The rationale

There has been much speculation about the real reasons for the mass resettlement of Wa to southern Shan State which began in 1999. The official explanation given by Wa leaders, both to outsiders and their own people alike, was that it would be a Herculean, if not impossible, task both to develop the Wa region and make it a drug-free zone by the year 2005, as promulgated in 1996. They had a fertile land in the south, which their leaders had fought over and won (when Khun Sa surrendered in 1996), where they could live a better life. The following reasons given by Wa commanders were also heard by local people:

Although the UN Drug Control Program is currently implementing a drug eradication project in the northern Wa area (near Mong Pauk), they do not appear to have been directly involved in the resettlement program. However, some observers have pointed out that resettlement of poppy growers to non-poppy growing areas is included in the UN-initiated 1998 master-plan of SCOPE (Strategy for Coca and Poppy Elimination) that aims to eradicate drug-linked crops by the Year 2008. Further political or strategic reasons for the move have also been suggested by observers: