Gandar Mount P.S.O

An army officer used to say that ” it is likely stupid if we considered to destroy the opium growth in our country”.

In the long-run, the natural growth of teak-woods in the Shan State are almost to be gone as tons of teak log have been illegally transporting to China and Thailand.But the opium trees, which have to be cultivated but it can be grown in a short time and has easy way to make money, will never be gone.

There are many armed groups including Rebel, Defense force, militancy are being independently involved with drug trafficking without harassment of the military Government.

The Burmese army from battalion commanders to Brigadier Generals regularly based across the Shan State are being the share-holders in the drug-running business due to mutual interests made between the out-law groups and the military authorities.

The most strategic area to be prevented is in the Thailand-Shan State boders.

Thousands of the Burmese soldiers are on alert and deploying along the route closed to border apparently from Nong Uk of Chiang Dao to Mong Go opposite Mae Sai.

Mong Go is situated in north of Takilek city and on the Mae Kong river bank and opposite Laos.

It is very freedom to export the drug from the Mong Go to the Laos soil which is linking to Vietnam border.

Non stop production of methamphetamine is managed by the notorious Way brothers, Way Xao Kang, Way Xao Yin and Way Xao Lin who had been massive lost property and money during
Thaksin Gonernment’s drug eradication.

Thaksin, as he vows to root up the drug traffickers during his administration, set a special team of Anti Money Laundry which had successfully seized many plots of land, weapons, gold ornaments, concealed money, cars, millions of baht in the saving banks and luxuriou houses in Chieng Mai, Chieng Rai and Bangkok belonged to the Haw Chinese men an women.

Some are captured but others have been escaped.

All of them are relatives to Way brothers and long time living in Thailand.

Basing from this country, they managed to transport their heroin to their drug-syndicate in abroad.Among the seizure, jade and gems trading Co., grand and luxurious, located at World Trade center in Bangkok has been also seized by the Thai authority.

The trading Co. is, following the secret information,business-like designed for meeting and talking business.

Therefore the Way Brothers are trying to regain their lost of billion of baht by the drug-trafficking again.

Story on the Shan State be cotinued by PSO

His main purposes (1) to expel the white Chinese, the Kumingtong Force led Gen. Lee and Gen. Duon, (2) to control the whole opium trade and (3) to build his own empier in the Shan State solely. That is not meant fighting for the Freedom of the Shan State but he declares the World that he is Patriotic Fighter for the autonomy of the Shan people who are being under pressure of the Burmese Ruler for decades .Due to his purpose, he trys to build a small armed force folowing his militant experience in KMT (The Kumingtong army) which involed the opium trade hugely and tried to build its empire in the Shan State after defeated by the Communist in 1949. Khun Sa is the native of Loimaw township situated on the western bank of the Salwin river. Loimaw had to bear the brunt of this unexpected foreign invasion.Local people were conscripted for labour and military service, taxes were levied on them and they were subjected to harsh,lawless rule. One day the KMT armed troops took his grandfather’s horses and mules. Khun Sa can still recall his grandfather ,eyes filled with tears, as he directed his grandson to show the KMT personel present at the occasion, the designated packsaddle for each of the mules. The his resolved him to regard the KMT as foreigners and enemies to be driven from the motherland. He then organized an anti force from his boyhood friends and staged on a raid one erly dawn on an unsuspecting KMT unit. The surprise seem to be total because he managed to acquire 30 assorted weapons from this sihgle adventure. The KMT quickly moved to put his grandfather in custudy and demand the return of the weapons .Consequently, the young rebel had to free for his life into urban districts. The bittter experience that he had witnessed under foriegn occupation. After a ten years trail period led him to form a clandestine underground movement on New Year’ s Day, 1960. Col. Mong Shwe, the Burmese commander of the Eastern Strategic command (Shan State), who on 6 January 1960, offered him the status of a volunteer militia chief and a free hand in the build - up of his strength in return for his pledge to fight the KMT and commnist party of Burma (CPB). He accepted the offer. His strength, supported by the local merchants who were by nature averse to socialism,gradually grew and by 1963 spread to Kengtung,which borders with Laos. Khun Sa named his armed force as Shan United Army (SUA). The KMT joined the CPB force attacked the SUA in the following year but failed to destroy him. The KMT used a different strategem which turned to be unfortunately effective as subsequent events proved.

