Two soldiers from the Kachin Independence Organization's (KIO) armed wing were killed following a surprise attack by government forces on 19th December, the group said.
The deadly incident took place in Kachin State's Daw Hpum Yang Sub-Township. According to Lah Nan, the KIO's chief spokesperson, one Kachin Independence Army (KIA) soldier was also seized during the raid on the small KIA outpost.
The attack on the KIA outpost near Aung Sa Kung took place at noon and was carried out by about 20 government troops from Light Infantry Battalion 602. The outpost was only lightly guarded by a small number of KIA troops who were caught off guard, explained Lah Nan.
He said: “They (the Burma Army) are always patrolling around, sending reinforcements and then suddenly they attacked our army camp, so our soldiers did not get any chance to shoot them back."
The attack coincided with the one month anniversary of the Burma army shelling of a KIA officer training school which killed 23 cadets (all from KIO allied armed groups) and injured 20 more.
Lah Nan also criticized the Burmese Government's attempt to block international aid from going to Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps located in territory under KIO control. According to Lah Nan the attacks and denial of food are all part of the government's plan to provoke insecurity in the state. “All these attacks were started by the government side against our army camps on the front line. But this is not a kind of clash or fighting between two sides, it is one side firing,” he said.
The day after the raid Burmese government forces also arrested four civilians from Aung Sa Kung village and accused them of supporting the KIA, Lah Nan said. The Burma Army has yet to release any of the four detained villagers or the KIA soldier.
The KIO has sent a letter of complaint to the national government and to the leader of the Kachin State peace negotiations team, Col.Than Aung, the Kachin State Minister for Border Affairs. The seventh round of the talks to form a nationwide ceasefire agreement took place 22nd December in Rangoon.
The talks included officials from the Nationwide Ceasefire Coordination Team (NCCT), an entity that represents many of Burma's armed ethnic groups and representatives from the government's Union Peace Working Committee (UPWC). The KIO’s chief negotiator Maj-Gen Gun Maw did not attend the meeting, neither did any representatives of the Burmese military.
The KIO's absence appears to be related to the increase in tensions between the KIO and the government that have developed since the 19th November artillery attack on the KIA officer training school.
