STATEMENT CONFIRMATION OF RESIGNATION

STATEMENT CONFIRMATION OF RESIGNATION

As a Shan, I could never forget those days when the Kuomintang occupied our homeland and the Shan people at large had to bear the brunt of their rampage. Having no alternative but to defend my people, I formed a Shan armed force with the aim of guarding our people against the Kuomintang intruders. Over the span of three decades, the Shan forces eventually built up their might and were able to expel the Kuomintang totally out of Shan soil in 1985. 

Besides the Kuomintang, the Shan armed forces had to contend with many other enemies including the Communist Party of Burma (CPB). The Shans fought against it until 1989 when it collapsed due to mutiny. 

Shan State has thus long been a base and battle zone for different rival armies. Thousands of patriots have sacrificed their lives and thousands more have become disabled during the course of prolonged wars and strife. Indeed, the Shan people know best that their devastated homeland is a living hell. 

In order to support the Shan forces, we were compelled to collect tax from opium production. Unfortunately, the outer world thoroughly misunderstood my desire to restore peace in my homeland and discriminated against myself, the Shan armed forces and the people instead. In fact, the Kuomintang generals were the main culprits who forced the Shan farmers to increase their production of opium in order to raise funds, ostensibly to retake Mainland China. Instead the KMT generals enriched themselves out of the proceeds of various drug transactions, their dreams of "freeing China" evaporating in the haze of opium smoke. 

I have many times expressed my wish to eradicate opium, but my pleas so far have gone unheeded. Instead I have been branded as a drug kingpin, which is untrue. But the impact of this accusation has hampered the Shan struggle to restore peace in their homeland while posing also as a stumbling block tosuccessful termination of the international drug control efforts. 

Realizing that in order to gain our goals, the time is now ripe to form a collective leadership, the Central Executive Committee chaired by Zao Gunjade was created on 12 August this year. On 22 November, during a religious ceremony attended by hundreds of monks and thousands of people, I made a declaration of my decision to resign from all official positions. 

I have done this so that the newly formed Central Executive Committee can carry out its duties for the Shan people and because I do not wish to be a hindrance with respect to the Shan cause. The Central Executive Committee is the sole leading organ vested with the powers to oversee the political, military and, in the near future, economic affairs as well. 

The drug problem is a complicated one. The Shan view is that the drug issue and the political problems of Burma and Shan State are inter-linked with one another and they are inseparable. The appropriate measure is to resolve the Shan people's political rights as well. For it is only when peace is restored in the Shan State, that the drug problem will be solved. 

The people of Shan State, just like any other people of the world, wish for equal status, human rights and equal dignity in the international community. They also wish to contribute to world and regional peace by transforming their homeland into a drug free zone and free of all miseries. 

For myself, my only wishes are to retire and retreat into a secluded life of tending orchards and working on a dairy farm.