Myanmar and Thailand to discuss disputed militia posts on border

The ethnic Wa militia’s refusal to abandon its nine outposts has raised fears of conflict with Thailand.

Dec 17, 2024 - 17:00
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Myanmar and Thailand to discuss disputed militia posts on border

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Representatives of the Thai government and Myanmar junta are due to discuss a series of militia posts along the two countries’ common border that Thailand says are in its territory, Myanmar’s junta spokesperson said.

The United Wa State Army, or UWSA, militia force controls autonomous regions in Shan state including one on the border with Thailand, which says nine of the group’s outposts are in Thai territory and must be removed.

The confrontation has raised fears of violence between what is probably Myanmar’s most powerful militia force, which is also accused of massive involvement in the drug trade, and the Thai army.

Myanmar junta spokesperson Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun told Myanmar state media on Monday that military representatives were due to meet the Thai government and the issue of the UWSA camps would be tackled.

“Mainly border issues and matters related to cross-border crime will be discussed. We will discuss cooperating in order to enact border stability and fight criminal violations,” the junta spokesperson said.

He did not give a date for the talks.

Thai officials, at a meeting with UWSA representatives in the Thai city of Chiang Mai in November, gave the UWSA a deadline of Dec. 18 to withdraw from the posts, media reported.

But Wa officials dismissed the Thai demand on Dec. 7, and said the matter should be taken up in government-level discussions, adding that the Thai army was “not their enemy.”

The UWSA emerged from the break-up of the Communist Party of Burma in 1989, when its rank-and-file fighters, drawn largely from the Wa ethnic minority, mutinied against the party’s aging leadership.

The UWSA struck a ceasefire with the Myanmar military in exchange for autonomy in zones on the borders of both China and Thailand.

Despite being what is largely seen as the best equipped militia force in Myanmar, it has not joined the anti-military insurgency that has swept the country since the generals ousted an elected government in a 2021 coup.

International anti-narcotics agencies say the UWSA has been heavily involved in the opium and heroin trade for decades and took up the manufacture of methamphetamines on a massive scale in more recent years.

The UWSA, which is known to have close contacts with China, denies involvement in drugs.

The nine disputed border outposts that the UWSA says are in its “171 military region” are in the Shan state townships of Tachileik, Mongsat, Mongton, Hway Aw and Pong Par Kyi, along the northern Thai border.

Translated by Kiana Duncan. Edited by RFA Staff.