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Bangkok Post - Jan
03, 2000
THAI-BURMESE
RELATIONS Border closure halts Wa army's construction driveInfluential groups in bid
to reopen pass
Sermsuk Kasitipradit AND
Nusara Thaitawat Development of the border village of Mong Yawn
into the United Wa State Army's southern military command headquarters has come
to a standstill, following Thailand's closure of the San Ton Du-Mong Yawn border
crossing since August. A senior officer of the Third Army responsible for security in the North said
the closure of San Ton Du has had the desired effect on the UWSA, widely
believed to be the biggest and most powerful drug trafficking group in the
region. "Construction materials and other essential commodities could reach Mong Yawn
in just 3-4 hours when the border was open. But the situation has changed
dramatically with the government's decision to close the crossing. "It now takes at least 5-7 days for supplies to reach Mong Yawn via Chiang
Dao's Kiew Pha Walk crossing, and the road is really bad," the officer said.
He admitted there was still pressure from certain influential persons to
reopen San Ton Du. He said the army's consent was crucial for such a decision.
"Under the present circumstances, it is absolutely unlikely the army will
agree," he said. Informed sources with links to the leadership in Mong Yawn said the UWSA was
getting increasingly frustrated with the situation, as at first it believed the
closure would only be temporary. Not only has Mong Yawn's development suffered, but trade has also been badly
affected. A Thai businessman who supplied construction materials and petrol to Mong
Yawn said the leadership there re-sold part of its imports at 10-20% profit to
buyers deeper in Burma's eastern Shan State. UWSA dependents, mostly young mothers and their infants, the sick and
seriously wounded soldiers are still allowed across the border into Thailand for
medical care on humanitarian grounds. Mong Yawn's major infrastructure projects include a hydro-electric dam, a
huge underground oil storage, roads, telephone lines and pipe water, and housing
for UWSA leaders and thousands of soldiers and their dependents who were being
systematically relocated from other UWSA-controlled areas in northern Shan
State. Its development projects include agriculture, animal husbandry, public health
and education. The projects, aimed at achieving self-sufficiency and
designed-according to USWA propaganda-to gradually wipe out drug trafficking,
were estimated by an independent development worker to be worth at least one
billion baht. Before August, the UWSA employed 5,000-6,000 Thai workers in the whole of its
southern military command stretching from Mong Yawn to Mong Hsat, including
500-600 in Mong Yawn alone. The UWSA is headquartered in Pangsanh near the
Shan-Chinese border. Army chief Gen Surayud Chulanont had pushed hard for the closure of the
border crossing, after the army became fully convinced that the UWSA used drug
money to fund Mong Yawn's development. The army chief had clarified several
times that the ultimate purpose of the crossing's closure was not to stem the
flow of drugs into the country, but to cause utmost difficulty to the UWSA in
its aspirations to develop Mong Yawn. The grand plan was for Mong Yawn, a dusty little village formally under the
control of retired drug kingpin Khun Sa of the Mong Tai Army, to become home for
200,000 Wa people once construction was completed. An intelligence officer from Pha Mueng Task Force, which supervises security
along the Chiang Mai-Chiang Rai border, said a large number of Thai workers
still in Mong Yawn had contacted the army for help to come back home.
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