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SCMP-Thais buy into Shan rebel powe



Subject: SCMP-Thais buy into Shan rebel power play 

South China Morning Post
Monday  December 21  1998

Thais buy into Shan rebel power play


WILLIAM BARNES in Bangkok
A Thai dam builder has asked tribal Shan rebels in the Golden Triangle war
zone if it can build a hydroelectric barrage across the Salween River.

The Shan States Army has already given the developer, MDX, permission to
survey the area, Shan sources say.

The moves will increase suspicions that one of the reasons Rangoon is so
determined to crush the rebels is to gain a free hand to exploit the area's
natural resources.

The Burmese army has thrown hundreds of troops into the area in an attempt
to knock out a faction of the Shan States Army that has been demanding
autonomy. A third of a million people have been thrown off their land and
hundreds killed.

Both Thailand and enterprises in the Chinese province of Yunnan have
previously shown a keen interest in developing the Shan state's
hydroelectric potential.

Such enthusiasm has alarmed environmentalists, who have pointed out that the
authoritarian Burmese Government is hardly likely to bother itself much with
the impact on the environment.

Thailand signed a memorandum of understanding with Burma in mid-1997 to take
1,500 megawatts of hydroelectric power by 2010.

Burma's ethnic rebels have a long history of squeezing taxes from Thai
entrepreneurs logging and trading across the border. But although the money
might be tempting, the risk is that the guerillas will find themselves in
the same position as the Mon in Burma's southern panhandle, Tennasarim.

The New Mon State Party agreed - under pressure - to allow an international
consortium to build a controversial offshore gas pipeline across its
territory. The deal allowed the Burmese army to flood the area with troops,
effectively killing off lingering Mon resistance.

"The cash might look good, but the cost may be what hard-won liberty you
have left," one Shan exile said.

MDX, Ital-Thai and Japan's Marubeni have teamed up to examine the
hydroelectric potential of Burma.

But the biggest obstacle to the construction of any infrastructure project
in the country is more likely to be the Asian economic crisis - which has
seen demand for electricity slump - than any guerilla group.

Meanwhile, the Shan States Army is joining forces with Karenni rebels to
fight an expected Burmese military offensive. The Army, a remnant of the
forces of former opium warlord Khun Sa, said the two groups would appeal to
the Thai army to work with them to stem the drug trade along the
Thai-Burmese border.

Observers said any military alliance would be largely symbolic, given that
the Shan and Karenni people and their armies live and operate in different
provinces.