Day Three-Four. Tuesday-Wednesday, 24-25 January 2017

Never give a sucker an even break.

W.C.Fields (1880-1946), American comedian, actor, juggler and writer

We are off to the airport early, at 06:40. The plane leaves at 0810. It’s Boeing 737, so it takes us only 35 minutes to get to Mingladon.

For the second time (for me), we are putting up at Parami Hotel, which is in Mayangone Township, thus at a convenient distance from the airport.

Today, I have three meetings. One’s with one of the foreign embassy people who want to know what went on at yesterday’s meetings with the SC and the CinC. I try my best, and I hope succeed, in giving them a balanced view.

The two others are quite private and disclosure of the information might place the whole process in jeopardy. I will therefore try to give you some data that are important yet not so sensitive to panick my friends.

One is that the Tatmadaw is quite suspicious of the motives behind “Chinese volunteers” in the Mongkoe fight, 20 November-14 December 2016. Beijing has denied its involvement, but one of them has mentioned that the Chinese people in general sympathize with Peng Jiasheng, leader of the MNDAA (Kokang), a member of the quadripartite coalition, that calls itself Northern Alliance Burma (NAB), that launched the Mongkoe attack. “To their understanding, he was betrayed by the Burmese government when they mounted a surprise raid against him in 2009,” he was quoted as saying.

Nevertheless, the two governments are scheduled to meet again soon to find ways to normalize the situation, a source quotes insiders as saying.

The next morning is spent in reading my notes and preparing two reports, one for PI, and the other for my readers.

An Air Force Military Affairs Security (MAS) officer, with initials Z.N.O., assist me in getting the boarding pass and stamps of approval by the immigration.

At 15:15, the plane touches down on the Chiangmai runway. Once more, I’m back in home away from home.