The self-governing ethnic minority known as the Wa live mainly in
Burma, where they have their own army, the powerful United Wa State Army
(UWSA). The UWSA, which numbers some 16,000-strong [a 2005 estimate]
to 30,000 full-and part-time fighters [2013 estimate] and controls towns
along the Chinese and Thai borders in northeastern Burma’s Shan state,
is in a fragile cease-fire with the Burmese military.
The Wa are detached from the rest of Burma. The region has its own power
station, owned and operated by Wa leaders, and its own water treatment
facility. The Wa constitute one of many ethnic minorities in Burma that
have chafed for decades against military rule from Rangoon. And the
extent to which they define themselves as a separate ethnic group
reveals the enormous challenge of making peace between the Burman
majority and other ethnic groups.
The ethnic Wa region of Burma is very Chinese. Even though they are in
Burma, they use China’s ‘86’ country code for international calls;
however, vehicles there have their own Wa registration. All supplies
into the region come from China and the road and shop signs are often
written in Chinese.
The Wa emerged as a major factor in Yangon's politics as the sword-arm
of the now-defunct Communist Party of Burma (CPB). In 1968,
Beijing-backed CPB forces crossed from China to carve out a 'liberated
area' along the border east of the Salween River, several tribal chiefs
in the remote Wa Hills rallied to the communist cause. In a reflection
of hill-tribe resistance to lowland Burmese rather than any loyalty to
Marxist ideology, Wa troops formed the backbone of CPB forces throughout
the 1970s and 1980s.
In March 1989, Wa forces took over party headquarters at Panghsang on
the Chinese border after the collapse of the CPB. That May, they agreed
to a ceasefire with Yangon along the lines of the pact signed in March
by the Kokang-based forces of the CPB's Northern Bureau, reborn as the
Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA). These deals, later
extended to virtually all ethnic insurgent groups, guaranteed the rebels
autonomy within their own regions, while the junta secured peace in the
borderlands giving it breathing room to better deal with the democracy
movement in the Myanmar heartland.
The Wa established the United Wa State Party and the UWSA in November
1989. The new group united the ex-communists in the northern Shan State
with a small, southern nationalist faction, the Wa National Army (WNA),
based near the Thai border. The Northern Command was headed by Wa
commanders Chao Ngi-lai and Pao You-chang, with Li Zi-ru, an ethnic
Chinese former Red Guard volunteer from Yunnan, serving as Pao's deputy.
The southern group was dominated by three ethnic Chinese brothers Wei
Xue-long, Wei Xue-gang and Wei Xue-yin, who were previously involved
with Chinese Nationalist (KMT) forces that had operated in the Wa Hills
in the 1950s and 1960s before finally settling in northern Thailand.
After breaking away from Khun Sa and the SUA, the Wei brothers joined
the UWSA in late 1984, which at that time was the Wa National Army/WNA,
the hated rival of the Shan United Army (SUA). The Wei brothers have
already amassed great wealth, and still add to that wealth through
continued drug trafficking. The Wei brothers were believed to have
invested heavily in the infrastructure and development of Mong Yawn in
Burma. They are also reported to have invested large sums of money
throughout Southeast Asia.
As a result of the Wa aligning themselves with the Burmese Army in its
1994-95 battles against Khun Sa's Shan United Army (SUA), the Wa gained
territory near Doi Laem and Mong Kyawt, close to the Thai border. Both
the Wa and the SUA coveted these areas, which are gateways to strategic
trade routes into Thailand. In 1994 the ex-communist Wa (still referred
to by the Thais as 'Wa Daeng' or Red Wa) finally arrived on the Thai
border. In August 1994, troops under Wa commander Wei Jia-tang --
popularly known as Ta Tang -- moved from the Northern Command to
reinforce Southern Command forces in their battle with opium warlord
Khun Sa. The Myanmar military supported the move, eager to use the Wa as
a proxy force against Khun Sa's increasingly powerful Mong Tai Army
(MTA), then the dominant force on the Thai border. Under mounting
pressure, Khun Sa abruptly surrendered to Yangon authorities in January
1996, whereupon the UWSA took over some areas including the Doi Lang
area and the Mong Yawn Valley opposite Mae Ai district of Thailand's
Chiang Mai province.
