The Junta’s Twin August Offensives

By WAI MOE
The Irrawaddy News

After more than four decades of rule, the Burmese military government is confronting the two main centers of domestic opposition to its power in a bid to increase security and prolong military rule before the elections next year.

Having effectively kept pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi out of the elections by sentencing her to a further 18 months of house arrest, the military regime’s forces broke the ceasefire with ethnic groups by seizing the Kokang capital of Laogai on August 24.

Since the military regime’s attack, instability has been reverberating through Kachin State, Shan State and the towns along the Sino-Burmese border in China’s Yunnan Province.

Other ceasefire groups in northern and northeastern Burma, such as the United Wa State Army, the Kachin Independence Army and the eastern Shan State-based National Democratic Alliance Army have been building up defenses against a potential attack by regime troops.

“The [Burmese] government would like to assert more authority over the ethnic minorities in the highlands, leading to the problems of the past few days,” said Michael Charney, a Burma expert from London University’s School of Oriental and African Studies, in an email to the The Irrawaddy. The ceasefire agreements between the ethnic groups and the junta left potentially volatile situations in place, he said.

According to journalists and political observers in Rangoon, the junta is not yet ready to promulgate the election law, though the elections are scheduled to be held in 2010. With only three months remaining this year, time is running out.

If the junta wants to hold elections under the 2008 constitution, in accordance with the provisions of the constitution, it has to demonstrate that there is only one commander-in-chief and that the regime’s army is the only armed force in Burma, observer’s say.

“We can see that by sentencing Daw Aung San Suu Kyi on August 11, the military regime made sure there would be no worthy political challenger in the 2010 elections. After removing her from the picture, the generals turned on their other main enemies,” said Chan Tun, a veteran politician from Rangoon.

The National League for Democracy (NLD), led by Suu Kyi, and the Wa, Kokang and Mongla ethnic ceasefire groups have called for the constitution to be reviewed before the elections.

In 2005, Wa, Kokang and the Mongla delegates to the National Convention called for full autonomy and separation from Shan State, as well as guarantees that their armed militias would remain under their control.

At the end of the fourteen-year-long national convention process in 2007, however, the junta ignored all their demands when the handpicked Constitution Drafting Committee finalized the constitution.

“After the junta ignored their demands at the national convention, the ethnic groups knew a showdown had to come soon,” said Aung Kyaw Zaw, a former communist who observes Burma military affairs from China’s Yunnan Province.

“But ceasefire groups, particularly the Kokang, failed to prepare properly, which is why Laogai fell to regime troops so easily,” he said.

The junta generals, meanwhile, must be wondering whether the simultaneous offensives against urban political opposition and ethnic ceasefire groups have been wise.

“I wonder why the regime is risking conflict with the ethnic militias now. They may want to get control before the elections—but the junta could destabilize the whole country,” said Mikeal Gravers, a Burma expert from Aarhus University, Denmark.

Charney said the Burmese junta will face many similar problems in the coming year, because the generals want ethnic and political stability in order to hold elections and conclude the domestic problems that are bringing so much international attention.

Burma Newscasts - The Junta’s Twin August Offensives
Friday, September 11, 2009

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Junta Targets Ethnic Rebels to Forge Unity Ahead of Polls

By MARWAAN MACAN-MARKAR / IPS WRITER
The Irrawaddy News

BANGKOK — Burma’s military regime is turning to a familiar strategy—sending in troops—to impose its will on the northeastern corner of the country that shares a border with China’s Yunnan province in the east. The move shatters a 20-year peace deal with an armed ethnic rebel group that controls part of that mountainous terrain.

This eruption of hostilities has much to do with a promised general election next year that the oppressive rulers of Burma, also known as Myanmar, are marching towards. The junta wants a "discipline-flourishing democracy" to take root with the 2010 polls, the first such election after the results of the last one, in 1990, were annulled.

Soldiers from the United Wa State Army patrol a street of Nandeng, in the Wa region of Burma, on September 3. (Photo: AP)

Clashes between Burmese troops and the Kokang, one of four ethnic rebel groups that signed a ceasefire deal in the 1988-89 period, began in early August and escalated by the end of the month in an area close to the Chinese border. Casualty figures are still uncertain.

"About 7,000 troops with tanks, armored vehicles and heavy cannons are trying to control the region," says the US Campaign for Burma, a Washington DC-based group of Burmese political exiles. "The junta is sending 3,000 more troops from other parts of Burma to the region."

By Thursday, an uneasy calm had returned to Laogai, the Kokang capital, now in the hands of the Burmese troops, according to an aid worker in Burma, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "Some of the 37,000 people who fled across the border to China after the fight broke out have begun to return," she says.

Sporadic sounds of gunfire were heard, she reveals, adding that the locals were not sure if the defeated Kokang rebels will resort to "guerrilla attacks" on the Burmese troops who have poured into Laogai. This capital has a substantial presence of Chinese businessmen, involved in the border economy of logging, mining and casinos for gambling.

The fighting resulted in an abrupt halt of the agriculture programs being run by the World Food Programme (WFP), the only United Nations (UN) agency that has a permanent presence in a region known for being a poppy-growing area and having a booming narcotics trade.

"Our operations have been suspended," Chris Kaye, the head of the WFP’s operations in Burma, confirmed during a telephone interview from Rangoon, the former capital. "The people in that area are inherently poor and depend on our programs as an alternative to growing poppy."

The UN agency’s work involves assisting the ethnic Kokang to grow tea, paddy and maize as an alternative source of income and to help the locals overcome food insecurity. It followed an announcement by leaders of the ethnic groups to end poppy cultivation by 2005 in the terrain that had been part of this region’s infamous ‘Golden Triangle,’ one of Asia’s largest opium-producing areas.

There are concerns, however, that the attack on the Kokang may not be a limited strike, but part of the junta’s broader plan to go after other armed ethnic groups along the country’s northeastern border. Among those are the Wa, the most armed of the ethnic rebels, with a force of some 25,000, and the smaller Kachin.

