In the backdrop of mounting tension and possible civil war between Burma’s military junta and an ethnic armed group in Northern Burma, the Burmese Army has rounded up five civilians for use as porters in Bhamo district in Kachin State, said residents.
Five residents of Sin Khan including Hla Maung, aged between 30 and 45 were picked up from outside their homes between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. local time on March 1 for use as military porters by Burmese soldiers, according to their relatives.
The incident occurred a day after the junta’s deadline to Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) to transform its armed-wing the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) to the regime-controlled Border Guard Force, expired.
The five are still in custody and relatives believe they are detained in one of the two army battalions based in Bhamo--- the Light Infantry Battalion No. 319 or No. 601.
Sources in Bhamo (or Manmaw in Kachin) district and township administration offices (also called Kha-Ya-ka and Ma-Ya-Ka) said Burmese soldiers are authorized by Naypyitaw to round up civilian porters for war.
A resident of Sin Khan told KNG, “After five residents were detained for military porterage, some youths in village headed for the forests with blankets at night to sleep so as to evade Burmese soldiers”.
The army is reinforcing all battalions in Bhamo Township and three or four soldiers can be seen at every road junction and corner in Bhamo downtown since early this week, a local eyewitness told Kachin News Group today.
The number of Burmese troops has been increased in 12 official and unofficial military checkpoints between Bhamo and Nam Hkam trade route with the China border, said local merchants.
Early this week, new batches of Burmese troops were seen being transported in military trucks from Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin State to the erstwhile areas of the two former Kachin armed groups in eastern Kachin State, which were forcibly disarmed by the junta --- Lasang Awng Wa Peace Group and the New Democratic Army-Kachin (NDA-K), said sources close to the two groups.
The territories of the two groups are contiguous to those of the KIO and it is militarily important for Burmese troops, said local sources.
In Laiza headquarters near the China border, KIO is holding its crucial central committee meeting with about 300 members from March 1 and it is expected to come up with a clear cut decision over the contentious Border Guard Force proposed by the junta, according to Laiza KIO sources.
Local military analysts based on the Sino-Burma border predict that civil war is likely soon if the KIO decides to stick to rejecting the BGF.
Meanwhile, the junta is deploying hundreds of fresh troops to the regions near the KIO territory in Kachin State and northeast Shan State, according to residents of the two states.
