The contentious meeting between the Burmese military junta and the Kachin Independence Organization continued for the second day today in Myitkyina, the capital of Burma's northern Kachin State, said KIO sources.
This is the first meeting in Myitkyina, where delegates from both sides are of the senior most level after the Kokang war and soon after the KIO dismissed six high ranking officers from the organization on September 2. The dismissed included Dr. Manam Tu Ja, Vice-president No. 2 and deputy General Secretary N'Ja Naw Rip.
The meeting is being held inside the Burmese Army's Northern Command headquarters in Myitkyina. The talks are on between Lt-Gen Ye Myint, Chief of Military Affairs Security (MAS) and chief Naypyitaw negotiator for all ethnic ceasefire groups of the junta and delegates of the KIO led by Vice-president No. 1 Lt-Gen Gauri Zau Seng, said KIO officials.
This is the seventh time that delegates from both sides have met since April over the junta-proposed Border Guard Force (BGF). This time, the meeting is lasting longer, a KIO official in Laiza headquarters on the Sino-Burma border in Kachin State told KNG today.
Yesterday, the meeting continued from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. local time and the meeting is again on today, said sources of the KIO relation office in Myitkyina.
A KIO officer in Laiza told KNG today, "During the previous meeting, both sides met for no more than one hour but this time it is carrying on for many hours and for two days. This meeting is important for the KIO and we are waiting for the outcome".
In the earlier meetings, there was no positive result because the junta continued pressurizing the KIO to transform it armed-wing the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) to the Burmese Army-controlled BGF--- ignoring the KIO's proposals, said KIO sources.
In the two-day discussions, the top issues are the transformation of the KIA to the junta-controlled BGF and the KIO's demands for converting KIA to the Kachin Regional Guard Force (KRGF) and the direct participation of KIO in the new Kachin State government to be formed following next year’s elections, according to KIO officials in Laiza.
Besides the KRGF, the KIO delegates had planned to demand in the meeting, the recognition of self appointed authorities of its other main departments under the KIO such as Education, Health, Civil Administration and Reconstruction, said KIO officers in Laiza.
On September 5, the KIO called an urgent public meeting of Kachin people from Kachin State and Northeast Shan State in Laiza HQ to discuss the junta-proposed BGF. The public meeting rejected the proposal, according to the meeting resolution released the same day.
Last month, the KIO submitted a list of more than 10 departments in government form under the KIO to the ruling junta to convince the junta that the KIO does not comprise the armed-wing KIA, alone, said KIO officers.
If the junta tries to keep imposing the BGF proposal on the KIO in the on-going meeting, it might lead to a civil war between them before or after the junta-set October deadline for transforming all ethnic ceasefire armies to the BGF, said KIO sources.
