Using the chest as a bunker (Part II)
Okkar66126
Sunday, 26 May, 2002
Using the chest as a bunker (Part II)
(Continued from 25-5-2002)
Some regional commanders of the Thai army and some politicians in power are
paying attention to border areas in Myanmar and the border affairs with
insincere attitude. Their act to show and use force to indiscriminately launch
an initial strike against Myanmar positions at the border and to float
fabrications through the media at any critical moment is insincere. Some Thai
authorities are trying to give an important role to the Thai army in order to
control it.
They are intentionally creating the "threat perception" for the Thai army,
which has no substantial military capability throughout the successive eras of
history, to show its important role. The "threat perception" has stemmed from
their anxiety over the emergence of permanent human settlements and
establishment of hydel power stations, dams and agriculture and livestock farms
in Mongyun region, Wa Special Region, Myanmar, since 1999 and the slanderous
accusation made by them against the Wa national people (UWSA troops) of setting
up 55 stimulant drug production sites along the Thai-Myanmar border and
smuggling from 500 million to 600 million stimulant pills into Thailand
annually.
At the same time, they have closed the border gates along the areas where Wa
settlements have been established, reinforced the Thai armed forces in the
areas and harboured and provided arms and ammunition and military assistance to
the troops of the SURA led by Ywet Sit, which is an old enemy of the Wa
national race group, and permitting them to move freely in the Thai territory
at the border. There are also unusual acts of the Thai army.
The Thai army in cooperation with foreign troops or mobilizing its own troops
has been launching military manoeuvres in areas facing the Myanmar-Thai border.
From 1999 to 2002, the Thai army has launched the Balance Torch, war games,
which included mountain and jungle warfare, joint military manoeuvre of
artillery regiments a Tank division and an infantry division, and the Cobra
Gold joint war games with foreign troops. It is still launching such military
manoeuvres at present. A high level commander of the Thai Armed Forces himself
said that the flow of the stimulant pills of the Wa group into Thailand was the
main foreign threat to his country.
Concerning the matter, the Thai military sources openly said that if necessary,
cross-border attacks would be launched at the expense of relations with the
neighbour. In reality, the problem of narcotic drugs between Myanmar and
Thailand does not occur only at present. In short, the problem has arisen
between the two nations since 1950s during which the renegade nationalist
Chinese troops began to produce and traffic narcotic drugs in the Golden
Triangle Region, where the borders of Thailand, Myanmar and Laos meet, with CIA
assistance. The renegade nationalist Chinese troops had to flee Myanmar as the
country lodged a complaint to the UN about their intrusion and launched
military operations against the intruders to crush them by its own forces.
However, some of the members, numbering in thousands, of the nationalist
Chinese troops or KMT troops, who were producing and trafficking narcotic
drugs, settled in the north-west region of Thailand and lived there by the name
of Haw Chinese. These so-called Haw Chinese continued to engage in the narcotic
business. They built fortified opium refineries in Thai territory at the border
and bought raw opium from insurgents in Myanmar such as Loimaw, SSA and BCP
insurgents. In the late 1980s, methaphetamine stimulant tablets began entering
Thailand from the Western nations. First, the ephedrine powder which came from
Europe was used in refining ecstasy tablets in the surrounding areas of
Bangkok.
As authorities intensified the seizure of the drug refineries in the city, the
stimulant tablet factories were moved from Bangkok to the Thai-Myanmar border
areas, where they could be operated freely. At the border areas, the chemicals,
produced in some big nations, in refining ecstasy is easily available. But
Myanmar has not produced the chemical which can be used in producing narcotic
drugs including stimulant pills. The ones who are the main controllers and
manipulators of the stimulant tablets production business are no other persons
than hypocrites of the Thai political world and their lackeys, the big
merchants. They are providing all the chemicals, other raw materials and
necessary equipment to the drug producers. Moreover, they are controlling and
monopolizing the drug distribution business.
However, some Thai are trying to earn a good reputation and to portray Myanmar
as the largest stimulant pills producer in Southeast Asia in front of the
international community. Here, what I would like to say is that the Myanmar
Tatmadaw have the capability to match any Armed Forces of the world in rooting
out the narcotic drugs.
In addition, it already has had the noble tradition of defending and
safeguarding the sovereignty and territorial integrity with sacrificing spirit
and regarding the chest as a bunker and without raising or giving favours to
any buffer force.
Author: Pho Kan Kaung