Myanmar News Articles: SSA building homes across the border

More than one and a half years after agreement was reached in Kengtung, between the Restoration Council of Shan State/Shan State Army (RCSS/SSA) and Naypyitaw's Union Peacemaking Work Committee (UPWC), construction of the planned 200 homes for displaced families in Monghta sub-township, opposite Chiangmai's Wiang Haeng district has begun, according to a SHAN reporter that visited the area last month.

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Supervisor for the RCSS/SSA is Maj Sai Lek, who had moved there several months ahead of the implementation of the planned project.

The 200 homes on completion would add to the 40 homes already established there since early 2011, a few months after Monghta and its surrounding area were designated as a second sub-township of Mongton township. The other sub-township is Pongpakhem, opposite Chiangdao district, east of Wiang Haeng.

"It used to have hundreds of homes before the Kuomintang incursion in 1950," a Shan who is now a naturalized citizen after fleeing into Thailand since. "It, together with Mongton and Pangpakhem, used to be part of the Mongpan princely state."

It still had about 100 homes in 1994 during the late Khun Sa's Mong Tai Army period. Armed conflict in the area had begun following declaration of Independence by Khun Sa, who used to be a militia leader under the control of the Burma Army.

"It was then that Sao Yawd Serk (then a major in the MTA and now the leader of the RCSS/SSA) became famous after his daring capture of the Burmese army stronghold at Loi Hin Kawng, near Mong Kyawd (some 25 miles east of Monghta)," the reporter remembered. "The Burma Army had to use bombers to dislodge him."

The said battle and another one in 2002, following the MTA's surrender, had devastated the area and by the end of 2010 when it became a sub-township there were less than 10 houses. "The Burma Army managed to bring in Lahus from Nakawngmu and Pongpakhem, with assurances that they would be allowed to grow poppies," a local source told SHAN.

Mongton township, except for parts under the control of the United Wa State Army (UWSA), is known as a major opium producer in Shan State.

Monghta, about 25 miles north of the former border checkpoint of Lak Taeng, is also connected to Mongpan in the north, Nakawngmu in the east, Thailand's Wiang Haeng in the south and Homong (former MTA headquarters) in the west.

"The Burmese officials told us a new bridge across the Salween at Ta Hsop Pard crossing would be constructed and completed within 3 years," another visitor reported.

In the meantime, Chiangmai provincial officials have been pushing for the reopening of BP-1 (Boundary Pillar # 1) at Nawng Ook, connecting Chiangdao with Pongpakhem, and BP-2 (Boundary Pillar # 2, also known as Lak Taeng), connecting Monghta with Wiang Haeng.

The 12 point agreement signed between Naypyitaw and the RCSS/SSA on 19 May 2012 includes Point # 10- to establish an industrial zone in the Monghta area.