Karen army chief threatens to intensify retaliation against Thailand

BANGKOK, Mat 10 (TNA) - The chief of a rebel Karen army has denied narcotic charges from Thailand and threatened to intensify his retaliation. Major General Saw Ler Pwe, also known as Na Kham Mwe, Commander-in-Chief of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), which is active in Myanmar border areas opposite Phop Phra district of Thailad’s northwestern Tak province, told a press conference Thursday that he had nothing to do with drug trafficking, as charged by the Thai authorities, and he would expose those behind narcotic businesses along the border and would respond to Thailand’s blacklist on him with obstacles to border trade, but without any use of forces or weapons. Major General Na Kham Mwe also challenged Thai Deputy Prime Minister Police Captain Chalerm Yubumrung, who is responsible for narcotic suppression, to, instead, arrest exiled ex-Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was sentenced to imprisonment and is a fugitive. Meanwhile, Police General Adul Saengsingkaew, Secretary-General of Thailand's Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB), confirmed that Major General Na Kham Mwe is wanted in Thailand under an arrest warrant issued in 2003 for possessing 900,000 methamphetamine pills for trafficking and he faces a death sentence with the statute of limitations of his case lasting 20 years. The ONCB chief insisted that Major General Na Kham Mwe is connected with drug cartels in northern Thailand, and that the Thai government will ask the Myanmar government to arrest the DKBA leader. (TNA)