Mongla gets a cool reception

The talks between the delegation from the National Democratic Alliance Army-Eastern Shan State (NDAA-ESS), based in Mongla, opposite China’s Daluo, and the Triangle Region Command based in Kengtung, 160 km north of Maesai, yesterday ended without any fresh results, according to a source close to the rebel leadership.

Sai Leun, Peng Jiafu and Col Than Tut Thein at Mongla, 30 June 2009. Photo: SHAN

The Mongla side was headed by Vice Presidents Hsan Per and Hsang Lu and Chief of Staff Kham Mawng. On the Burma Army’s side was Col Than Tut Thein, Chief of G-1.

The meeting was called by Maj Gen Kyaw Phyoe, Commander of the Triangle Region Command, while he was on an inspection tour in Mongyu, Mongyawng township, opposite the NDAA’s 911th Brigade base a day earlier. He however was not present at the meeting. Upon inquiry, Than Tut Thein reportedly replied, “If you gentlemen wanted him here, you should have brought your chairman along.”

The NDAA is led by Sai Leun aka USai Lin aka Lin Mingxian, 63, a former commander in the Communist Party of Burma (CPB).

The colonel told them time was running out for the NDAA. “You would do better not to listen to the Wa,” he was quoted as saying. “They are not the government. We are the government. We are all set both politically and militarily to take over (your territories).”

When the NDAA responded by saying whether the thorny Border Guard Force (BGF) issue could be resolved by political means or military means was up to the Burma Army, the colonel was said to have softened. “Well, I’m only a junior officer,” he said. “I’m only saying what my superiors told me to.”

The delegation left after lunch for Mongla, located at the end of a two-hour drive in the northeast. “Unlike previous visits, the delegation had brought some 50-armed guards with them,” said a local.

The NDAA’s ally, the United Wa State Army (UWSA),had also provided heavy security for Bao Youxiang, its supreme leader’s trip to Tangyan, some 100-km across the Salween in the west yesterday to meet Naypyitaw’s chief broker Lt-Gen Ye Myint. The meeting today is to be held under the close observation of and probable mediation by Chinese officials.

“We hope this time the Chinese are not hoodwinked by the junta,” the source close to the Wa leadership said. “During the Kokang incident, the Burma Army had informed China that it was bringing its troops only to prevent the Kokang rival groups from fighting. But actually, it ended up by fighting and ousting its leader Peng Jiasheng.”

The Tangyan meeting today is reportedly the result of intervention by China. Earlier, Bao, citing poor health, had refused to meet the junta negotiator in the Burma Army-controlled territory. He had instead invited Ye Myint to meet him in the Wa capital Panghsang. Which the latter had declined, “saying he was government” according to the Wa source.

Source :http://shanland.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2943:mongla-gets-a-cool-reception&catid=86:war&Itemid=284