[Since Myanmar, then called Burma, gained
independence from Britain in 1948, ethnic groups have been battling for greater
autonomy. Today, under the first nominally civilian government since 1962, they
are clamoring for federalism. The central government and especially the
military have not yet proposed a specific alternative to the country’s highly
centralized state, controlled by members of the main ethnic group, the Burman.]
In a region known for rival ethnic armies and
drug-trafficking gangs, many officials find it prudent to carry side arms even
as they play 18 holes.
In the city, which sits along the border with
Thailand, a picture of barely controlled lawlessness emerges, with at least
eight ethnic militia groups patrolling the streets in different uniforms.
Despite their presence — or, in some cases, facilitated by it, Thai officials
say — drug traffickers regularly smuggle shipments of heroin and
methamphetamine pills to Thailand.
Myanmar has begun a remarkable transformation
over the past two years, edging toward democracy and moving past the legacy of
five decades of military rule. But borderland areas of the country, long riven
by ethnic conflict, pose a stubborn impediment to the government’s hopes for
national peace. Officials have repeatedly postponed the announcement of a
national cease-fire, partly because of the government’s inability to come to
terms with ethnic groups located in an arc around the northern and eastern
borders of the country.
The United Nations reported on Wednesday that
Myanmar’s production of opium, which is used to make heroin, rose 26 percent
this year. Opium cultivation by the region’s impoverished farmers has increased
for seven straight years, the United Nations says. Production of methamphetamines
in northeastern Myanmar has also surged.
“This area is ignored in the global conversation
about Myanmar,” said Jason Eligh, the Myanmar country manager of the United
Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. “The rising level of opium cultivation is an
indicator that things are not going well.”
Mr. Eligh, who has traveled widely through the
northeast of Myanmar, says it is afflicted by a “classic mix of guns and
trafficking.”
“There are dozens of groups with dozens of
different agendas,” he said. “You are not going to find a resolution to the
conflict without first addressing the issue of drugs. We are talking about a
process that is going to take years and years.”
An on-off conflict between the central
government and the tangled jumble of ethnic groups in northern and northeastern
Myanmar is sometimes described as the world’s longest-running civil war.
Since Myanmar, then called Burma, gained
independence from Britain in 1948, ethnic groups have been battling for greater
autonomy. Today, under the first nominally civilian government since 1962, they
are clamoring for federalism. The central government and especially the
military have not yet proposed a specific alternative to the country’s highly
centralized state, controlled by members of the main ethnic group, the Burman.
The volatility of the region is underlined by
periodic attacks and skirmishes, including a blast near the border with China
on Tuesday that left at least three people dead, according to Burmese news
accounts.
A sort of de facto autonomy reigns in many parts
of the borderlands, including large swaths of territory where the central
government has little or no presence.
The starkest example involves the Wa people, who
had something close to autonomy during British colonial rule and who since 1948
have built a state within a state, including their own armed forces, the United
Wa State Army. With at least 20,000 under arms, it is one of the largest rebel
armies in Asia.
The Wa have built their own roads and opened
their own schools, hospitals, courts and prisons. They use their own license
plates, have their own police force and access Chinese and Thai networks for
phone and Internet connections. The leadership writes in Chinese characters,
and many if not most Wa do not speak Burmese.
U Aung Myint, a spokesman for the Wa, said by
telephone Wednesday that the Wa leadership had not held talks with Burmese
government officials since October.
“The government in Naypyidaw has not properly
answered our call for a Wa autonomous state,” he said, referring to Myanmar’s
capital. The Wa “have not yet decided” whether to agree to the nationwide
cease-fire agreement, he said.
Here in Tachileik, the Wa have a “liaison
office” that functions like an embassy.
U Ar Thet, the deputy liaison officer, told a
visiting reporter that the 20 or so Wa representatives in the liaison office
are armed “for self-defense.”
The Wa have rejected the central government’s
role in conducting a census next year. Wa leaders say they will count their own
people.
Government peace negotiators have met with a
range of ethnic groups, sometimes on rebel-held territory. Yet the government
has deferred the key question, ethnic leaders say, of how a unitary state
inured to decades of top-down military rule will devolve power to the ethnic areas
in a new and more democratic Myanmar. Leaders of ethnic groups say the
military, which has maintained significant influence and power in the new
government, does not appear to be budging from the ideology of central command.
“Everybody, including the president, is talking
about federalism — except the military,” said Gen. Gun Maw, the deputy chief of
staff of the Kachin Independence Army, an ethnic militia that has clashed
regularly with government troops.
Speaking on the sidelines of peace negotiations
in November, General Gun Maw said the government and ethnic groups were “still
in the precondition phase of the peace talks.”
Outside observers say they see an overall
improvement in the situation in northern Myanmar but are concerned about the
continued, periodic clashes between government troops and ethnic forces.
A Thai military intelligence officer who is a
member of a special task force that deals with border security, said he
believes that the Burmese military is pursing a strategy of “clobber, then
caress.”
“The Burmese government is pretty smart at
this,” he said. “They are trying to push and push these groups. And then once
tension grows, they propose more talks.”
Thailand is particularly concerned about the
situation because of the record seizures of methamphetamines in recent years
and the prospect of violence spilling across its borders, as has happened in
the past.
The intelligence officer, who declined to be quoted
by name because it would jeopardize his work, said ethnic leaders tell him that
“deep down inside they still mistrust the government, especially because the
government and military seem to be moving in different directions.”
Mr. Ar Thet of the Wa liaison office would not
comment on the overall prospects for peace. But he said the security situation
had definitely improved in Tachileik during his decade and a half working in
the city.
“When I arrived here there were shootings almost
every day,” he said. “Now it’s only once in a while.”
An avid golfer, he also plays down the danger of
fighting on the fairways.
“During my 15 years here, there has only been
one attack on the golf course,” he said.
Poypiti Amatatham contributed reporting from
Bangkok and Wai Moe from Chiang Mai, Thailand.
