Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
07CHIANGMAI173
2007-10-26 09:58:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Consulate Chiang Mai
Cable title:  

THAI ARMY PROVIDES GLIMPSE ACROSS BURMESE BORDER

Tags:  PREL MARR PHUM PREF BM TH SNAR 
pdf how-to read a cable
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DE RUEHCHI #0173/01 2990958
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 260958Z OCT 07
FM AMCONSUL CHIANG MAI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0589
INFO RUCNASE/ASEAN MEMBER COLLECTIVE
RUEHOO/CHINA POSTS COLLECTIVE
RUEHNE/AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI PRIORITY 0026
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHDC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC
RHMFISS/CDR USPACOM HONOLULU HI
RUEHCHI/AMCONSUL CHIANG MAI 0642
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 CHIANG MAI 000173 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/26/2017
TAGS: PREL MARR PHUM PREF BM TH SNAR
SUBJECT: THAI ARMY PROVIDES GLIMPSE ACROSS BURMESE BORDER

REF: A) CHIANG MAI 160, B) BANGKOK 5169

CHIANG MAI 00000173 001.2 OF 002


CLASSIFIED BY: Michael K. Morrow, Consul General, Chiang Mai,
DoS.
REASON: 1.4 (b),(d)



-------
Summary
-------

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 CHIANG MAI 000173

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/26/2017
TAGS: PREL MARR PHUM PREF BM TH SNAR
SUBJECT: THAI ARMY PROVIDES GLIMPSE ACROSS BURMESE BORDER

REF: A) CHIANG MAI 160, B) BANGKOK 5169

CHIANG MAI 00000173 001.2 OF 002


CLASSIFIED BY: Michael K. Morrow, Consul General, Chiang Mai,
DoS.
REASON: 1.4 (b),(d)



--------------
Summary
--------------


1. (C) A recent visit with a Thai military unit on the Burmese
border showed business as usual. An uneasy truce holds among
Burmese troops and two armed ethnic groups in the area. Thai
drug interdiction efforts there have reportedly had success
locally, but have only diverted the Burma-based traffickers to
other transit points. The Royal Thai Army works hard to
maintain correct relations with its Burmese counterpart, but at
the expense of addressing the root cause of the narcotics,
refugees, and other troubles that emanate from Burma. End
Summary.

--------------
All Quiet on Thai-Burma Border
--------------


2. (C) Royal Thai Army (RTA) officers treated Consul General to
a briefing and border outpost visit during his October 16 visit
to Chiang Rai province. The host unit was the 3rd Cavalry
brigade (under the RTA 3rd Army's Pha Muang Task Force),which
handles border security for a 217-mile stretch of Thailand's
northern border with Burma (Shan State) and Laos. The security
role includes defense, counternarcotics, immigration control,
and general law and order.


3. (C) The unit flew CG via a Vietnam war-era Huey helicopter
to a 3rd Cavalry observation position high in the jungle-clad
hills on the Thai-Burma border near Mae Sai. The commander
there pointed out to CG a scattering of military outposts across
the border manned by three opposing forces: the Burmese Army,
and two armed ethnic groups - the United Wa State Army and the
Shan State Army. The outposts were easily visible without
binoculars, keeping a watchful eye on one another in an uneasy
truce that has lasted for several months.


4. (C) Prior to the flight, 3rd Cavalry Chief of Operations Lt.
Col. Adisorn briefed us on military-related activities along the

brigade's 93-mile stretch of the border with Burma's Shan State.
His observations included:

-- Burmese Army repair and maintenance of roads in the area
over the last year, to improve logistics support for its
military positions along the border;

-- rotation of Burmese troops in the area every four months; and

-- no skirmish activity between Burmese troops and various
ethnic forces in the area since late 2006.

--------------
Rangoon's Soft Approach Toward Ethnic Forces
--------------


5. (C) Last June the Burmese Army tried to persuade United Wa
State Army (UWSA) forces in the area to disarm, but without
success, Lt. Col. Adisorn reported. He cited two possible
reasons for this attempt:

-- Rangoon's desire to show the international community its
willingness to act against the UWSA, which is a major narcotics
trafficking force; and/or

-- The regime's unhappiness with the UWSA for not heeding its
request to expel Shan State Army (SSA) forces from the border
area, and instead holding surreptitious meetings with SSA
leaders.

According to Adisorn, the RTA believes the Burmese Army's
unwillingness to force the disarmament issue with the UWSA
militarily, or take direct military action against the SSA,
reflects caution stemming from the recent political unrest in
Rangoon and elsewhere.

-------------- ---
Shan State Actively Producing and Transporting Narcotics
-------------- ---


6. (C) The 3rd Cavalry claimed success in interdicting drugs

CHIANG MAI 00000173 002.2 OF 002


coming across its part of the border from Burma, in part because
of new x-ray machines recently installed by the RTG at the Mae
Sai-Tashilek border crossing. However, UWSA producers have
simply responded by using other transshipment points along
Burma's borders with Thailand, Laos and China. Lt. Col. Adisorn
reported that heroin production in Burma was on the rise given
increasing acreage devoted to poppy cultivation - largely
because increasingly destitute rural dwellers lacked alternative
sources of income. The UWSA remains the region's leading
producer of methamphetamines (capable of producing a
higher-quality drug than other local groups in the business).
Adisorn reported a downturn in crystal meth ("ice") production
due to effective efforts by China to control one of the
precursor chemicals. In response, however, this year the UWSA
began to work with partners in India to produce crystal meth.

-------------- --------------
Layered Approach to Thai-Burma Cross-Border Relations
-------------- --------------


7. (C) The 3rd Cavalry maintains relations and communication
with its Burmese counterpart via a township border committee
that has met five times so far this year. The sides take turns
hosting in Mae Sai and Tashilek. Higher-level mil-mil relations
are handled by a committee representing the leaders of the RTA
3rd Army and the Burmese Army's Triangle Command, Adisorn told
us. Above that there is the ministerial-level Joint Committee.

--------------
RTG Skittish on Broadcasting Into Burma
--------------


8. (C) On the margins of the Chiang Rai visit, CG met with the
anti-trafficking NGO Development and Education Program for
Daughters and Communities (DEPDC). Many of the girls it helps
are from ethnic groups inside Burma. One of DEPDC's activities
is "Child Voice Radio," which is primarily a community radio
station focused on anti-trafficking, AIDS awareness, English
lesions, health and social issues, and some news. It broadcasts
in Mae Sai and the surrounding area, including parts of Shan
State, in Thai, Burmese, and various ethnic languages of the
region.


9. (C) Shortly after the September unrest broke out in Rangoon,
DEPDC was instructed to shut down its radio station temporarily,
reportedly by the RTG's Internal Security Operations Command
(ISOC). The ISOC cited concerns that the broadcasts might
incite ethnic groups in Burma to act up in support of the
anti-regime demonstrators. As of our visit, the station still
had not resumed broadcasting, but had reportedly reached a
verbal agreement with local security officials that it could
resume as long as it provided the officials with Thai-language
transcripts of the broadcasts.

--------------
Comment
--------------


10. (C) Although our visit provided a first-hand glimpse of
only a small portion of the lengthy Thai-Burma border, the
observations we came away with are consistent with what we have
seen in recent visits to other portions of the border (reftel).
The RTA works hard at maintaining correct relations with its
Burmese counterpart, and tends to focus more on the symptoms of
Burma's dysfunctional regime (narcotics, refugees, skirmishes
with ethnics) than on the root cause (a brutal, authoritarian
government).


11. (U) This cable was cleared with Embassy Bangkok POL Section
and Army Attache.
MORROW