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.