They are concerns shaped by the political developments in the ethnic areas of Burma, which has never been able to control all of its borders since gaining independence from the British over six decades ago. The country has 135 registered ethnic groups, of which the Burmans are the largest. Scores of ethnic rebels began separatist battles with the Burmese army to create independent countries.

Peace returned to Burma’s north-eastern border in the late 1980s after the Wa, Kachin and Kokang joined 14 other ethnic rebel movements to sign ceasefire agreements in exchange for greater political autonomy, freedom for their ethnic communities and more economic independence.

"The attack against the Kokang is an attempt to intimidate the other ceasefire groups to fall in line with the regime’s plans for the elections next year," says Win Min, a Burmese national security expert at Payap University in Chiang Mai, located in northern Thailand. "They are going to deal with them one by one to impose what the junta thinks will be unity in the country. But this is only a military-imposed unity."

"It will not be easy for the Burmese army," Win Min added during a telephone interview. "Going after the Wa will result in many casualties because it is the strongest armed ethnic group in the country."

It is a view echoed by others familiar with this region of Burma, which is part of the Shan state and home to the large Shan ethnic community. "If the Burmese regime thinks they will be able to subdue the ethnic rebel groups before next year’s election, they are dreaming," Khuensai Jaiyen, editor of the Shan Herald Agency for News, told IPS. "The fighting on the border is bound to escalate."

Already the attacks against the Kokang have left the ethnic Kachin worried that they may be next in the firing line. "The attacks are a violation of the ceasefire and we are worried about who will be targeted next," says Col James Lum Dau, deputy chief of foreign affairs for the Kachin Independence Organisation. "They want us to change militarily and be under complete Burmese control before the elections. We are against this kind of thing."

"It may be good for them but not for us. This is a military solution and not a political solution," he said in a telephone interview. "We are ready to support the elections that will ensure freedom for us."

Under Burma’s new constitution, approved in a May 2008 referendum plagued with fraud, the country can only have one armed group—the military. And to bring the country’s many armed ethnic groups in line with this provision, the military regime has ordered all rebel groups to become part of a border guard force ahead of the 2010 poll.

The border guard force, which was announced in April, will strip the ethnic rebels of their troop strength and their military independence, since each of these border battalions will come under the wing of a Burmese officer. It was a disarmament plan that the Kokang rejected as did the Wa and Kachin fighters, among others.

"It is unthinkable to expect the Wa to conform to the border guard plan," says a European diplomat who regularly visits Burma. "They have a hatred towards the Burmese; it is deeply rooted."

"There is also opposition to this new force because none of these ethnic groups know what political concessions they will get after the elections," the diplomat, who requested anonymity, told IPS. "The next weeks will reveal if the attacks on the Kokang will force the Wa and others back to the negotiating table about the border guard force."

Burma Newscasts - Junta Targets Ethnic Rebels to Forge Unity Ahead of Polls
7 September 2009

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Ethnic Kachins banned from having cultural symbols in their state in Burma

by KNG

In a fresh repressive measure the Burmese military junta has banned Kachins, an ethnic nationality, from constructing its cultural symbols – the "Manau Pole and Manau House" in their State, said Kachin cultural leaders.

In Bhamo, the second largest city in Kachin State, the ban comes in the way of construction of the cultural Manau Pole and House on the 13-acre wide Bhamo (also called Manmaw in Kachin) Kachin Literature and Culture compound (BKLC) in Aung Ta village in Two Miles. It was bought from the Bhamo Zonal Kachin Baptist Church in 1996, BKLC committee members said.

Maj-Gen Soe Win, commander of Northern Regional Command (Ma Pa Kha) and the junta's most powerful man in Kachin State thrice rejected the official request for permission to construct the Manau Pole and House this year by the BKLC committee, a committee member told KNG today.

Last July, some committee members met commander Maj-Gen Soe Win in the Kachin State's capital Myitkyina in its latest effort. However the commander rejected their request saying "Looking at genuine peace in Kachin State, the construction of Bhamo Kachin Manau Pole and House was banned," said committee members.

Earlier, the military authorities of Kachin State had twice rejected BKLC's letters to the junta's Bhamo District Administrative Office, called Bhamo District Peace and Development Council (or Kha-Ya-Ka) on March 31 and Kachin State Administrative Office, called Kachin State Peace and Development Council (or Pa-Ya-Ka) on May 19, according to the BKLC committee.

Committee members said, both rejection letters came up with the same reasons ---- first, the Kachins already have the cultural venue with Manau Pole and House in Myitkyina indicating "Kachin Traditional Manau Park" in Shatapru quarter in the town, which was constructed in early 2002. Secondly, there are different ethnic nationalities in Bhamo and constructing Kachin traditional symbols may harm unity among them because the Kachin Manau Pole and House represent ethnic Kachins, alone.

BKLC committee members disagreed with Commander Soe Win's rejection notes. They believe that the construction of the Kachin cultural Manau Pole and House will not harm the ethnic unity in Bhamo and Kachins have to build their cultural symbols in every Kachin village, said committee members and Kachin cultural leaders.

On June 22, five BKLC committee members of a total of 40 members were made to forcibly sign in the Bhamo District Administrative Office (Kha-Ya-Ka) to abandon construction of Kachin cultural buildings by the Kha-Ya-Ka chairman Col. Khin Maung Myint, said committee members.

According to Article 22 and 27 of the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights, everyone has the right to show, develop and protect their culture and literature.

There are Kachins (also spelled Jinghpaw in Kachin language or Jingpho-su in China and Singpho in India) in three of Burma's neighboring countries like China, India and Thailand and they are authorized to build their cultural symbols - Manau Pole and House.

READ MORE---> Ethnic Kachins banned from having cultural symbols in their state in Burma...

Ceasefire groups put business expansion on hold

by Phanida

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Four ceasefire groups, which have an alliance and have flatly refused the junta’s proposal to transform into the Border Guard Force (BGF), are putting on hold their business expansion plans for the moment.

This has been hinted at by the four ceasefire groups namely the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), the United Wa State Army (UWSA), the Myanmar Nationalities Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), and Maila a.k.a. the National Democracy Alliance Army (NDAA).

