The United Wa State Army (UWSA) has expanded its influence onto Thai soil, sending hunters to threaten, capture or kill those who they believe have betrayed them or threaten their narcotics empire, according to an informer who declined to be named.If the targeted persons are not eliminated right away in Thailand, the Wa hunters take them back across the border for interrogation and punishment.
Prisoners of the unlawful army include renegade drug traffickers, ordinary villagers and headmen, anyone else who has acted as a drug informer to Thai government agencies, as well as low-level Thai drug suppression officials.The source says that at any given time there are up to 30 Thais in detention at the UWSA headquarters in Mong Hsat and Ban Hong.
The two towns are across the border in Burma opposite Chiang Mai province. Ban Hong is where the wanted drug kingpin and deputy leader of the UWSA "Wei Hsueh-kang"_ has established his headquarters.The Wa release the Thai prisoners from unimaginable horror back to their families only after they feel ``satisfied'' that their victims have gotten enough punishment.
HELD IN HELL HOLES
The prisons designed by the USWA are not buildings, but ``holes dug about two to three metres deep into the ground.'' Logs are laid over the earthen jails for the roof. The log roof may help to screen out the sun, but not the rain. Thus, the holed jails are often flooded with water. Prisoners are squeezed into the muddy holes day and night for weeks or months.
``It is not a horror. It is hell,'' says the informer who once visited the Wa towns and was allowed to witness the jail conditions.He speculated that the same sort of jails are present in other Wa-controlled territories.
These jails weren't made originally to keep Thais, but for members of other ethnic populations arrested for breaking the UWSA's laws.There are also reported to be some Thais under detention who went to work on UWSA construction projects or do other business in Burma.
``Many of those in the miserable pits have committed a major offense against the Wa " they have failed to keep their promises or not followed through on the contracts they made with the UWSA,'' said the informant.According to other reports received by Perspective, most of the Thais and ethnic prisoners are accused of being ``dishonest'' drug producers and traffickers.
There are traffickers who failed to pay for the ``goods'' they were advanced by the Wa. After they sold the drugs on Thai soil, they just disappeared, wrongly believing that the Wa wouldn't try to track them down over the border.
A double-cross by associates is the ultimate drug dealer's sin, and reportedly, it has become such an epidemic for the outlawed army that they are now ignoring national borders and setting up hunter teams to cross the border into Thai soil and protect their interests.Another group earmarked for revenge are those who have given information to Thai narcotics suppression forces. These might be Thai officials, ordinary Thai villagers, or village and sub-district heads.
The source claims that at this moment they are no fewer than 10 Thai informers village and sub-district heads included under detention in the Wa territory.There are also said to be seven or eight Thai government drug suppression agents who have been abducted and forced into detention in the Wa prisons. Thai government authorities are intent on getting all those imprisoned out of Burma. It is likely that they will convey this message to Burmese army chief Gen Maung Aye when he visits Thailand later this month.
NO HIDING PLACE
UWSA actions in December show the daring of the Wa hunters. A team was sent deep into Thai territory to capture a Thai who was thought to have betrayed the UWSA in a drug deal. The suspected drug trafficker was known to the Wa as Narong Vimarn, who lived in Mae Taeng district of Chiang Mai.Mae Taeng is one of Chiang Mai's major business districts, located only about 30 kilometres north of the provincial town, and about 300 kilometres from Wei Hsueh-kang's headquarters in Ban Hong in Burma.
A report received by Perspective said that Narong used to work at a construction project at Mong Ywan in Burma, where he developed close connections with the UWSA. After a time, he was trusted with a million baht worth of amphetamines for retailing in Mae Taeng.But, the report said, months passed and Narong failed to pay for the amphetamines. Many thought he had disappeared, but the Wa had him in their sights.
Late one night last December, a gang of several Wa hunters broke into the house Narong was staying at in the remote sub-district of Mae How Phra in Mae Taeng, and took him away after beating him up. Narong was living alone after a divorce, says the report.A young policeman in Mae Taeng seemed to confirm the reports in a talk with Perspective last week saying, ``No one hears of Narong any more. He might have been killed, if he is not being detained somewhere in the Wa territory.''
`KILLING IS EASY'
It is not difficult to sneak across the border, and journey through quiet villages undetected to Mae Taeng. But why do the Wa dare to take the law into their own hands on Thai soil? Some say it is because they have the backing of influential Thais, some of whom are government officials.The border areas in the mountainous scenery of the north have something of a wild west atmosphere, where crime is easy to commit and officials are easy to corrupt particularly officials of low rank who are posted far away from the administrative arms of the provincial towns and the ministries in the national capital.
Some of these officials with the law in their hands in the wild west environment would naturally get a feeling that they command the situation, and that no one can touch them. Their superiors in the town or in Bangkok won't pay attention to something that happens in the jungle. ``This is the most important reason that eradicating the drug epidemic is so difficult. There are many grassroots officials involved in it. And the arms of the honest people at the administration level do not reach to them, '' said a police source who asked not to be identified.``No one dares to intervene, because it means death. It is often said that killing one person in a remote area is easy, and well worth it to protect the huge interests,'' he added.
SNOOPERS WILL BE SNUFFED
Villagers in Ban Nong Khew in Muang Na sub-district of Chiang Dao district in Chiang Mai tell a tale of how cruel the people involved in the drug trade are when their illegal activities are found out, whether by intention or not. They claim that last December 28, a 14-year-old boy and another 22-year-old villager were killed in order to prevent them from spreading news that they saw a group of army specialists making amphetamines in the village.
