NEW DRUG ARMY RULES ATOP 'GOLDEN TRIANGLE'

LOI SAM SAO, Myanmar - Cradling an assault rifle, a teenage rebel sits at a
guard post watching trucks hauling consumer goods and construction material
into northeastern Myanmar over the dusty road from Thailand.

Across the border sits a Thai army command post that overlooks the hills of
Southeast Asia's "Golden Triangle," the region where experts say nearly
half the world's heroin is produced and then smuggled out to the streets of
America and Europe.

The young rebel is the first line of contact between outsiders and the
United Wa State Army, one of the numerous ethnic groups not controlled by
the central government of Myanmar, or Burma.

"Welcome to the land of the Wa," Capt. Sadorn Sae-chang, the taciturn
commander of the Wa army battalion in this area, tells a journalist allowed
a rare, brief visit.

A generation ago, the Wa were feared headhunters. Now, they are the world's
largest producers of heroin and a major supplier of amphetamines in East
Asia. But a cozy arrangement with the Myanmar military government that
allowed their rise is fraying, and the Wa are preparing for war.

Sadorn and the 1,000 Wa soldiers positioned along this part of the border
are part of what the U.S. State Department calls "the world's biggest armed
narcotics-trafficking organization."

Thai officers monitoring the border say the Wa are becoming the masters of
the Golden Triangle, where the frontiers of Myanmar, Laos and Thailand
converge.

"They are definitely moving in that direction, establishing a sound network
with outsiders," said Thai Maj. Gen. Chamlong Phothong. "The pressure is on
us to do something about it."

Thai officials and the State Department estimate about 1,900 tons of raw
opium were cultivated in the Triangle last year, down from 2,300 tons the
previous season, partly because of bad weather. About 10 kilograms of opium
are needed to make a kilogram of heroin.

"The Wa are responsible for nearly half of this amount," said Sorasit
Sangprasert, deputy chief of Thailand's Office of the Narcotics Control Board.

The Wa filled a vacuum left by Khun Sa, the warlord who once ran the
largest narcotics outfit in Myanmar at the head of an army of ethnic Shan.
Khun Sa surrendered to the government three years ago in exchange for
amnesty and now lives in the capital, Yangon.

Wa fighters were once the foot soldiers of the now-defunct Communist Party
of Burma, whose insurgency sputtered out a decade ago. Soon after, they
formed the United Wa State Army and worked out a cease-fire with the
military government.

For Myanmar's army, the truce neutralized a rebel group that had a weapons
inventory large enough to last 10 years.

For the Wa, it was a green light to expand heroin activities southward from
their stronghold in Panghsang on the Chinese border, gaining additional
smuggling routes across the Thai and Chinese borders. Along the way, they
clashed with Khun Sa, hastening his surrender.

But with Khun Sa out of the picture, the truce is losing appeal for the
government, which would like to extend control over the troublesome border
territory and the ethnic groups it has fought for decades.

Tensions have risen over the past year, with the government demanding that
the Wa head back toward their old strongholds near China. The Wa, unwilling
to lose heroin gateways through Thailand, have ignored the order and begun
beefing up their supplies.

The Myanmar government insists it is working with the Wa to bring
development to the area. Some Wa, however, suspect the roads being built in
the hills will eventually bring Myanmar troops against them.

The government may think twice about tangling with the Wa. The United Wa
State Army is believed to be able to field 20,000 fighters. Myanmar's army
approaches 500,000 men, but its troops are committed throughout Myanmar.
Some corrupt Myanmar troops are also believed to profit from letting the
drug traffickers do business.

Westerners see heroin as the biggest threat emanating from the Golden
Triangle, but for Thais and other Asians, it's something else - cheaply
produced amphetamines.

Use is exploding, from 250,000 amphetamine users in Thailand in 1995 to
between 500,000 and 1 illion today.

But as the fall of Khun Sa demonstrated, putting the Wa out of business
might just open the way for another armed group.