November 13: Two weeks after Gen Khin Nyunt and his associates were “permitted to retire”, business has almost returned to normal in northern Shan State, reports Hawk eye from the border:

“Business is picking up again,” replies a shopkeeper from Muse, opposite Yunnan province’s Ruili, to S.H.A.N.’s query, “with more dust (meaning heroin) leaving for China than the pills (meaning methamphetamines) and at a good price too.”

The price of low-quality yaba (methamphetamines) remains high, Kyat 70,000 per 200-pill bag since the flap that followed Khin Nyunt’s abrupt dismissal while heroin is Yuan 33,000 ($ 4,125), much to the delight of the traders, he says. The high-quality yaba, meanwhile, remains stable,
around 100,000 kyat ($ 100) per bag.

Kickbacks for all commodities also remain the same as before, he claims. “The only difference is that the new guys on the landscape are the police instead of the MI (Military Intelligence) people”.

The rate of pay-offs has not gone down with the departure from the scene of the MI either, at least in the case casino operators, says another source. “The cut for the MI now goes to the military commanders here.”

Along the Thai border, the refineries, closed after Khin Nyunt’s ouster, are reopened and functioning as “usual” reports an insider source, who remarks, “Now, we can believe that, with or without Khin Nyunt, life does go on.”

A transcription of a speech given by Secretary-1 Lt-Gen Thein Sein, then Commander of Kengtung-based Triangle Region Command, given on 9 May 2001 in Mongla, says, “I was in Mongton and Monghsat for two weeks. Very friendly with U Way Shauk Kan (Wei Hsuehkang) and U Pao Youyi (Bao Youri, elder brother of Bao Youxiang) from the Wa group.”