An official of the Bugar Company’s Rangoon Office, which runs KIO owned operations in gems, tours and travel, roads and bridge building told Mizzima, “We are only continuing with our present business. We do not have any expansion plans for the moment”.

An official of the UWSA, which focuses on rubber plantations said, “There are no new and significant business operations. We are into plantation of substitute crops in lieu of opium, which is mainly rubber. We have not stopped this business but there is no expansion”.

It is learnt that MNDAA (Kokang) has also stopped investments in tea and rubber plantations along the Sino-Burma border.

“They have no plans to continue business operations inside Burma. For the time being, they have stopped the incomplete business ventures and accepting new contracts. They will consider resuming all these business operations only after 2010,”a source close to MNDAA told Mizzima.

Despite rumours in circulation about recalling their men based in Rangoon because of the palpable tension between the Burmese Army and these ceasefire groups, officials of the KIO, and the Shan State North Special Region (Shan State Army-North) SSA-N have denied it.

But a Rangoon based official of another ceasefire group the Kayan New Land Party, Kayah State Special Region 3 said that he had heard that the members of the Kokang and Wa based in Rangoon had returned to their mother units. But he did not know the details.

An officer from the Shan State South Special Region No. 6 Rangoon office said that it was true that UWSA and KIO had recalled their Rangoon based officials to their headquarters.

READ MORE---> Ceasefire groups put business expansion on hold...

Police escorts for monks accepting offerings

By KNG

It has become mandatory, from early last week, for Buddhist monks going out to accept food offerings from local devotees in Myitkyina, the capital of Burma's northern Kachin State, to be escorted by two policemen, said local sources.

Eyewitnesses said, two armed policemen escorted a column of monks, when they left to accept offerings of food from local devotees each morning. (Su Taung Pyi monastery in Myitkyina, Kachin State, northern Burma.)

A resident of Myitkyina told KNG today, he saw each column of monks being escorted by two policemen. Monks in Su Taung Pyi and Ann Daw Shin monasteries in the town were also escorted by policemen when they went out to accept food offerings from devotees in the morning.

Local police sources said, the monks are being escorted to prevent any anti-junta demonstrations in the town similar to the countrywide monk-led anti-regime demonstrations known as the ‘Saffron Revolution’ in September, 2007. The order to escort monks comes from the junta's Maj-Gen Soe Win, commander of Myitkyina-based Northern Regional command (or Ma-Pa-Kha).

During the ‘Saffron Revolution’ in Myitkyina, Burmese security forces cracked down brutally on the monasteries in the town. Several monks were beaten to death by Burmese soldiers on the orders of Maj-Gen Ohn Myint, former commander of Northern Regional command.

The military authorities of Myitkyina have been listing monks, Christian pastors and preachers and all government personnel along with their brief bio data since last July, said residents of Myitkyina.

Residents believe that the data collection could be to take action quickly in the event of any anti-junta demonstration.

At the same time, the junta is also collecting the names and listing properties of all members of the Kachin Independent Organization (KIO) and its armed-wing the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), who are known to own houses and business ventures in Myitkyina.

From early this month, security has been beefed up in Myitkyina. Policemen in prison cell trucks are driving around the town at night, said local residents.

READ MORE---> Police escorts for monks accepting offerings...

Kachin schoolgirl gang raped and killed by Chinese settlers

Mary Hkingjawng Htoi San (17)
was gang raped and cut into pieces on August 6
by five Chinese settlers in Myitkyina
in Kachin State, northern Burma.

by KNG

In a gruesome incident a 17-year-old Kachin high school girl was gang raped and cut into pieces on August 6 at about 5 p.m. local time by five Chinese settlers in Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin State, northern Burma, said local sources.

Mary Hkinjawng Htoi San, resident of Myitkyina of House No. 1/85, Northeast Tatkone (or Dapkawng in Kachin) quarter was gang raped and killed in a room in the Muslim settler businessman-owned Golden City Guest House (GC), near the Town Railway Station, said family members.

Mary Hkinjawng Htoi San was a Xth standard student in the government's No. 5 State High School. She sang part time at the Shwe Taung Garden restaurant between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. for extra income, said sources close to her.

After the gang rape, her body was cut into several pieces and put in a wooden box in the room in Golden City Guest House. Later, the body was hidden in a bush behind the No. 5 State High School, said eyewitnesses.

The body was discovered by local people after a foul stench from the decomposing body started emanating the next day at 6:30 p.m. local time, said local eyewitnesses.

The Myitkyina-based No. 1 Police Station has arrested three settler Chinese males from Myitkyina but two are absconding, sources close to the police station said.

Sources close to the Golden City Guest House said the guest house owners knew the schoolgirl was killed and her body cut into pieces and put in the box to be hidden somewhere. However, they did not inform the police.

The local Kachin youth are up in arms and want to retaliate and pay back the Chinese settlers in the town because they feel that native Kachins are being tyrannized by the Chinese, said an angry Kachin youth in Myitkyina.

Before the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) and the Burmese ruling junta signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994, Chinese settlers in Kachin State respected native Kachins. They never committed big crimes against native Kachins, said residents of Myitkyina.

After the ceasefire agreement, the influence and power of the KIO in Kachin State took a nose dive and it has been kowtowing politically, socially and economically to foreign settlers like the Chinese and Indians in Kachin State, said local Kachin politicians.

READ MORE---> Kachin schoolgirl gang raped and killed by Chinese settlers...

Border guard pressure could ‘threaten peace’

(DVB)–Armed conflict will reignite in Burma if the ruling junta continues to force ceasefire groups to transform into border guards, a key armed ethnic group warned yesterday.

The New Mon State Party (NMSP) said in a statement that it is keen to maintain its 14-year-old ceasefire agreement with the Burmese government, but will not accept the dissolving of its armed units before self-determination is achieved.

Burma’s ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) has embarked on a campaign to transform ceasefire groups into border guards in an attempt to reduce their numbers and return them to the ‘legal fold’.