After the SUA surrendered and was driven from the region in hard-fought
battles, the Burmese Army ordered the Wa to vacate the region. The Wa
defied the order and, with eventual government acquiescence, occupied
the area, referred to as their Southern Military Region (SMR) or
Southern Military Command. The Government of Burma tolerated the Wa, due
to the UWSA's significant military force and a standing cease-fire
agreement. The Government of Burma, however, took action against all
traffickers, including Wa traffickers outside UWSA-controlled areas. The
pressure exerted by the Government of Burma on trafficking and refining
operations outside Wa-controlled areas is forcing various smaller drug
insurgent groups to form alliances with the Wa. These alliances enabled
the smaller groups to produce heroin and methamphetamine in
Wa-controlled territory unchecked by Burmese authorities.
The SMR is located in the Mong Yawn Valley near the Burma-Thailand
border. Part of the Southern Command was under the control of Wei
Hsueh-kang, and the Independent Regiment of the Southern Command was
under the control of Wei Tsai-tang. Wei Hsueh-kang's division received
logistical support from Thailand and the Kuomintang in Thailand and
Taiwan. The Northern Command (Northern Military Region) is located at
Panghsang, Burma, under the control of the over-all Commander-in-Chief
of the UWSA, Pao Yu-hsiang. Panghsang is located near the Burma-China
border and received logistical support from China. The northern Wa is
sometimes referred to as the Red Wa because of its affiliations with the
former Burmese Communist Party and the Chinese Communists. Both the
Northern and Southern Commands traffic in heroin and methamphetamine,
which are processed in collocated refineries in Burma.
Wa forces began a major development program in the Mong Yawn Valley in
1998. The build-up involved the construction of new roads, dams, an
electricity generating plant, underground fuel storage facilities,
telephone lines, military command posts, barracks, schools and a 40-bed
hospital. Work also began at a second Wa base area at Wan Hong or 'Mong
Mai' (New Village), set up by Wei Xue-gang and situated some 6 km inside
Myanmar, opposite Thailand's Chiang Rai province.
Thai companies, some with military connections, eager to cash in on the
new border boom, from mid-1998 onwards, undertook most of the spade work
involved in the crash development of Mong Yawn. In July 1998 a new
border check-point linking Thailand's excellent northern road network
with Mong Yawn was opened at San Ton Du village. In a circumvention of
normal procedures, the new crossing-point was apparently quietly
approved by Thailand's then National Security Council secretary-general
Boonsak Kamhaengrithirong, then Army Chief General Chetta Thanajaro and
then Third Army commander Lieutenant General Sommai Wichaworn. The move
was in keeping with an overall policy promoted by the Thai military
aimed at increasing cross-border trade with Myanmar.
Thai military intelligence estimated Wa units along the border to number
around 3,500. Some were grouped in the Mong Yawn- based 894 Brigade of
northern Wa commander Ta Tang. Others were commanded by Wei Xue-gang,
based at his 361 Brigade command headquarters (named after the feature
on which it is situated, near Mong Yawn) and with the 46 Brigade at Wan
Hong.
Thai concern was further fuelled by a rapid increase in the number of
civilians in the Wa border bases. Truckloads of ethnic Wa and Chinese
settlers moved to the border from UWSA Northern Command areas. Some were
even understood to have come from the border districts of China's
Yunnan province that border the Wa Hills. The population of Mong Yawn,
estimated in early 1999 at 10,000, had by the end of the year reached an
estimated 30,000. Other settlers are moving into Wei Xuegang's 46
Brigade base at Wan Hong.
