Attempts are on by the Burmese ruling junta to rope in ethnic Kachin Baptist church leaders in the country’s north to persuade Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) to accept the regime’s Border Guard Force proposal, said church sources.
Brig-Gen Soe Win, commander of Military Operation Command No. 21 (MOC or Sa-Ka-Kha) based in Bhamo, Kachin State has told Bhamo Kachin Baptist Church leaders to pressure the KIO to accede to the BGF, when the church leaders went to meet him on March 7 for a permit for a religious conference, said the sources.
At the meeting, the church leaders were silent on the Commander’s brief but they were granted permission for the 36th Baptist conference of the Kachin Baptist Convention (KBC), the largest conference for Kachin Baptist followers every four years, which is going to be held in Robert Memorial Kachin Baptist Church in Bhamo, or Manmaw in Kachin state, from March 27 to 31, added the sources.
This is not the first time that the ruling junta has tried to influence leaders of Kachin churches of all denominations in Kachin State to pressure KIO to accept the BGF.
On July 29 last year, over 300 Kachin church leaders of different denominations were assembled at St. Columban's Roman Catholic Church in Aung Nan Yint Ta in Myitkyina and they were told to pressure the KIO to accept the BGF by Maj-Gen Soe Win, commander of Northern Regional Command (or Kachin State’s commander) based in Myitkyina.
At the moment, the KIO is the main armed group representing all Kachin people and it is also the last Kachin armed group, which refuses to give in and come up with a clear answer on the BGF.
The three KIO split groups--- Pangwah-based New Democratic Army-Kachin (NDA-K), Kawnghka-based Kachin Defense Army (KDA) and Lawayang-based Lasang Awng Wa Peace Group were forcibly made to dissolve their armed-wings by the junta and transform to the Burmese Army-controlled BGF and militia groups, off late.
Civil war seems imminent between the junta and the KIO in the KIO’s territories in Kachin State and Northeast Shan State after the junta set February 28 as the deadline for the KIO to respond positively to the BGF.
On March 12, the KIO proposed to the junta that it would like to solve the BGF issue after the political imbroglio between them is resolved and it would like to maintain the current ceasefire status, according to KIO officers in Laiza headquarters in Kachin State, near the China border.