Ceasefire groups have said however that agreeing to the proposals would weaken the groups and effectively make them subordinated wings of the Burmese army.

“Our Central Executive Committee has decided not to go along with the plan to transform us into a border militia as it promises no insurance for the people of Mon state and to ourselves,” said the NMSP’s Nai Hong Sa Boung Khine.

He added however that pressure from the junta had eased recently regarding border guard transformation.

The NMSP also said in its statement that existing peace in the country will be seriously threatened should the authorities resort to coercion to achieve their objective.

The public declaration by the NMSP followed a similar announcement by another influential ceasefire group, the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO).

The KIO said it agreed in principle with the border guard proposal but suggested that step should be taken only when the nation is at peace and after a popularly elected democratic government is in place.

”No one likes the idea about the border guard force,” said James Lum Dau from the KIO. “When the majority is opposing it and only one party likes the idea, it is not practical to be pushing for a result.”

Reports surfaced last month of a campaign by the junta to use religious leaders and influential businessmen to convince ceasefire groups in Kachin state to become border guards.

According to a resident of Kachin state’s capital Myitkyina, government officials had been meeting with church pastors and business owners to help put pressure on the KIO.

Reporting by Aye Naing

READ MORE---> Border guard pressure could ‘threaten peace’...

Russia taking raw Uranium from Burma since 2007

by KNG

A Russian firm has been taking raw Uranium from Hpakant areas in Burma's northern Kachin State since 2007, said reliable local sources.

Victorious Glory International Private Ltd. of Russia is taking the raw Uranium from the company's Uranium mines in Tarmakhan, Hongpa near Katai Taung, under tight security provided by the ruling junta, said eyewitnesses.

A local eyewitness told KNG today, the company's mining areas are fenced off with opaque covers and the Uranium is mined inside the mountain with sophisticated digging machines.

The raw Uranium is specially packed in sacks, which look like cement sacks. It is then transported to Hopin railway station in large trucks. Then the Uranium is transported to Rangoon sea port by trains for delivery to Russia, said sources close to the company and eyewitnesses.

According to eyewitnesses in Hpakant, the company has been excavating the raw Uranium from these areas since 2007.

The company signed an agreement with the ruling junta in Naypyitaw on February 15, 2007 for exploration of gold and associated minerals along Uru Hka River (or Uru Hka in Kachin) between Hpakant in Kachin State and Homalin in Sagaing Division.

One year before the two sides reached an agreement, Russian Uranium explorers arrived in the area, said residents of Hpakant. The movements of Russian miners are specially secured in the mines and outside by security forces of the junta, said residents of Hpakant.

The junta is constructing a nuclear plant in caves after tunneling into a mountain in Naung Laing in northern Burma, some 600 kilometres north of Rangoon. Five North Koreans worked there, according to South Korean media reports. A nuclear reactor from which plutonium can be extracted is also allegedly being built.

Two defectors from the Burmese Army testified recently that the junta has a secret nuclear weapons programme, which is being supported by North Korea and Russia.

READ MORE---> Russia taking raw Uranium from Burma since 2007...

Northern Commander meets KIO in Laiza

by Myo Gyi

Ruili (Mizzima) – The Commander of the Northern Military Command Maj-Gen Soe Win, along with leaders of the Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO), the largest ceasefire ethnic armed group in Kachin state, on Friday arrived in the Sino-Burma border town of Laiza, the KIO headquarters, for a meeting.

Soe Win and the KIO leaders arrived in the border town after the commander held talks with Kachin Church leaders in Myitkyina on July 29.

Eyewitnesses said the commander and KIO leaders were in a meeting in Laiza Hotel from 7 a.m. (local time) to 2 p.m.

“At about 6:10 a.m. two vehicles arrived in town. Later at about 7:15 a.m. the commander came in his Prado car escorted by a 4-wheel vehicle. At about 10 a.m. seven 4-wheel vehicles came with boxes,” the eyewitness said.

The KIO has rejected the junta’s proposal of transforming its armed wing, the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) into a Border Guard Force but told Soe Win that they are keen on converting the KIA into a Kachin Regional Guard Force (KRGF) during their meeting on July 8 to 11 in Myitkyina.

After the meeting with the KIO leaders today, Soe Win visited a hospital run by the KIO and left Laiza at about 3 p.m.

The KIO is the largest Kachin armed group fighting for self-determination. It entered into a ceasefire pact with the ruling junta in 1994.

READ MORE---> Northern Commander meets KIO in Laiza...

Snr-Gen Than Shwe rejects KIO's demands

by KNG

The Burmese military junta supremo Snr-Gen Than Shwe has responded curtly and rejected the latest demands of the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), said sources close to Naypyitaw, the capital of the country.

The military ruler was responding to the KIO's demands to the junta early this month regarding direct power sharing in the new Kachin State government after next year’s elections, where members of KIO have to be included in the administration, legislation and the judiciary.

Snr-Gen Than Shwe has said that the KIO's demands cannot be met at this point of time because the country's new constitution cannot be amended. If the junta has to give into KIO's demands, the constitution needs to be rewritten, he reportedly said, the sources added.

Naypyitaw sources said, Snr-Gen Than Shwe also rejected the other KIO demand to transform its armed-wing the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) to a Kachin Regional Guard Force (KRGF), which will be formed with only ethnic Kachins and not be controlled by the junta. The regime had proposed transformation of the KIA to a battalion-level Border Guard Force (BGF).

Snr-Gen Than Shwe has made it clear that he cannot negotiate any military or political demand of the KIO except the co-operational agenda between the two, Naypyitaw sources added.

"We proposed what we want to the junta, just as it proposed what it wants from the KIO," Dr. Manam Tu Ja, the Vice-president No. 2 of KIO and former leader of KIO delegates to the junta-run National Convention told KNG last week.

In the midst of growing tension between the KIO and the junta, both militarily and politically, the junta's Northern regional (Kachin State) commander Maj-Gen Soe Win met Kachin church leaders for the second time on the KIO's latest demands in Kachin State's capital Myitkyina yesterday. The meeting followed a suggestion by Rev. Dr. Lahtaw Saboi Jum, former general secretary of Kachin Baptist Convention (KBC) and a current peace mediator.

