For the first time during its sixteen year old ceasefire agreement with the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), the Burmese army said it wants the KIO to disarm. That information came on August 22, after a series of meetings between the two sides, according to sources close to the KIO.

KIO delegates were informed in a letter from Burmese military officials during a Sunday meeting at the Mali Hka Center, inside the junta’s Northern Regional Command at Myitkyina, Kachin State, KIO sources told the Thailand-based Kachin News Group today.

The KIO informed the junta that it will reply to the directive after the upcoming KIO Party Congress in Laiza, located on the China-Burma border, eastern Kachin State, which begins Friday, August 27, according to KIO officials in Laiza.  

This is the first congress for the KIO in its 49 year revolutionary history and the congress will made decisions on shifts in the Kachin political situation, including whether it will accept the disarmament plan or resume armed struggle with the junta.

Wawhkyung Sin Wa, Deputy General Secretary of the KIO told the KNG earlier this week the congress will be attended by about 200 KIO delegates from Kachin State and Northeast Shan State and make decisions on its policies for the future.

Sin Wa also added that those decisions will be important for any group or organization related to the KIO and all Kachin people.  

The Sunday meeting was joined by five KIO senior officials, including Chairman/president Lanyaw Zawng Hkra, Vice-president No. 1- Lt-Gen Gauri Zau Seng, General Secretary Dr. Lahkyen La Ja, and Vice Chief of Staff Brig-Gen Sumlut Gun Maw, KIO officials said.

The junta’s representatives at the historic meeting included Maj-Gen Soe Win, Commander of Northern Regional Command, Maj-Gen Ohn Myint, former Northern Regional Commander, Brig-Gen Thein Zaw, Minister of Post, Communication and Telegraphs, and Lt-Gen Ye Myint, Chief of Military Affairs Security, said sources close to the KIO delegates.

The KIO is the strongest ethnic armed group in Burma, other than the United Wa State Army (UWSA). It is also the last existing Kachin armed group which rejected the regime’s proposed Border Guard Force.

The Kachin people’s support of the KIO had dropped when it endorsed the junta’s National Convention (NC) from 2004-2007 and approved the new regime-sponsored constitution drafted from the NC.

However, the KIO regained the Kachin people’s support when it rejected the junta-proposed Border Guard Force.