Morale is high among Yawd Serk’s ill-paid soldiers: “We are the strongest opposition force to the regime”

It was a scene straight out of Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now.  To a background score of psychedelic electric guitar cords piercing the night, soldiers in Burmese army fatigues berated and appeared to beat a helpless monk while bemused spectators looked on. It looked sickeningly authentic but was as theatrical as Coppola’s movie—one of several staged events commemorating Shan Resistance Day at the Shan State Army-South’s fortified headquarters on the ridge of Loi Taileng, in eastern Burma.

The Burmese soldiers were Shan rebels, enacting scenes of Burma Army brutality. “Everyone can relate to this show,” said an SSA-S official.

This year’s Shan Resistance Day was the 48th annual commemoration of the start of Shan armed resistance to Burmese government rule. On May 21, 1958, a group of 39 Shan, frustrated by 10 years of inconclusive negotiations between their leaders and the Rangoon regime, took up arms against government forces at Mong Kyawt in southeastern Shan State, opposite the Chiang Dao region of northern Thailand. They became known as the Noom Suk Harn, or “brave young warriors.”

The group eventually grew into a strong fighting force, the Shan State Army. Its political wing is the Restoration Council of Shan State, consisting of 300 members, drawn from the military and civilian life. A central committee of 21 elected members meets twice a year. A complaints and suggestions box in the center of the Loi Taileng camp yields much material for discussion.

It’s a democratic kind establishment—“Even the Colonel is not immune from criticism,” said the SSA-S official. “The Colonel” is Yawd Serk, charismatic leader of the SSA-S force. He rose to prominence after the surrender of drug lord Khun Sa and the dissolution of his Mong Tai Army in 1996. Yawd Serk and his men, a more effective fighting force than the MTA, took over much of Khun Sa’s arsenal. “Only the oldest and broken weaponry was relinquished to Rangoon, Yawd Serk kept the best armaments,” said a former Khun Sa aide.

The SSA-S maintains that Khun Sa had to buy the loyalty of his MTA men, while Yawd Serk commands total respect through the force of his personality and his commitment to the Shan cause. There isn’t enough money in the SSA-S coffers to pay his men their lowly wage of 200 baht (US $5) a month regularly or to improve their meager rations and equipment, but still morale is high. “One hundred of our men are worth more than 300-400 MTA soldiers,” boasted an SSA-S member. A former associate of Khun Sa said the MTA leader was a better businessman than a military leader.

SSA-S soldiers sign on for five years, but two thirds of them are said to remain in the army when their enlistment expires. The overall strength of the army was reinforced in May 2005 by the addition of 1,000-2,000 former soldiers of the Shan State National Army, who joined ranks with the SSA-S under the leadership of Jai Yi, the present SSA-S second-in-command. “We are the strongest opposition force to the regime, the SPDC’s fiercest opponents,” says Yawd Serk.

He is particularly proud of the SSA-S training program, which he says concentrates on all-round instruction, including intellectual studies and ethics. The importance of unity and camaraderie is stressed.

A reporter on patrol with these SSA-S soldiers gets a rare insight into how this training converts into battleground experience. With United Wa State Army positions clearly visible only a couple of hundred meters away in the valley below, SSA-S soldiers brandishing AK 47s and RPG launchers were reconnoitering enemy positions under a dark sky.

At an SSA-S forward position battered by the UWSA and Burma Army in a fierce battle in April 2005, the ground was still littered with exploded mortar shells. A commanding officer who led the SSA-S defense of the outpost recalled with undisguised emotion the intensity and brutality of the battle, during which UWSA troops clawed up the steep slopes, engaging SSA-S forces with RPG’s at 10 meters range and AK fire at 5 meters. “This hill still smells of blood to me,” he said.

Ultimately, Yawd Serk’s men successfully prevented the UWSA and Burma Army troops from overrunning the Shan position, which could have served as a staging point for further offensives on Loi Taileng. Yawd Serk claims the assault by the UWSA’s 171st division was led by the notorious drug trafficker Wei Hsueh-kang in retaliation for the destruction by SSA-S forces of his drug factories. “I get blamed for drugs because I wage war on those who really are in the business,” he says, insisting that he and his SSA-S have no part in drug production or trafficking.

On the contrary, Yawd Serk claims to be a force in the war on drugs, which he describes as “a silent killer.” Drugs, he says, “pose as great a threat as the ravages of war to Shan people.” He pleads for a “grassroots solution” to the drug problem. “I want to get rid of drugs but I cannot do it alone. If you really want to eradicate drugs you must come to the Shan people. A grassroots solution is the only way.”

The battle-hardened colonel offered his full co-operation with international organizations in the fight to eliminate drug production and trafficking. “We would like to join the rest of the international community in the eradication of drugs,” he said. “Bring the UN, we have guides, we’ll give you access. Come work with us. We are willing to testify.”

Yawd Serk believes the US’s Drug Enforcement Administration support of Burmese government anti-drugs initiatives to be counterproductive. “The generals are in bed with the biggest drug lords. So, supporting the SPDC in their war on drugs goes to further hurt the people.”

On the political front, Yawd Serk wants the international community to “understand the depth, complexity and significance of the plight of ethnic groups within Burma” and to “press the generals to grant autonomy to the ethnics.” Not only the Karen are suffering under brutal Burma Army repression, he points out—“The situation is similar in Shan State.  People are suffering and dying every day in our areas as well.”

Loi Taileng, at least, is a sanctuary of sorts. The comradeship, camaraderie and high morale are palpable. It’s clear that, 48 years after the appearance of Shan resistance to the regime, Yawd Serk and his Shan State Army-South are there to stay.