Tough year in the offing for Wa

News - S.H.A.N.

Wednesday, 30 August 2006

The visit to Panghsang by Lt-Gen Thein Sein, Secretary 1 of the ruling military council's, August 15 had failed to bring about the relaxation in the restrictions on the timber and mineral exports imposed by China at the request of Burmese authorities, according to both local and non-local businessmen.

Thein Sein had met the Wa's No. 2 man, Xiao Minliang, to negotiate the resumption of the hitherto booming timber and mineral trade suspended since March 26. "He had proposed that the Wa allow junta-operated immigration, customs and schools to move in," said a disappointed Thai businessman of Shan descent. "The Wa, however, had refused to budge." The report was confirmed by a Wa source.

On the other hand, human traffic has not been affected by the ban, which is in sharp contrast to Panghsang's neighbour Mongla in the southeast, run by its ally Sai Leun aka Lin Mingxian, where passages by people are heavily restricted but trucks loaded with coal, manganese and other minerals mined in the area roll into China practically unchecked. (Nay Pyi Taw's schools, customs and immigration are permitted to operate in Mongla.)

Back in Panghsang, timber trucks can pass through the border checkpoints into China 's Meng Lien only after paying a hefty duty, Y 5,000 ($ 625) per ton. In addition, there must be sufficient documentation that the logs originate either in Thailand or Laos , but not Burma. "For big companies, that's not such a big deal," said a Chinese businessman of Shan descent. "But for many other such as ours, it's not an easy option."

Over a year has gone by since the Wa had declared its drug-free stance, and as each month goes by, they are finding it more and more challenging to stick to their word, although Xiao Minliang, on June 26 making the first difficult year of the Wa's "supreme sacrifice", as he called it, had promised to hang on whatever the outcome.

"We had expected that assistance would flow in," said a Wa administrative officer in Pangkham ( Land of Gold ), as Panghsang ( Land of Bamboo ) is officially known. "But what we are getting is only a tenth of what we need."

The UN World Food Programme (WFP), for instance, has only been able to provide rice for children going to school, but not much for adults, according to him.

The WFP, in its April evaluation report, made no bones about the Wa statement. One big problem it has been facing since the ouster of Gen Khin Nyunt in 2004 is that it has to go through a "cumbersome permit process": first, from the Trade Policy Council headed by Deputy Senior General Maung Aye; secondly, from the Rangoon Region Command before transporting rice to Mandalay; thirdly, from the Mandalay-based Central Region Command before transporting rice to Lashio; and finally, from the Lashio-based Northeastern Region Command before transporting it to the Wa, Kokang, Kachin and Palaung recipients.

"What's more, their attempt to sell off their old stock (of heroin) in September (2005) had also been foiled (when the Burma Army, reportedly tipped off by China seized the cargo in Mongpiang)," said the Thai businessman. "So their only way out is to hand over the financial rein to Wei Hsuehkang (which they did on July 4)."

Wei Hsuehkang, the de facto commander of 171st Military Region that adjoins northern Thailand, is wanted both in the kingdom and the United States on drug charges.

Commenting on the latest developments, Sao Seng Suk, Chairman of the exiled Shan Democratic Union (SDU), said, "It seems the junta is doing its best to prevent the Wa from turning over a new leaf."

The WFP meanwhile is planning to continue its food programme for another three years, from January 2007 to December 2009. Besides the WFP, another UN agency, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) is operating in the Wa region.

http://www.bnionline.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=493&Itemid=6

Virtual gambling in Myanmar's drug country

By Michael Black and Roland Fields


MONG LA, Shan State - Myanmar's jungle casinos are open for business again, only
this time with a new media twist that allows casino owners to dodge an official
ban on their operations and Chinese gamblers to play for even higher stakes
without leaving their homes.



Welcome to the latest incarnation of Mong La, Myanmar's low-grade rendition of
Las Vegas and a recurring irritant in China-

Myanmar relations. Situated opposite the town of Dalou in China's Yunnan
province, Mong La in the 1990s established itself as a Chinese tourism hub for
gambling, prostitution and transsexual cabaret shows - not to mention rampant
money-laundering, Western officials contend.



Located in Myanmar's Special Region No 4, the jungle town quickly emerged as a
sinkhole for unknown billions of Chinese yuan, including funds pilfered by
corrupt Chinese government officials, ill-gotten gains from Yunnan-based
organized crime syndicates, and the honest earnings of hardcore gamblers.



