No.06 - 04/2006
16 April 2006

Politics

Chinese agents defeated Khun Sa: former aide

Ten years after the surprise surrender of Khun Sa's Mong Tai Army, once conceded by Rangoon as its strongest armed opposition, one of his closest aides has revealed to S.H.A.N. for the first time that Khun Sa was brought to his knees not by the Burma Army but by the genius of Beijing's agents.

The aide, who is also Khun Sa's close relative, claimed that the MTA forces fell apart during their drive to the Sino-Burma border at the invitation of Chinese agents who had also tipped off the Burma Army.

"The disaster was compounded by the mutiny of Gunyawd (in June 1995) that further splintered the MTA, leaving him with no choice but to surrender," he explained.

Khun Sa

Sao Gunjade

Falang

Filed Photo: S.H.A.N.

The aide, who asked not be named, maintained the starting point was the visit in 1993 by three Chinese led by a Li W. J. (full name edited out by request), who were received by three MTA men: Khun Sa, Gunjade and "myself, whose job was only to take down notes."

Encouraged by the talks, Khun Sa, against counter advice by several lieutenants including Gunjade and his able chief of staff Falang aka Zhang Suchuan, that the Chinese should not be taken at face value, went on to make three costly mistakes:

• Declaration of Independence on 12 December 1993
• The attack on Burmese garrisons on the Thai-Burma border
• The march to the north to establish new bases along the Sino-Burma border

"All of which proved to be fiascos", the 42-year old former aide who left Burma last year "after 9 years of trying to make a living there".

A few months after the surrender, the aide ran into Li in Rangoon, whom he strongly condemned for double-crossing. "He was not annoyed by my accusations," he recalled. "Instead he calmly told me he was only doing what was in the interests of China."

Despite the indictment on Khun Sa in 1990 by the United States, the Chinese were not convinced he was not an American stooge, said the aide. "Moreover, they were alarmed by his call for independence. So they naturally drifted towards Rangoon."

The ailing Gunjade, 68, who had served as Khun Sa's deputy, agreed with the aide's account when interviewed by telephone.

At present, Khun Sa, 72, is living under protective custody in Rangoon. "They keep injecting him with strange drugs, against the family's protests," the aide said. "He can now barely nod or shake his head."

The aide's statement was in response to S.H.A.N.'s question on the latest declaration of independence by a Shan group called "Interim Shan Government" on 17 April 2005. The group however has continued to brush aside counsels by several Shan elders that Beijing would not tolerate separatist tendencies among its neighbors especially Burma.

The MTA came into being in 1985 when three groups: Shan United Revolutionary Army (SURA), Shan State Army 'South' (SSA - S) and Shanland United Army (SUA) merged together. In 1994 it reportedly fielded 25,000 men. After its surrender in 1996, the SURA, renamed SSA 'South', has been continuing with the fight under the leadership of Col Yawdserk.