Wa State - History

History

For a long time, headman tribes were dispersed around the Kawa mountain, with no unified governance. During the Qing Dynasty, the region became separated from the tribal military control of the ethnic Dai.

From the late 1940s, during the Chinese Civil War, remnants of the Chinese National Revolutionary Army retreated to territory within Burma as the communists took over mainland China. Within the region surrounding the Kawa mountain, Kuomintang forces of the Eighth Army 237 division and 26th Army 93 division held their position for two decades in preparation for a counterattack towards mainland China. Under pressure from the United Nations, the counterattack was cancelled and the army was recalled to northern Thailand and later back to Taiwan; however, some troops decided to remain within Burma. East of the Salween river, indigenous tribal guerilla groups exercised control with the support of the Burmese Communist Party.

During the 1960s, the Burmese Communist Party lost its base of operations within central Burma, and with the assistance of the Chinese communists, expanded within the border regions. Many intellectual youths from China joined the Burmese Communist Party, and these forces also absorbed many local guerillas. The Burmese communists gained control over Pangkham, which became their base of operations.

At the end of the 1980s, the ethnic minorities of northeast Burma became politically separated from the Burmese Communist Party. On 17 April 1989, Bao Youxiang's armed forces announced their separation from the Burmese Communist Party, and formed the United Myanmar Ethnics Party, which later became the United Wa State Party. On 18 May, the Wa State and Myanmar military junta formed a ceasefire agreement.

Tensions between the central government and Wa state were heightened in 2009. During this time, peace initiative proposals by the Wa State were rejected by the Myanmar government. The government warned on 27 April 2010 that the WHP program could push Myanmar and the Wa State into further conflict.