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the Shan United Revolutionary Army (S.U.R.A.) under Kwang Jerng. By 1972 they were appointing Chinese K.M.T. officers to rule over Shan administrative areas, and when this happened in Mong Pan, the local S.U.R.A. commanders, Majors Sang Hkam and Mong Tserng, deserted with 60 men to the S.S.A. Soon after the K.M.T./S.U.R.A. launched surprise
attacks on S.S.A. forces in Mong Pan and Mong La.
From mid-June 1972 to the end of July our unit was in Mong Pan with Lt.Col. Pan Aung as he tried to cut off the supplies from the K.M.T. garrison at Bang Pi and block the opium route to Beng Lung on the Thai border. He used his 200 S.S.A. and 60 ex-S.U.R.A. soldiers to ambush rice convoys, arrest opium merchants and also tried to capture a 200 mule K.M.T./S.U.R.A. opium convoy which moved from Dat Mawk to Bang Pi in July. In half a dozen engagements the S.S.A. claimed over a hundred K.M.T./S.U.R.A. dead, but at the end of July they were faced by a reinforced army of 500 K.M.T./S.U.R.A. under Col. Kan Zit. When on the 4th August a thousand Burmese troops arrived on the road less than a mile behind Lt.Col. Pan Aung's position virtually completing his encirclement he retreated out of Mong Pan and moved north into the S.U.R.A. area of Wan Tsing and Dat Mawk. film unit then joined S.S.A. Headquarters at Mong Tung.
Our
At the end of October, there was some more fighting with the S.U.R.A. near Dat Mawk. The S.S.A. also kept a watch on the K.M.T. bases at Mong Tsang, Nakar and Loi Sae and blew up the bridge at Mong Hsu to cut off their rice supplies. But eventually the situation settled down to a stalemate with the S.S.A. taking over some S.U.R.A. villages in the Hkum Pang area. (Appendix D No.3. K.M.T. Opium Trading 1972-3.)
Communist Take-over in Wah State
The Communists (Appendix E Wah Communists) conquered the southern area of wah State between July and September 1972, and when we joined S.S.A. Headquarters in September, the Central Committee was concerned about large scale Burmese troop movements along the West bank of the Calween. They feared that within the next few years they would be crushed between the Burmese and the Communists unless they could find a new source of finance to increase their army. (Appendix F - Copy of S.S.A's 1972 budget and comments on their taxation system.) They therefore began to take an interest in the new opium route that opened up after the Communist take-over.
Until July 1972, most of the opium in Wah State was escorted to Tachilek on the Thai border by local 'Security Forces' called Ka Kwa Ye. (Appendix G - The Tangyan Ka Kwa Ye.) These were feudal armies
actually commanded by the ex-prince in the case of Vingngun and Sao Hin Sao Hpa
which the Burmese had lured away from the Resistance by allowing them
to trade in opium. The Communist take-over not only drove those armies
into Tangyan (west of the Salween), but cut the direct route through the southern Wah State to Tachilek.
The Namlau Opium Route
From June 1972, virtually all the opium of Wah State was brought to Tangyan, then taken by truck through the Burmese check post at Mong Kau, to the end of the road at Namlau, where it was loaded onto mules. The convoys were escorted by the Ka Kwa Ye armies of Bo Lai Oo, Vingngun, Sao Hin Sao Hpa, Loi Sae, Ai Sao Shir, Bo Mi Yak-Huang Yin Surn and by the two Kengtung groups of Yang Siri-Yang San and Shi Kya Chi. The convoys were also joined by the merchants who had previously travelled with the K.M.T. (Because of pressure from Thailand the K.M.T. had asked their merchants to trade under the name of Ka Kwa Ye.)
The S.S.A. had several agents in Namlau and kept one unit just outside (commanded by Lt.Col. Hso Noom, another ex-prince from this area) to buy guns from the Ka Kwa Ye. We visited this unit three or four
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