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50,000 Families Not 50,000 People: Insider
Forced Relocations of Wa People

A reliable source claimed today that the projected number of people coming down to the Thai border was 50,000 families.

The source, who requested anonymity because "I'm making a living there," told S.H.A.N. that 50,000 households were projected to be transferred from the Wa region to the Monghsat area opposite Chiangmai and Chiangrai provinces of Thailand.

"Calculated at 5 members per household, it will eventually amount to 250,000 people in Monghsat at the end of the project". He dismissed the figure, 50,000 people, as reported by Khin Maung Myint, the Was' liaison officer on 16 January, by saying, "It has already past that figure by the end of 1999".

The figure, 90,000, as reported by a Thai paper, was not far-fetched, he said. "There are about 40,000 in Wanhung (Banhoong), 30,000 in Site 46 (halfway between Wanhung and Mongyawn), and 20,000 in Mongyawn already now".

He, however, could not say which part of the Wa region the villagers came from. There are reportedly 6 townships there, namely, Mongmai, Pangwai, Manhpang, Nahparn, Pangyang and Mangseng.

The road from Pangsang, the Was' capital, passes through Mongpawk, Mongkhark, Mongngen, Nawngkhio (near the headwaters of Sim River, a tributary of the Salween), Mongpiang, Mongkied (near the Sim) and Monghsat, he said. He saw about 50 vehicles coming to and fro: 25 Chinese 6 wheelers, 15 Burmese UD Nissan 6 wheelers and 10 Thai 6-and 10 wheelers.

"The Chinese trucks could carry about 50 people each, while the Burmese and Thai, about 80", he said. "The Thai company that won a contract for this venture is from Chiangmai".

He put the ratio of Wa and Chinese new settlers at 7:3, while another source at 6:4. "Most of the Was are poor people, while the Chinese look well fed and prosperous. Most of them are said to doctors, teachers, instructors, technicians and traders".

The Chinese also appeared to be coming to the Thai border voluntarily, while many Was complained openly about the compulsory measures taken by the Wa leadership, he told S.H.A.N..

"They said they had left their homes and fields behind. They were told by their authorities that land and loan for a whole year were guaranteed".

He didn't think, however, that everybody was unhappy to be moved here. "I think some like Monghsat better, because the soil there is more fertile than in most Wa area, according to some of them".

As to the reason for the forced exodus, the Wa officers told the source, "We won this area from Khun Sa. And according to the Burmese promise, this shall be decreed as a new area under our administration. But we are soldiers,and soldiers by themselves, without civilians, cannot establish a nation which we are planning to do".

Sao Sengsuk, leading Shan politician, from the Shan Democratic Union and the Shan State Organization, commented:

"The Wa region up in the north shall certainly be depopulated, and the question is who are the most ready to fill up the vacuum created by this forced relocation?"

"I have, on several occasions, counselled the Thai authorities that the Was are merely pawns in this so-called War on Drugs, where the big wheel is in Beijing and the foreman in Rangoon".

The Wa population, according to Hideku Takano, freelance Japanese researcher, is 500,000.