Mongla, the ceasefire group-held city that stands between Burma’s Kengtung and Yunnan’s Jinghong, has since December been reeling under pressures imposed by the two sides, according to local sources coming to the border:

Since December, Mongla, 240 km from Thailand’s Maesai, has been undergoing on-and-off power shutdowns and restrictions on visitors by the Yunnanese authorities. Recently, those coming from China are no longer allowed to have overnight stays and Chinese residents are being recalled.

“We were there for one day,” said a visitor from Japan, who was in Mongla with his friend last month. “But as the two of us toured around the city, we found that we were the only foreigners there. The whole place looked so gloomy that we decided to return to Kengtung (80 km away) in the afternoon.”

Locals were not shy taking about their situation either. “Had it not been for visitors from Thailand, who come to gamble every week, the 3 casinos there would have long gone out of business,” said one.

On the Chinese part, they say it is just part of Beijing’s campaign against drugs, gambling and AIDS that began early this year.

On the other hand, the National Democratic Alliance Army – Eastern Shan State or Special Region #4, according to the military government’s terminology, has been receiving messages from Rangoon to consider its “giving up arms for peace plus special privileges” offer.

“Moreover, the Burmese authorities are saying they are ready to deal with individual units instead of the whole group,” said a former officer from the NDAA-ESS that has there brigades: HQ security, 911th and 369th.

As a result, the group has recently concluded a military pact with the United Wa State Army, its northern neighbor that is also facing same pressures, to come to the aid of each other in the event of being attacked by the Burma Army.

The NDAA-ESS is led by Sai Leun, 59, a former communist commander.

Some local Shans have commented that the recent pressures from Rangoon and Beijing might be not just part of the campaign to force the NDAA-ESS to surrender like two other groups, the Shan State National Army and the Palaung State Liberation Army in April, but also part of the two countries’ joint efforts to open up the Kengtung-Jinghong highway for trade.

So far the main trade route between Burma’s Shan State and China’s Yunnan is the Lashio-Manxi highway.