire group that had refused either to become a junta-controlled Border Guard Force (BGF) or to disarm.

It has instead already offered to hold fresh peace talks with the new government in Naypyitaw once it is formed in early 2011.