Bkk post - Wa leader's new empire t

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Subject: Bkk post - Wa leader's new empire takes shape

Bangkok Post - Oct 31, 1999.
BORDER
Wa leader's new empire takes shape
Strategic border city rises near Wei's HQ

Nusara Thaitawat and Subin Khuenkaew, Chiang Rai

The villagers of Ban San Ma Ked look with curiosity at the influx of
visitors who have come over the past three months to take a look at a small
track linking their community to the new empire of drug kingpin Wei
Hsueh-kang of the United Wa State Army (UWSA).

The track, big enough for trekkers and mules, has been there for as long as
the oldest villager can remember. Crossing the "imaginary border line" has
been part of daily life of the villagers of San Ma Ked, adjoining Hua Mae
Kham and Mong Kaw Lang villages. They cross to till more fertile land on the
other side, hunt wild animals and collect forest products, visit relatives
and friends, and barter and trade.

The track, which is manned by Thai soldiers, quickly disappears behind thick
trees as it rises up towards the mountain top, which marks the official
limit of Thai territory with Burma's eastern Shan State.

There, an outpost of the 12th Battalion of the 2nd Cavalry Regiment
overlooks Wei's empire. A new settlement, Ban Hong or Muang Mai as it is
referred to by local villagers, is being developed for dependents and as a
strategic defence line for the new headquarters of Wei located right behind.

An impressive road, built by order of Wei a few years ago, stops just a few
metres from the outpost. It links his empire to a road network along the
border, being developed by the Burmese government. Mong Yawn, the
headquarters of the UWSA southern military command and Wei's former 361st
Brigade headquarters across from Ban San Ton Du in Mae Ai district, Chiang
Mai, is only some 20km away. From there, a road links it to other major
cities, such as MonghsatWei, commander of the UWSA 46th Brigade is the most
powerful drug kingpin in the Golden Triangle. Wanted by Thailand and the
United States on drug trafficking charges, his organisation floods the Thai
market with millions of methamphetamine tablets every month. Last year, the
US offered a US$2million reward for his capture.

Security sources and Thai traders with links to the UWSA differ in their
assessment of the construction materials, fuel and other supplies still in
store after San Ton Du was closed in July. Some believe they would last only
one more month while others say three months.

Over 500 Thai workers are still employed in Mong Yawn, and over 200 in Ban
Hong and Wei's new headquarters, known among Thai soldiers simply as "46"
after his brigade, but work has slowed.

Wei's troops are trying to be friendly with the Thai soldiers manning the
border, who took their posting on October 1 after being reshuffled from the
Laotian-Thai border.

"They often wave to us to cross over," said one. "I shouted that I couldn't
cross the border because I'm a soldier. It's okay, they shouted back."All
Thai workers hired by the UWSA are given identification papers and have to
report each time they enter or exit UWSA-controlled areas. Security is
tighter in Ban Hong than in Mong Yawn, where Thai traders and workers could
come and go easily, before the border was closed in July.

"They're very cautious, it's not easy to infiltrate if we wanted to, unless
they intentionally turn a blind eye," commented one source.

Plainclothes soldiers have visited Ban Hong and the new headquarters with
the knowledge of UWSA commanders who seem to want them to take a first-hand
look.

Ban Hong is being developed as a self-sufficient community and the
headquarters as an impregnable fortress.

A school to be staffed by volunteers from Taiwan is expected to be completed
soon and both students and teachers will be relocated from Mong Yawn.

The construction of Ban Hong and "46" has become a source of very much
welcome extra income for the villagers of Ban San Ma Ked, and Hua Mae Kham
and Mong Kaw Lang in Mae Fah Luang district, Chiang Rai.

These three villages, especially Ban Hua Mae Kham, have been closely
monitored by anti-narcotics officials, according to a senior official of the
Office of Narcotics Control Board, because of their suspected links to Wei's
group.

Looking at the map, the villages inhabited by mostly non-Thai speaking
ethnic Akha, Lahu, Lisor and Mong villagers, form a mass of Thai land inside
Burma. From time immemorable, these villagers have had contact with the
other side. Some 40 families in Ban Hua Mae Kham are known to local security
officers to still farm land on the other side of the border even though the
expansion of Ban Hong has forced them to relocate some of their fields.

Only teenagers who went to school can speak Thai.

Since the closure of the San Ton Du temporary border crossing, Thai traders
have unsuccessfully been pushing the government to open the Ban San Ma Ked
track to export goods.