Border briefs

Border briefs

H.R.H. Princess meets Wa

Thai TV channels reported yesterday of HRH Princess Mahachakri Sirindhorn attending a meeting in Mae Fa Luang district, Chiangrai, with MR Disanadda Dissakul, director of the royally initiated Doi Tung development program on the crop replacement project in Yawngkha, known by the displaced locals as Nayao (Long Paddy).

Two representatives from Burma, one Wa and the other Burmese, were also shown.

Her Royal Highness, as usual, took extensive notes.

Fighting

Meanwhile another clash between a patrol of Shan State Army and the Burmese army was reported. "Our men ran into an ambush near Loilam (north of Doi Maemaw facing Shan positions along the border) at 17:00. Two of us were wounded but the rest were unharmed," said the SSA source this morning. "The Burmese then shelled our retiring patrol for nearly an hour."

Refugees

More people displaced by the Wa relocations in Nayao and the surrounding areas have also arrived during the past few days thereby increasing the present population of the internally displaced people's village of Piangfah, opposite Mae Maw, Mae Fa Luang district, to more than 1,000, according to a Shan relief worker in Mae Sai.

"Does the Thai project for the Wa have any plans to assist the original natives who have been driven out of their homes and fields also?" said the social worker who requested his name be withheld.

In Maesai

The Burmese army has been buying up so much dry foodstuff and especially motor fuel that local people fear that another closure of the border crossing between Tachilek and Maesai is imminent, reports S.H.A.N. correspondent, Moengzay.

The Burmese side of the Maesai is also heavily guarded and patrolled. Sources told S.H.A.N. there were rumors that a combined force of Shan-Karen troops would stage an attack on the city.

Porters are also being levied in Tachilek, although 300-500 prisoners building roads up in the Nayao area are reported to be still present there.