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Drugs Panghsang recalls men ahead of crackdown An order issued by Panghsang one week in advance of Rangoon
Panghsang recalls men ahead of crackdown
Drugs
An order issued by Panghsang one week in advance of Rangoon's crackdown in Tachilek had "saved the day" for the military-Wa alliance, said a veteran drug watcher to S.H.A.N..
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According to the source, who requested his identity be withheld, Burmese authorities staged a surprise raid in Markyang village, a 300-household village northeast of the city, and took 14 people, including its tract headman, into custody. Information was believed to have been provided by Bangkok. "But no Wa to my knowledge, was among those arrested," said the well-placed source, "they were already instructed by Zhao Jungtang (a lieutenant of Bao Youxiang) on 15 September to report to Panghsang immediately. Many, except those who were generally considered 'clean', like Maj Sai Nyo, a Shan officer in the Wa army who manages the Mya Shwe Yee Hotel near the city's Shwe Dagon replica, left promptly." |
(A new hotel, Mekong River, owned by the Wa, was also opened on 26 September at Mae Khao neighborhood. The party was reportedly attended by Dr. Kyaw Myint, Rangoon's health minister, who was on his way to meet his Thai counterpart, Sudarat Keyuraphan, at an exhibition of Thai-Burma health cooperation in Chiangrai.)
The source said he believed Panghsang had been notified by Rangoon well in advance of the planned crackdown.
Thai seizure of 500,000 speed pills together with 9 armed dead, claimed by Thailand as Wa, on 20 August, was said to have enormously embarrassed both Rangoon and Panghsang.
During a recent press conference on 9 September, junta spokesman Col San Pwint said the Wa, contrary to Thai media accusations, had always cooperated with the military government on drug matters.
With regards to the ongoing Thai campaign against drugs the Wa, while conceding some setbacks, had tried to look at it positively, he said. "After all, the small fry that had long been in our way have been put away," he quoted an ethnic Chinese dealer well connected to the Wa as saying.
Research paper: Drug free Asean by 2015 unrealistic