It must be remembered that Shan are not the genesis of the heroin problem. It was the exploited cultivation and passed laws to protect distribution of opium that addicted East Asia. During the french Indochina era drugs continued to be used for political and commercial advantage by fereign interests. The America CIA Colonel Edward G. Lansdale reported in July 1953 to his superiors in Washington, D.C. that the Fresh military had bught up the entire ‘53 opium harvest on oders of the French commander –in — Cheif, General Raoul Salan. The opium was flown to Saigon for sale and export. Through the U.S. war in Vienam, heroin prodution was accelerated to help finance CIA mercenary expansion campaigns in Laos and Cambodia. It was further used to destroy the will of the American people at home and on the battle fields. Today the operation remains the same, only a few of the names have changed as people have died or been promoted. After the Communist takeover in 1975, the CIA stockpiled weapons in Thailand and the Philippies to continue operation in Southeast Asia. Heroin provides the means. Officials arrange the laundry of funds through international banks. Mafia contacts handle worldwide distributil.

The DEA believed that most of the heroin smuggled into US came in small quantities. Then they began to single seizures of up to 380 kilogram, and acknowledged that Southeast Asian heroin traffickers, dominated by ethnic Chinese, are smuggling increasingly large amounts by commercial ships, air freight and international mail.

The Chinese gangs known as “triads”. Since 1970, the traids served as the suppliers in the Mafia’ s heroin network. They, along with various ethnic Chinese smuggling group, move the bulk of the Golden Triangle heroin through Thailand, Lao, Shan land and mainland China to its ultimate destination; The United State Gen. Khun Sa is the triad’s best source.

KMT (Kuomintang-remnants of Chiang Kai-sheck’s defeated nationalist Chinese forces) refined opium into heroin on thai soil. “The opuim trade has indeed enriched many KMT remnants”

KMT, determined to Khun Sa at all costs, attacked his force in Ban Kwan, Laos. The battle raged for four days, 6-9 July 1967 and became known as the “1967 Opium War”. They also launched an operation against him in the following year, attacking him at Ban Nakha, Mong Kao Ward, Mong Lurn Township, Lashio Province. Failing to destroy him, the KMT used a different strategem which turned out to be unfortunately effective as subsequest events proved. Through couriers and contacts, the ex - KMT informed the Burmese Government of Khun Sa’s real intentions, i.e., to overthrow foreign rule by force.

In the opium war which ensued, Khun Sa admitted losing 700 joi (about one ton) of opium, 70 mules and 37 men. Presumably he meant only his personal losses as the caravan was reportedlyn carrying 16 tons of opuim to buyers in Laos.

Hill Tribes: Nomadic tribes such as the Lahu, Akha and Lisu live in the mountains of Yunnan, Laos and northern Shan State. They practice shifting cultivation and grow opium. In the Shan State, they also practice traditional religions and are poor even by Burmese standards; hill tribes are dependent on opium as their primary source of cash. More than 600 tonns of opium was produced in the state yearly. Hill tribes in the north of Shan state have been adversely affected by the aerial spraying of 2,4-D herbicide over their land by the Burmese government. Provided by the US for opium eradication, 2,4-D may produce such long-term effects as cancer and birth defects. In the Shan state, the spraying of 2,4-D is said to have ruined non-narcotic crops and caused medical problems in animals and humans. Fear of the spraying is said to be causing migration of the hill tribes, and the ruined crops are causing economic hardship and further political destabilization in the vast area through the north of the Shan state. Hill tribes may be seeking the protection of the armed insurgent groups.