Political circles in Myitkyina said, the junta is mobilizing Kachin church leaders with small cash and food donations, granting cell phones, GSM mobile phones and landline phones so that church leaders can influence and pressurize the KIO/A on the BGF issue.

According to Kachin political analysts in Myitkyina, till now, the KIO has been enjoying a level of political and military rewards from the junta for supporting the National Convention for drafting the country's constitution and the referendum on the new constitution.

Now, the KIO is suffering because of the rewards that it took, where it is increasingly being pressurized to accept the BGF by the junta, said the local political analysts.

Meanwhile, Kachin people inside Burma and overseas have suggested that the KIO/A wage war if necessary against the ruling junta until Kachins and people of the country achieve democratic rights.

READ MORE---> Snr-Gen Than Shwe rejects KIO's demands...

Religious leaders to pressure Burma ethnic groups

(DVB)–The Burmese government is using influential religious leaders and businessmen to convince ethnic ceasefire groups to transform themselves into border guards, as well as issuing direct threats to the groups.

A resident of Kachin state’s capital Myitkyina, where the ceasefire group Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO) are active, said that a senior army official met yesterday with influential state figures to discuss transformation of the KIO into border troops.

“The regional commander met with pastors and business owners at the church in Aung Nan ward this morning and told them to help them pressure the KIO,” said the resident.

The ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) has embarked on a campaign to transform ceasefire groups into border patrol guards, a move which would bring them into what the government call the “legal fold”.

Ceasefire groups have said however that agreeing to the proposals would weaken the groups and effectively make them subordinated wings of the Burmese army.

The Myitkyina resident said that threats would be issued to the Kachin group if they failed to comply with the proposals.

“A religious leader who attended the meeting told me that the regional commander had hinted that [the military] would commence war against the group if they refuse the plan,” he said.

Meanwhile, sources in Shan state said the government is also putting similar pressure on ceasefire group, Shan State Special Region 4 (SSR-4), in eastern Shan state’s Mongla.

A former official of the ceasefire group, led by Sai Leun, said the SPDC had been spreading news that the army will enter Mongla on 8 August and attack the group if they don’t accept the border guard plan.

“[The army] said we would be in no position to fight them back as we have only 4000 or 5000 troops when they have 400,000,” said the official, adding that “we have already prepared ourselves for war.”

Reporting by ATK and Nan Kham Kaew

READ MORE---> Religious leaders to pressure Burma ethnic groups...

Forlorn cry of Kachin hill tribes in northern Burma

by KNG

There is no one to hear the forlorn cry of the Kachin hill tribes, who are losing their life long possession – arable farmlands in the Kachin Hills in Burma's northern Kachin State, said local sources.

Over 500 households belonging to the Lisu hill tribes have been living with mobile land-farm cultivation in N'wan Kawng hill under the pro-Burmese ruling junta Kachin armed group called the New Democratic Army-Kachin (NDA-K) in Sadon (Sadung in Kachin) area in Waingmaw Township. The NDA-K's is now confiscating both their old and new farms, said Lisu hill tribes' sources.

The NDA-K led by Zahkung Ting Ying accepted the junta’s proposal to convert to a Border Guard Force (BGF) in June just before the United Nations' Secretary General Ban-ki Moon visited Burma on July 3 and 4. The group is locally viewed as a business group rather than a political unit, said local sources close to NDA-K.

According to Lisu hill people in N'wan Kawng hill, their mobile land farm areas or forests have been gradually seized by NDA-K's high ranking officials on the pretext of development projects since 2007.

The NDA-K officers are repressing and forcibly confiscating farms from the local hill tribes. The lands seized, are being sold to Chinese businessmen for large amounts of money, sources among the Lisu hill tribe people added.

The Chinese businessmen mainly grow rubber and teak saplings on thousands of acres of confiscated land, said local residents.

At the same time, cattle belonging to villagers are also slaughtered by the owners of rubber and teak plantations --- NDA-K and Chinese businessmen -- whenever the cattle strays into their area, said villagers.

The NDA-K has put up a signboard saying "N'wan Kawng Hill Development Area" in the N'wang Kawng hill. They claim to be into development activities, whereas the survival of the local people in the areas is at stake, said locals. The development project is designed for NDA-K officers and Chinese businessmen, they added.

Till now, the NDA-K has not arranged for any alternative land or vocational jobs for the survival of the Lisu hill people, who cannot complain to the local NDA-K authorities and the ruling junta, locals said.

Earlier, they formally or informally complained to the NDA-K and the ruling junta about losing their land but they have not paid any heed, said villagers.

Currently, more and more Lisu hill tribes in N'wan Kawng are in a hopeless situation in terms of survival and villagers are looking at moving to the hills where they can cultivate paddy freely, villagers said.

The Lisu hill tribes in the NDA-K's N'wan Kawng hill development area can do nothing except cry over lost arable land, sources said.

READ MORE---> Forlorn cry of Kachin hill tribes in northern Burma...

Junta beefs up military presence in Kachin State

by Myo Gyi

Ruili (Mizzima) - In what could be preparation for a fresh military campaign, the Burmese army was recently seen transporting more troops toward the country’s north, where ethnic insurgents including the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) are based.

Eyewitnesses said on July 17th, over 100 soldiers along with several officers were seen offloading military equipment, believed to include heavy weapons, from a ship operating between Mandalay and Bamo on the Irrawaddy River.

An eyewitness who talked to some of the soldiers told Mizzima that he saw over 100 soldiers along with several officers unloading weapons from a ship anchored at Bamo’s Myoma port at about 9 p.m. (local time) on Friday.

Bamo, in Southeastern Kachin State, is connected to Burma’s second largest city of Mandalay by the Irrawaddy River.

“Some of them told me that an artillery detachment is being transferred. I don’t know what kind of weapons and artillery they carried because it was covered,” the eyewitness told Mizzima.

Another local, who also saw the soldiers, said there were more officers than privates among the troops offloading weapons and other military accessories from the vessel.

