KIO Wants KIA To Be "State Security Force"

The Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), one of strongest ethnic ceasefire groups in military-ruled Burma would rather transform its armed-wing to a "State Security Force" rather than a "Border Guard Force" it has told the junta, said KIO sources.

The KIO has officially informed the junta of its willingness to transform the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) to a “State Security Force” (SSF) instead of the junta’s proposal that it be changed to a battalion of a "Border Guard Force" when the two sides met at Mali Hka Center in the junta's Northern Command headquarters in Kachin State's capital Myitkyina on June 21 (Sunday), said KIO leaders.

Lt-Gen Gauri Zau Seng, Vice-president No. 1 of KIO/A

The KIO delegates were led by Vice-president No. 1 Lt-Gen Gauri Zau Seng at the meeting while the junta was led by Brig-Gen Soe Win, the Commander of the Northern Command (Ma Pa Kha), added KIO sources.

The KIA, the armed-wing of KIO, is currently based in Kachin State and in Northeast Shan State. There are four brigades and five army divisions in Kachin State and one brigade in Northeast Shan State with over 20,000 men and women in both KIO and KIA, insiders said.

The junta has responded to the SSF proposal of the KIO by despatching more Burmese Army troops secretly to Kachin State and the border between Kachin State and Shan State on the orders of Lt-Gen Ye Myint, Chief of Military Affairs Security (Sa Ya Pha) of the junta, according to local sources, who are reliable.

Fresh batches of Burmese troops are being sent to Kachin State as standby for a possible civil war with the KIA, said sources close to Burmese troops.

The KIA, however, will not start a war with the ruling junta but it has ordered its soldiers to standby in the event of a war which will basically be defensive in nature, according to sources in the KIO/A headquarters Laiza on the Sino-Burma border in Kachin State.

Local political and military analysts believe that the palpable tension between the KIO and the junta may lead to a resumption of civil war but that may happen after the next year's general elections proposed by the junta.

The KIO/A signed a ceasefire agreement with the junta on February 24, 1994 and it supported the junta-conducted National Convention (NC) for drafting the country's new constitution and referendum on the new constitution against the wishes of the Kachin people.

KNG