No.05 - 05/2006
7 May 2006

Drugs

No more Wa exodus

Last month's relocations of an estimated 2,000 - 4,000 Wa civilians could be regarded as the closing page of the mass migration to the Thai-Burma border, according to two high-level Wa sources who wish to remain anonymous:

"We wish to keep our members in the south (along the border areas) happy," a Wa divisional commander said. "We had brought their families down only at their express request."

Sources on the border reported in mid-April of the arrival of 2,000 Wa villagers in Mongton township opposite Chiangmai province. Unconfirmed reports also say another 1,800 had been resettled in the neighboring Monghsat township, which would add on to the 126,000 (according to Lahu figures) and 65,000 (according to Wa figures) that have already been resettled since 1999, when the first batch of Wa villagers arrived from their homeland along the Sino-Burma border.

The border areas opposite Chiangrai, Chiangmai and Maehongson provinces have long been designated as the United Wa State Army (UWSA)'s 171st Military Region.
"There is no further plan to move out the people," a visiting Wa businessman recently told S.H.A.N. "At present, all the people are engaged in the rubber plantation project."

A massive displacement predicted by some Burma watchers has yet to take place. "However, if anyone or family wishes to move out to pastures new, I don't think the leadership is going to deny them their right to resettle," he added.

He hopes assistance from foreign agencies to make up for the loss of income incurred by the opium ban which took effect on 26 June 2005 comes sooner. "Right now, piles of antimony and timber are stranded in Panghsang," he says, "as Beijing, in response to the request by the Burmese (military), has stopped importing any merchandise without their official license."

He maintains that poppy cultivation in the Wa "State", except in a few remote places, is practically over as promised by Wa supreme leader Bao Youxiang. "These days you find unrestricted fields only in areas under Burma Army units," he says.

His claim is supported by independent sources in eastern Shan State who witnessed hills and valleys in Markmang township, southwest of Panghsang, covered with poppy fields during the 2005-2006 season.

Shifting the subject to military affairs, he concedes that the Wa "State" is a besieged land. "We are being blockaded by Burmese troops on all sides, except from the Chinese side," he says. "Even most of the Salween crossings (west of the Wa area) are under the Burma Army control."

"The last thing we need today (therefore) is fighting among each other," he concludes. "We need to cooperate."

Last year's fighting between the Shan State Army - South and the joint Burma Army-UWSA alliance on the border (in March and April) had cost both sides an estimated 770 casualties.