Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – A Burmese government artillery unit fired more than 20 shells on Thursday at the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) headquarters in Laiza, said party secretary La Nan.
A bunker at KIO headquarters in Laiza. Photo: MizzimaThe firing took place from 9 to 11 p.m. The artillery unit was based in Dawphoneyan sub-township, 25 miles from Laiza, he said.
“I think they were 81 mm and 76 mm mortars,” he told Mizzima. There was no report on causalities.
KIA Battalion 24 is stationed east of Dawphoneyan, he said.
The KIO dynamited two bridges on the Myitkyina-Bhamo road between Dawphoneyan and Nwanlan villages on Thursday. One of the bridges was the Bailey bridge.
“We exploded a bridge between Dawphoneyan and Khala villages and another bridge upstream near Nwamlan village. Then the government retaliated with artillery fire. One of the bridges was not destroyed,” an officer told Mizzima.
The government’s artillery fire could be in retaliation for destroying the bridges, he said. The KIO also destroyed a 30-foot concrete bridge on the Pa Mwe River between Gayaran and Kazu villages in Waingmaw Township on Wednesday night.
La Nan said that the KIO destroyed the bridges because of a government troop buildup with convoys from Bhamo and Myitkyina in recent days.
“We got confirmation of military convoys coming to Laiza. So we destroyed these bridges,” he said.
The KIO said government solders were injured in an exchange of fire between government Battalion 228 and government soldiers wearing KIO uniforms on Wednesday, which left three dead and seven wounded.
“Wearing enemy uniforms in war time is a wicked tactic. They are cunning and dishonest. And also it is a coward’s act,” said La Nang. He said government troops in KIO uniforms questioned and beat people on the Bhamo highway in June.
Meanwhile, the Chinese Red Cross from Yinjiang County, Yunnan Province, has donated medicine to be used for the estimated 16,000 war refugees displaced by the fighting, said a KIO health department official.
“They have provided [the KIO] with a regular supply of medicine for infectious diseases such as malaria and influenza. Now the group has given medicine for our war refugees too,” the official said. Refugees are suffering from dysentery, colds, eyesores, skin diseases and other ailments.
