Mong Hsat township

Mong Hsat township

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The town of Mong Hsat lies in one of several fertile valleys among the township’s many mountain ranges. The town population is about 40,000, 75% being Shan, the rest mostly Burmese and Lahu. In the rest of the township, Shan live in the valleys, with mainly Lahu and Akha living in the hills.

Mainly rice, chilies, tobacco, garlic and pineapples are grown in the valleys, with chillies and garlic being exported to other areas, including Thailand. Opium is cultivated in the hills.

Mong Hsat used to be the headquarters of the Chinese Nationalists’ Yunnan Province Anti-Communist National Salvation Army until 1954. Opium was allegedly flown from the air-strip in Mong Hsat by C-47s to Thailand and Taiwan.

Since the 1950s, various ethnic armies have operated in the Mong Hsat hills and border areas. During the 1990s, Shan (first MTA and then SSA-South) and Wa armies have been the main forces in the area.

The SPDC have built up their military presence in Mong Hsat, which now has four battalions: 49, 333, 528 and 278.

This fertile valley and its surrounding mountains were originally inhabited by about 24 villages, mostly Lahu. Following Khun Sa’s surrender in 1996, the UWSA gradually brought down troops and civilians from the north to this area. By 1999, the village of Mong Yawn had expanded into a town of about 10,000 people. 

When the mass resettlement began in 1999, the new settlers from the north were settled mainly in the valleys along the Yawn and Kok rivers in groups of about 60-100 households. When in 2000 many of the Wa newcomers fell ill and died, some of the Wa villagers moved up into the surrounding hills in the hope that they would be better protected from malaria.

 Although the Mong Yawn area was originally under the command of both UWSA Division 171 leader Wei Hsiao Kang and UWSA Brig. 894 Ta Tang, Wei Hsiao Kang’s forces withdrew from the area in 2000, spreading out to other areas of Mong Hsat, Mong Ton and Tachilek.

 Many of the settlers brought down from the north prior to 1999 were Lahu from the northern Wa area of Pang Yang, who served as militia under Wei Hsiao Kang. Following Wei Hsiao Kang’s withdrawal from Mong Yawn, they too were ordered out from the Mong Yawn area, together with the approximately 2,100 original Lahu inhabitants of Mong Yawn (there were suspicions about the loyalty of the Lahu to the UWSA leadership). These Lahu were ordered to relocate to Mong Ton township, west of the main road leading south of the town to the border, in other words out of the main UWSA area in the south. While some of the Lahu did indeed relocate to this area of Mong Ton township, others moved further north to the township of Mong Piang, mostly staying with existing Lahu villages in the these areas. A very small percentage (approximately 50 people) are known to have fled to Thailand.

 According to a Shan villager from the village of Beng Kham who fled from the Mong Yawn area in June 2001, the Wa did not initially make problems for the original Shan residents, but in 2000 began seizing their land. By 2001 the Wa had seized about three-quarters of the land around their village.

However, it was not until December 2001 that a significant number of Shan villagers began fleeing to Thailand. This was when two Buddhist temples were destroyed in the Mong Yawn area by Wa troops, apparently for superstitious reasons. This shocked the local Shan community, many of whom started fleeing into Thailand. By the end of December 2001, about 40% of the Shans (about 150 people) had fled the area, mainly to Mae Ai district of Chiang Mai province.

Of these three tracts, east and south-east of the town of Mong Hsat, Hsai Khao and Kawng Mu Tan tracts wre inhabited formerly by 12, mostly Shan villages, while Tang Seng tract was formerly inhabited by about 17 Lahu and Akha villages. The Shan village Ban Hoong was the largest in the area, with about 200 houses, 8 km south-east of Mong Hsat. It became the headquarters of UWSA Division 171 commander Wei Hsiao Kang in 1997. To accommodate the thousands of Wa civilians resettled to this area in 1999, Wei reportedly purchased most of the farming land south-east of Mong Hsat directly from SPDC leader Lt. Gen. Khin Nyunt. The Wa newcomers are reported to have mostly planted fruit trees: lychees, longan and oranges, replacing the traditional agricultural crops, including rice.

