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Population
Shan
With
11 % of the total population the Shan are the largest ethnic
minority of Myanmar and are the only one among Myanmar's
larger minorities which belongs to the SinoThai group;
just like, of course, the majority of the population of neighboring
Thailand.
The
Shan are indeed so closely related to the Thais, that they
speak practically the same language (with a
degree of difference pertaining to a dialect).
Primarily
the Shan are settled in that part of Myanmar, which borders
on the North of Thailand. The settlement area of the Shan
is notorious for its widespread cultivation of Opium and
for the Heroin factories hidden in its jungles.
The
leader of the Shan Independence Army, Khun Sa, counts
as one of the biggest Heroin dealers of the world and was
in absence charged with drug trafficking in the US.
In
1994 Khun Sa demanded that Thailand annex the Burmese
settlement area of the Shan. But his demand was not contemplated
by the Thai government (and probably will neither be so in
the future).
At
the beginning of World War II in Asia, when Thailand
still sided with Japan, the Thai government of the day had
in fact sent an expeditionary army into northern Myanmar to
annex the Shan settlement area. But the terrain
proved so difficult with considerably less infrastructure
than nowadays that the Thai resources proved insufficient
to successfully conduct the conquest. Therefore the expedition
was cancelled wihout any further attempts
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