Wa drug lords dodge US legal action... "Legal action taken in New York against a suspected Wa drugs lord and seven fugitive members of his gang appears to have done nothing to dent the success of their business ventures in Burma. Wei Hsueh-kang and his comrades control the Hong Pang group of companies, which are involved in jewelry and gems, communications, electrical goods, agriculture, mining, textiles and large construction projects...For decades ethnic suppression, opium wars, narcotics and the Shan separatists and pro-democracy movements have created a complex patchwork of problems, which many believe have only one solution. Khuensai Jaiyen, editor of the Shan Herald News Agency, summed it up: ?Without democratic change there is no solution to the drug problem. Democracy, development and an end to the flow of narcotics are all linked.?"