S.H.A.N. : Wednesday, 16 September 2009 16:05

The 1,000 household town surrounded by the Wa and Mongla armies, 102 km northeast of Shan State East capital Kengtung, certainly reminds one of the Cold War era West Berlin, deep inside East Germany before the unification in 1990.

It sits on a plain surrounded by mountains. In the northwest, north, east and south are Wa and Mongla forces. Any assistance for the two undersized infantry battalions there, IB 279 and IB 281, in the event of a siege, as it was for two weeks, 26 August – 9 September, could only be from Mongkhark, some 25 km in the southwest, where the Burma Army has been deployed in full battle array.

The siege was lifted only the day before when a 15 men delegation from China visited the Wa headquarters Panghsang and after a series of visits and letters by Burma Army commanders giving full assurance that at least Mongla, the headquarters of the Wa’s ally National Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA), otherwise known as Shan State Special Region #4, that they were entertaining no aggressive plans against it.

For the residents of Mongyang, the situation is a sharp reminder of what happened 21 years earlier.

6 days after the military takeover by Gen Saw Maung on 18 September, the Communist Party of Burma (CPB) launched an attack on the town. “The rebels seized the town in a matter of hours,” remembered a townsman. “But it lasted only six days.”

A massive counter-offensive by air and land forces forced the then communist troops to abandon it. “The present Secretary-1 Gen Tin Aung Myint Oo, I remember, won the Thiha Thura medal of valor during this operation,” recalled another towner.

The fighting and the wreckage it brought, to most of the people, was bad enough. “Worse than that were the portering during the operation and the looting and rapes that followed,” said a native who recently arrived at the Thai-Burma border town of Tachilek. “So when we heard that the Burma Army had taken Kokang and up to their tricks again there and that the next target is Mongla, we all decided to leave.”

They certainly have ample reasons to worry. One at least appears to be constitutional, according to a Wa source.

“The constitution, drafted without taking into consideration of our demands, says the Wa Self-Administered Division will have 6 townships: Hopang, Pangwai, Napharn, Mongmai, Panghsang and Markmang (also written Metman and known as Mawfa to the locals),” he said.

“They later told us we should return Mongpawk to Mongyang in return for Hopang and the 171st Military Region (along the Thai-Burma border) in return for Markmang. We are never going to accept that.”

The NDAA has also been informed by Naypyitaw to return Hsaleu to Mongyang in return for its designation of Mongla as a township separate from Kengtung. To no one’s surprise, the NDAA has refused to consider the matter.

So far, about 50-60% of the townspeople have returned, said a shopkeeper.

“But we are far from feeling confident of the situation,” she said. “Naturally we are getting ourselves ready to leave at short notice, despite assurances by the Army.”