In a sudden development, which caught the armed rebel group unawares, a liaison office of the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) in Burma’s northern Kachin State, was raided yesterday by combined Burmese security forces, even as the group’s leaders arrived in the state’s capital Myitkyina to meet the ruling junta brass on the Border Guard Force issue, said KIO sources.
The KIO’s Township Office in Seng Tawng in Hpakant jade mining area, west of Kachin State, was raided between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. Burma Standard Time by Burmese security forces, comprising soldiers, policemen, reserved firefighters and administrators of Seng Tawng, added KIO sources.
The raid was carried out without any information and the security forces went over the office with a tooth comb. All the staff members were checked thoroughly along with office documents, said residents of Seng Tawng.
Fuming KIO officials in Hpakant said, “This is an unacceptable act with the ceasefire on and it is a deliberate act of provocation”.
Burmese troops were also reported to be heading for the station in Sang Hka village between Lawng Hkang town and Seng Ra village, where battalion No. 6 of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), the armed-wing of KIO is based, according to KIO officers in Hpakant.
KIA troops prepare for civil war in Kachin State, northern Burma.
The KIO/KIA is terribly anxious about the new Sang Hka Burmese military camp, which will cut transport links between the KIA’s battalion 6 and Lawng Hkang, said KIA officers in Hpakant.
Yesterday, KIO delegates met Maj-Gen Soe Win, commander of Northern Regional Command in Myitkyina on the thorny BGF issue. The KIO had been given April 22 as the deadline to respond on the BGF by the junta.
Sources close to KIO delegates said, no response was given to Maj-Gen Soe Win on the BGF but the group discussed resolving the issue by other means which were not military in nature.
Meanwhile, the KIO needs to gear up to defend itself from any onslaught by the Burmese Army, said KIO officials in Laiza headquarters east of Kachin State, near the China border.
