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The Nation(6/8/99)



ONCB Chief Dismisses Claims

THE head of the Office of the Narcotics Control Board, Payont Pansri,
yesterday dismissed suggestions that the United Wa State Army had expanded
its operations from the Golden Triangle to Burma's Mon state adjacent to
Thailand's central region. 

''They would have to seriously brainwash the Mons in order to do so,''
Payont said. 

Payont dismissed the claims by the Kanchaburi provincial authorities as
baseless. 

The Wa would have to move down from the eastern Shan state adjacent to
Chiang Rai province and pass a number of armed ethnic groups, including the
Shan State Army, the Karenni National People's Party, the Karen National
Union and the New Mon State Army -- all of whom are staunchly against drug
trafficking. 

Besides opposing drug trafficking, Col Yawd Suk's Shan State Army has
launched a number of military campaigns against armed drug trafficking
groups operating around the Golden Triangle in an effort to gain
international support. 

Yawd Suk has also urged the Thai Army to cooperate with his men to curb the
flow of drugs coming out of the region and called on the international
community to boycott the military government of Burma which he accused of
turning a blind eye to the situation
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ONCB seeks closure of more checkpoints

THE head of the Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB) yesterday said
his agency had asked the National Security Council (NSC) to close down five
more border checkpoints to help curb the flow of drugs from Burma. 

ONCB chief Panyont Pansri said the NSC was asked to consider closing
checkpoints in Chiang Rai, Chiang Mai and Mae Hong Son provinces. 

Payont's announcement came a day after the council ordered the closing of
the Baan Son Ton Doo checkpoint in Chiang Mai's Mae Ai District. 

Police officers, following orders, were yesterday tearing down the
temporary shelters at the checkpoint, while the five companies which
received concessions from the province to export to the Wa-controlled area
have rerouted their vehicles through the Mae Sai-Tachilek border crossing
just hours away. 

Payont said the ONCB will monitor what kind of effect the closing of the
Baan Son Ton Doo checkpoint will have on the demand and supply of the
domestic drug market. 

The pass linked Mae Ai district to an area controlled by the United Wa
State Army (UWSA), one of the world's largest narcotics-trafficking armed

groups responsible for most of the methamphetamines and heroin coming out
of the Golden Triangle. 

The UWSA signed a ceasefire agreement with the Burmese government in 1989
as part of Rangoon's effort to neutralise the 20,000-strong army after the
collapse of the Communist Party of Burma. Most of the CPB's foot-soldiers
were ethnic Wa who later joined the UWSA, which has its headquarters in
Panghsang on the Burma-China border. 

Payont did not say which checkpoints should be shut down, but stated that
most of them are in Chiang Rai province. 

The districts are adjacent to the eastern border of Burma's Shan state
where numerous heroin and amphetamine labs are operated by armed groups,
including ethnic Chinese and other ethnic groups which once formed part of
opium warlord Khun Sa's Mong Tai Army. 

Khun Sa surrendered three years ago in return for amnesty, but opium
cultivation and other narcotics activities are still being carried out in
the area. 

Burmese soldiers in the country's eastern region have been accused by a
number of international organisations of turning a blind eye to the illicit
activities, while Western governments have said Rangoon has to do more to
curb such activities. 

Payont said he had discussed the problem with Burmese security chief Lt Gen
Khin Nyunt during his recent trip to the country. The drug-control chief
said Burma is concerned with the strength of the UWSA which has, since the
ceasefire agreement in 1989, expanded its forces as well as its heroin
network from Panghsang to the area in eastern Shan state adjacent to
Thailand's Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai. 

It was Khin Nyunt who arranged the ceasefire deal a decade ago. 

Thai security officers often pointed to Wei Hsuey-kang, an ethnic Chinese
who is in charge of three UWSA battalions along the Thai border. 

Wei has been on the run from the Thai police since 1990 after he jumped
bail and returned to Burma. The Eastern Court of the United States has
indicted him on drug-trafficking charges and the government has put a
US$2-million price tag on his head. 

Besides heroin production for markets in the West and other major cities in
Asia, UWSA outfits along the Thai border have in the recent years shifted
to methamphetamine production to cater to the rising demand of the drug in
Thailand. 

Operating from Shan state's Mong Yawn, which is about 30 kilometres inside
Burma from the Baan Son Ton Doo checkpoint, Wei has managed to set up 10
major methamphetamine ''networks'' inside the Kingdom, Thai police said. 

One of the 10 was headed by Surachai Nguern-tongfoo, known as ''Bung Ron'',
who is believed to be staying with Wei and his men in Mong Yawn. 

Surachai had managed to escape from Thai police during a drug raid on his
residence in October in Minburi district on Bangkok's outskirts. 

It is estimated that about four million methamphetamine tablets are
imported by Surachai into the country on a monthly basis, said officers
investigating the case. 

With the existence of nine other networks, the total amount of
methamphetamine tablets entering Thailand in recent years could have
reached 40 million a month, said Pol Col Suchart Theeraswat of the Bangkok

Metropolitan Police which is investigating the case. 
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