KIO Dismisses Six High Ranking Officers

Written by KNG

Saturday, 05 September 2009 21:25

Six high ranking officers of the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) were sacked from their posts on September 2 (Wednesday) to pre-empt factionalism akin to the recent split in the Kokang ceasefire group engineered by the Burmese ruling junta, said KIO sources. A KIO officer based in its Laiza headquarters on the Sino-Burma border in Burma's northern Kachin State told KNG today, that six senior officers were dismissed from the organization in a pre-emptive move because they posed a danger of creating fissures in the party. Former KIO Vice-president No. 2 Dr. Manam Tu Ja The six sacked officers are Dr. Manam Tu Ja, Vice-president No. 2 of KIO, N'Ja Naw Rip Deputy General Secretary of KIO, Dukaba Mung Hkawng, Dukaba Paushi Zau Hpan, Dukaba Nuk Le and Salang kaba Sabaw Krang, said KIO officers in Laiza. The KIO will make an official announcement about the dismissal soon, added KIO officers. The dismissal of the officers comes at a time when there is palpable military tension between the KIO and the junta after the regime created a rift in the Northeast Shan State-based Myanmar Democratic Alliance Army (MDAA) known as the Kokang ceasefire group and captured the entire MDAA territory on August 24. According to KIO leaders, the fired KIO officers were also contemplating resigning because they wanted to work for the Kachin State Progressive Party (KSPP) to contest next year’s general elections. The KSPP was set up last year by the Kachin State Interim Committee (KSIC), which was jointly formed by three main Kachin organizations--- the KIO, the New Democratic Army-Kachin (NDA-K) and Kachin Nationals Consultative Assembly (KNCA). It is yet to register as a political party. It will do so when the junta authorizes registration of new political parties for general elections in 2010, the party leader Dr. Manam Tu Ja had said earlier. Former KIO Vice-president No. 2 Dr. Tu Ja had said in an interview to KNG last year that he will resign from the KIO as soon as the newly formed KSPP is recognized as an official political party. Dr. Tu Ja led KIO delegates to the junta-conducted National Convention for drafting the country's new constitution till it was concluded in late 2007. He was, however, increasingly criticized inside the KIO and the Kachin community because he strongly supported the NC and next year’s election. He was being viewed as a second Sama Duwa Sin Wa Nawng, the first Kachin State administrator, who strongly supported Burmese politicians throughout his political life from the time of British colonial rule till the tenure of the U Nu government after Burma’s Independence in January 4, 1948.