A newly-formed ethnic Kachin militia group in Burma's northern Kachin State is now operating under the direct control of a Burmese Army officer of the Northern Command (NC), said sources in the militia group.
The Lawa Yang Militia is being commanded by Lt-Col. Aung Kyaw Soe of Kachin State's capital Myitkyina-based Northern Command Headquarters (Ma-Pa-Kha) since it was officially transformed from the Lasang Awng Wa Peace Group on October 16, militia sources said.
The group's conversion ceremony was held in the Lawa Yang village, around 20 miles northeast of Myitkyina. It was attended by the junta's Northern Commander Maj-Gen Soe Win.
Troops of Lasang Awng Wa Peace Group in Lawa Yang base before it transformed to the Burma Army-controlled militia group
Under the Lawa Yang Militia, the group is divided into two with 30 personnel each with different bases--- Lawa Yang village-based Militia led by La Ja and La Ring and Gwi Htu village-based Militia led by Labya Gam Ba and Zau Awng, according to the sources.
The militia leaders from the two sub-militia groups are former officers of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), the main Kachin ceasefire group which rejected the junta-proposed Border Guard Force.
Lasang Awng Wa, former chief of Intelligence and National Security Department of the KIA split from the mother organization with around 300 KIA soldiers on January 4, 2004 and based itself in Lawa Yang, a territory given to them by former Northern Command commander Maj-Gen Ohn Myint as of December 26, 2005.
Lasang Awng Wa, who dejectedly addressed the newly formed militias soon after the conversion said, "The junta can change our skins but it cannot change our hearts," said the sources.
The New Democratic Army-Kachin (NDA-K), another larger Kachin peace group based in Pangwah east of Kachin State on the Sino-Burma was officially transformed to three battalions of the BGF under the ruling junta's Ministry of Defense on November 8.
The transformation ceremony in Pangwah was attended by senior military officers--- Maj-Gen Maung Maung Ohn, Director of the People's Militia and Border Troops under the Ministry of Defense from the country's capital Naypyidaw and Maj-Gen Soe Win of Northern Command commander.