It was at about 9 p.m. that night when the 14-year-old boy, Thanongsakdi Saenti, and his elder friend, villager Somchai Jaor, 22, were strolling on the outskirts of the quiet village, heading in the direction of the base of army special warfare unit 516, comprising about 30 trained rangers regularly posted at the base.A police investigation revealed that the army personnel had informed villagers in advance that they ``should not go close to the unit base that night, because we are going to have a very private party.''
Probably the boy and the man ignored the instructions because they were curious about the secret party. They apparently went there together to find out about it.Eye witnesses testified in a police interrogation that they saw the two friends running away from the base, being chased by a number of rangers.The rangers finally caught up with them and beat them up and threw them into the back of a pick-up truck.
The morning after villagers found the bodies of Thanongsakdi and Somchai dumped in some bushes in the jungle about four kilometres away from the unit base. An autopsy revealed that both of them had died from bullet wounds.Police suspected that the two men had witnessed something serious.
The police investigation later revealed that this was a corrupt group of rangers cooperating with the Wa in making drugs at several locations, and that they were making amphetamines on the night of December 28. The villagers of Ban Nong Khiew, including the parents of the two victims, have lodged a petition with the National Police Office to investigate whether or not the rangers were making drugs at the base, as the local police investigation concluded. The villagers also petitioned the House of Representatives Committee on Military Affairs, the House Committee on Local Administration, as well as the Office of Narcotics Control Board (ONCB) and National Security Council to investigate the matter.The case is now under investigation by those agencies.The boy's parents, Mr Yorna and Mrs Yormi, insist that they're sure their son was killed by the rangers because he saw them and Wa people working together to make drugs.
ENCOURAGING SIGNS
There have long been allegations that the UWSA produces and trafficks drugs with the cooperation of many Thais, among them some corrupt officials. The Mae Taeng and the Ban Nong Khiew cases reflect the seriousness of the situation today.There are encouraging signs, however, that the corruption does not reach to the higher levels of Thailand's drug suppression forces, as witnessed by recent huge drug busts by Thai authorities. There is even some hope that Rangoon will join in curtailing the trade, as it has long promised.
On April 1 of this year, Burmese and Thai authorities intercepted 40 kilogrammes of heroin on the border between Tachilek in Burma and Mae Sai in Chang Rai province. The shipment is believed to have belonged to the Wei Hsueh-kang gang. The interception was possible because of an exchange of intelligence between the Thai and Burmese Township Border Committeee (TBC).On the same day, a million amphetamine tablets were seized in separate raids in Nonthaburi and Samut Prakan provinces.
The most recent setback for the Wa happened on March 22 when 13 members of a drug caravan were killed in a shootout with Thai military on Doi Kham at Ban Lieng Luang in Vieng Haeng district of Chiang Mai. As many as two million amphetamine tablets were seized.Also this year, another two million amphetamine tablets made by the Wa were intercepted by the ONCB and narcotics suppression police. They were en route to a wholesaler in Bangkok when they were seized in the carpark of a department store in Bang Kapi, on the outskirts of Bangkok.
On March 25, the UWSA showed its boldness when it launched an attack on Thai military forces at the border village of Vieng Haeng district in Chiang Mai, just two hours before a planned visit by Her Majesty the Queen. The UWSA later said they were unaware of the Queen's visit.Army analysts think that the UWSA attacked the Thai force as a ploy to divert them while drugs were run across the border. ``We think they attacked us in anticipation that we would withdraw other units from other stretches of the borderline to assist in the counter operation at Vieng Haeng.,'' said an army spokesman.The Wa could easily use that opportunity to have their drug caravan cross the border into Thailand. If that was the plan, the army didn't take the bait. There were other forces available in preparation for the Queen's visit.
MAKING UP FOR LOST DRUGS
Drug suppression agencies have received information indicating that the UWSA is increasing its drug manufacturing activities and sending more of the products into Thai markets through Mae Sai, Mae Ai, Fang, Vieng Haeng and Pai districts of Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai.
``They would like to speed up production and trafficking to offset the losses they have suffered due to effective suppression,'' said a Thai official.``They want money not only to build their towns inside Burma, but to buy weapons to counter the stepped up Thai suppression efforts,'' he said.
Thailand has raised its level of seriousness in the drug war of late with massive assistance from the Army and the Navy to the traditional drug suppressing agencies . In the past the Army's role was largely limited to the 3rd Regional Army in the North. Drugs have traditionally been smuggled through the northern border.But traffickers have lately opened up alternative routes to bring the drugs into Thailand by way of Laos and Cambodia as well as the Andaman Sea. The Thai government has therefore ordered other armies _ the 2nd Regional Army (Northeast), 4th Regional Army (South) and 1st Regional Army (Central Plains), as well as the Navy _ to block the transportation routes.In addition, Thailand's drug agencies are now securing better intelligence, attributed to the services of informants at the border, and other sources.
The Wa know well that they may be in trouble due to the Thai government's heightened resolve in attacking drug traffickers, but it shouldn't be expected that they will take any attempt to shut them down lightly.The new twists in their tactics can be attributed to the rise in pressure, say some involved in narcotics suppression:
``This may be the real explanation for the emergence at this time of the Wa hunter groups which operate inside Thailand. They want to go after the traffickers they believe have betrayed them and also cut off the Thai government's intelligence sources.''