In January 2005, the town's many flashy casino-hotels were closed down after
Beijing, irked by reports of corrupt officials squandering state funds on
Myanmar gaming tables, banned their officials and citizens from traveling to
Mong La.



According to people familiar with the situation, China briefly sent a small
number of troops into the remote region to enforce the travel ban and pressure
casino operators to close down their operations. At one point, Chinese officials
threatened to cut Mong La's power supply, which is provided by Yunnan-based
electricity generators.

That hasn't deterred Lin Mingxian, more widely known by the alias Sai Leun, the
town's overlord, who currently commands a 2,000-3,000-strong militia known as
the National Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA). Sai Leun is believed to have
financed much of the city's gambling infrastructure in the late 1990s from cash
he allegedly earned in the narcotics trade.



The militia leader is now aggressively expanding his enterprise into online
gaming, a fast-growing multibillion-US-dollar global industry that is just now
catching on in China. On April 27, Sai Leun presided over the opening of seven
new Internet-enabled gambling facilities, specifically designed and outfitted
for online China-based gamers. Another 14 gambling venues are being carved out
of the jungle about 16 kilometers southwest of Mong La, set idyllically among
paddy fields and wandering water buffalo.

Asia Times Online recently gained a rare on-the-ground glimpse into the inner
workings of Mong La, arguably one of the most lawless areas of Southeast Asia.
After traveling in a casino owner's luxury sedan, with Chinese hip-hop music
blaring over the radio, down a winding dirt road outside of Mong La, ATol saw a
newly built casino sitting completely surrounded by tropical forest.

Inside the two-story stucco-encrusted building, black leather chairs sit around
immaculate baccarat tables while dead jungle bugs litter the otherwise spotless
new red carpeting. Suspended above the tables are cameras connected to the
Internet, which allow for scores of remote Chinese gamblers to play their hands.
In the center of the room sits a giant Buddha statue, which placidly overlooks
the entire operation.



Mong La's new casinos are a curious twist on Western-style online gaming, which
is conducted solely in cyberspace. From the comfort of their homes in Beijing,
Kunming or Shanghai, Chinese gamblers watch the tables via a live video feed
over the Internet and place their bets through agents on location at the jungle
casinos. The arrangement, says the casino operator, allows the players and
casino operators to circumvent recent Chinese efforts to prevent the outflow of
cash into Myanmar's black markets.



The transactions also entail a measure of trust. Online players inside China
transfer funds into the casino operators' China-based bank accounts. Once the
transfer is confirmed, a player logs on to the casino's website and watches the
game from the cameras above the tables via high-speed Internet while
communicating with his agent via mobile phone. When the hand is played out, the
remote player can opt to have winnings wired to his account or alternatively
order the agent to get the cash physically from the casino.



One of the casino operators who spoke with Asia Times Online claimed to be able
to cover up to US$1 million in bets in this fashion per day. New online casinos
recently opened at nearby Wan Hsieo, Mong Ma and the tract outside Mong La are
able to handle similar financial traffic, meaning total daily turnover at
Myanmar's online casinos could hit $20 million, depending, of course, on how the
cards are played. The operator said investors in mainland China, Hong Kong and
Thailand had contributed funds to the new casinos.



Risk-taker

Sai Leun has a long history of risking life and limb. Prior to becoming chief of
Semi-Autonomous Region No 4, he was commander of the Communist Party of Burma's
815 War Zone and was widely viewed as one of the communists' ablest field
commanders. He joined the CPB as a Red Guard volunteer in 1968 alongside Wa
leaders Bao Yuxiang and Li Ziru.



After the breakup of the CPB in 1989, communist-held territory was divided into
so-called special regions, each with its own military and political wings. The
Myanmar generals, led then by military-intelligence chief Lieutenant-General
Khin Nyunt, brokered ceasefire agreements with the militias, allowing them a
large measure of local autonomy over their territories.



As such, the remote regions blossomed into major opium-production and
heroin-refining hubs, affording the region's leaders massive profits on the
illicit-drug trade. For his part, Sai Leun has claimed to have changed his
drug-trafficking ways and in the late 1990s declared his area of Special Region
No 4 a "drug-free zone" with Dennis Hastert, Speaker of the US House of
Representatives, senior United Nations officials and senior Myanmar generals at
his side.



