Drug Lords wipe the slate clean

_{7 January 2009}

“I was forced to flee because of your cousin Shin Serng (aka Sai Pan),” Wei, who was then a commander in the United Wa State Army (UWSA), was reported as saying.

Together with Khun Sa’s rival Ai Xiaoseu, he had formed the Wa National Council (WNC) on the Thai-Burma border after he left Khun Sa in 1985. Until that time, he had been one of Khun Sa’s main bankers.

Wei also admitted to the killing of Shin Serng in Maesai. “He was trying to rub me out,” he reportedly told Khun Sa. “What I did was only an act of defense.”

He denied charges to the killing of other MTA officers: Chao Jingyao, Gao Minjieo, Charlie Yangviriyakul, Peter Yang and Sai Pan Maehongson.  Only Charlie survived the shooting after killing the gunman hired to eliminate him. “They were done in by the ex-Kuomintang,” he said.

Khun Sa at that time was launching a military campaign against Gen Li Wen-huan’s KMT Third Army that was headquartered in Fang, some 160 km north of Chiangmai.

The two sides then agreed to “let bygones be bygones,” according to the source.

Wei was related to Shin Serng by marriage to the latter’s aunt. Shin Serng was a son of one of Khun Sa’s uncles.

Khun Sa gave up his 27 year long struggle against Rangoon following a mutiny in 1995 that broke the backbone of his 30,000 strong army.