The Burmese military junta is keeping up its relentless pressure and has forced yet another ethnic Kachin armed group in Northeastern Burma to transform to smaller militias under the Burmese Army early this month, said sources in the armed group.

The Kachin Defense Army (KDA), which split from the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) and is based in Kawnghka in Northeast Shan State was forced to change to two smaller local militia groups after the group’s leader Mahtu Naw recovered from serious illness in mid-December last year, KDA sources told Kachin News Group today.
The KDA, formerly part of the KIO’s 4th brigade was instructed today to surrender its big guns and mortars to Lashio-based Northeastern Regional Command Headquarters (Ya-Ma-Kha) of the Burmese military by the regional commander Maj-Gen Aung Than Htut, KDA sources said.

The KDA was also ordered to change to two militia groups today by changing its KDA military uniform to that of the militia by Maj-Gen Aung Than Htut, the sources added.

The junta has said that the militia can keep only small arms so the KDA is surrendering all its big guns to the Burmese Army, KDA sources added.

The KDA has several mortars made in China such as the 50 mm, 60 mm, 75 mm, 82 mm and 120 mm and other big guns.

Earlier, the KDA had requested the junta that it would like to transform to the Border Guard Force, meant for ethnic armed groups proposed by the regime, which can accommodate a larger number of troops compared to the militia, said sources close to KDA leaders.

The request was rejected by the junta because the current territories of the KDA are not in the border areas close to China, added sources among KDA leaders.

Currently, the KDA has two army brigades with about 1,500 troops in Northeast Shan State.  It has been ordered to convert to two militia groups with about 100 troops, said KDA sources.

Local military analysts said the KDA stripped of arms will mean more pressure to KIO’s 4th brigade based in Loikang near the KDA’s headquarters in Kawnghka to transform to militia groups or surrender.

The 4th brigade has been under increasing pressure to transform to two smaller militia groups or withdraw all its troops to KIO’s main military bases in Kachin State by the junta since last year.

Part of the former KIO’s 4th brigade led by Mahtu Naw split from the mother unit in 1990 and signed a permanent ceasefire agreement with the Burmese junta and formed the KDA in 1991.

The KDA backed the junta-led National Convention for drafting the country’s constitution from 1993 to 2007.  It also approved the junta-centric 2008 constitution.

Now the KDA’s junior officers and soldiers are reluctant to accept the junta-proposed militia but have no choice and cannot flout the order of their leader Mahtu Naw, said sources close to KDA soldiers.

In Kachin State late last year, the junta forced the transformation of two KIO split groups under its control. They are the Lawa Yang-based Lasang Awng Wa Peace Group to two local militia groups in October and Pangwah-based New Democratic Army-Kachin (NDA-K) to three battalions of the Border Guard Force in November.