Burma Army Claims All Quiet on the Southern Front

Burma Army Claims All Quiet on the Southern Front
by -
S.H.A.N

The Burma Army informed the Thai Army yesterday (30 June) at their monthly meeting in Tachilek that there has been no fighting along the areas close to the Thai-Burmese border, reported the Thai daily Matichon.

“All reports on the clashes [between the United Wa State Army (UWSA) and the Burma Army] are unsubstantiated,” Maj Aung Tin Oo, Commander of Light Infantry Battalion 526 and co-chairman of the Township level Border Committee (TBC), told Col Praphat Phopsuwan, Commander of the Thai Army’s Phamueng Force.

The increase in both Burma Army and Wa forces in the area of Mongton Township in southern Shan State, opposite Chiang Mai Province in Thailand, has forced hundreds of residents from Mongton Township to seek refuge inside Thai territory since 2 June, when the Burma Army detained 16 loggers hired by the UWSA.

The UWSA met government representatives on 24 June in Naypyitaw to defuse the tension. “But we have yet to see any significant reduction of troops on both sides,” said an elder.

The two sides, that since 1989 have worked together fighting against the Shans’ Mong Tai Army (MTA) and its successor after 1996, the Shan State Army (SSA) South, are confronting each other again for the second time in two years.

Burma also informed the Thais that they believe that Guo Dazhong, a close aide of Peng Jiasheng the leader of the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) that has been fighting the Burma Army since February, has crossed the border into Thailand and requested Thailand's cooperation in his capture.

Thailand and Burma hold regular border committee meetings at three levels. These are: the Township Border Committee (TBC), the Regional Border Committee (RBC), and the  Joint Border Committee (JBC).

The last RBC meeting was held in Chiang Mai in May.

Edited in English for BNI by Mark Inkey

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