At least part of this population movement is the result of a grand plan
aimed at ridding all Wa areas of narcotics production by 2005, according
to a joint Yangon/UWSA public relations offensive. Given the difficulty
of classic crop substitution strategies for opium poppy farmers in the
Wa Hills, which account for the bulk of opium harvested in
UWSA-controlled areas, up to 50,000 villagers would simply be relocated
south to the Thai border.
The track record was not impressive: from 1991 onwards, 'deadlines' set
for eradication of opium poppy cultivation by other major heroin
traffickers (notably ethnic Chinese ex-CPB warlords in Kokang) have
nvariably not been met. The UWSA's new crusade on drugs would carry
greater credibility were the organization not stepping up its
methamphetamine production at the same time that it is discussing an
opium crackdown. It is also apparent that the numbers moving south were
far larger than can be accommodated by fruit and livestock projects.
This suggests either bad planning or other motives.
The former insurgent groups with whom the government has negotiated
cease-fire agreements, including the United Wa State Army (UWSA) and the
Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA—Kokang Chinese),
remain armed and heavily involved in the heroin trade and in the
manufacturing and distribution of synthetic drugs. They are also largely
immune from government action. To cite only one example, under the
terms of the cease-fire agreement, Burmese troops cannot even enter Wa
territory without permission from the UWSA.
As of 2000 the United Wa State Army (UWSA), across the border in Burma,
was not a regional organization capable of reaching into Thailand with
terrorist activities. The UWSA exists primarily as a separatist
organization, seeking autonomy from the central government in Burma. It
funded its separatist activities by being the major international drug
trafficking organization in the region.
A substantial proportion of UWSA narcotics profits have been ploughed
back into expanding its military capabilities and areas of operation.
The UWSA fields a standing force estimated at between 15,000-30,000
troops. This force is backed by a large number of village militia,
making it the most potent insurgent force in the Asian region. Given its
pro-Beijing communist background it is no surprise that its forces are
mostly equipped with Chinese-manufactured inventory that includes 12.7
mm and 14.5 mm heavy machine guns, and mortars of up 120 mm. It is
believed that the Wa had acquired man-portable surface-to-air missile
systems, probably from sources in Cambodia.
Thousands of refugees were displaced by the last military engagement
between government and Wa troops, with 39 villages attacked and hundreds
of houses burned down. The fighting erupted in August 2009 between
government troops and members of a militia known as the Myanmar National
Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA), breaking a ceasefire the government
and the militia signed more than 20 years earlier. The ostensible spark
for the clashes was a move against a gun-repair factory the government
believed was being used as a front for narcotics manufacturing, but
fighting escalated, with Burmese troops taking control of Laogai, the
Kokang capital. The Kokang fighting drew in other groups including the
UWSA, which with some 20,000 fighters was the largest ethnic army, but a
ceasefire between the UWSA and the government appears to have held
since then.
China provided missile-equipped helicopters to Burma’s largest armed
ethnic rebel group, according to an April 2013 report, in a move that
one Burmese military analyst said could hurt bilateral ties. The report
by U.K.-based intelligence monitor Jane’s Information Group said China
had delivered several Mil Mi-17 ‘Hip’ helicopters to the United Wa State
Army (UWSA) in late February and early March 2013, citing sources from
the Burmese government and the military wing of an ethnic rebel group.
The helicopters, armed with TY-90 air-to-air missiles, were sent to the
UWSA-administered area by way of Laos, instead of coming directly from
China. The ethnic minority military source said the UWSA had procured
five helicopters, while the Burmese military source could only confirm
two had been delivered, according to the report. The helicopters are the
UWSA’s first acquisition of rotary-wing capability and could provide a
“serious deterrent” to the Burmese military, it said.
Sae Hark Maine
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Mr. President, Ethnic nationalities' Voice is writing to you in demands
of guns and other useful weapons in order to protect our people, to
defend the invasion of Burmese regime in our territory and to restore
the democratic system in Burma.
