No.14 - 12/2005
19 December 2005

Drugs

From Hongpang to Xinghong

The beleaguered Wa business firm has changed its label from Hongpang (Great State) to Xinghong (Thriving Greatness), said a source close to the Wa this morning.

The Wa office at the northern entrance of Tachilek in Hawngleuk Quarter, near the Yawng Ni Oo gas station had recently put up a new signboard bearing the new name. "The Wa chief representative can be located there," he said.

The latest development took place almost three months after the massive haul of heroin (496 kg) was seized in a joint three-nation operation on 10 September in Mongpiang, 250 km northwest of Tachilek.

Many former subsidiary firms have also been "liberated" from Hongpang: Thawda Swe, Shwe Pauk Kan Orange, Wai Family Agriculture, Wai Family Electrical Production and Supplies, Kwanlong Transportation, Shwe Taung Shwe Myay Tea and Plantations, Sophia Kilo, Mekong River Hotel, Ne Wun Ni gas station and Mya Shwe Yi Rubber Plantations.

Countrywide, it has been dissected into 32 separate companies, according to an unconfirmed report.

Hongpang is the second Wa conglomerate that has been deactivated since the Wa concluded a ceasefire pact with Rangoon in 1989, according to the source. The first was the Myanmar Kyone Yeom Group that was closed in 1998. "But the generals have always allowed them to return in a different guise," he said.