Burma Army wants SSA out from strategic township_ART OF WAR
The SSA in turn wanted the Burma Army to withdraw its units from Homong (opposite Maehongson) and Monghta (opposite Chiangmai). Both sides had agreed to refer to their respective superiors to decide on the matter.
Mongyawng, 2,754 square miles (7,050 square kilometers), is also located alongside the international river Mekong.
“Nothing to be surprised about,” commented a former Communist officer living at the Sino-Burma border town of Mongla, where the National Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA) is based. “They (the Burma Army) wanted Mongla out too.”
Better known as Mongla group, the NDAA roughly occupies half of the total area of the township. It was pushed out of its two bases: Wan Kho and Pong Hiet, along the Mekong last year, but had refused to budge from the last two: Mong Fan and, more importantly, Hsop Lwe (known to Mongla as Hsop Khong) river port.
The ex-Communist Party of Burma (CPB) officer, who requested anonymity, asked rhetorically, “Who will want to leave Mongyawng once he’s there? The place is highly fertile, is known to possess several precious natural resources (iron, coal, silver etc.) and, moreover, shares border with China and Laos. Additionally, anyone who has Mongyawng has easy access to Thailand and, through it, to the outside world.”
“The Art of War” by China’s warrior-philosopher (BC 551-467), calls an area which forms the key to three contiguous states as “intersecting ground” and declares “he who occupies it first has most of the Empire at his command.” On such ground, he advises, “join hands with your allies.”
One of the treatise’s commentators, Ho Yanxi, also suggests. “First occupy this ground, and the people will have to go with you. So if you get it, you are secure. If you lose it, you are in peril.”
