Thai police charge men over arms theft, sale to Wa rebels

Friday, 24 September 2010 21:29 Thomas Maung Shwe

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Thai authorities accused an artillery sergeant, two civilian military contractors and two other civilians of being members of a weapons-theft ring, which stole arms from an army ordnance depot in Lop Buri province and sold some to ethnic Wa rebels from Burma, a Bangkok newspaper reported today.

The sergeant and three civilians were arrested recently and police were still looking for the fifth civilian suspect, The Nation English-language daily report said.

Police told The Nation that Sergeant Sema Khotchaphate, confessed under questioning to having sold Wa rebels a rocket-propelled grenade for 1,500 baht and M16 ammunition at five baht per bullet. Police also said they had charged the four with burglary.

According to police, the suspects on September 2 stole 9,000 M60 machine-gun rounds and 10 rocket-propelled grenades from a military warehouse and returned three days later in a bid to steal 60 rocket-propelled grenades and another 31 rockets.
The second robbery attempt was unsuccessful and military authorities found the items still in the warehouse in cloth bags, apparently placed there by the alleged thieves in preparation for easy transport.

It remained unclear whether the Wa rebels in question were members of Burma’s most powerful armed ethnic group, the United Wa State Army (UWSA), or were Wa rebels affiliated with smaller armed groups or factions.