No.01 - 03/2006
1 March 2006

Drugs

Warring Ceasefire factions square it with each other

Reporter: Hawkeye

The two warring factions of a PaO dominant ceasefire group has lately ceased hostilities against each other after an agreement was reached to share and share alike the drug revenue, report sources from the border.

Although the exact terms of the agreement is not known, there has for two weeks been no fighting between Takelay's Shan Nationalities Peoples Liberation Organization (SNPLO) faction and Hkun Chit Maung's PaO Regional Nationalities Unity Organization (PNUO) faction, they said. "Both the SPDC (State Peace and Development Council) and the UWSA (United Wa State Army) had pressured both to work out a compromise solution," according to Hkun Tet Lu of the non-ceasefire PaO People's Liberation Organization (PPLO).

The SNPLO, led by Takelay had concluded a ceasefire with Rangoon on 9 October 1994. The group controls part of Hopong, Hsihseng and Mawkmai townships. It has, unlike another PaO ceasefire group, PaO National Organization (PNO) of Aung Hkam Hti, also been active in calling for the rights of non-Burman ethnic nationalities of Burma, along with 15 other ceasefire groups.

On 12 October 2005, Takelay, 77, was ousted by the rival Chit Maung faction that decided to rename the group as PNUO, a move seen by some observers as an attempt to unite with the PNO that is reportedly being "showered with favors" by Rangoon.

"However, when the two sides split, the poppy-producing areas west of the Pawn, went under Chit Maung, while the heroin refineries remained under the firm control of the Taklay faction," said a ceasefire source. "The ensuing fight between the two was therefore political as well as economic in its origins."

According to him, there are two heroin refineries in Honam Tract, Mawkmai township:

• One operated by Zhao Huo, 38, from Hpya Hpyu Quarter, Taunggyi, since 2001
• Another by Zhang Daguo, 47, of Hopang-Kunlong, northern Shan State,  since early last year

Zhao Huo also owns a rice mill in Honam. "It serves as a convenient front for Zhao," said the source who knows both Zhao and his wife.

All sources agree that the season's harvest in the area will be ample. "Especially when people in the area are running 2-3 crops per year," said a migrant worker coming from Hsihseng.

Related Report: The year the gods are kind, 20 February 2006