The Burmese military junta’s vengeance on the people of Kachin State is crossing all limits and bordering on the inhuman. In its latest hate move it has banned supply of rice and salt to the Kachin Army and two townships in the country’s Northern Shan State, hitting below the belt tens of thousands of civilians in the region.

The junta’s game plan by cutting of rations is twofold. It wants to starve the KIA’s 4th Brigade based in Loikang and at the same time hurt the people of two townships – Mong Si and Manje. The regime wants unrest among the people and to turn them against the KIA for an easy onslaught by the Burmese Army when the time comes.

The ban has hit civilians hard in Manje and Mong Si townships in Muse district in Northern Shan State, who rely on imported rice from other places rather than the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) and its armed-wing the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) in these areas, said sources in the KIA and local people.

The ban comes into effect at the Nam Sa Burmese military checkpoint near Nam Sa River Bridge on Kutkai-Mong Si road, which is the only route connecting the two townships and the KIA’s 4th Brigade based in Loikang. Currently, the checkpoint is manned by Infantry Battalion No. 290 of the Burmese Army from Tamonye, said local people.

The junta had slowly started limiting food supply to the KIA’s 4th brigade at the Nam Sa military checkpoint since November last year. It imposed a complete ban last week, said KIA sources.

Every cross-border traveler is stopped and checked for their National Registration Cards (NRC) at the checkpoint.

A KIA official of the 4th brigade told Thailand-based Kachin News Group “The complete ban on food supply to the areas, will hit the 4thbrigade but civilians in Mong Si and Manje townships will be more severely affected.”

There are over 20,000 people in each township while there are only about 400 men and women in the headquarters of the KIA’s 4th brigade, said KIA sources. The local tribes are Kachin, Shan, Palaung and Chinese in the region.

The three areas used to receive rations like rice and salt transported from Kutkai, Hsenwi (or Theini) and Lashio after crossing the Nam Sa military checkpoint on the Kutkai-Mong Si Road. It is also difficult to supply food from the China border because the areas are situated far from the border, said local people.

Bum Htoi, former member of the Chinese-backed Communist Party of Burma (CPB) and a Kachin political analyst told Kachin New Group, “Following the ban, a new form of conflict will take shape between the KIA’s 4th brigade and the junta soon”.

Sources close to the KIA’s 4th brigade said, the ban has come when people in the two townships and the 4th brigade are stocking up on food for a possible civil war with the Burmese Army.

Until now, the KIO/KIA has not reacted on the ban on the 4th brigade’s supply chain but it has already informed the Burmese junta that it will wage war on government troops in Kachin State too if the Burmese Army fights the KIA’s 4th brigade in Northern Shan State.

There is palpable military and political tension between KIO and the junta since the KIO rejected the junta-proposed demand for transforming the KIA into the Burmese Army-controlled Border Guard Force on August 30 last year.