Apart from the two arms of the Shan State Army, others include the SSNA, the Shan State Nationalities Peoples’ Liberation Organization, the
Myanmar [
Burma] National Democracy Alliance Army (a Kokang group), Shan-Akha group National Democratic Alliance Army (Shan-Akha), the Pa-O National Organization, PSLA, and the Kachin Defence Army. Several smaller groups act as local armed militia, while
Rangoon has given others border police duties.
Many of the groups are being allowed to produce and trade in drugs in exchange for co-operation with the regime, according to a report by the Shan Herald Agency for News. The UWSA, long accused of running a lucrative drugs business, tried to polish its image by preparing an elaborate ceremony at which it would announce its territory to be “drugs free.” But the planned ceremony turned into a farce when the regime took exception to invitations signed in the name of a “Wa State.” Widespread skepticism had anyway greeted the “drugs free” announcement.
The Wa enjoyed close relations with former prime minister and military intelligence chief Gen Khin Nyunt, and the UWSA has acted as a buffer between the Burma Army and the SSA-S.
Apart from the enmity existing between the SSA-S and the regime, tensions have arisen between Rangoon and other Shan ethnic ceasefire groups following the arrest in February of Maj-Gen Sao Hso Ten, president of the Shan State Peace Council, an umbrella group comprising the SSA-N and the SSNA. He was taken into custody for participating in a meeting in Taunggyi, Shan State, along with other prominent Shan leaders, including Hkun Htun Oo and Sai Nyunt Lwin, chairman and general-secretary of the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy, and the veteran politician Shwe Ohn.
The arrests put into question a regime proposal for ceasefire groups that participate in the National Convention to form themselves into political parties. The growing strength of the Burma Army in Shan State is also causing concern, as is a report by the Shan Human Rights Foundation, claiming that forced labor, sexual abuses, arbitrary detention and extrajudicial killings continue in Shan State.
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