'PM has given green light to capture Wei'; officers are 'spoiling for a fight'

Hundreds of Thai troops have been mobilised to areas along the northern border to prepare for an offensive against the Wa drug army with the aim of capturing Wei Hsueh-kang, a senior commander in the pro-Rangoon drug army.

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has given the Army the green light to put one elite unit on standby to enter the Wa area and capture Wei, said a senior Defence Ministry official on condition of anonymity.

General Maung Aye, the commander of the Burmese army, was informed of the plan during his recent visit to Bangkok and did not object, the source said.

Army officers along the border told The Nation yesterday that they were "spoiling for a fight with the Wa".

Wei, an ethnic Chinese drug lord who controls a sizeable number of troops within the 20,000-strong United Wa State Army (UWSA), has been indicted by both the Thai and American courts on charges of heroin trafficking.

A strike against the Wa could put the Burmese junta on a crash course with the drug army and damage its relations with other armed ethnic groups that it has made cease-fire agreements with.

The UWSA agreed to a cease-fire with Rangoon in 1989 in return for limited self-rule.

Armoured vehicles, Special Forces units, soldiers from Cavalry squadrons and artillery have been seen being put into position along the northern border since Thursday.

Deputy Defence Minister Yuthasak Sasiprapha, while playing down the development, admitted that there was an understanding between the Thai and Burmese governments that they would tolerate to some degree each other's military incursions in pursuit of insurgent groups.

Thailand and Burma have a long and rugged common border. Over the decades, the area has been occupied by a number of ethnic rebel armies, including the Shan, Karen and Mon, holding out for better deals with Rangoon.

All of the armed groups except the Shan State Army and the Karen National Union have entered Burma's "legal fold" through cease-fire agreements in return for some degree of autonomy.

Some of these groups, notably the Wa and the Kokang Chinese, have turned to the lucrative drug trade and have developed global networks.

Source: The Nation

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