DPM:Na Kham Mwe's issues will not become national problem

BANGKOK, May 11 (TNA) - Thai Deputy Prime Minister General Yuthasak Sasiprapa, who oversees national security, said on Friday that he believes issues related to Major General Saw Ler Pwe, also known as Na Kham Mwe, Commander-in-Chief of the ethnic Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) in Myanmar border areas, will not become any national problem. General Yuthasak affirmed that relations and cooperation between the Thai and Myanmar governments have remained normal, as the issues related to the rebel DKBA are considered an ethnic matter. General Yuthasak acknowledged that the 3rd Army Area Command has kept monitoring the situation along the Thai-Myanmar border from Tak to Kanchanaburi Provinces in response to Major General Na Kham Mwe’s recent threat to seal the border. The Thai deputy premier insisted that the Thai-Myanmar border has remained open as usual and the 3rd Army Area Command is tasked with guaranteeing the Thai sovereignty along the frontier, but so far the Thai military has not reinforced soldiers at the Three Pagoda border pass, a streategic site in Kanchanaburi adjacent to Myanmar. The Thai deputy premier told journalists that he will attend the Cabinet's mobile meeting in Kanchanaburi later this month, during which he will also inspect the updated situation along the common border. Thailand's Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB) has confirmed that Major General Na Kham Mwe is connected with drug cartels in northern Thailand and the Thai government is asking the Myanmar government to arrest the DKBA leader. However, Major General Na Kham Mwe denied that he had involved in the alleged cross-border drug trafficking, threatening to respond to Thailand’s blacklist on him with obstacles to border trade, but without any use of forces or weapons.(TNA)