Irrawaddy-Jan 15
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. 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. Read more at:
