By Thai Newsroom Reporters
NO COMBAT OPERATIONS will be launched for the time being by the Thai army to repel Wa rebels from a Thai-Myanmar border area in northern Thailand, according to Deputy Prime Minister-cum-Defence Minister Phumtham Wechayachai.
Phumtham categorically denied today (Nov. 27) that the Thai army would probably be poised to conduct combat missions to keep the Wa rebels out of the shared border area in Pai district of Mae Hong Son as alleged on social media because, he said, those armed rebels are living in “peaceful co-existence” with Thai villagers over there.
The civilian defence minister apparently downplayed fresh concerns over unconfirmed news reports that heavily-armed Wa rebels of the United Wa State Army have holed up in high terrains of a border area of the northern Thai province and that Thai army troops and artillery units have been quietly prepared to repel the intruders.
He quoted the Third Army Region in charge of the northern border as saying Thai villagers and Wa rebels have been living in “peaceful co-existence” and without mutual conflict in mountainous border areas since the last couple of decades.
Wa rebels, practically allowed by Nayipidaw to settle down in Wa State inside the war-torn Myanmar, are widely known as manufacturers and suppliers of colossal quantities of drugs ranging from opium and heroin to methamphetamine smuggled across the Thai-Myanmar border into the interiors of Thailand.
The Ministry of Defence’s spokesperson Maj.Gen. Thanathip Sawangsang said the debatable northern border area where the armed Wa rebels have been occupying is called a “no man’s land” filled with rainforests and mountains where the Land Department or any other Thai authorities have yet to draw a border demarcation line.
The spokesperson branded the news reports that the army was currently deploying artillery units along the Wa-occupied border area as “fake news.”
CAPTION:
Top and Front Page: Pai district of Mae Hong Son province. Photos: Sanook.com
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