KIO and junta officials meet again in Myitkyina

KNG

For the second time this month, senior officials of the Burmese junta and Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) met today in Myitkyina, capital of Kachin State in northern Burma, said local sources.


The officials met at the Northern Regional Command Headquarters in the morning. The meeting focused on maintaining friendship rather than thrashing out the differences between them, said KIO sources.

The meeting did not discuss the thorny junta proposal to the KIO to transform the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), its armed-wing to the Burmese Army-controlled Border Guard Force (BGF), added KIO sources.


It is not clear what the two sides discussed.

The delegates from both sides have stopped discussing the contentious BGF issue since the junta’s April 28 deadline on it, The meeting was attended by Brig-Gen Thein Sein Minister for Post, Communication and Telegraph; U Aung Thaung of Minister for Industry-1 and Maj-Gen Soe Win Commander of Northern Command from the junta’s side. On the KIO’s side, it was attended by Chairman Lanyaw Zawng Hra, Dr. Lahkyen La Ja, General Secretary and KIA’s Vice Chief of Staff Brig-Gen Sumlut Gun Maw, according to sources.

Meanwhile, the KIO’s central committee is garnering opinion and suggestions from men and women in its organizations as well as the Kachin people for transforming the entire KIO, which comprises more than a dozen departments including the armed-wing, the KIA, said Dr. La Ja.

The KIO’s central committee will take a decision based on the opinions and then talk to the Burmese junta, Dr. La Ja added.

The junta has responded in a high handed manner after the KIO rejected the BGF. It has been treating KIO members harshly in places controlled by it in Kachin State.

KIO members, especially youths have been systematically detained and interrogated in Myitkyina by Burmese military intelligence since the serial bomb explosions in Myitsone dam project in Irrawaddy River on April 17.