Burmese spies are everywhere
Bangkok Post - Thailand; Jun 10, 2001
Surath Jinakul
SPYING MISSION: Over 1,000 Burmese Military Intelligence Service agents have infiltrated Thai border towns, spying on and sometimes assassinating anti-Rangoon elements, reporting on Thai military movements and, inevitably, supplementing their meagre incomes with drug money .
One evening last November, a middle-aged man in the robes of a Buddhist monk arrived at the Maneeloy temple in Ban Takolang in Ratchaburi's Suan Phueng district. He wanted to talk with Phra Ko Maung Maung, an old Burmese monk residing in the temple. Later, witnesses told police the man spoke Burmese through an interpreter.
Judging from his rough manners and his discomfort with the robe he wore, we suspected he was not a real monk," a witness said. The witnesses said they took the visitor to Phra Ko Maung Maung, and then left.
The next morning, a temple boy found the body of Phra Ko Maung Maung soaked with blood, his hands tied up with rope. The monk's throat had been slashed twice and his chest and body had three stab wounds.No valuable items were missing. A handwritten notebook of the deceased remained in place. The visitor had disappeared.
Police investigators later told the press that the notebook contained the names of anti-Rangoon activists written in Phra Ko Maung Maung's handwriting. Each of the names was followed by numbers, also in the old monk's penmanship. Police said the jottings corresponded with dates and amounts paid to the activists.
"We're sure the visitor was the killer," a Ratchaburi police investigator said, adding that the murderer might have been unaware of the existence of the notebook. The police believe the killer worked for Burma's Military Intelligence Service (MIS). They cited reports about MIS agents killing those against the military junta within Thai territory.
PHRA TREASURER
National security service police say that they have reports that confirm Phra Ko Maung Maung's role as a key coordinator for anti-Rangoon activists who are active in the western border areas.
An inside police source said Phra Ko Maung Maung acted as a "treasurer of donated money" which the anti-Rangoon movement collects from Burmese communities, largely Burmese dissidents camped at Ratchaburi's Maneeloy centre. It is an open secret that many Burmese illegal immigrants and refugees at the camp contribute to a Burmese Fund to finance secret operations against the Burmese military junta.
The murder of Phra Ko Maung Maung indicates that violence continues between Burma's MIS and those working against the military junta. Aside from the armed anti-Rangoon fighters, there are unarmed elements on Thai soil who spread propaganda against the Burmese military regime. It is only natural for the Burmese government to have agents monitoring anti-Rangoon movements, potential supporters as well as the Thai army at the border.
Like the anti-Rangoon movement, the junta's spies mix with the Burmese dissidents as illegal immigrants, refugees or traders at the border or in towns and cities, say Thai intelligence sources.
SPIES EVERYWHERE
"Our country is flooded with MIS agents," said Special Branch Police Commissioner Pol Lt-Gen Yothin Mattayomnan.
"Some of them sneak into the country as illegal immigrants or as job seekers or enter legally as businessmen. But their main objective is the same: spy work." But Burmese agents are just a small part of the foreign spy community in Thailand. The activities of these foreign spies generally do not pose a serious threat to the country's national security. However, Thai authorities are concerned about the scope of activity of Burmese agents. Thai security officials say they have evidence that a number of Burmese secret agents were involved in illegal businesses, including drug trafficking.
Burmese agents operating in Thailand belong to the MIS's Unit 5 and Unit 19, also known as MIS-5 and MIS-19, according to a military intelligence source. "There are perhaps 1,000 or more, mostly spying along the western border," said the source. A ranking official at a national security agency said MIS agents operate along Thailand's western border from Mae Hong Son down to Chiang Rai, Chiang Mai, Tak, Chumphon and Ranong, with Chiang Mai as their main base.
MIS HELP FOR DRUG TRADE
The presence of Burmese secret agents has been observed by Thai authorities since 1996. That year, the Red Wa, a faction of the now-defunct Communist Party of Burma, seriously stepped up drug trafficking. The Red Wa is with the United Wa State Army (UWSA), which controls most of the drug industry in the Golden Triangle area. Huge government projects in Burma - such as the development of Mong Yawn - are believed to be financed by drug money. Since the drug trade has increased, the Red Wa and the UWSA are supplied with more intelligence data. "Some MIS agents also help protect drug routes," said a Thai intelligence officer.
Meanwhile, the Thai Government has assigned its Army to assist regular narcotics suppression agencies operating at the border. Huge shipments of methamphetamines have been seized by the Army in the past year. It is believed that insufficient funds from Rangoon have forced some MIS agents to support themselves by engaging in drug trafficking and other illegal activities.
A highly placed security source said the military junta in Rangoon rewards successful agents in other ways: "Apart from promotion, there are cases where successful spies are rewarded by the junta with houses and land," said the source.
