Wired News on March 18 & 19, '95

[FreeBurma@xxxxxxx]

Attn: Burma Newsreaders
Re: Wired News on March 18 & 19, 1995
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Burma's Shan rebels step up guerrilla attacks   

    By Robert Birsel 

    MAE SAI, Thailand, March 19 (Reuter) - Guerrillas loyal to Burma's opium
warlord Khun Sa ambushed a Burmese army unit on the outskirts of a
northeastern town as government troops continued an offensive against the
separatist rebels, guerrillas said on Sunday. 

    Twenty fighters from Khun Sa's Mong Tai Army (MTA) attacked and destroyed
a Burmese army truck on the outskirts of Tachilek, a bustling border trading
town opposite the Thai town of Mae Sai, late on Saturday afternoon. 

    Guerrilla officials, speaking on the border, said the truck was
completely destroyed when it was hit with a rocket-propelled grenade just
outside Tachilek's airfield. 

    The guerrillas fought a brief battle with government troops stationed at
the airfield before withdrawing into nearby forest, the officials said. 

    ``We want to destroy the new weapons and ammunition supplies they're
bringing in,'' a guerrilla source told Reuters. 

    Burmese army casualties in the ambush were not yet known while no
guerrillas were killed or injured, they said. 

    Thai officials stationed on the border said on Sunday there were as yet
no plans to close the frontier to the hundreds of tourists, both Thai and
foreign, who cross into Tachilek every day. 

    Burmese government forces began a push against a guerrilla base area in
mountains 25 km (15 miles) west of Tachilek last week. 

    Clashes, at times heavy, have continued since then and the guerrillas
said hundreds of government reinforcements were on Sunday moving into the
area. 

    While MTA fighters and government forces are locked in battle in the
mountains of southeastern Shan state, units of guerrillas have infiltrated
into government-held lowland areas to harass Burmese forces, the guerrillas
said. 

    The MTA have blown up two bridges on the main road linking Tachilek with
central Burma and southern China, one on Friday and another, just to the east
of the town of Kengtung, early on Saturday, guerrilla officials said. 

    They detonated a large bomb killing several government troops on another
road on Thursday, they said. 

    Twenty 20 MTA fighters have been killed since the offensive began while
more than 70 government troops have been killed, the guerrillas said. 

    The guerrillas say Burmese forces are trying to clear them from the
economically important eastern section of Shan state. 

    Tachilek lies at the centre of a planned economic development zone known
as the growth quadrangle linking booming Thailand and southern China with
resource-rich Burma and Laos. 

    MTA commander Khun Sa says he is a Shan nationalist fighting for the
independence of Shan state. Burma's military government says he is a
drug-trading bandit who must be destroyed. 

    Khun Sa, who says he only taxes opium traders in his area of control in
the opium-growing Golden Triangle region, has been indicted in the United
States on narcotics-trafficking charges. 

 REUTER 

 REUTER


Transmitted: 95-03-19 04:24:36 EST
************
Karen rebel head steps down after losses to Burma   

    By Sutin Wannabovorn 

    BANGKOK, March 19 (Reuter) - The commander-in-chief of one of the world's
oldest rebel groups, the Karen National Union (KNU), has stepped down
following setbacks for the ethnic minority, including the loss of their
headquarters to Burma's army. 

    KNU rebels and Thai sources said General Bo Mya will continue to hold the
largely ceremonial position of KNU president until the next party congress,
when a major reshuffle is expected. 

    The change was made late on Saturday at an emergency meeting called to
discuss strategy and a possible reshuffle. 

    Thai intelligence sources said the meeting ended abruptly on reports that
thousands of Burmese government troops were advancing on the Karens'
makeshift temporary headquarters in southwest Burma. 

    ``General Bo Mya has stepped down from the position but he will still
carry on the position of president,'' Arthur Shwe, appointed KNU minister of
foreign affairs at the meeting, told Reuters. 

    Bo Mya, 67, has acted as commander-in-chief of the 8,000-strong guerrilla
force and president of the KNU for more than 21 years. The KNU was formed in
1949 to fight for autonomy from Rangoon central government right after
Burmese gained independence from Britain in 1948. 

    The rebels suffered a major setback last December after a Buddhist
faction staged a mutiny against the Christian-dominated group, breaking away
and eventually defecting to join the Burmese government side. 

    The split was a key factor in the collapse of KNU headquarters at
Manerplaw in late January, followed by the capture of the rebels' last major
stronghold of Kawmoora on Febuary 21. 

    General Tamala Baw, previously KNU vice president, will replace Bo Mya
for now, Shwe said. 

    ``General Tamala is acting commander-in-chief but all these positions are
temporary. The real changes are to be discussed during the party congress to
be held soon,'' Shwe said. 

    Thai intelligence and Karen rebel sources said the reshuffle was expected
to elevate Shwe Hser, a more pragmatic Karen leader one year older than Bo
Mya, to the position of commander and replace other aging current leaders
with young blood. 

    Saturday's emergency meeting, the KNU's first major gathering since the
setback, was held at the makeshift camp of Kanaelay in western Burma near the
Thai border to discuss changing top positions and laying out a new strategy. 

    But the meeting was forced to close on reports more than 1,500 Burmese
troops were advancing towards the hideout, the Thai army source said. 

    A thousand Karen guerrillas gathered at Kanaelay were ordered to disperse
into the jungle, the source said. 