The village of Ban Hoong has been described as having changed beyond recognition. The Wa leaders have set up brick and cement houses, and have built a large modern “department-store”, forbidding any other local people from setting up shops in the vicinity.

Due to the influx of the Wa and the confiscation of their lands, and in some cases, houses, it is estimated that about 25% of the people of the original villages in the three tracts (approx. 1,550 out of 6,200 people) have fled elsewhere.

The majority of villagers displaced are reported to have moved to areas northeast of the town of Mong Hsat. There have been no reports of villagers fleeing to Thailand because of the Wa influx. This appears to be because the land around Mong Hsat is quite sparsely populated, and it is possible for villagers to settle in new areas. It is also farther from the Thai border than some of the other areas to which Wa have been resettled.

Eastern Mong Hsat area (Mong Tum)

The fertile valley along the Nam Sai river, opposite Mae Fah Luang district of northern Chiang Rai province of Thailand, used to be inhabited by about 6 villages, mostly Shan, with a population of about 1,200 people. Villagers grew rice, soy beans and peas, for their own consumption and also to trade across the border in Thailand. The valley was used as a trading route for Shan goods, mainly from Mong Hsat, into Thailand.

The UWSA set up a base in this area in 1999, and began renovating the road from the area to Tachilek. As soon as it was completed, in May 2000, they began moving in civilians from the north. Villagers fleeing the area reported that despite harassment by the Wa newcomers, the situation did not become intolerable till February 2001, when fighting broke out at the border between the Shan State Army and the SPDC at Loi Kaw Wan. The fighting, which involved incursions into Thailand by SPDC troops and retaliation by the Thai Army, seriously strained Thai-Burma relations.

During the fighting, local Shan villagers were forced to be porters for the SPDC and also for the UWSA, who were assisting the SPDC. The SPDC began arresting and torturing local Shan headmen and other villagers suspected of contacting the Shan resistance.

“When the fighting on the Thai border at Pang Noon between the Shan army and the SPDC happened (in February 2001), a group of SPDC came into our village. I was arrested and ordered to summon all the villagers together. Some were too afraid to come back to the village, and hid in the forest. They then accused them of contacting the Shan rebels. They covered my head with a wet blanket, and beat me again and again with a bamboo stick on the head until I passed out. (..) I was beaten the whole night before I was released. The soldiers were from Murng Hsat, Regiment 221.” (LNDO interview #4)

Shan refugees from Mong Karn at Thai border

By April 2001, over 500 villagers, mostly from the Mong Karn valley, had fled to the Thai border. By December 2001, this number had doubled. Prohibited from setting up a refugee camp on the Thai side of the border, they have established a settlement just inside the Shan border, where their security remains precarious. It is estimated that of the original population of the Murng Karn cluster of villages, by late December 2001 only about 20% remained.

The Mong Karn area has now been renamed Yawng-kha by the Wa. It was designated in late 2001 as the site of a 20 million baht drug-eradication development project to be funded by the Thai government.

Southwestern Mong Hsat area (San Kang tract)

It appears that oppression by the UWSA of the local populations, which includes taxation and the forced conscription of children, has been worse in this area than in other areas to which Wa have been relocated. This appears to be a result of the particular policies of the local UWSA military command (Brigade 214), and may also be because the area is quite far from the Thai border, and there is less fear that news of the abuses will leak out to the outside world.

From the 22 original Lahu and Akha villages in this area, it appears that 30% of the people (about 1,100 out of a total of 3,700 of people) have fled to other areas because of the oppression of the UWSA. In some cases, entire villages have been completely abandoned. The villagers who have fled are reported to have moved to areas north of the Mong Ton-Mong Hsat road, as the UWSA have proclaimed to locals that all territory south of this road belongs to the Wa. Again, it appears that the availability of land in the northern Mong Hsat area, and distance from the Thai border have meant that few of the displaced villagers have fled to Thailand.