“As I heard news of soldiers arriving at the port, I rushed to take a look. I saw about a hundred soldiers, more officers than privates. There were also a number of officers inside vehicles that came to pick-up the soldiers,” the eyewitness said.

The fresh arrival of soldiers and weapons comes after the Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO) rejected the ruling junta’s proposal to transform its armed wing, the KIA, into a Border Guard Force (BGF), which would function as a border security force under the control and administration of the junta.

During a recent meeting on July 8th, representatives of the KIO, the only ceasefire group in Kachin state rejecting the junta’s proposal, told Major General Soe Win of the Northern Command that it prefers to change its name to the “Kachin Regional Guard Force” and maintain its army until a democratically elected government is installed.

Military observers said the refusal by several ethnic armed ceasefire groups including the KIO, United Wa State Army (UWSA) and others has ignited fresh tension between the groups and the junta.

After1988, the junta, under the leadership of the since purged military intelligence chief Lieutenant General Khin Nyunt, was able to negotiate ceasefire deals with 17 ethnic armed groups.

Now, the junta is pressuring ceasefire groups to transform into a Border Guard Force in accordance with its new constitution, approved in a rigged referendum last year.

Bamo, a strategic location in Northern Burma bordering China, has about 10 army battalions controlled by the No. 21 Military Operation Command based in the town.

It is, however, unknown where the newly arrived soldiers are heading and will be posted.

Prior to the KIO’s ceasefire deal with the junta in 1994, several parts of Kachin State were largely controlled by the KIO. But following the ceasefire pact, the junta has deployed several army battalions in various parts of the state.

Sources said in early July a convoy of army trucks loaded with arms and ammunition was also seen moving into Bamo.

The KIO, one of Burma’s longest running insurgent groups, has its headquarters in the Sino-Burmese border town of Laiza, about 40 miles north of Bamo.

READ MORE---> Junta beefs up military presence in Kachin State...

Junta transports armaments to Puta-O district

by KNG

Military hardware, including weapons and ammunition is being transported to Puta-O (also called Putau in Kachin) district, Kachin State, in the northernmost region of Burma since last year by the military junta, said local sources.

Kachins in Puta-O said, local Burmese Army soldiers are transporting weapons and ammunition to the two remote towns --- Nong Mong and Khaunglanghpu, east of Mali Hka river by horses and in vehicles.

Both small and big weapons are being transported to the two small towns from the Burmese Army's Infantry Battalion No. 137 based in Machyangbaw (also pronounced Machan Baw in Burmese), 14 miles southeast of Puta-O town, said residents of Machyangbaw.

At the same time, the junta is increasingly providing more weapons to a local Rawang militia group called "Rebellion Resistance Force, RRF" led by businessman Tanggu Dang, the owner of Mali Hka Recording in Kachin State's capital Myitkyina, based in Shing Hkong in Khaunglanghpu, said sources close to the RRF.

Rawang is one of six major tribes in Kachin nationals, and are mainly settled in Puta-O district in Kachin State, Northern Burma.

The RRF leader Tanggu Dang, also called Ahdang, has been severely condemned by his Rawang tribe in Puta-O for "selling Rawang tribe" because he recruited hundreds of local Rawang young people for the Burmese Army on the pretext of recruiting for the RRF during the last two years, say native Rawang people in Puta-O.

According to the war history of Puta-O after Burma’s Independence in 1948, many Rawang people served in the Burmese Army and militias in Puta-O. They fought against the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) in the district.

The response of local people to weapons being delivered to Puta-O district is that the junta is planning a 'war between the Kachins'. The conflict between KIA and RRF may restart after next year’s elections because of the machinations of the junta, said local sources.

The junta is also secretly deploying more troops and transporting weapons to the rest of Kachin State like Myitkyina district, Bhamo district, Waingmaw Township and Hukawng Valley, said local sources close to the Burmese Army.

The ruling junta’s actions indicate they are gearing up for an inevitable war with the KIA, post elections, said local sources.

Meanwhile, the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), the political wing of KIA is demanding self-determination of Kachin State from the ruling junta in place of changing KIA to a battalion of the Border Guard Force (BGF) proposed by the junta, said KIO officials.

READ MORE---> Junta transports armaments to Puta-O district...

Saboi Jum brothers to deliver KIO's message to Naypyitaw

by KNG

Kachin State civilian-peace mediator Rev. Dr. Lahtaw Saboi Jum and his younger brother Lahtaw Hkun Myat will deliver a clear message from the Kachin Independence Organization’s (KIO) to the Burmese ruling junta in Naypyitaw, the new jungle capital of the country, said KIO sources.

The two brothers had also helped to achieve a ceasefire agreement between the KIO and the ruling junta in February 24, 1994.

The KIO’s message, without mincing words, states that the "ambition of self-determination of the state" is not on the agenda of the junta-proposed transformation of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), the armed-wing of the KIO, to a Border Guard Force (BGF), a KIO official in Laiza headquarters on the Sino-Burma border in Kachin State said.

It is unusual for the KIO to try and make direct contact with the military junta brass in Naypyitaw, by passing the Northern Regional Commander Maj-Gen Soe Win. The Commander has been assigned to talk to KIO delegates on the issue by the junta military hierarchy, said KIO officials in Laiza headquarters on the Sino-Burma border in Kachin State.

The KIO said the peace mediators will meet the junta’s Lt-Gen Ye Myint, Chief of Military Affairs Security (MAS) and other military leaders in the capital. They will pass on the message of the KIO's ambition of self-determination of the state, said sources close to the two mediators.

The reasons behind despatching peace mediators to Naypyitaw are that KIO wants to put across its stance and political ambitions to the junta and send the message that both parties and civilians will suffer if there is unexpected military conflict between the KIO and the junta, said a KIO officer in Laiza headquarters.

Earlier, the KIO proposed to the ruling junta through the Northern Regional Commander Maj-Gen Soe Win that the KIA could transform to a Kachin State Security Force (KSF) or a Kachin Regional Guard Force (KRGF). But neither the ruling junta nor Commander Soe Win responded to the KIO's proposal, said KIO sources.

