| By SAW YAN NAING |
Wednesday, December 30, 2009 |
The Burmese military regime have lifted the deadline for agreement over their border guard force demand with the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) and will continue talks, according to KIO sources.
Eight KIO leaders including chairman Lanyaw Zawng Hra, Vice-chairman (1) Gauri Zau Seng, and general secretary La Ja met with a delegation of seven members from the Burmese military regime led by Maj-Gen Soe Win, commander of Northern Regional Command in Myitkyina, capital of Kachin State on Tuesday.
James Lum Dau, the KIO’s deputy chief of foreign affairs in Bangkok told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday that there is no deadline for the KIO's armed wing, the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), to become part of the Burmese regime-dominated border guard force. Both sides will continue discussions over the issue, he said.
The Burmese junta's first deadline for the independent ethnic cease-fire militias to transform their militias into Burmese military regime-dominated border guard forces was at the end of October, but the junta extended the deadline to the end of December.
Strong militias such as the KIA and the United Wa State Army (UWSA) have yet to submit to the order, however.
During the meeting in Myitkyina on Tuesday, KIO representatives told the Burmese delegation that they prefer the spirit of the Panglong Agreement, Lum Dau said.
Signed in Shan State in 1947 by the then central government leader Gen Aung San and ethnic Kachin, Chin and Shan leaders, the Panglong Agreement aimed to form a federal Union of Burma.
It was reported earlier that junta supremo Snr-Gen Than Shwe was very angry with recent KIO proposals, which follow the spirit of the Panglong Agreement.
Lapai Naw Din, the editor of the Thailand-based Kachin News Group said, “the KIO want their role to be in line with the Panglong Agreement. They want to resolve political conflict through political means, but the Burmese regime doesn't want to compromise.”
Saeng Juen, an editor of the Chiang Mai-based Shan Herald Agency for News said reports from Shan State indicate that the Burmese military will take action and make an example of an ethnic militia if none of the cease-fire groups submit to the order by the end of December.
Another ethnic cease-fire group, the Shan State Army–North (SSA-N), held meetings with members of its armed forces to explain the border guard force proposal from 7 to 18 Dec., yet they have not announced whether they will accept the junta demand. The SSA-N is waiting to see what the strongest of the groups, the UWSA, decides, according to Saeng Juen.
The UWSA has agreed in principle to the border guard force order but have not accepted that they should be dominated by Burmese military personnel and will also hold further talks with junta authorities, according to sources within the UWSA.
Meanwhile, the UWSA has strengthened its defenses since the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, a force of between 1,500 and 2,000 men, abandoned Laogai, the capital of Kokang, to a column of junta troops without putting up serious resistance on Aug. 24.
Since the junta announced its border guard force order, a few ethnic cease-fire groups, such as the New Democratic Army-Kachin and the Karenni National People’s Liberation Front, officially received honor ceremonies in November marking their participation in the border guard force plan.
Official Burmese figures say there are 17 ethnic cease-fire groups that have cease-fire agreements with the Burmese military government.
One strong cease-fire group, the DKBA, have agreed to the junta's border guard force order but have not implemented it yet, however.
Karen sources said there is disagreement among members of the DKBA over the border guard force issue, and several hundred DKBA members have defected to the KNU since April, reportedly in disagreement with the leadership's acceptance of the border guard plan.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=17512 |
