As if to press home the point that it means business the Burmese military junta arrested more Kachin youths following a meeting with Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) leaders. The detained are being interrogated in connection with the serial bomb blasts.
Only Gam Awng was released at midnight the day after his arrest from the Myitkyina-based Northern Regional Command Headquarters (Ma Pa Kha), said sources close to him. He is a youth leader of the Kachin Nationals Consultative Assembly (KNCA) representing all Kachins in Burma.
The KIO leaders were invited by the military junta to a meeting on May 19 at the Northern Command in Myitkyina, Kachin State. The discussions revolved around developing more trust for each other and the ethnic armed group’s vociferous protests on the recent arrest of its members.
Dr. Lahkyen La Ja, General Secretary of KIO speaking on the meeting to the Kachin News Group, pointed out that they demanded the release of the detained youth if they are not guilty. But if they are, they should be taken action against in keeping with the law, without detain them indefinitely.
KIO’s chairman Lanyaw Zawng Hra and Brig-Gen Sumlut Gun Maw, Vice Chief of Staff of Kachin Independence Army (KIA), the armed-wing of KIO were at the meeting.
However, four days after the meeting on May 23 midnight the junta arrested over 50 youths in Myitkyina with KIO/A links from their homes. They included Labang Gam Awng.
Almost all the detained youths are members of the Education and Economy Development for Youth (EEDY), the youth-wing of the KIO. They are now detained in No.1 Police Station in Myitkyina. And were beaten up severely by the police during interrogation, said their parents.
The police accused them of triggering bomb blasts and beat them up, said a relative of the accused. The authorities are now preparing to produce them in court on charges of being behind the April 17 serial bombs blasts in the Irrawaddy Myitsone dam project site.
Parents of the detained are terribly worried about their children and some have not been eating, said the resident.
The junta has been arresting and interrogating hundreds of local Kachin people, including KIO members after the explosions. EEDY member Marip Tu Ring was arrested on May 1 from Myitkyina and another member Hti Na was picked up on May 14 from Hpakant, Kachin State.
The arrests are indication that the junta is mounting pressure on the KIO to accept the Border Guard Force (BGF). Meanwhile the Election Commission is still to register the Kachin State Progressive Party (KSPP) as a legal political party to contest the forthcoming general election.
KSPP is being led by former Vice-president No.2 of KIO, Dr. Manam Tu Ja.
The junta has been after the KIO since April to accept the BGF proposal .The two sides failed to reach an agreement on the issue despite meetings galore.
