“All reports on the clashes (between the United Wa State Army and the Burma Army) are unsubstantiated,” Maj Aung Tin Oo, Commander of Light Infantry Battalion 526 and co-chairman of the Township level Border Committee (TBC), told Col Praphat Phopsuwan, Commander of the Thai Army’s Phamueng Force.
The beefing up of forces between the two sides have forced hundreds of residents in Mongton township, opposite Chiangmai province, to seek refuge inside Thai territory since 2 June, when the Burma Army detained 16 loggers hired by the UWSA.
The UWSA had met government representatives on 24 June in Naypyitaw to defuse the tension. “But we have yet to see any significant reduction of troops on both sides,” said an elder.
The two sides that had since 1989 launched joint operations against the Shans’ Mong Tai Army (MTA) and, after its surrender in 1996, the Shan State Army (SSA) South, are going through a military confrontation for the second time in two years.
Burma meanwhile informed that a Guo Dazhong, a close aide of Peng Jiasheng, leader of the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) that has been fighting against the Burma Army since February, was believed to have crossed the border into the kingdom and requested its cooperation in his capture.
Thailand and Burma hold regular border meetings at three levels:
Township Border Committee (TBC), Regional Border Committee (RBC), and Joint Border Committee (JBC). The last RBC meeting was held in Chiangmai in May.
