Hundreds of suspect families flee Thailand

Hundreds of suspect families flee Thailand

Bangkok's all-out war on drugs that was launched on 1 February had driven hundreds of ethnic Chinese and Wa families into exile in Burma's Shan State, according to local sources across the Chiangmai border. 

"If (Prime Minister) Thaksin (Shinawatra) continues with his crackdown, Burma will be having its own problem of dealing with illegal immigrants from Thailand", joked one source from Nakawngmu, 40 km north of the Chiangmai border in Mongton Township. About a million migrants from Burma are believed to be illegally residing in Thailand. 

Nakawngmu, a booming town since 1996, the year warlord Khun Sa surrendered to Rangoon, is playing host to 104 ethnic Chinese families who took off since the end of January, according to a local source, quoting an ethnic Chinese elder. 

Many others had also resettled in Mae Nim, near Monghsat, 120 km northwest of Nakawngmu, where there is a large ethnic Chinese community. 

The Wa families from Thailand, on the other hand, were being relocated in Hwe Aw, 10 km further south, where the 171st Brigade of the United Wa State Army is headquartered. 

Mongton is known for its vast areas of poppy fields and numerous heroin refineries where methamphetamines prepared in northern Shan State are compressed into tablets. 

Latest S.H.A.N. reports have identified 21 of them in the township.