Army shelling raises false alarm

The Shan State Army’s besieged stronghold opposite Maehongson’s Pang Mapha district went on red alert following the shelling of one of its positions by the Burma Army on Friday, 29 July, according to Shan resistance sources.

Five mortar shells hit an SSA outpost north of its base Loi Taileng that has been under siege by the joint Burma Army  United Wa State Army force since March. The attack ended as sudden as it started and the occupants of the encircled Shan base that includes some 2,000 refugees and their children went back to their normal daily activities.

“The shelling came from the Burma Army base in Nawngleng,” said the source, a high ranking SSA officer. “But in the three Wa bases facing our positions, we found no preparations for an imminent attack. In fact, each of their bases has been manned by no more than 50 Wa fighters since their last assault (on 26 April).”

All sources including the SSA’s spokeswoman Khurhsen Heng-awn and Thai security officers in Maehongson dismissed recent reports that all Wa positions surrounding Loi Taileng had been taken over by the Burma Army after the UWSA failed to mount new attacks.

“It is unlikely that the Wa will resume its offensive unless the promised 2,500 fresh troops from Panghsang (the Wa capital on the Sino-Burma border in the north) arrive,” said an informed source from Mongton, opposite Chiangmai province.

The latest fighting that lasted more than a month, 22 March  26 April, took a toll of some 700 casualties on the Wa side, including 337 killed, and 65 casualties on the SSA side, including 12 killed. (The number of Wa fatalities were confirmed by the UWSA.)

According to Shan Human Rights Foundation, villagers of Hwe Aw, Mongton Township, were rounded up on the night of 20 April, during the height of the fighting, to dig graves for 68 dead Wa soldiers.