Khun Sa's Army advances on Burmese

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Subject: Khun Sa's Army advances on Burmese border town


KHUN SA'S ARMY ADVANCES ON BURMESE BORDER TOWN

By Sutin Wannabovorn

TACHILEK, Burma, May 27 (Reuter) - Reports that opium warlord Khun Sa's
guerrillas are advancing on Tachilek after winning big gains over Burmese
government forces have brought the usually bustling town to a standstill.

Normally thousands of tourists and traders cross a small border bridge
linking the town to the Thai town of Mae Sai but on Friday just a trickle of
people made the journey.

A Burmese customs official in Tachilek said he had been told by army officers
that 33 government soldiers were killed in fighting nearby on Thursday.

Residents have begun stockpiling food and other goods in preparation for an
expected border closure, the official said.

A Burmese porter who fled the battlefield and arrived in the town on Friday
told Reuters Khun Sa's Mong Tai Army (MTA) had taken control of the strategic
Doi Kong Mon mountain, 20 km (12.5 miles) to the southwest, and was advancing
towards Tachilek.

"MTA artillery and mortar bombs were landing right in the middle of the
Burmese positions, everyone ran for his life and porters took the opportunity
to escape," said Sam Kae, 35.

Sam Kae said he and sixteen others escaped but only three reached Tachilek.
He did not know the fate of the others.

Thousands of Burmese government troops have been battling MTA guerrillas in
13 different places across a broad front in northeastern Burma's Shan state
since the middle of May.

The heaviest fighting is around Doi Kong Mon and the town of Mong Kwyat, 120
km (75 miles) to the southwest of Tachilek, guerrilla officers said.

One guerrilla officer told Reuters on Friday that 150 Burmese troops had been
killed and 80 wounded over the past week. He put MTA losses at 17 killed and
39 wounded.

He said the guerrillas had also seized a large amount of Burmese weapons.

The Rangoon junta deployed more than 20,000 troops against Khun Sa's army in
southern Shan state late last year.

There has been intermittent fighting, at times heavy, since then in different
parts of the state.

As many as 50,000 civilians, most of them supporters of Khun Sa, have fled to
Thailand to escape the fighting, a senior Thai security official said this
week.

Khun Sa, also known as Chang Si-fu, 60, is the half-Chinese, half-Shan
commander of the 20,000-strong MTA.

Although indicted by a U.S. court on heroin trafficking charges in 1990, Khun
Sa says he is a Shan nationalist and not a drug trafficker.

He says he only taxes opium traders passing through his zone of control. He
declared Shan state independent last December, shortly before Rangoon
launched its offensive against him.

Although Khun Sa was in the past widely dismissed as a drug trafficker even
former harsh critics admit he has recently been gaining increasing popular
support.



Transmitted:  94-05-27 09:44:49 EDT