King of the Highlands

By Kyaw Zwa Moe/Bann Thoed Thai, Thailand

June 29, 2007—Nobody lives here any more, but the building is alive with portraits of its old master— taking a nap under a tree, his M-16 at the ready, riding his handsome horse, testing a weapon, smoking a cigar while deep in thought. In the corner of one photo of its subject in a neat military uniform, a pistol in his belt, is an inscription: “King of the Highlands.”

He was a “king” in many senses. Undisputed ruler of a group of faithful followers, and opium king of the Golden Triangle. For the US government, he was Southeast Asia’s most wanted and most elusive drug lord—Khun Sa, half-Chinese and half ethnic Shan from Burma, who ruled the region with his private army of 15,000 men until surrendering to Burma’s military regime in 1996.

His former northern Thailand base, a small compound of a few buildings, still bears his name: “Khun Sa Old Camp.” Located in Bann Thoed Thai, a small village in Thailand’s northernmost province of Chiang Rai, and only 6 km from the border with Burma’s eastern Shan State, the ruined buildings now serve as a Khun Sa museum.

A few of his former followers and their families still live near the museum, but I found them reluctant to talk about Khun Sa. His former chef, who lives in one building of the compound, would only say: “That’s Khun Sa’s house. You can go and see it.”

A teenage girl who ushered me into the museum said her father was a former member of Khun Sa’s private army. But when I asked if I could speak to him, she said he never talked to strangers or about the old days.

Khun Sa and his soldiers were based in this mountainous village until 1982, when Thai troops overran and occupied his old camp. Khun Sa and his followers moved to Homong in Shan State. His armed force, known as the Mong Tai Army, or MTA, grew in strength to 15,000 well-trained soldiers.

Khun Sa invested 300 million Thai baht (US $9.3 million) in developing and expanding Homong, according to the book Why Did the MTA Led by Khun Sa Exchange Arms for Peace?, published in Burmese by Burma’s government.

In December 1993, with the support of his MTA and local worthies, Khun Sa declared independence for a separate Shan State. A parliament of 35 members was formed and Khun Sa was named president. Less than three years later, however, in January 1996, Khun Sa and his MTA surrendered to Burmese government forces.

Now in his 70s, Khun Sa is something of a will-o’-the-wisp hero, living in a secret location but not forgotten in folk memory. A man selling papaya salad near Khun Sa’s old camp said no one in Bann Thoed Thai knew where Khun Sa now lived.

A Shan journalist, Sein Kyi, assistant editor of the Chiang Mai-based Shan Herald Agency for News, however, professed to know that Khun Sa now lives near Ye Kyi Ai, a notorious interrogation center in Mingaladon, Rangoon, under surveillance by the Burmese government.

Some reports suggest that Khun Sa has been under surveillance by the military authorities since former prime minister and military intelligence chief Gen Khin Nyunt was toppled and placed under house arrest in 2004. Khin Nyunt played a key role in negotiating with ethnic armed group leaders, including Khun Sa, to reach ceasefire agreements.

Sein Kyi said he had heard that Khun Sa now regretted not having given himself up to American investigators and choosing imprisonment in the US. The charismatic drug lord reportedly believed that if he had been imprisoned in the US he might have achieved the revered behind-bars status of Manuel Noriega, the former Panamanian military leader taken to the US and jailed there for his involvement in the drug trade.

In the book Why Did the MTA Led by Khun Sa Exchange Arms for Peace?, an MTA Central Committee member maintained that Khun Sa had decided to negotiate with the Burmese regime in the belief that he would not be handed over to the US government.

As things turned out, he was right. After his surrender in 1996, he moved to Rangoon and lived there under government protection.

Diplomatic demarches were lodged by the US Embassy in Rangoon, and official requests were made for his extradition to face drug trafficking charges in the US. The Burmese regime remained deaf to the approaches, however, reminding the US that no extradition treaty existed between Washington and Rangoon.

At least seven of Khun Sa’s followers did end up in American prisons, however, after they were arrested in Thailand and extradited to the US.