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BANGKOK POST 10/31/99
BANGKOKPOST 10/31/99
Fence to tighten
security at Maneeloy
Temsak Traisopon
Tightened security measures and stricter regulations are being
implemented at Maneeloy holding centre following the locking up of aid
officials by Burmese student exiles, a top interior official said yesterday.
Chanasak Yuwaboon, the permanent secretary, said about 60 volunteer
staff have been sent to oversee and regulate Burmese student movements
and activities.
"To leave the centre they must have a
good reason, such as to see a doctor.
Visits will be arranged and patterned
after those of the Corrections
Department," he said.
A barbed wire fence will also be erected
on the premises denying the students
access to the main office, he said. The
army's engineering department has been
asked to do the job.
Mr Chanasak said that despite camp runner United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees' concern for human rights, the ministry had no
other alternative.
"We have to come up with certain measures to prevent undesirable
incidents. The fence will be mainly for security reasons," he said.
Mr Chanasak also said intelligence officials have been sent to mingle with
Burmese students to monitor their movements and political or armed
activities.
He also voiced concern about the rising number of refugees at a camp in
Kanchanaburi's Sangkhlaburi district.
He said family planning will be introduced at the camp to control the
refugee population.
There are more than 1,800 refugees, half of whom are children.
"We can't afford to let them live, eat, sleep and have more and more
children," Mr Chanasak said.
---------------
Troops transfer
linked to new battle
Analysts predict war by proxy theory
Nusara Thaitawat and Subin Khuenkaew
Wei Hsueh-kang recently reassigned about 350 soldiers of his United Wa
State Army to border areas opposite Mae Sot district, Tak, informed Thai
and Western sources said.
Narcotics agents and Third Army
officers are closely monitoring the
movements of these troops, who were
dropped off near Myawaddy township by
Burmese military trucks under Wei's
personal supervision on Aug 14.
An analyst said the Burmese junta may
be pulling the strings of yet another proxy
war to resolve ethnic problems by
teaming the UWSA with the Democratic
Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) against Rangoon's arch enemy, the Karen
National Union (KNU).
The DKBA broke away from the Christian-dominated KNU several years
back.
Analysts say the split was instigated by the Burmese junta.
"The KNU is the last ethnic thorn in Burma's side," one analyst said. "The
UWSA has more than proven its fighting skills when it brought down Khun
Sa in late 1995.
"The DKBA knows the KNU inside out and is familiar with the terrain.
Teamed together, they fit the bill perfectly for the Burmese government,"
he said.
Another analyst was not so happy with the war by proxy theory. He said
the military leaders in Rangoon and the UWSA did not get along that well.
"Neither side trusts the other. All that the Burmese government wants is
some level of stability. I don't believe that the Burmese government would
want to give the opportunity to the UWSA to move further south and
expand its influence," he said.
He cited the dispute between the Burmese junta and the UWSA over the
Wa refusal to return to Pangsanh after it won a battle against Khun Sa in
the Doi Lang area three years ago.
Another source pointed out that Wei's 46th Brigade should be seen as "an
almost separate entity" within the UWSA, headquartered in Pangsanh in
Burma's Shan State.
"Wei is like a golden hen for the Burmese junta. He's a drug dealer, a
businessman, a fighter and a criminal. It's not known that he has any
political ambition to free the Wa ethnic group from Burmese domination,"
he said.
"The Burmese can rest assured, as long as there's money to be made," he
said.
Concerned officials are verifying where the soldiers were relocated from,
possibly Mong Yawn, opposite Ban San Ton Du, Mae Ai district, Chiang
Mai, where Wei's former 361st Brigade was based, or Ban Hong, opposite
Ban San Ma Ked, his new headquarters.
"These two sites may be a bit too far from Myawaddy. It's possible that
Wei relocated a few soldiers here and there from his units along the
border," said one senior officer of the Third Army.
The UWSA controls most of the area opposite Mae Sai district, Chiang
Rai, down to Tha Ton district, Chiang Mai.
The sources confirmed that about 60 trucks from the Burmese army were
used to transport the soldiers down the main road linking Myawaddy to
Mae Sot on Aug 14, and that Wei was present.
The road was closed to traffic that day. A public announcement of the
closure cited "rain damage," they said.
The soldiers were dropped off just outside Myawaddy.
UWSA negotiators have made contact with the DKBA and there is a
possibility that the arrangement could be more than political.
Three, possibly four, new laboratories producing methamphetamine pills
began operation recently. One which is ran jointly with the DKBA is in the
vicinity of Oo Kay Hta village in Dooplaya, south of the town of Walay,
said one source.
Wei, whose Thai name is Prasit Chivinnitipanya, is wanted by both Thai
and US authorities on separate drug trafficking charges.
The US last year announced a US$2million reward for information leading
to his arrest and prosecution.
-------------
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.