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members are allied with U Nu and others are associated with the White Flag Communists and KNUP.
Chinese Irregular Forces (CIF)/Kuomintang Remnants (KMT)
Numbering approximately 2,000 the CIF/KMT are located along the Thai-Burmese and Sino-Burmese borders and in northern Thai- land. Although they are not actually insurgents, the CIF/KMT remain an irritant and local force outside of Burmese government control. Many have resettled in Thailand but still maintain extensive contacts in Burma. Occasional conflicts often arise between the CIF/KMT and the Government of Burma or other insurgent forces. Their motivation is mainly commercial, not ideological, with the opium trade a principal source of revenue.
Khakweyei (KKY)
The KKY is a group of independent, autonomous organizations in the Shan State. Most are hired by the Government of Burma to help fight insurgencies and maintain some semblance of a government presence in the Shan State. In return, the Burmese Government does not interfere with KKY trafficking in opiates, gem stones and other contraband items. One of the major KKY leaders is Lo Hsing-Han who is reputed to be one of the opium and heroin magnates in the area. Armed KKY forces are estimated to number approximately 3,000.
PATTERNS OF TRAFFIC IN BURMA
Following the opium harvest in the poppy growing areas in north- eastern Burma, various middlemen-usually ethnic Chinese, represent- ing opium merchants, refinery operators, and/or irregular force units in the area-purchase the crop for eventual delivery to refineries in Tachilek and other locations along the Mekong River or for direct shipment to Bangkok, Vientiane, Saigon, and other population cen- ters in Southeast Asia. The opium is stored to await delivery instruc- tions and the formation of convoys for movement to the border areas. The opium which is convoyed south from the Shan States is owned by the various KKY leaders. The convoys are guarded by troops under the command of these leaders. At times one or more of the less powerful KKY groups will join forces with Lo Hsing-han, Hsu Chia-chu or Yang Shih-li so that the opium belonging to the former will be provided the added protection of the armed guards of the lat- ter enroute to market. The major convoy operations are conducted by the three aforementioned KKY leaders. CIF forces in Burma number only about 300 to 400 men. The bulk of the CIF forces have been resettled in Thailand. At times they have been reported to have joined forces with a KKY caravan and at other times they have reportedly attacked a KKY opium caravan.
Traditionally, these convoys follow routes originating in the north- ern Shan State around Lashio. From that point, they travel to Keng Tung and proceed to the tri-border area either across the Mekong into Laos or into Thailand around the Tachilek-Mae Sai area. (See map on p. 16.) Recently, however, these routes seem to be undergoing ad- justment due to increased enforcement activity on the Thai and La- otian sides of the Burma border, particularly the arrest of Wan Pen Fen who is a major trafficker in Southeast Asia.2
2 Wan Pen Fen, an ethnic Chinese, was arrested in Saigon by US BNDD and South Vietnamese Narcotics Agents for heroin smuggling in July 1971.