NASTY JOB FOR TASK FORCE 399

U.S. Special Forces Are About To Join Thailand's War On Drugs From Burma; A
Tense Border And Geopolitical Pressures Complicate Their Mission

They're not related but the timing may be a bad portent. As Beijing and
Washington wrangle over a U.S. spy plane, U.S. troops are starting to move
into northern Thailand relatively close to the Chinese border. The vast
majority are preparing for the annual Thai-U.S. Cobra Gold military
exercises in May. But some U.S. Special Forces in the same area are more
stealthily joining what will be known as Task Force 399.

Some 5,000 U.S. troops will come to Thailand to take part in Cobra
Gold--the biggest joint U.S. military exercise in Asia this year--and a
handful will stay to join the war on drugs. The U.S. military has mounted
low-level military training missions in Thailand under a programme called
Baker Torch for several years. But the new, more secretive Task Force 399
involvement will be its most important in the kingdom.

The task force's goal is to stem an enormous flow of drugs, particularly
methamphetamines, smuggled from Burma into Thailand. About 20 U.S. soldiers
from the 1st Special Forces Group serving as instructors will join 100 Thai
Special Forces men, two infantry companies of about 100 men each and 100
Border Patrol Police to make up the task force, according to senior Thai
and foreign security officials. Once in place, the U.S. Special Forces will
be nearly 200 kilometres by road from the Chinese border.

The U.S. instructors will officially start operating with the 3rd Army in
May and join the task force in October. The cross-border flood of
methamphetamines, mainly from laboratories in areas controlled by the Wa
ethnic minority in Burma's Shan state, has reached a crisis point for the
Thais. Up to 800 million tablets are expected to inundate Thailand this
year. Concern at how fast this is undermining society in an old U.S. ally
prompted the Americans to act, says a Western diplomat.

The 15,000-strong United Wa State Army, which is aligned with Rangoon, is
accused by Thai anti-narcotics agencies of being the chief maker of the
methamphetamine tablets. At the same time, tension is high on the
Thai-Burmese border following a clash near the border town of Mae Sai in
February in which dozens of Burmese troops were killed. As one
Bangkok-based foreign intelligence official says, the mission for the
United States is "a high-risk game, given fragile Thai-Burma relations on
the border."

It is also a gamble given similar, but much larger and still growing, U.S.
military involvement to stamp out drugs production in Colombia. Critics in
the U.S. Congress are warning the United States could be sucked into a
bloody civil war there if U.S. troops are gradually drawn into battle with
narco-guerrillas. There is no such civil war in Thailand, but just across
its borders are both sensitive Burma and China--Rangoon's only major ally
and is its main arms supplier.

The Wa are equipped with Chinese weapons, and are helping Beijing build a
road network through Burma to the Burmese coast. China deals with the Wa
because they are the dominant ethnic force in northeast Burma. Most
recently, Thai intelligence officials say the Wa acquired sophisticated
HN-5N surface-to-air missiles from China. They may have come from the black
market, but for the arms to reach Burma, officials in China must, at very
least, have turned a blind eye.

Task Force 399 is supposed to confront drug traffickers in Thailand only
and the U.S. Special Forces will only be instructors. Leadership of
anti-narcotics operations was taken from the police and given to the
northern-based 3rd Army by former Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai in October
1998. The U.S. component adds to the Thai military's role on the frontline
of what is Thailand's biggest national security problem.

Thai officials say the Americans are keen to stop the Wa manufacturing and
smuggling drugs--though Task Force 399 will be based in Thailand, at Mae
Rim village, just north of the major town of Chiang Mai.

Senior Thai officers and U.S. officials are reluctant even to confirm the
existence of the task force. The Americans only stress their role in
training the 3rd Army, and that the task force will help interdict drug
traffickers inside Thailand. Thai security officials say the force will
have the latest night-vision and radar equipment, backed by two
American-made Black Hawk helicopters.

In October the three-year mandate given to the army by Chuan expires. It is
unclear what will happen to anti-drugs operations under new Prime Minister
Thaksin Shinawatra. But the new U.S. role worries some of the more
nationalistic in the Thai military. "This is raising some concern among
progressive ranking officers," says Panitan Wattanayagorn, a Chulalongkorn
University military affairs scholar and former security adviser to Chuan.
"They are not too happy. They also know this is not a war that can be
easily fought."

Muddy Border Situation

Maj.-Gen. Anu Sumitra, the 3rd Army intelligence chief, says the task force
will not confront Burmese troops but will stay on the Thai side of the
border. Even with such assurances, Panitan warns: "There is an increasing
risk of confrontation, but both sides stand to lose from confrontation. The
government must not make the Burmese feel we are representing the West."

At an April 4 news conference following a meeting in Burma of the Regional
Border Committee, Lt.-Gen. Wattanachai Chaimuanwong, the 3rd Army's
commander, appeared pleased that Burmese generals, whom he had repeatedly
criticized for alleged involvement in the drug trade, were now being
cooperative. He quoted the Burmese as promising to destroy drug
laboratories identified by the Thais and to allow verification of the
destruction by "unbiased" media.

Was Wattanachai only reflecting the position of new Defence Minister
Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, who boasts of his good relations with the Burmese
military junta? A senior army officer involved in the talks says
Wattanachai was sincere. "I think the Burmese have their internal problems,
including a poor economy, and the border drugs situation has become common
knowledge so they need friends--particularly the Thais," the officer says.
By internal problems, he is referring to the power struggle between Burmese
army commander Gen. Maung Aye and the junta's first secretary, Lt.-Gen.
Khin Nyunt. Whether this will affect the task force's future and the Thai
army's anti-drug operations remains to be seen. Says Panitan: "I think
academics and the media know the situation well, and are watching Chavalit
closely."

The Thai military has a list of about 60 drug laboratories, mainly
controlled by the Wa, in Burma. A day after his return Wattanachai cheekily
sent the Burmese the locations of three such sites, though observers think
it inconceivable that Rangoon doesn't know where the labs are. Thai
officers say that Khin Nyunt is particularly close to the Wa. In contrast,
Wattanachai told the REVIEW in December, "Maung Aye despises the Wa."

Senior Thai military officers say they believe Maung Aye is wary of Khin
Nyunt's influence over the Wa army. They say Maung Aye recently sent light
infantry into eastern Shan state--both as a show of force against the Thais
and to undermine Khin Nyunt's power base. The officers say that the move is
also viewed as an attempt to contain the Wa fighters, whom Maung Aye would
dearly like to disarm.

Beijing, meanwhile, agreed in March to a Thai proposal that China, Thailand
and Burma cooperate against drug trafficking. Thai senior security
officials have said that Chinese officials in Burma helped resettle tens of
thousands of Wa from the northern border with China to the southern border
with Thailand. They said the Chinese apparently wanted to move the drug
problem away from their back door. The officials suspect that by joining
Rangoon and Bangkok, the Chinese hope to keep a closer eye on what the U.S.
military is up to in northern Thailand.

It's shaping into a muddy border situation. As a Western intelligence
official puts it, the drug-trafficking Wa are confronted by Thai troops on
the border, soon to be backed by U.S. instructors; they are opposed by
Maung Aye, supported by Khin Nyunt, and apparently armed by the
Chinese--who now want to be part of a tripartite anti-drug effort. Says the
official: "If not handled properly, this could be even messier than Colombia."