TNI: Kokang- why and how to resolve it

According to a former Military Intelligence (MI) officer, whom the TNI interviewed, it was because Peng Jiasheng (also written Pheung Kya-Shin) “feels cheated.”

In 1989, following the 18 September 1988 coup, in the aftermath of the countrywide 8 August 1988 (later to be known as the Four 8’s) uprisings, the coup leaders were hard pressed: by the democratic activists in the urban areas and the armed rebels in the rural areas. The strongest among the latter was the Communist Party of Burma (CPB), that was still a formidable force despite termination of military support by China, following Mao’s death and Deng’s ascendency.

Peng, disillusioned both politically and militarily with the Burman- dominated CPB, had meanwhile “succeeded in convincing local commanders in the Kokang, Wa, Mongla and Kambaiti (Kachin) regions to join him in separating from the CPB.”

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