The Kachin Independence Army (KIA), the ethnic Kachin ceasefire armed group in Northern Burma is ignoring the recent threat held out by a high ranking Burmese Army officer regarding the KIA's 4th brigade, based in Northeast Shan State, said KIA officials.
The KIA has no reasons to bother about the threats over the Loikang-based KIA's 4th brigade issued by Lt-Gen Min Aung Hlaing, the Burmese ruling junta's Chief of the Bureau of Special Operations-2 (BSO), which supervises troops in the Northeast, East and Triangle Regional Military Commands, KIA officials in Laiza headquarters on the Sino-Burma border in Kachin State said.
Lt-Gen Min Aung Hlaing said at a meeting with villagers and local militias in Hpawng Seng, near the KIA's 4th brigade on September 30 that the Burmese Army will eliminate the KIA brigade if it rejects two given options--- the KIA's 4th brigade to transform to three militia groups or withdraw the entire brigade to Kachin State.
KIA officials in Laiza said, the KIA has not been officially informed of the threats by Lt-Gen Min Aung Hlaing, whereas delegates from both sides have met eight times since April.
"As long as Kachins exist in Northeast Shan State, the brigade will never be eliminated. However, there is no a single KIA soldier. The KIA's 4th brigade is the local Kachin people's brigade," a KIA officer and central committee member told KNG.
Under the command of the KIA's 4th brigade in Northeast Shan State, there are four KIA battalions --- No. 2, No. 8, No. 9 and No. 17.
Historically, both the KIA and its political wing the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), the main ethnic Kachin armed and political groups have been fighting against successive Burman-led governments since it was first established in Northeast Shan State.
The political-wing, KIO, was formed first in October 25, 1960 in Lashio and then the armed-wing KIA was set up on February 5, 1961 (Sunday) near Hsenwi (also known as Theinni in Burmese), said KIO officials.
Now, KIO leaders are gearing up to meet Burmese military officials on the contentious and non-negotiable Border Guard Force (BGF) issue, within this month, Dr. Lahkyen La Ja, the General Secretary of KIO told KNG yesterday.
The KIO has told the regime that it can convert the KIA to a Kachin special and self-governed Kachin Regional Guard Force (KRGF) at the brigade level instead of the BGF on a battalion level. But the junta is pressurizing the KIO to accept BGF since April--- since it announced its BGF policy.
A KIA official told KNG today, that the KIA is 100 percent certain that it will not accept the Burmese Army-controlled BGF.
