Drug study tour scrapped

Drug study tour scrapped

Thai development project for Wa 

A Shan source returning from Mae Fa Luang District of Chiangrai yesterday (29 April) said the second survey mission to the controversial Yawngkha area opposite Chiangrai had been cancelled indefinitely following clashes between Thai and Wa forces on 26 April.

An assistant to MR Dissanadda Dissakul, Director of the Doitung Royal Development Project, told the source that all preparations for departure to Yawngkha, otherwise known to the local people as Nayao, via Maesai-Tachilek yesterday, were instructed to be put on hold until further notice, after news broke about the new confrontation between the two countries.

Two Thai cavalry regiments, the 2nd commanded by Col Chavalit Sirikij and the 4th commanded by Col Surasak Boonsiri, are facing Wa units under the command of drug fugitive Wei Hsuehkang's 171st Special Brigade in Wianghaeng and Mae Faluang districts respectively.

"This time our mission is to find out facts about different communities in the area: how they make a living, number of households, and so on," said the assistant.

On its first trip three months earlier, the Doitung mission studied conditions of soil and water which they found to be satisfactory.

The 20-million baht pilot project for a "drug free zone" in the Wa-controlled areas along the border has been mockingly named by the local people a "free drug zone project," added the source.