China is constructing a mini-great wall in southwest Yunnan province on the border with the Kachin insurgent controlled areas in Kachin state in northern Burma, said local sources.
[Laiza, border trade center and headquarters of KIO on China-Burma border, northern Burma.]
Laiza, border trade center and headquarters of KIO on China-Burma border, northern Burma.
The mini-great wall will be seven miles long and it will divide Laiza border trade centre into two parts--- the controlled areas of Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) in Burma and the China side, said residents in KIO's Laiza area.
According to eyewitnesses, as part of the activities to lay the foundation, a line of ground block hole is now visible near the Laiza border market of the KIO. The ground block hole for the wall is about 10-feet wide. The wall it seems is being built for people to walk along it like the Great Wall of China, added residents.
Regarding the construction on the Laiza side, China says the wall is aimed to prevent drugs and drug smugglers entering from Burma through the KIO controlled Laiza areas, said sources close to Chinese border authorities.
A resident of Laiza told KNG today, "The wall will not prevent entry of drugs from the Burma side because it is a porous border. I think the wall is being built to politically divide ethnic Kachins in Burma's Kachin state and Jinghposu (Kachins) in China's Yunnan province".
Meanwhile, the Burmese ruling junta awarded a contract to China on November 20 to construct oil and gas pipelines from Bay of Bengal across Burma to Kunming in southwestern China. The total estimated investment is around $2.55 billion, stated China's state-run media.
Sources close to members of the Chinese Communist Party in Yunnan province said, China is apprehensive of wars between ethnic insurgents and Burma's ruling junta along its Yunnan province border with northern Burma after the 2010 elections in Burma.
Laiza is also the general headquarters of the KIO which signed a ceasefire agreement with Burma's ruling junta in 1994. It is a separately administered area by the KIO and China but some areas are jointly administered, said KIO officials.
