The United Wa State Army (UWSA) has begun organizing a militia group in Hopang Township, northern Shan State to coordinate with its newly established administration there. This comes after the township was seized by the Brotherhood Alliance early this year and subsequently handed over to the UWSA.
He also pointed out that though Hopang and Panlong were initially handed over to it(Wa State Army) by the Brotherhood Alliance, the UWSA has only been able to establish its administration in the towns under an official agreement with the regime. “Otherwise, the town would be bombed!” he said.
An interesting glimpse into convoluted governing situation in Myanmar. UWSA gained territory without having to fight the military. UWSA has been in a long established cease-fire agreement with the military that neither side wishes to break. So it seems to have used the Brotherhood Alliance as its proxy in doing the fighting. However as this story reports, once it gained control of the new territories from Brotherhood Alliance, it had to seek formal recognition its rule from the military before establishing its own administrative rule over said territories.
Part of its administrative rule includes drafting young men from the area into a militia group, along with establishing Mandarin Chinese as official language of the area. It is to be noted that ethic Wa people speak Wa, a Mon-Khmer language that is completely unrelated to Mandarin Chinese yet Mandarin is the official language.