The Wa National Army ( my, ဝအမျိုးသားတပ်မတော်; abbreviated WNA) is an insurgent group that operates in

Shan State Shan State ( my, ရှမ်းပြည်နယ်, ; shn, မိူင်းတႆး, italics=no) also known by the Endonym and exonym, endonyms Shanland, Muang Tai, and Tailong, is a administrative divisions of Myanmar, state of Myanmar. ...

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

(Burma), near Myanmar's border with

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

. It is the armed wing of the

Wa National Organisation The Wa National Organisation ( my, ဝအမျိုးသားအစည်းအရုံး; WNO) is a political organisation in Shan State, Myanmar. It has an armed wing, the Wa National Army (WNA), that operates in northern Shan State an ...

(WNO).

History

The WNA was founded along with the WNO on 29 July 1974, after the original group, a ''Ka Kwe Ye'', joined forces with the

Shan State Army The Shan State Army ( my, သျှမ်းပြည်တပ်မတော်; abbreviated SSA) was one of the largest insurgent groups that fought government forces in Shan State, Myanmar (Burma). The SSA was founded in 1964 after the ...

(SSA) and

Lo Hsing Han Lo Hsing Han or Law Sit Han ( my, လော်စစ်ဟန်, ; ; ca. 1930s – July 6, 2013) was a Burmese businessman and drug trafficker. He later became a major business tycoon across Burma, with financial ties to Singapore. He was an eth ...

. The group was led by Mahasang, the son of the last '' sawbwa'' of Vingngun. In 1977, the WNA broke ties with the SSA and allied themselves with the 3rd

Kuomintang The Kuomintang (KMT), also referred to as the Guomindang (GMD), the Nationalist Party of China (NPC) or the Chinese Nationalist Party (CNP), is a major political party in the Republic of China, initially on the Chinese mainland and in Tai ...

battalion operating near the

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

border, led by General Li Wenhuan. In 1983, the WNA's political wing, the

, officially joined the National Democratic Force (NDF). In the 1980s, the WNA operated in northern

, near the

border, but not in the mountainous areas of the region, which were under the control of the

Communist Party of Burma The Communist Party of Burma (CPB), also known as the Burma Communist Party (BCP), is a clandestine communist party in Myanmar (Burma). It is the oldest existing political party in the country. Founded in 1939, the CPB initially fought aga ...

until 1989. In August 1997, the WNA signed a

peace agreement A peace treaty is an agreement between two or more hostile parties, usually countries or governments, which formally ends a state of war between the parties. It is different from an armistice, which is an agreement to stop hostilities; a surren ...

with the military junta government.

References

{{Insurgent groups in Myanmar Wa people Rebel groups in Myanmar Paramilitary organisations based in Myanmar

History

See also

References