The two strongest ethnic armed ceasefire groups--- the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) and United Wa State Army (UWSA) are gearing up to withstand a military offensive by the Burmese Army, even as two U.S. officials are to visit Burma this week, said sources' close to the two groups.
The two armed groups have had a close relationship since the 1980s. Now they are preparing to resist a military offensive after the junta's deadline to transform their armed-wings to the Burmese Army-controlled Border Guard Force expired on October 31, said the sources.
A Kachin military analyst on the Sino-Burma border told KNG today, that cross-border relations between the UWSA and Chinese military authorities have improved after the Burmese junta broke a ceasefire agreement and captured Laogai, the capital of Kokang ceasefire group also known as the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) on August 24.
During the clashes between the junta and the rebels loyal to supreme leader Peng Jiasheng of the Kokang group from August 27 to 29, several dozen innocent Chinese citizens were killed in Laogai by Burmese troops and over 30,000 refugees fled to Chinese territory.
China has disapproved of the junta’s action on the MNDAA and the killing of dozens of Chinese citizens, according to Chinese border security forces.
According to the U.S. State Department, two U.S. officials, Kurt Campbell, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, and Scot Marciel, a Deputy Assistant Secretary, are slated to visit Burma on November 3 and 4 for the first time in more than a decade.
The two U.S officials will meet opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and Burmese military generals. Suu Kyi, a Nobel Prize Laureate, has spent 14 of the past 20 years in some form of detention and is currently under house arrest.
A Kachin politician based in Bangkok told KNG, the U.S. officials’ visit to Burma will not yield positive results because the military supremo Snr-Gen Than Shwe has not assured free and fair elections in 2010 and the release of Suu Kyi. Her party the National League for Democracy (NLD) is yet to decide on contesting the elections. It has demanded the release of all political prisoners and a review of the new constitution.
Engagement between Burma and the U.S. has started afresh after U.S. Senator Jim Webb of Virginia met Snr-Gen Than Shwe in August. John Yettaw, an American, who was jailed for intruding into Suu Kyi’s home in Rangoon in May, was freed through Webb’s mediation.
China is concerned over the fresh engagement between Burma and the US, said sources among Chinese border authorities.
If U.S. and Burma strike a rapport, China may supply weapons to UWSA, based on the border with the country's southwest Yunnan's province, said Sino-Burma border sources.
A high ranking KIO officer told KNG today, if the Burmese junta wages war on ethnic ceasefire groups, which rejected the Burmese Army-controlled Border Guard Force proposal, including KIO and UWSA soon, the countrywide general 2010 elections may be cancelled.
