Troops dispatched after Wa shootout

Published on Sep 15, 2002

Military reinforcements were dispatched to the border with Burma in Chiang Dao district yesterday following a deadly shootout on Friday with a United Wa State Army (UWSA) drug convoy.

Task Force commander Lt-General Nakorn Sripetchphan ordered back-up troops sent in because of the risk that Wa militia remained in the vicinity instead of retreating to their unit, military sources said.

A 10-member task force platoon intercepted a 40-man drug caravan Friday morning and exchanged gunfire with UWSA escorts who fled, leaving behind 500,000 methamphetamine tablets.

Two more platoons were dropped from an Army helicopter and marched three hours to the area in case the Wa retaliated to retrieve the goods.

After the ambush, three Wa troopers were found dead and a resident of Ban Arunothai in Chiang Rai's Fang district, identified as Asang Sae-wang, was found wounded. He remains in military custody.

Asang told interrogators that he and nine other ethnic Chinese from his village were hired to carry out the shipment from deep inside Burmese territory.

The Army believes that the half million speed pills came from UWSA's Brigade 171, stationed in an area in Hmong Hsat controlled by fugitive drug lord Wei Hsueh-kang.

Wei is wanted by both the United States and Thailand on drug charges and has a US$2-million (Bt86-million) bounty on his head.

Wiwatchai Somkham

THE NATION, CHIANG MAI

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