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SLORC attack (r)
I am writing this as a response to th posting by Michael Beer
Nonviolence International
mbeer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx on 'SLORC Attack and his request for network
participants action on this. I am fully in agreement with the attitudes
expressed by Michael Beer. However, his and many recent postings=
on the
battle against SLORC seem to take a hostile attitude to perhaps the=
most
persistent force fighting against SLORC - that is the M=F6ng Tai=
Army and its
leader Khun Sa. The hostility of the postings manifests itself in=
many
ways. As Michael Beer's message it may just be in not listing them=
among
those fighting SLORC. In other cases it is by persisting with categorizing
him as a drug trafficker. Finally there is a persistent tendency=
to refer
to his Chinese ancestry. To anyone with any knowledge of Southeast=
Asia it
should be clear that the leadership of many parts of SEAsian society=
has
Chinese ancestry - including all aspects of thai leadership. There=
is no
point in making this identification with respect to Khun Sa, except=
to
suggest that his leadership of the Tai is therefore unacceptable.=
This at a
time when SLORC is collaborating with a Chinese invasion of Burma,=
among
other things turning Mandalay into a Chinese city.=20
That Khun Sa has been and is associated wioth the drug trade is a=
matter of
common knowledge. there are two main points about this. If not for=
the
involvement of peasants in Shan state in the cultivation of opium=
the
population will probably starve. The drug trade is an unwelcome excrecense
in the modern world and a major social problem in the USA. Nevertheless,
the biggest profiteers of the trade are in the USA itself and are=
not the
Tai peasants. That Khun Sa is able to use some of the money of the=
trade in
fighting SLORC is something that I for one am glad about. The control=
of
drug abuse must surely lie with taking away the profit motive and=
this has
to be by decriminalization which the USA government is unwiling to
contemplate.=20
=46inally the neglect of recognition of Khun Sa's resistance stems=
from
giving all recognition to the coalition led by Bo Mya and the Karen.=
I
would not want in any way to detract from the continuing fight of=
the
Karen. Nevertheless, the moralistic, Christian support of the Karen=
against
others such as Khun Sa ultimately only works to the benefit of SLORC.=
We
can only hope that the Americans inparticular will recognize the=
continuing
struggle of Khun Sa and the Tai and use their influence to remove=
the Thai
threat of the Naresuan bigade and the blockade of supplies to Khun=
Sa. It
would seem to me that the overthjrow of SLORC should have priority=
to
trying to deal with Khun Sa's involvement in the supply of heroin=
to the
USA.=20
Many academics today take the view that any Thai movement towards=
uniting
the Tai-speaking peoples is retrograde and chauvinist. I would disagree.
The Tai-speakers of Burma, China and Vietnam would have done much=
better if
any early 20th Century movement to unite the Tai-speakers within=
Thailand
had succeeded. It would have certainly added to the sum of human=
happiness.
All strength to Khun Sa.
Gehan Wijeyewardene