Saboi Jum brothers want KIO to accept BGF

In what might lead to fresh fissures in the Kachin community, prominent peace mediators Rev. Dr. Saboi Jum and his younger brother Hkun Myat are seriously suggesting that the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) accepts the Border Guard Force proposed by junta supremo Snr-Gen Than Shwe.


The Saboi Jum brothers have told the KIO, the last remaining Kachin armed group refusing to accept the BGF that “It (BGF) is the key and the door can be opened by only a key”. It means the relation between the junta and the KIO will end if the latter rejects the BGF, said a KIO official in Laiza headquarters.


Saviours or Opportunists?

Saboi Jum and Hkun Myat attended the latest KIO’s public meeting explaining its stance and the “lack of positive result on BGF negotiations with the junta after 15 times”, in Laiza headquarters in east Kachin State on April 16. But the two brothers had to go back home in Myitkyina without getting a chance to talk to KIO leaders, said participants.

Earlier this month, three other Kachin leaders who sided with the junta were--- Dr. Tu Ja, former Vice-president No. 2 of KIO, Zahkung Ting Ying leader of New Democratic Army-Kachin (NDA-K) transformed to BGF and Col. Lasang Awng Wa leader of KIO split Lasang Awng Wa Peace Group transformed to a militia group. They also suggested that the KIO accept BGF ---or else it will have trouble in terms of existence.

Saboi Jum is the former general secretary of Kachin Baptist Convention (KBC) and founder and director of Shalom Foundation (also called Nyein Foundation), one of the largest national NGOs in Burma. His brother Hkun Myat is a businessman.

The two brothers, a pastor and a businessman mediated in a big way and successfully helped sign a ceasefire agreement between the junta and the KIO on 24 February, 1994.
The 16 year-old ceasefire has not helped usher in democracy and ethnic Kachin rights, so criticism by Kachin people of the two brothers has only mounted. The criticism revolves around the duo creating personal wealth through business, given their proximity to the ruling junta. They are not for the Kachin people.

Saboi Jum was general secretary of KBC during 1993 to 2000 and Kachin Baptist followers expected him to be a saviour of the Kachin people. However he did not fulfill the Kachin people’s aspirations.
In 2007, Saboi Jum was pressured to join the signature campaign in an appeal letter to junta supremo Snr-Gen Than Shwe to halt the Irrawaddy Myitsone dam project by the Kachin Nationals Consultative Assembly. But he refused to sign.

In December, last year, Saboi Jum visited Washington D.C and suggested to U.S. officials to withdraw the economic sanctions on Burma and support the junta’s general elections in 2010.

KIO delegates led by Chairman Lanyaw Zawng Hra will meet the junta’s Northern Regional Commander Maj-Gen Soe Win today in Myitkyina but the KIO will refrain from providing the junta-demanded answer— on whether it will accept the BGF, said KIO officials.