Burmese Junta tone down to KIO The Kachin Post / April 26, 2010
The political trend has been significantly soften towards Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) in dealing with Border Guard Force issue, since the latest meeting between the two parties in Myitkyina, Kachin State last Thursday, said a source closed to KIO.
“There would be no Border Guard Force (BGF) talk anymore,” said a high ranking KIO officer quoted by a source. The Burmese Generals were just trying to patch up what they had warned against KIO during the previous meetings, the officer added. Burmese junta has been pressuring KIO to transform its arms wing KIA into BGF since April 2009 and KIO delegates met with junta officials sixteen times within a period of one year since April 2009.
During the latest meeting on April 22, Burmese junta representative appeased KIO delegates that they insisted not to break out the current status quo of ceasefire condition between the two groups, letting implicitly KIO to implement their own transformation plans, according the KIO officer.
A meeting before the latest meeting on April 4, Lt. Gen Ye Myint, junta’s chief negotiator for BFG, warned KIO must come up with clear decision whether to accept BGF or not before April 22, 2010. If not, Ye Myint reportedly said, the situation would be regarded as the situation before 1994 ceasefire agreement between the two parties. KIO had been waging fierce military campaign against successive Burmese government since 1961.
On April 13, 2010, KIO sent an open letter to Lt. Gen Ye Myint, saying that Burmese junta should reconsider the BGF plan by explaining that 1994 ceasefire agreement didn’t included the Border Guard Force plan and it’s impossible to accept the situation would be back to prior ceasefire agreement, if KIO do not accept BGF. The letter also clearly stated that KIO wants to transform its arms wing KIA into Union Defense Army under the government of Union of Burma.
KIO previous proposed its arms wing KIA to transform Kachin Regional Guard Force (KRFG) in respond to BGF in 2009.
Kachin Independence Organization was originally founded to establish independence Kachinland from Union of Burma in 1961. The organization altered its original policy toward not to secede Kachin State from Union of Burma after a series of meeting with Burma’s Socialist government in 1980 and it signed ceasefire agreement with Burma Army in 1994.