The KIO is increasingly under pressure by the Kachin people in the country and abroad to reject the proposal of transforming KIA into a Border Guard Force (BGF).

READ MORE---> Saboi Jum brothers to deliver KIO's message to Naypyitaw...

Kachin Reject Border Guard Force Second Time

By WAI MOE
The Irrawaddy News

One of biggest ethnic ceasefire groups, the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) again rejected the military junta’s border guard force plan and called for autonomy in Kachin State, according to a KIO report.

The meeting between the KIO and Burmese military officials led by Maj-Gen Soe Win, the commander of the Northern Regional Command and head of the transformation committee of the border guard force for the Northern Regional Command, took place in Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin State and the headquarters of the regional command, on July 8.

Representatives of the KIO told the Burmese that the KIO wanted to keep its military wing, the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), under its current status and rejected having Burmese military commanders in its ethnic armed forces.

It is estimated that the KIA now has 4,000 to 5,000 men forming five brigades and one infantry division. KIA troops are stationed in both Kachin State and northern Shan State.

The KIO said that it wanted KIA troops to form a Kachin Regional Guard Force but not a border guard force in the future.

Apart from the border guard force issue, the KIO also called for autonomous power for the KIO in Kachin State by demanding “direct involvement” in the state’s executive, legislative and judicial powers after the 2010 election.

The KIO also rejected a junta proposal for the organization to become a political party for the 2010 elections.

The KIO said it is has been the sole Kachin people’s organization representing the Kachin for five decades, and it would difficult and confusing for Kachin people if the KIO were suddenly transformed into a political party for the election.

The KIO signed a ceasefire agreement with the Burmese military in 1994.

The July 8 meeting was the second attempt by the Burmese military to persuade the KIO to accept the border guard force plan.

At the end of April, Burmese army officials met with leaders of ethnic ceasefire groups, including the KIO, and explained the junta’s blueprint for transforming the armed forces of ethnic ceasefire groups into border guard forces ahead of the 2010 elections.

The KIO and other ceasefire groups voiced their disagreement with the plan at that time.

In June, Lt-Gen Ye Myint, who is secretary of the junta’s Border Guard Force Transformation Committee, visited controlled areas of the United Wa State Army (UWSA), the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) or the Kokang Army, and the National Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA) to convince them of the border guard force plan.

The northern Shan Sate based UWSA, which is the biggest ceasefire group in Burma, the MNDAA and the NDAA rejected the plan a second time.

Analysts say the plan is to incorporate armed ethnic ceasefire troops into the Tatmadaw (Burma’s armed forces) with the aim of weakening ethnic armed groups in the future.

Under the plan, one border guard battalion would have 326 troops including 18 officers. There would be three commanders with the rank of major. Each battalion would have two majors drawn from ceasefire groups and one major drawn from the Tatmadaw in charge of administration.

Each battalion would have a general staff officer and quartermaster with the rank of captain drawn from the Tatmadaw. Company commanders in each battalion would be drawn from ceasefire groups.

Twenty-seven soldiers in other ranks, such as company sergeant majors, sergeant clerks, nurses, etc., would be drawn from Tatmadaw forces.

The deadline for the ceasefire groups to accept the plan was on June 30.

Related article: The Path of Pen or Sword?

Multimedia show from The Irrawaddy published on 4 February 2009.

READ MORE---> Kachin Reject Border Guard Force Second Time...

Two pro-junta Kachin ethnic groups invited to meet Ban

by KNG

Leaders of two pro-Burmese military junta Kachin ceasefire groups were invited to meet the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in the country's capital Naypyitaw yesterday.

Ban met 10 registered political parties, including the country’s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's the National League for Democracy and seven ethnic ceasefire groups in the country, the junta-sponsored media reported.

Only Zahkung Ting Ying, leader of the New Democratic Army-Kachin (NDA-K) also called the Kachin Special Region I by the ruling junta based in Kachin State and Mahtu Naw, leader of Kachin Defense Army (KDA) also called the Northeast Shan State Special Region 4 were invited to the meeting with the UN Chief, said the state-run media.

The junta only invited leaders of the NDA-K and KDA which agreed to convert their armed-forces to junta-proposed forces last month. The NDA-K is to transform as a battalion of the Border Guard Force whereas the KDA is to change to a local militia group.

Kachins do not view the NDA-K and KDA as political organizations. The two organizations are bent on working for their own prosperity rather than adhering to any commitment for the political liberation of Kachins in military-ruled Burma.

The junta, however, did not invite the main Kachin ceasefire group the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) and the main Kachin democratic party, the Kachin State National Congress for Democracy (KNCD) to the meeting with the UN Chief, said sources.

The KNCD is the only Kachin democratic political party which won three seats in the 1990 general elections in Kachin State. The party is also a member of the United Nationalities Alliance (UNA) based in the country and is an ally of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD).

The KIO has refused to convert its armed-wing the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) to the junta-desired battalion of a Border Guard Force (BGF). They, however, are willing to transform to a "State Security Force". Currently, the KIO/A based in Kachin State and Northeast Shan State have over 20,000 men and women in service.

The military activity of both the KIA and the Burmese Army are silently on the rise in Kachin State and Northeast Shan State even as the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is visiting in the country, said local sources.

READ MORE---> Two pro-junta Kachin ethnic groups invited to meet Ban...

Students mark World Anti-Drugs Day with 200 posters in Myitkyina

by KNG

Students marked the World Anti-Drugs Day of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) under the United Nations today with 200 hand-written posters in Myitkyina, the capital of Burma's northern Kachin State. They demanded that the military junta make Kachin State a drug free state, student activists said.

Burma is the world's second largest opium producing country, according to the UNODC.

A-4 size papers pasted by the students carried two slogans --- "Drug free zone" and "No elections 2010", said Shadang Tu Awng, who organized this morning’s movement.

Shadang Tu Awng said, the posters were pasted on roadside electric poles, walls in seven main quarters in Myitkyina--- Yuzana, May Myint, Shatapru, Myothit, Ayeyar, Tatkone (Dapkawng in Kachin) and Du Kahtawng (or Du Mare) including State High Schools in these quarters.

