The Karen Border Guard released 621 people from the Myawaddy crime zone on the 20th, 21st, and 23rd, and then there was no activity at the transfer channel located at the second Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge for five consecutive days, meaning the Karen Border Guard has paused the transfer process until the sixth day.
However, the Karen Border Guard, or the Karen Peace Army, continues to perform raids on the crime zone, searching for foreigners within, and claiming to have found a large number of foreigners. They intend to rescue them from the zone, occasionally gathering these people to chant slogans, making those unaware think that the Karen Border Guard is genuinely rescuing people from the zone. However, the harsh truth is that after filming their performance, they send these people back to the zone to continue committing fraud.
Yesterday, Suu Kyi appeared at a performance site in the Myawaddy zone, addressing a large group gathered from the zone, claiming that the Karen Border Guard is waiting for the related countries' embassies and Thai authorities to handle the transfer of personnel and charter flights. In fact, Thailand has coordinated all reception work in recent weeks and even cleared Mae Sot prison to use as a temporary reception place. Now, it remains to be seen what kind of delaying tactics Suu Kyi will play.
Looking at the equipment of the Karen Border Guard, it is definitely top-notch in Myanmar, even surpassing the Myanmar military, funded by the enormous black money of the zone.
Although the nighttime brightness captured by satellites in Myawaddy has indeed decreased compared to before the power outage in Thailand, this does not indicate a significant reduction in transnational criminal activities in Karen State. The reduced brightness is mainly due to the zone's generators not yet reaching the power level provided by Thailand's high-voltage transmission network. More importantly, Suu Kyi has gradually relocated the core criminal gangs of the zone to other areas of Karen State.
Some crime zone gangs have moved to Cambodia. Recently, Thai military and police patrols on the Thai-Myanmar border have made several captures, often finding foreigners crossing from the opposite side of the river from Myanmar's Karen State, and seizing a lot of crime equipment transported from Karen State.
Yesterday, a delegation from a major country visited Cambodia and communicated with the Cambodian Ministry of Interior on related matters. Cambodia has always had a certain number of crime zones and has deep connections with them. Suu Kyi's partner in the Asia-Pacific zone, shezhejian, is of Cambodian nationality. It remains to be seen whether Cambodia will cooperate earnestly in combating crime.
