Burma/Myanmar: Khun Sa (17 Febraury 1934 - 26 October 2007) was a Burmese warlord. He was dubbed the 'Opium King' due to his opium trading in the Golden Triangle region. He was also the leader of the Shan United Army and the Mong Tai Army. Khun Sa was born to a Chinese father and a Shan mother. He adopted the pseudonym Khun Sa, meaning 'Prince Prosperous'. In his youth he trained with the Kuomintang, which had fled into the border regions of Burma from Yunnan upon its defeat in the Chinese Civil War, and eventually went on to form his own army of a few hundred men.
Khun Sa, aka Chang Chi-fu (pinyin: Zhāng Qífú; Thai: Chan Jangtrakul (17 February 1934 – 26 October 2007) was a Burmese warlord. He was dubbed the 'Opium King' due to his opium trading in the Golden Triangle region. He was also the leader of the Shan United Army and the Mong Tai Army. Khun Sa was born to a Chinese father and a Shan mother. He adopted the pseudonym Khun Sa, meaning 'Prince Prosperous'. In his youth he trained with the Kuomintang, which had fled into the border regions of Burma from Yunnan upon its defeat in the Chinese Civil War, and eventually went on to form his own army of a few hundred men. In 1963 he re-formed it into a Ka Kwe Ye local militia loyal to Gen Ne Win's Burmese government. Ka Kwe Ye received money, uniforms and weapons in return for fighting the Shan rebels. When Khun Sa had expanded his army to 800 men, he stopped cooperating with the Burmese government, took control of large area in Shan and Wa states and expanded into opium production. In 1967 he clashed with the Kuomintang remnants in Shan State, which resulted in his defeat, demoralizing him and his forces. In 1969, the Rangoon government captured him. He was freed in 1973 when his second-in-command abducted two Russian doctors and demanded his release. By 1976 he had returned to opium smuggling, and set up a base inside northern Thailand in the village of Ban Hin Taek. He renamed his group the Shan United Army and began ostensibly fighting for Shan autonomy against the Burmese government. It is claimed that Khun Sa surrendered to Burmese officials in January 1996, reportedly because he did not want to face drug smuggling charges in the USA. Khun Sa died on 26 October 2007 in Yangon at the age of 73.
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