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"Wa State Army is Golden Triangle's biggest heroin producer"

By Don Pathan

"The Asian Age" Newspaper
Date 1 March, 99.

Loi Sam Sao. Feb. 28: Cradling an assault rifle, a teen-age rebel sits
at a guard post watching trucks hauling consumer goods and construction
material into northeastern Burma, over the dusty road from Thailand.
 Across the border sits a Thai Army command post, that overlooks the
hills of Southeast Asia's "Golden Triangle", the region where expert
says nearly hall the world's heroin is produced, and then smuggled out
to the streets of America and Europe.
The young rebels of the first line of contact between outsiders and the
United Wa State Army, one of the numerous ethnic groups not controlled
by the central government of Burma, "Welcome to the land of the Wa,"
Capt. Sadorn sae-Chang, the Aciturn commander of the Wa Army battalion
in this area, tells a journalist allowed a rare, brief visit. A
generation ago, the Wa fared headhunters. Now, they are the world's
largest producers of heroin, and a major supplier of amphetamines in
East Asia. But a cozy arrangement with the Burmese military government
that allowed their rise is fraying, and the Wa is preparing for war.
Capt. Sadorn and the 1,000 Wa soldiers positioned along this part of the
border are part of what the US State department calls, the world's
biggest narcotics trafficking organization.
 Thai officers monitoring the border say the Wa are becoming the masters
of the golden Triangle, where the frontiers of Burma, Laos and Thailand.
"They are definitely moving in that direction, establishing a sound
network with outsiders," said Thai Maj. Gen. Chamlong Phothong. "The
pressure is on us to do something about it."
 Thai officials and the state department estimate about 1,900 tons of
raw opium was cultivated in the triangle last year, down from 2,300 tons
the previous season, partly because of bad weather. About 10Kgs of opium
is needed to make a Kg of heroin . "The Wa responsible for nearly half
of this amount," said Capt. Sorasit Sangprasert, deputy chief of
Thailand's office of the narcotics control board. The Wa filled a vacuum
left by Khun Sa, the warlord who once ran the largest narcotics outfit
in Burma, at the head of an Army of ethnic Shan. Khun Sa surrendered to
the government three years ago, in exchange for amnesty and now lives in
the capital, Rangoon.
 Wa fighters were once the foot soldiers of the now-defunct Communist
party of Burma, whose insurgency sputtered out a decade ago. Soon after,
they formed the United Wa State Army, and worked out a cease-fire with
the military government. For Burma's Army, the truth neutralised a rebel
group that had a weapons inventory large enough to last 10 years.
 For the Wa, it was a green light to expand heroin activities southward,
from their stronghold in Panghsang on the Chinese border, gaining
additional smuggling routes across the Thai and Chinese borders. Along
the way, they clashed with Khun Sa, hastening his surrender. But with
Khun Sa out of the picture, the truce is losing appeal for the
government, which would like to extend control over the troublesome
border territory and the ethnic groups it has fought for decades.
 Tensions have risen over the past year, with the government demanding
that the Wa head back towards their old strongholds near China. The Wa,
unwilling to lose heroin gateways through Thailand, have ignored the
order and begun beefing up their supplies. (AP)