Peng Jiasheng Breaks His Silence

The ousted Kokang leader, Peng Jiasheng, has told The Irrawaddy that the Burmese military government attack on his headquarters in Laogai was an attempt by the junta to eliminate the Kokang and other armed ethnic groups and achieve a military-run “unified” country.

In his first interview since the fall of Laogai on August 24 and the subsequent exodus of more than 30,000 refugees to China, Peng claimed the Burmese government troops have killed and raped civilians, and have looted houses and shops in Laogai.

“Many people are still afraid to go back home,” he said. “Most of the shops owned by Chinese businessmen have either been destroyed or looted. This is a calamity. The prosperous town we had a few months ago no longer exists. People are living in deep distress.”

Last month, in a surprise move, the military regime broke its ceasefire with several ethnic groups by seizing the Kokang capital.

Since the attack, instability has been reverberating throughout Kachin and Shan states and the towns along the Sino-Burmese border in China’s Yunnan Province.

Other ceasefire groups in northern and northeastern Burma—in particular, the United Wa State Army, the Kachin Independence Army and the National Democratic Alliance Army—have been digging in and building defenses against a potential attack by junta forces.

During the attack on Laogai, the regime said that it was searching for illegal drugs and weapons.

During a press briefing last week, Burma's Deputy Home Affairs Minister Brig-Gen Phone Swe said that government troops had seized a weapons factory near the Chinese border on August 8 after being informed about it during a ministerial meeting with China on combating transnational crime.

The junta earlier said the ethnic Kokang militia raided a police checkpoint and took 39 police officers hostage. Fifteen officers were later killed, leading to full-scale fighting that state media say left 11 soldiers and eight militia members dead.

In response to the regime’s allegations that the Kokang leader was running an illegal weapons factory, Peng told The Irrawaddy: “Many of our weapons need repairing. It is reasonable to have a weapons-repair factory. This factory was well-known to all the SPDC [State Peace and Development Council] officials in Kokang. They have visited it before. Now they are using it as an excuse to take action against us.

“The Burmese national army is the strongest force in the country. They can crack down on whichever ethnic groups they want. They can accuse any ceasefire group of drugs or weapons or anything.”

Despite a reputation for being one of the most prominent drug traffickers in the region, Peng hit back at Naypyidaw saying there is no poppy cultivation in any of the special regions of Shan State, and that investigations by international agencies have confirmed this.

“In SPDC-controlled areas, there are more than 250,000 mu [Chinese land unit, equivalent to 667 square meters] of cultivated poppy. This is the practice of the junta, and this is how they behave,” he said.

Exclusive interview with Peng Jiasheng available at Irrawaddy.org

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