Wa leader on the run: Wei no friend of mine

Drugs

Wa leader on the run: Wei no friend of mine

Maha Sang, leader of the non-ceasefire Wa National Army, has issued a statement dated 2 February, rejecting all allegations that he had been a business associate to druglord Wei Hsuehkang and his own half-brother Maha Ja.

The communique, written in Burmese, and received by S.H.A.N. today, claims the 60-year old former Wa prince still feels bitter about his incarceration in the Wa capital of Panghsang in 1989 through misinformation by Wei Hsuehkang. "Rifts inside the Wa National Organization as well as misunderstandings with the UWSA were created by Wei Hsuehkang, the ex-commander of Opium King Khun Sa," it reads. "(He) had also waged a relentless war of words against the WNO with the aim to destroy it the movement."

The statemant also denies connections to Maha Ja, who is reputed to have taken over Khun Sa's drug business in Homong, opposite Maehongson. "The WNO has ceaselessly fought for the liberation of the Wa people from oppression, Right of Self Determination and a genuine federal union," it states, "a political stand entirely different from Maha Ja and Wei Hsuehkang. The false allegations (against its leaders) therefore have greatly impaired the cause for national liberation and the Right of Self Determination."

According to The Nation, 2 February, Thai anti-narcotics officials staged multiple raids both in Chiangmai and Maehongson following approval of arrest warrants for Maha Sang and Maha Ja by the Maehongson provincial court. The raids resulted in the arrest of Boonjerd Chuenjit, 40, who was suspected of distributing drugs and laundering money for them.

Maha Sang was born on 27 October 1945 in Wiang Ngern, one of the former three main princely states in the Wa region, reads his bio-data. He had fought against the Communist Party of Burma since 1968. Defeated, he moved to the Thai border to form the Wa National Organization in 1976. In 1984, the group was joined by the Wei brothers who broke away from Khun Sa. The alliance however did not last long. Five years later, Maha Sang was taken into custody by the UWSA during his trip to Panghsang, allegedly by Wei Hsuehkang's report that Maha Sang was in cohorts with Khun Sa, then Panghsang's bitterest enemy.

On 4 January 1990, he was back on the Thai border following his escape from his captors.

WNO is a member of the National Democratic Front, a coalition of the ethnic armed groups still fighting against Rangoon.

For further details, please consult attachment in Burmese.