The junta has bowed to the United Wa State Army’s demand for administrative control of Hopang and Panlong towns in northern Shan State, according to WSTV, an ethnic Wa television station.
The transfer of the two towns to Myanmar’s most powerful ethnic army expands Wa Self-Administered Division east of the Salween River.
WSTV reported that the two towns that had been under the junta’s control were handed over to the Wa State People’s Government on Jan. 4.
Wa Self-Administered Division, the only entirely autonomous area in Myanmar, is run by the Wa State People’s Government, which operates schools, hospitals, courts, and law enforcement in what ethnic Wa people call Wa State.
A UWSA delegation led by the administer of Wa State’s Mongmao district and two officials from the state’s government visited Hopang and Panlong on Wednesday and Thursday last week to officially take over both towns, WSTV reported.
The two towns were seized by the Brotherhood Alliance on Jan. 5 following the surrender of over 700 junta troops. The alliance – comprising the Arakan Army, the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army – subsequently gave the two towns to the United Wa State Army.
Nyi Nap, chairman of the junta-appointed administrative body of Wa Self-Administered Division, handed over control of the two towns to the UWSA’s administrator for Mongmao District in a ceremony last Wednesday. The administrator of Mongmao district is appointed by the UWSA as the administrator for all of Wa Self-Administered Division.
One week after the Brotherhood Alliance launched Operation 1027 in northern Shan State on Oct. 27, the USWA said it would remain neutral despite its ties to alliance members.
Still, it expanded its territory and gained two towns without firing a single bullet.
The ethnic Wa in Myanmar have never been controlled by national-level authorities. In the early 1970s, the Communist Party of Burma took over the mountainous area now known as Wa Self-Administered Division. In 1989, the rank-and-file of the communist army, which included thousands of Wa troops, mutinied against their leaders. Subsequently, they signed a ceasefire agreement with the then-military regime, which designated the Wa homeland as Shan State Special Region 2.
The UWSA was granted autonomy over the area.
Hopang and Panlong are part of the region, but were administered nationally.
Special Region 2 was renamed Wa Self-Administered Division in the 2008 military-drafted Constitution, but Hopang remained under the control of central authorities. After 34 years, the UWSA finally has Hopang back under its control.
The junta did not do what it usually does when it loses territory – bomb the people who live on it. It did not shell or carry out a single airstrike on the two towns when the Brotherhood Alliance seized them and transferred them to the UWSA.
The consequence of attacking the towns would have been too dire, one military analyst said. “The military did not drop bombs or attack after the Wa took the towns. The military only carried out strikes in Laukkai and other areas. It dares not open a new front, considering the strength of the UWSA. If the UWSA fights [against the junta], the military will be in trouble across eastern Shan State.”
Wa State comprises three districts – Mongmao, Monglin and Mongpauk – and Pangkham Special Township. In total, the area covers about 1,500 square kilometers. The UWSA refers to as northern Wa State.
During the 1990s, the UWSA expanded its territory to include Monghsat District on the border with Thailand in southern Shan State, with the agreement of the then junta, and around 80,000 to 100,000 ethnic Wa people resettled there. The district is referred to as southern Wa State by the UWSA.
The UWSA has demanded official statehood. The regime has agreed in principle to grant statehood to the UWSA.
