Reuters-Thai villagers killed in ap

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Subject: Reuters-Thai villagers killed in apparent drugs dispute 

Thai villagers killed in apparent drugs dispute
02:23 a.m. Apr 02, 1999 Eastern
BANGKOK, April 2 (Reuters) - Suspected guerrillas have raided a Thai village
near the Myanmar border, taking hostages and killing nine in an apparent
drug trafficking dispute, police said on Friday.

A group of about 30 gunmen, believed to be members of the United Wa State
Army, attacked Maesoon village in Chiangmai province, about 750 km (469
miles) north of Bangkok late on Thursday, they said.

They took an unknown number of Thais into the jungle, pursued by Thai
troops. When police went to the area on Friday, they found nine villagers'
bodies, all male. Some had apparently died from gunshots and some had been
beaten to death.

Police said they suspected a conflict over drug trafficking.

The Myanmar-based UWSA, which signed a ceasefire with the Yangon military
government five years ago, has been accused of taking over the drug
trafficking business in the Golden Triangle from the former opium warlord,
Khun Sa, after he surrendered to the military in 1996.

The Golden Triangle, at the intersection of Thailand, Laos and Myanmar, is
responsible for the majority of the world's heroin supply, narcotics
agencies say.