The posters were also put up on the walls in front of the Government Education College and Office of the Township Director of Education, added Tu Awng.

The idea of pasting posters was to highlight the students demand to the ruling junta to make Kachin State a drug free state, another student activist Shadang Naw Naw said.

Several Myitkyina University students took part in this morning’s poster movement in the town. It was organized by the All Kachin Students' Union (AKSU), an underground student organization based in Kachin State, said student activist Tu Awng.

Today the Thailand-based Kachin News Group (KNG) also released a first mini drug report on Kachin State titled "Authorities feed on heroin epidemic in Hpakant" (Read report here).

The report pointed out that the junta allows the rampant use of all kinds of drugs in Hpakant jade mining area in Kachin State where fortune seekers from the whole of Burma come. Most jade miners and workers of jade mining companies are into drugs.

The report also pointed out that Myitkyina University once known as the "Center of learning is now a heroin haven" because students have drugs freely inside in the campus. The Myitkyina-based MDM (Medicin Du Monde – France) has placed a 'Waste Bin' in the university toilet for intravenous drug users among students for discarding used syringes.

The junta's Northern Command or Kachin State Commander Brig-Gen Soe Win has promised that he will completely eradicate drugs in the state during his tenure. However, locals said drug users and distributors are having much more of a free run than during the tenure of his predecessor Maj-Gen Ohn Myint.

Residents of Manhkring quarter in Myitkyina said, they do not go to the nearby bank of the Irrawaddy River (Mali Hka in Kachin) and crop fields near the river because they are scared of hurting their feet on the abundance of syringes littered in these places.

At the moment, in the big prison in Zion (also pronounced Zee Lon) quarter in Myitkyina, most prisoners related to drug cases are Kachins. Some of the prisoners are being sent to the frontline as porters in the current war with the Karen National Union (KNU) near Thailand-Burma border, said prison sources.

READ MORE---> Students mark World Anti-Drugs Day with 200 posters in Myitkyina...

Junta deploys fresh troops secretly in Kachin State

by KNG

The Burmese military junta is secretly deploying more combat troops in Kachin State at a time when negotiations are on with the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) over the transformation of its armed-wing into a battalion of a "Border Guard Force", said local sources.

As of the second week of June, able soldiers have been selected from different battalions and secretly infused into local Burmese Army battalions and military bases in the frontlines in different regions of Kachin State by the instruction of Lt-Gen Ye Myint of Chief of Military Affairs Security of the junta. They include two unidentified Light Infantry Divisions, said a source close to Burmese troops.

The new batch of troops are now secretly being stationed in the areas around Bhamo District in the eastern region of Irrawaddy River (also called Mali Hka in Kachin) and the areas between Myitkyina-Mandalay railways in the western region of the Irrawaddy River, the sources added.

Eyewitnesses in Bhamo said they often see Burmese military columns on the road between Bhamo-Namkham (Namhkam in Kachin), the illegal border trade route with China. They also see military columns of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), the armed-wing of KIO on the same trade route.

The KIO suggested to the junta that the KIA be made a "State Security Force" instead of the junta-proposed "Border Guard Force" during the meeting between KIO delegates and the regime over transforming KIA, in Mali Hka Center in the junta's Northern Command headquarters in the Kachin State's capital Myitkyina on June 21, said KIO sources.

The KIO delegation was led by Vice-president No. 1 Lt-Gen Gauri Zau Seng while the junta's delegates were led by Northern Command Commander Brig-Gen Soe Win.

Meanwhile, KIO leaders are campaigning among the Kachin community in its controlled areas in Kachin State and in Northeast Shan State. It is explaining about the proposed KIA’s transformation. They are also asking for written suggestions to be sent to the KIO central committee, said Kachins in the two states. It is a month-long campaign to be concluded in June, said KIO officers.

Meanwhile, KIA troops have been alerted and are on standby in all battalions in Kachin State and Northeast Shan State to defend itself against the Burmese Army, said KIA officials.

All Kachin political organizations in the country and abroad and the Kachin public have advised to the KIO/A to reject the proposal of transforming the KIA and fight the junta, according to the Kachin media.

READ MORE---> Junta deploys fresh troops secretly in Kachin State...

Junta deploys more troops along Shweli River

Written by KNG

More troops have been deployed along the Shweli (Ruili in Chinese) River in northern Shan Sate in Burma since early this month by the ruling junta, said local sources.

Over a dozen ferry stations are located along the Shweli River (N'Mau Hka in Kachin) and Burmese troops are stationed at these stations, a local eyewitness told KNG today.


The river divides Shan and Kachin States. Strategically Kachin Independence Army (KIA) soldiers cross the river on their way between the general headquarters in Kachin State and its 4th brigade in northeast Shan State, said local residents.

At the moment
No. (33) Light Infantry Division from Ywataung in Sagaing Division,
No. (58) Infantry Battalion (IB) from Waingmaw town and
No. 437 Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) from Momauk (N'mawk in Kachin)
are operating in the area along the left and right flanks of the river, according to local travellers.

Except No. (33) Light Infantry Division, different Infantry and Light Infantry Battalions are operating there in rotation for short periods, said local sources.

No. 12 and No. 27 KIA battalions are based in the north of the river. The KIA’s 4th brigade and its three battalions are stationed in the south west of the river, said KIO sources.

KIA officers in the area feel deployment of Burmese troops could be aimed to check KIA soldiers from crossing the river from the different ferry stations along the river and isolate the KIA 4th brigade from the headquarters in Kachin State.

The KIO has been pressurized to convert its armed-wing the KIA into a battalion of a "Border Guard Force" since April. The KIO has been given a deadline of October to respond to the junta proposal, said KIO sources.

As a response to the junta, the KIO is now into two missions---

launching a civilian and organizational awareness campaign on transforming the KIA
while KIA troops have been ordered to stand by for defensive action against the Burmese Army as in the pre-ceasefire period.

READ MORE---> Junta deploys more troops along Shweli River...