Myanmarese troops seize porters for Khun Sa battle

Myanmarese troops seize porters for Khun Sa battle

TACHILEK, Myanmar (Reuter): Myanmarese government troops have seized hundreds of people from this border town to serve as porters in nearby hills where they are battling Golden Triangle opium warlord Khun Sa, residents said yesterday.

The troops have swept through tea shops, restaurants and gambling dens, seizing able-bodied men to carry ammunition and other supplies to frontline positions.

The roundups have sent hundreds fleeing across the nearby border to Thailand to escape the draft, they said.

"More than 500 people have been rounded up and trucked to the battlefield over the past five days," one Myanmarese trader said.

Traders and shopkeepers said people were living in a state of fear and a self-imposed curfew was in effect with businesses closing early and residents disappearing indoors to avoid the regular evening sweeps for porters.

Hundreds sought refuge on the Thai side of the border.

"Soldiers stormed my village a few days ago and arrested everyone they could find," said 48-year-old Nan Hinh, now hiding out in the Thai border town of Mae Sai.

Almost 200 Myanmarese people took refuge in a Buddhist temple in Mae Sai on Monday but were told by Thai authorities to return to Myanmar the next day, the temple's abbot told Reuters.

An officer in Khun Sa's guerrilla army told Reuters many of the seized people had been killed in recent heavy fighting.

"At least 17 porters were among 47 people killed on their side over the last five days at Doi Kong Mon," Khwan Muang, a regional commander in Khun Sa's Mong Tai Army (MTA), said.

Doi Kong Mon is about 20 kilometers west of Tachilek in the hills of Shan State.

Khwan Muang said 27 Myanmarese troops and porters were killed in fighting on Sunday and about 20 more died in a clash on Tuesday morning.

He said eight MTA soldiers were killed and 27 wounded in the battles.

The guerrilla commander said he expected fighting to intensify and about 500 Myanmarese government reinforcements had been moved into the area where the MTA had a similar strength.

Khun Sa declared independence for a Shan state in December and ordered his troops to begin an all-out offensive against Myanmarese forces from the beginning of May, Kwan Muang said.

"We are convinced that now is the time to begin our war against Burma (Myanmar). We have the strength to fight them and the Shan people support us," he said.

He said the MTA had 20,000 troops and was better equipped than the government infantry.

Khwan Muang said MTA guerrillas have launched offensives against government positions in 13 different parts of northeastern Myanmar's Shan state this month.

Khun Sa, alias Chang Si-fu, the 60-year-old half-Chinese, half-Shan MTA commander, controls some of the richest opium- producing areas in the Golden Triangle, the area where Myanmar, Thailand and Laos meet.

He says he merely taxes opium traders to finance the struggle for the independence of Shan state from Yangon but he was indicted by a U.S. Federal court on heroin trafficking charges in 1990.