MIS ARRESTS
"We have arrested a number of Burmese MIS agents over the past years. Most were involved in drug trafficking or other related activities," said the security source.
A report on March 14 last year relates how the Thai army's special task force Unit 25, with help from Muang district police in Ranong, raided houses in the district and captured four MIS agents: Bara Khan alias Myint Oo, 45, Fah Yus alias Myo Thaung, 45, Abdul Karib (or Kafa), 38, and Capt Kyaw Tha, 36 (see sidebar). The one-day dragnet was preceded by an earlier seizure of a large number of methamphetamine pills. At dawn on March 12, a joint unit from Huey Yang police station in Prachuab Khiri Khan's Tab Sakae district and officials of the Livestock Department's local office set up a checkpoint to examine livestock along the highways.
A truck was found with four million methamphetamine tablets hidden among the fish and meat. There was no certificate of the goods to show the source of origin. It was known later that the illicit goods were brought in from the border, enroute to drug wholesalers in Bangkok. The police arrested the driver and two Thai workers.
DRUG TRAIL TO BURMA
Police found strong evidence pointing to links between the smugglers and a methamphetamine gang in Burma. For example, hotel receipts of a casino hotel on Burma's Koh Son island, next to Koh Song opposite Ranong province, were found with telephone and petrol bills. Questioning of the suspects revealed that the drugs came from a Burmese gang who produce the drug in a fishing boat between Koh Son and Koh Song. The three Thais stayed at the hotel for a few days and some Burmese arranged for a boat to carry the drugs to a beach in Prachuab Khiri Khan. The investigation led to the arrest of four other Burmese MIS agents with strong influence on Koh Son, Koh Song and areas around the casino hotel. "This shows that apart from spying, MIS agents are also into drug trafficking," the source said.
SIMILAR BACKGROUNDS
Burmese MIS agents in general have stereotyped backgrounds. While in the MIS, some work for other anti-Rangoon movements such as the ABMU (All Burmese Muslim Union).
"Some defect from the anti-government movement to serve the Rangoon military junta," said a source. He added that many of the MIS agents defected from the anti-Rangoon Karen National Union. Their main assignment is to gather information regarding movements and activities of the anti-Rangoon minority groups scattered along the Thai-Burmese border areas of Ranong, Chumphon and Prachuab Khiri Khan.
"They also do businesses such as fisheries and illegal logging," said the source. According to the source, some of the agents are assigned to survey logistics supply routes of the Thai military at the border. They may also be called in as scouts or guides for the combat units because they know the rugged jungle geography better than the soldiers," added the source.
Sometimes the junta uses former university students to work as MIS agents. They may start off as sympathisers or supporters of the government's intelligence network agency. These educated persons sometimes have front businesses in Rangoon or Bangkok such as antique shops, the source said. "They have bank accounts in Thailand as well as in Rangoon. They usually carry both Thai and Burmese passports," he added.
A BETTER CLASS OF SPY
These better-educated agents have different responsibilities, such as arranging accommodation, preparing cash and passports for other spies,particularly for entering Thailand. "There are those who act as financiers for intelligence operations at the borders or in Thai towns," the source said.
According to the source, there are MIS agents involved in piracy as well. "There are cases - we can prove this - where they steal cars from Thailand and smuggle them into Burma. They are aided by professional car thieves," he said.
Some MIS agents even go into more serious crime such as smuggling war weapons. In several cases, MIS agents have been arrested along with arms smugglers.
The source observed that some MIS agents with border experience collected protection fees from fishermen and border traders. There are also reports that some MIS agents demand protection fees from illegal Burmese immigrants in Thailand.
SPORADIC FIRE CONTINUES
Despite the increasing activities of Burmese MIS agents on Thai soil, officials never spoke of it openly until after the border conflict between Thai troops and Burmese forces backed by the UWSA last Feburary. Sporadic exchanges of mortar fire continued this week.
Thai Third Army commander Lt-Gen Watanachai Chaimuenwong said: "While we are exchanging mortar fire with the Burmese forces on the opposite side of the border, MIS agents are trying to locate our mortar bases and report the positions back to Burma."Early in Feburary, when cross-border mortar exchanges were heating up opposite Chiang Rai's Mae Sai district, Thai security officials intercepted a telephone conversation between a notorious Thai drug trafficker and the UWSA. The Thai was reporting on the Thai army unit's positions. He relayed the report - received from the MIS spies - to the Wa fighters.
On 26 Feburary, newspapers reported that the alleged drug trafficker, known as Kamnan Daeng, had been shot dead while crossing the Mae Sai river from Tachilek. He was killed by a single bullet from a sharpshooter using a sophisticated automatic rifle.Three months later, the assassin has yet to be apprehended.
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