Rebels recruit to fight drugs

Rebels recruit to fight drugs

BANGKOK (AP): A Myanmar rebel group claims to have recruited
870 new guerrillas, saying their first task would be to fight a
pro-Yangon ethnic army blamed for much of the drug production and
smuggling in the Golden Triangle.

The new recruits ended a three-month training and joined the
ranks of the Shan State Army (SSA) on Monday at a ceremony in a
Myanmar jungle base, just across the border, according to Thai
reporters who attended the function.

The SSA has been fighting for autonomy for the ethnic Shan
minority since the 1950s. But it now claims to be leading a
vigilante war against the United Wa State Army (UWSA), another
ethnic group that signed a cease-fire with Myanmar's military
junta in 1989.

The UWSA now has virtual control over some border areas of the
Shan state in eastern Myanmar where it is accused of running
several factories producing methamphetamine, an illegal stimulant
flooding Thailand and much of Southeast Asia. The Wa are also
accused by the United States and Thailand of dealing in heroin.