The Shans and the Shan State of Burma

The fourth of January 1984 marked not only 36 years of independence of the Union of Burma from Britain, but also the anniversary of just as many years of civil war, strife, and insurgency. Since 1948, more than a dozen rebel armies ? claiming to represent one national minority or another ? have been fighting to obtain autonomy or, in certain cases, complete secession from the Union. The most crucial of all these national rebellions is probably the one being fought in State, where secessionist rebels have been up in arms since 1958 and where the Communist Party of Burma (CPB) for the last fifteen years has had its main area of operation. Unfortunately, however, although the question has attracted the attention of the media in the outside world, little interest has been shown regarding the origins and the roots of this conflict. Indeed, the subject has been treated superficially with the emphasis on sensation alists aspects such as the booming opium trade, the drug runners, the war-lords and the Opium Kings of the Golden Triangle, of which State forms a part. For it is in this motley mosaic of self-made military commanders, mercenaries, communist as well as nationalist insurgents, contraband traders and assorted outlaws that between 400 and 700 tons of opium are harvested every year. A big part of this is refined into heroin or morphine and smuggled out to various destinations in the world. The present anarchy in State is a direct result of centuries of mutual distrust between the Shans and their Burmese neighbours, and the problems go far back in the history of the region. The word Shan is actually a corruption of Siam or Syam and is the name given to them by the Burmese; the letter m becomes n as a final consonant in the Burmese language. The Shans call themselves Dtai (sometimes spelled Dai or Tai) and they are related to