An unidentified fighter plane flying over Kachin State in Northern Burma on September 11 created a flutter, starting rumours of an impending offensive by the Burmese Army on Kachin rebels.

The jet fighter flew over Laisin Bum, Alen Bum and Laiza, the headquarters of the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) situated near the China-Burma border in Kachin State in the ungodly hour of 3 a.m., a KIO officer in Laiza said on condition of anonymity.

Given that it was in the wee hours of the morning many KIO members and civilians did not see the jet streaking past in the sky above KIO’s headquarters. Soldiers of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), the armed-wing of the KIO, on security duty in Alen Bum military base, saw the fighter plane, a KIA officer said.

There was no military response towards the unidentified warplane by the KIA. However, fresh military alerts were sounded for the KIA troops around the headquarters, said KIA officers.

It has not been established whether the fighter plane was Chinese or Burmese. KIO sources said they believe that the jet was from the Burmese Air Force.

Kachin civilians in the border areas near the KIO headquarters are worried on hearing of the fighter plane flying over Kachin State skies, said residents in these areas.

In the past, the Burmese Army launched an offensive in the former KIO/KIA headquarters in Pajau and Nahpaw near the current headquarters and captured it, only after the fighter planes flew over the two former KIO/KIA headquarters, residents in Laiza added.

The civilians are worried and recall the war of Pajau-Nahpaw Bum.

In the KIO’s capital Laiza, church followers have started a 24-hour prayer service and fasting since the fighter plane flew past, church sources said.

Till now, no civilian has moved to the war shelters in the forests near the China border and to Chinese territory, said locals.

Official level meetings have stopped since the KIO released the August 30 statement rejecting surrender of weapons ordered by the junta.

In the statement, the KIO said it will reform the KIA in a suitable manner only if a genuine ceasefire agreement is reached between the KIO and the junta and a genuine federal union is restored on the basis of the 1947 Panglong Agreement signed by Kachin and other ethnic leaders.

After the KIO statement, the junta has restricted travel of KIO and KIA members to and from KIO territories and the areas controlled by the junta in Kachin State.

KIO leaders said they will not start a war against the regime but they will defend themselves.