Mong La's resurgent gambling operations have coincided with an improvement in
Sai Leun's health, which deteriorated rapidly after a series of alleged strokes
that coincided with China's armed intervention at Mong La and more recent
pressure from Myanmar's ruling junta to disarm his militia. Sai Leun is
immensely popular in his autonomous area, in part because of his unilateral
decision to exempt locals from paying taxes. He reportedly said during the April
27 opening of the new casinos, "The only burden you will continue to bear is
supplying us with new recruits for our army."



The junta's new calls to disarm Sai Leun's NDAA forces have also raised concerns
with the neighboring and allied 20,000-strong United Wa State Army (UWSA), the
world's largest narcotics-trafficking militia, which relies heavily on
trafficking routes in Sai Leun's territory to move its contraband out of
Myanmar.



An official in Mong La characterized the relationship between the NDAA and the
UWSA as "not like brothers but like friends". This friendship is evident in the
UWSA troops who guard and protect many territories around Mong La and the many
luxury vehicles in the town that sport license plates marking them as from UWSA
territories. A junta move against Sai Leun could enflame new armed conflict in
the area, his supporters contend.



At the same time, Sai Leun has taken precautions against future disruptions to
his gambling businesses - particularly from China. To preempt a possible power
cut from China, he ordered the construction of a power plant in a converted
sugarcane refinery, which became operational one year ago and is capable of
independently supplying 30,000 kilowatts of power, well beyond the town's
current needs. Mong La's telecommunication infrastructure, however, is still
controlled by China, which could represent a pressure point on the casino's
Internet connections.



China is still the sole importer of the remote region's rubber and other
commodities and, judging by local markets, the local economy is increasingly
reliant on imports of cheap Chinese manufactures. Sai Leun, casino operators
reckon, has negotiated assurances from Yunnan officials against another Chinese
crackdown on his new-fangled gambling operations. However, a Wa official who
spoke with Asia Times Online in early June was less confident, saying, "The
Chinese can change their mind at any time."



Michael Black and Roland Fields are freelance journalists based in Chiang
Mai, Thailand.

Burmese generals in cahoots with drug lords in Shan State : Drug report

News - Mizzima News
Written by Nem Davies
Thursday, 03 August 2006

Burmese military generals are actively involved in the drug trade, accept bribes and cover up for drug traffickers, said a report released on Wednesday by media in exile the SHAN.

The 64-page report titled 'Hand in Glove,' by the Chiang Mai, Thailand based Shan Herald Agency News took two and-a-half years to compile. It has accused some of the top military brass like, Lieutenant general Thein Sein, the secretary I of the State Peace and Development Council, Lieutenant General Myint Hlaing, Lieutenant General Kyaw Win and some other military officers of having their palms greased by drug lords in Shan state.

Lieutenant General Thein Sein, the former commander of Triangle Region Command with the rank of major general received an astonishing 45 assorted motor vehicles, both for his own use and as gifts for his superiors in Rangoon, said the report.

"The army leaders used to collect taxes on poppy fields, the products and make way for the transportation of chemicals to drug refineries in south western Shan State borders areas," said Sein Kyi, an assistant editor and also field researcher for the booklet to Mizzima.

SHAN interviewed about 80 people living along Burma's borders with Thailand and China which are mostly controlled by pro-junta cease-fire ethnic armed groups. "It is not unlike Afghanistan where most government allies against rebels are found to be drug bosses," the report quoted an informed local as saying.

The report pointed out that the Burmese military expansion, from 168 infantry battalions in 1988 to 528 in May 2005, is one of the factors for military units to be lured to the illicit drug business in opium, methamphetamine and Yaba. The drug lords are from United Wa State Army, Kachin Defence Army, Shan Nationalities People's Liberation Organisation, Kokang and pro-military junta militia forces.

"Many teenagers use these tablets (methamphetamine) on their way to school because they are easy to buy and cheap, " said Sein Kyi. The report claimed that opium production in Shan state is on the rise. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has, however, reported that poppy cultivation dramatically decreased in 2005 to 32, 800 hectares down from 160,000 hectares in 1999.

"The military junta showed outsiders, including UNODC, some places which are easy to reach in areas controlled by ceasefire groups in Shan state. But there are many places which are under military control in very remote areas in the mountains between the eastern Than Lwin river and Northern Namkham rivers where major poppy fields exist," said Sein Kyi.