An increasingly impatient Burmese military junta wants the Kachin armed group to come clean on the contentious Border Guard Force issue, where it wishes to see the Kachin Army being transformed into the Burmese Army controlled BGF, said sources close to Kachin leaders.
However, in opposition to the wishes of the junta brass in Naypyitaw the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) has decided not to come up with a clear answer on the BGF issue, said KIO officers in Laiza Headquarters in Kachin State, near the China border.
So, it seems the junta has begun to provoke the KIO and has detained at least eight soldiers of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) the armed-wing of the KIO near the Laiza Headquarters early this week.
The latest ambiguous decision on BGF was made in the crucial KIO central committee meeting held in Laiza from March 1 to 11, added the KIO officer in Laiza.
Col. James Lum Dau, Assistant Officer of KIO Foreign Relations, who came back to his Bangkok office from Laiza on March 15 told Kachin News Group, “The junta is very keen on KIA transforming to BGF but we insist on a political dialogue”.
During the meeting between KIO delegates and the junta’s Northern Regional Commander Maj-Gen Soe Win in Kachin State’s capital Myitkyina on March 12, the KIO’s proposal for a dialogue was sent to the Naypyitaw brass, KIO delegates said.
On the same day, the KIO’s proposal was also sent to Lt-Gen Ye Myint, chief of Military Affairs Security and Naypyitaw negotiator for all ethnic armed groups on transforming their armed-wings to the junta-proposed BGF, said KIO delegates.
The KIO’s proposal did not have a clear “Yes or No” on the BGF but it proposed that the issue be discussed after political dialogue is kick started between the two sides, added a KIO senior official in Laiza.
The KIO’s proposal also said it would recognize the new government after the junta-led countrywide elections this year and it would also want a political dialogue with the newly elected government, said KIO officers in Laiza.
KIO officials in Laiza told KNG today, that the KIO’s vice-president No. 1 Lt-Gen Gauri Zau Seng, the leader of the KIO delegates has stayed back in Myitkyina since March 12 and he is awaiting Naypyitaw’s response over the latest KIO proposal.
The junta set February 28 as the deadline for the KIO to respond to the BGF, however the KIO has refused to come clean.
KIO/KIA officers have criticized the junta over the detention of eight KIA soldiers, which seems to be a provocation by the ruling junta to create conditions for a military confrontation from the Kachin side--- not the junta’s side first.