    Arthur Shwe played down reports that a Burmese attack was imminent,
however. 

    ``There are reports of Burmese troops moving here and there but I don't
think they will resume the major offensive against us in the near future,''
he said. 

 REUTER


Transmitted: 95-03-19 11:21:35 EST
***********
Burmese send in reinforcements against Shan rebels   

    By Robert Birsel 

    IN SHAN STATE, Burma, March 18 (Reuter) - Burmese government
reinforcements were moving into the mountains of northeastern Shan State on
Saturday to try and reach comrades locked in battle with guerrillas loyal to
Burma's opium warlord Khun Sa. 

    Guerrilla officers said 14 government army trucks packed with soldiers
and heavy weapons were advancing towards their mountain stronghold in the
eastern part of the state where 600 government soldiers have been pinned down
by the ethnic minority rebels since Wednesday. 

    ``We were hoping they would just withdraw but it doesn't look like that
will happen now. We're going to have to fight them,'' a regional commander in
Khun Sa's Mong Tai Army (MTA) told Reuters. 

    The officer, who asked not to be identified, said his men were ambushing
government troops as they moved into the mountains from the town of Tachilek
on the border with Thailand. 

    Artillery explosions boomed across the mountains from the battle as he
spoke at an MTA outpost near the border. 

    The MTA blew up a bridge on a main supply road linking Tachilek to the
battle on Friday and detonated a large bomb killing several government troops
at another location on the road on Thursday, the officer said. 

    Burmese forces began their push against the MTA-held area, 25 km (18
miles) west of Tachilek, on Tuesday. Heavy fighting erupted early on
Wednesday and continued throughout the day as the guerrillas attacked the
advancing government troops and managed to cut them off in a valley
overlooked by mountain-top rebel strongholds, rebel officers said. 

    Intermittent clashes have continued since then with the rebels and
government troops dug in just 50 meters (yards) from each other in some
places. 

    ``This area is very close to Tachilek and Tachilek is important for the
SLORC economy,'' said another guerrilla officer, Chit Shwe, referring to
Burma's ruling military body, the State Law and Order Restoration Council. 

    Tachilek lies at the centre of a planned economic development zone known
as the growth quadrangle linking booming Thailand and southern China with
resource-rich Burma and Laos. 

    ``For us this area has strategic importance, it's our main stronghold in
the eastern part of our Shan land,'' Chit Shwe said. 

    SLORC says Khun Sa is an opium trafficking bandit and have vowed to crush
him and his guerrilla army. 

    Khun Sa says he is a Shan nationalist fighting for the independence of
Shan state. He says he only taxes opium traders moving through his zone of
control in the Golden Triangle opium-growing region. 

    Shan political sources say that depite his reputation as an opium warlord
and a heroin trafficker Shan nationalists have rallied to Khun Sa as he is
the only person in Shan state commanding a viable force opposing SLORC. 

    The current fighting in Shan state is the heaviest since last year when
Burmese forces launched a sustained offensive against Khun Sa's zone of
control. 

    MTA officers said Burmese forces were preparing a coordinated offensive
against Khun Sa's whole zone of control in southern Shan state including his
headquarters at Ho Mong, 180 km (110 miles) to the west of the current
battle. 

 REUTER


Transmitted: 95-03-18 04:42:29 EST
************
Burma arrests five Khun Sa soldiers for extortion   

    RANGOON, March 18 (Reuter) - Burma has arrested five members of opium
warlord Khun Sa's Mong Tai Army (MTA) on charges of  extortion, government
media reported on Saturday. 

    Official television and newspapers reported that military intelligence
officers arrested the five men who were alleged to be extorting money from
entrepreneurs in Taunggyi in the southern part of Shan state in northeastern
Burma. 

    The intelligence officers first arrested two men on March 10 and with
information obtained from them later arrested other members of the group, the
reports said. 

    The officers seized arms, ammunition and letters with MTA seals demanding
extortion money from the compound of one of the arrested men. 

    Khun Sa's MTA is now the strongest armed group fighting against the
Burmese government following a series of peace pacts and setbacks by other
ethnic minority rebels. 

    International narcotics enforcement officials say Khun Sa is an opium
warlord controlling much of the manufacture of heroin in the notorious Golden
Triangle, where the borders of Laos, Burma and Thailand meet. 

    Khun Sa himself says he is a Shan nationalist fighting for the
independence of his people, and merely taxes opium travelling through his
zone of control. 

    The Burmese government is currently fighting the MTA in the mountains of
northeastern Burma. 

 REUTER


Transmitted: 95-03-18 05:27:05 EST
**************
Burma cracks down on betel juice spitters   

    RANGOON, March 18 (Reuter) - The sale of betel chaws is being banned in
central Rangoon to help keep spit off the streets of Burma's capital, a
newspaper has reported. 

    ``Betel chewers are tarnishing the beauty of the capital by spitting
unscrupulously on roads, pavements, overpasses and at other places,'' the
evening paper The City News on Friday quoted the Rangoon City Development
Committee as saying. 

    The sale of betel chaws -- a betel nut wrapped in a betel leaf that
produce a red liquid when chewed -- will be banned in six central Rangoon
townships effective April 1. 

    The committee asked people who chew homemade varieties to use spitoons
and not to ``spit unscrupulously'' in public places. 

    There are hundreds of betel stalls on Rangoon's streets. 

 REUTER


Transmitted: 95-03-18 04:30:28 EST
*************
-------------------------------------------------END.