During Monday’s peace talks between the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) and Union Peace-making Working Committee in China, Lt. Gen. Myint Soe; a senior official with Burma's Defense Ministry, denied allegations to reporters that aircraft's were used for attacking KIO positions near Pangwa last week. The Kachin News Group first reported that the Burma army conducted air strikes.
Some army helicopters flew over Pangwa last week, but they were transporting army rations and exam papers for grade 10 students, according to a statement by Myint Soe in the Weekly Eleven; a privately owned Burmese newspaper based in Rangoon.
Located north east of Kachin state capital Myitkyina, the Pangwa region is the former stronghold of the now officially defunct New Democratic Army Kachin (NDAK); an ethnic armed group that transformed into a government Border Guard Force (BGF) in 2010.
The road from Myitkyina to the Chinese town of Tengchong, which passes through Pangwa, was one of the busiest trade routes in Burma until the Kachin conflict resumed on June 9, 2011. After the KIO destroyed several bridges located along the Pangwa to Myitkyina road about 20 months ago most of the cross border trade in Kachin state has been brought to a standstill.
