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Burmese Troops Tangle with Khun Sa'



Subject: Burmese Troops Tangle with Khun Sa's Guerrillas

>Subject: Burmese Troops Tangle with Khun Sa's Guerrillas
>Copyright: 1994 by Reuters, R
>Date: Sun, 22 May 94 0:20:20 PDT
 
         BANGKOK, Thailand (Reuter) - The Mong Tai Army (MTA) of
``Golden Triangle'' opium warlord Khun Sa killed or wounded at
least 25 Burmese government soldiers and had another 100
surrounded near the Thai border, an MTA commander said Sunday.
         Heavy fighting continued Sunday between the two sides at Hau
Mae Kam village, 12 miles west of the border town of Tachilek,
which is opposite the Thai town of Mae Sai, the commander told
Reuters in a telephone interview.
         ``About 100 enemy have been surrounded by my soldiers on the
battlefield since late Saturday,'' MTA regional commander Kwan
Muang said.
         Kwan Muang said Burmese field radio intercepts indicated at
least 25 government soldiers were killed or wounded during
Saturday's clash.
         He said the fighting broke out as 200 MTA guerrillas tried
to stop Burmese reinforcements out of Tachilek from reaching
government troops battling the MTA near Mong Kyawt on the west
side of the Salween River.
         Khun Sa is wanted in the United States on federal charges of
drug trafficking.
         Khun Sa's MTA last week claimed it killed 100 government
soldiers and overran two major government bases and six other
army outposts in four days of fighting through May 15.
         Government forces began an offensive against Khun Sa's
stronghold in southern Shan state late last year, and there has
been intermittent fighting, at times heavy, since.
         Khun Sa, alias Chang Si-fu, 60, is half-Chinese, half-Shan.
He commands an army of more than 10,000 guerrillas in the
``Golden Triangle,'' the world's richest opium-producing area,
where Burma, Thailand and Laos meet. Opium is the source of
heroin.
         He was indicted in U.S. federal court on charges of heroin
trafficking in the early 1990s.
         Khun Sa denies the charge and claims his MTA is fighting
Burma's military junta for an independent Shan state.
         Thai and U.S. anti-narcotics officials, however, accuse him
of using his army to protect his heroin business.