A quiet celebration for this year’s Shan Resistance Day

“I was barely one year old when the resistance started,” said the 51-year old SSA boss Col Yawdserk. “It’s high time we did a thoroughgoing appraisal of the rights and wrongs, the strengths and weaknesses of the 50 year struggle so we can begin a new course with renewed confidence.”
 
Unspoken is the increased restrictions along the border placed by Bangkok under the newly elected government of Samak Sundaravej that came into office on 6 February. It has adopted what Noppadon Pattama, the new foreign minister, called “the neighborly engagement” which critics have put down as a resumption of friendly relationship during the 5-year administration of Thaksin Shinawatra (2001-2006).

 
_{Sao Noi aka Saw Yanda}

“We also think that to hold a noisy celebration while people are undergoing immense pain and suffering following the onslaught of Cyclone Nargis (which struck lower Burma on 2-3 May) would be embarrassingly out of place,” explained one of his officers.
 
The SSA South may too have been advised by “friends” to lie low until things settle down, according to a border watcher.
 
The Shan resistance was launched by Sao Noi aka Saw Yanda, a 31-year old transplanted Shan from Mongwan (Longchuan), Yunnan province, and his 30-followers in 1958, 6 years after Shan State was occupied by the Burma Army ostensibly to defend the Union’s territorial integrity against Kuomintang incursion. The Noom Serk Harn made headline news after its commanders attacked and captured Tangyan, a town in northern Shan State for 8-days in 1959.