Pubdate: Mon, 30 Apr 2001
Source: Financial Times (UK)
Copyright: The Financial Times Limited 2001
Contact:  http://www.ft.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/154
Author: William Barnes

BURMA TRIBE TAKES OVER BANK

The ethnic Wa hill tribe in Burma - once dubbed "the world's biggest gang 
of armed drug traffickers" - have taken over a bank and a domestic airline, 
underlining the importance of drug money in a troubled economy.

The United Wa State Army has taken control of the ailing Myanmar Mayflower 
Bank in Rangoon and its 21 nationwide branches. The group's other interests 
include a third of the country's only GSM phone project, lucrative gem 
mining concessions and, reputedly, nightclubs in the capital. The Wa chief, 
Pao Yu Chang, has also recently taken direct personal control of the 
unprofitable Yangon Airways. "Drug traffickers have taken over more and 
more of the legitimate economy, and are getting more brazen about it, over 
the last couple of years," said a drug analyst.

The Wa were the footsoldiers for the Communist party of Burma until they 
overthrew their ethnic Chinese Communist masters in 1989. Fearing that the 
thousands of tough fighters - headhunters a couple of generations ago - 
would link up with rebel groups on the Thai border, the military government 
quickly agreed a dozen ceasefire deals, with the Wa and others, that 
allowed them a free hand to do business - which in the Shan state often 
means drugs.

The regime also permitted "retired" former drug warlords, such as Lo 
Hsing-han and Khun Sa, to, at the very least, plough their drug profits 
into a variety of businesses. The Burmese military claims that alone it 
does not have the strength to suppress big traffickers such as the Wa, who 
will "voluntarily" stop within a few years anyway.

The US State Department's latest narcotics review says that "drug profits 
formed the seed capital for many otherwise legitimate enterprises" 
especially in transport, banking, hotels, real estate and airlines.

The US senators who sent President George W. Bush a strong letter warning 
not to ease sanctions said "strong evidence" linked the regime to 
trafficking. Some observers are less sure about whether significant drug 
money ends up in generals' pockets, although even spokesmen for the regime 
admit that soldiers in the field often "tax" traffickers.

The government claims that militarily its hands are tied yet it has been 
able since the mid-1990s to clear more than 300,000 villagers off a great 
swathe of land in the middle of the state to try to suppress a small 
rebellion by "unapproved" ethnic Shan.

Worryingly for Thailand, it has permitted, perhaps encouraged, the Wa and 
their Chinese business associates to move many thousands of hill tribe 
families down from their headquarters base area to the Thai border. This is 
ostensibly to make it easier to grow non-opium crops but Thai intelligence 
agents claim it supports a build-up of Wa drug factories close to the Thai 
border.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Beth