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HONG ICONO SVGASINS
Drug king loses out
in Golden Triangle
BANGKOK, Mon. The English language daily, the Bangkok Post, claimed here to- day that legendary
Australia clamps down on
heroin and opium king, Lo Hsing-han, who re- portedly controls the trafficking of drug in the "Golden Triangle" has lost control of his empire to Chinese Communists operating as the "Communist Party of Burma who have taken over the major opium producing areas of the Shan and
extremists Wa states in Burma."
SYDNEY, Mon. Fourteen people were to appear in court in Sydney and Wollongong, 50 miles south of here, today following a series of raids by a combined force of 260 armed federal and state police yesterday.
The police were investigating extremist activities by Croatian nationalists.
The 14 men and women were charged after questioning at Sydney's, police
headquarters.
Police said the charges included having firearms, explosives or stolen goods in their possession, and assaulting police.
The charges followed what was believed to be the biggest police raid in Australia's history.
RAIDS
Scores of startled men and women were reported to have been caught in the series of raids, by some 260 armed police, which began at dawn and lasted well into the afternoon.
The raids covered Yugoslav communities in the Sydney metropolitan area and at. Wollongong 80 miles to the south, and followed a fortnight of intensive activity aimed against Croatian extremists.
The Attorney-General. Senator Lionel Murphy, told Parliament last week that three organisations dedicated to the "liberation" of Croatia - one of the six ethnic states in the Yugoslav federation' were operating in Australia. Reuter
Tribesmen
rampage
PORT MORESBY, Mon. Chanting tribesmen have attacked a leper hospital in the Papua-New Guinea highlands and killed one patient by clubbing him to death, eye-witnesses reported today.
The attack by about 80 warriors yesterday followed an incident in which two lepers went to the aid of a hospital worker who had been set on by a gang of six men. Five of the attackers fled and one man was beaten unconscious.
WARRIORS
Shortly afterwards, tribal warriors armed with bows and arrows stormed the Togoba Hospital in the western highlands in retaliation.
Hospital employee Peter Boleman described the attack: "Patients huddled in the wards while the shouting tribesmen hurled rocks through windows and masonite walls.
The Post "citing reports reaching here" explained that Lo Hsing-han made a deal with the Chinese Communists following "heavy suppression by the Burmese government."
DEAL
According to the paper the deal was struck with the leader of the Chinese Communists in the Kokang-Klakweyai « opium · growing area, identified as "F'eng Chia-sheng of the Communist Party of Burma.
"
"Since the area was taken over by the Communists and following Burmese government harassment Lo was forced into the deal because the Communists would not allow his men to collect opium from the area under F'eng Chia-sheng's control," the Post explained.
Claiming that as a result of this deal the Communists have taken over control of the drug trade in the so-called Golden Triangle straddling the borders of "Laos, Thailand and Burma the Post" said "the Chinese leaders presumably recognising the tactical advantage of the proposition reportedly accepted the proposal with the stipulation that Lo's representatives were engaged in private transactions not officially sanctioned by the CPB."
The paper continued "'evidently to balance his political tightrope-act, Lo joined the Burmese government's Socialist t
Programme Party in Kunlong and swore allegiance to Burma S and the BSP Party two weeks after his successful deal with the Chinese Communists.
"Keeping his promise to the Chinese Lo instructed his officers not to engage CPB units operating in the Wa state but to stimulate attacks by firing into the air."
The Post added that another blow dealt against Lo Hsing-han was an order by the Burmese government that all Khawweyci self defence forces under his command will have to disband and join the Burmese army or the People's Milit
The Post said that “sources said Lo has no intention of
disbanding his forces which protects his opium caravans or ending his opium trafficking "even if the poppy is cultivated under a different idealogy."
When asked recently how incompatible his political ideology was from that of the CPB he was quoted as saying "after all we are all Chinese."
AFP
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