Word: junta
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...with the pariah regime will not only help solve cross-border problems, such as the trafficking of narcotics, but also encourage democratic change in Burma. Critics like HRW assert, however, that the transfer of Burmese exiles is meant to stop their involvement in political activity that might offend the junta, and that the moves by Thailand, taken collectively, send a message of support for the ruling generals. "If this is the price of better relations between Rangoon and Bangkok," says Sunai, "I'm not sure it's worth paying...
...Right now, the junta needs all the friends it can get. The 60th birthday over a week ago of Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who is under house arrest, has again put the spotlight on the repression practiced by the regime. Recent bomb attacks by unknown perpetrators in Rangoon and Mandalay have killed and injured scores of people. Unprecedented pressure exerted by other members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations means Burma is unlikely to take its turn chairing ASEAN in mid-2006. The purge of Prime Minister and intelligence chief Khin Nyunt last October...
...killed 337 U.W.S.A. soldiers in the April fighting. If true, this is no mean feat. Much feared for their ferocity in battle, the 750,000-strong Wa traditionally live along Burma's equally rugged border with China; some are former headhunters. The U.W.S.A. struck a cease-fire with the junta in 1989 in return for keeping the peace. It also kept its weapons and, free to run its home region as a semi-autonomous state, expanded its trade in heroin?the Wa hills are opium-growing territory?and later in methamphetamines. Today, the U.W.S.A. is one of Southeast Asia...
...Later, his wife and three children?then aged 9, 7 and 1?trekked for more than two months through malarial jungles to join him. Four women from his home village were raped by Burmese soldiers, claims Wi Ling?credibly, since the systematic rape of women and girls by the junta's troops has been well documented by international rights groups, and many rape victims have sought refuge at Loi Tai Leng. "I'll return to my village," says Wi Ling, "when the Burmese soldiers leave...
...involved in the drug trade, and says the S.S.A. is funded by taxing goods such as logs and livestock and by donations from Shan exiles overseas. "Our door is open for anyone to come and see that we have nothing to do with [drugs]," Yawd Serk says. The junta's alliance with the U.W.S.A. makes a mockery of its supposed antinarcotics efforts, he says. "If the Burmese are serious about fighting drugs, then they'll have to fight the Wa one day," Yawd Serk points...