MYANMAR GROUP PRODUCES MOST HEROIN

LOI SAM SAO, Myanmar - Cradling an assault rifle, a teen-age
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, also known as 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.

"We are not going to be like Khun Sa and surrender," said Sadorn, the
Wa captain. "He is quite comfortable now, but his people are not."

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.

But the Wa could soon be squeezed on another side. Thailand, which has
long relied on the ethnic militias as a buffer against Myanmar, is
feeling pressure to curb the Wa.

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 million today.

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

"We can't afford to destroy one drug network just to see the problem
pop up," said Sorasit, the Thai anti-drug official.