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Bangkok Post News (21/12/98)



News Headlines;
1): Shan rebels seek US support
2): Battle looms near border
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1): Shan rebels seek US support
Junta's raids 'help drug trade boom'

Rebel Shan State Army (SSA) guerrillas have said oppression by the Burmese
military of the northeastern state's native population has caused the boom
in the local opium and heroin trade.
"Burma (government) troops' unrelenting oppression of the Shan people and
other ethnic nationalities has forced them to continue growing opium," SSA
commander Colonel Yod Sk told Reuters at his jungle hideout in Shan state
on Saturday.
" This is because they need permanent plots of land to grow rice and other
crops and they don't have them," he said.
"People in the Shan state have turned to growing poppy because it takes a
short time or few months to harvest and they can shift the location of
opium fields in the jungles," Yod Suk said.
Shan rebels had no permanent land because of frequent attacks by the
Burmese military against the SSA and its followers as they fought for their
own homeland and autonomy, he added.
The SSA claims to control about 40 percent of Shan state and is one of a
handful of armed rebel groups that have not signed cease-fire pacts with
the Rangoon government.
Shan state is on the fringes of the infamous Golden Triangle poppy growing
area which straddles the borders of Burma, Laos and Thailand. Drug
traffickers move large quantities of opium and heroin from the mountainous
zone.
The US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) estimates that some 70 percent of
heroin in the street market in the US originates from the Golden Triangle.
The SSA's Yok Suk used to be a lieutenant of the former drug warlord Khun
Sa who controlled the state's opium trade before surrendering to the
Rangoon government two years ago. Khun Sa now lives in Rangoon.
SSA was formed by Yod Suk and the remnant guerrillas of Khun Sa's once
powerful Mong Tai Army (MTA) which claimed to be fighting for Shan state
autonomy but was deeply involved in the drug trade.
Yod Suk, 40, dressed in army fatigues and guarded by about 40 armed
guerrilla, estimated that in 1998, Shan state would produce more than 2,000
tons of opium. He gave no comparison figure for last year.
One ton of opium can be refined in factories into 100 kg of pure heroin.
"There are 40 heroin factories in Shan state near the eastern border with
Thailand, opposite the Mae Hong Son and Chiang Mai provinces," Yod Suk daid.
He accused the Burmese army of providing security for the heroin factories
and collaborating with ethnic Chinese and Thai businessman to produce heroin.
Yod Suk, said he had about 12,000 guerrillas under his command in the SSA
and was ready to help in drugs suppression in Shan state.
He return, he demanded cooperation and support for his movement from the
United States and the United Nations.
" The Americans have dumped millions of dollars on the Myanmar government
in their attempt to eradicate opium fields and heroin production in Myanmar
but it has not worked," he said.
"So if the US really wanted to eradicate opium and heroin in Myanmar they
should come to us, cooperate with the SSA and we will help eradication
opium with them in 1999," he added.

2): Battle looms near border

Thailand is concerned about a possible spillover of the dry season
offensive in Burma which looks imminent as Rangoon is assembling its troops
near the border, a Foreign Ministr source said.
The source said between 20 and 30 battalions were stationed in Burmese
territory near the border in Ratchaburi and Mae Hong Son in a clear
indication that they soon would launch military strikes against minority
rebels.
The government was concerned that Thai villagers living near the border
could be affected.
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