Maj-Gen Soe Win Burmese junta's Northern Region Military Command commander has officially given 'logging permits' to all ethnic Kachin ceasefire groups in Kachin State. It is an unusual gesture which former commanders had never done, said local sources.

The permission allows logging officially in Kachin State. The decision was announced at a meeting in the City Hall in the capital Myitkyina on September 20 between Commander Maj-Gen Soe Win and the three Kachin ceasefire group's representatives – the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), the New Democratic Army-Kachin (NDA-K) and the Lasang Awng Wa Ceasefire Group, the groups' sources said.

The meeting was attended by NDA-K leader Zahkung Ting Ying, Lasang Awng Wa Ceasefire Group leader Lasang Awng Wa and unidentified KIO officials, an eyewitness said.

While every former Northern Command commander before Soe Win was directly connected to and profited from the logging business, they did not officially grant logging permits, said local timber traders.

With two years to go before the 2010 elections in the country, permission to log has been given to the KIO, NDA-K and Lasang Awng Ceasefire Group. The groups' had ordered people in their controlled areas to support and cast 'Yes votes' in the May Referendum on the junta's draft constitution in keeping with the regime's seven-step roadmap to so-called disciplined-democracy.

Meanwhile, timber businessmen affiliated to each Kachin ceasefire groups are happy with the Commander's permission. They are now starting to identify Chinese timber buyers from China's southwest Yunnan province, said local timber traders in Myitkyina.

The two main Burman-own giant companies like Htoo Trading Co., Ltd. owned by Teza and Yuzana Company chaired by U Htay Myint are permitted to export teak and hardwood from Kachin State to foreign countries by the junta, said local business sources.

On the flip side, China has officially stopped importing timber from northern Burma since late 2005. However its border timber imports have not completely stopped rather the import of illegal timber has increased, according to border timber trade sources.

As a result, deforestation in Kachin State continues unabated and has affected the entire Kachin State because timber is the primary source of income of not only local Burmese Army bases but ethnic Kachin ceasefire groups, said local people.

During the meeting, Commander Soe Win, former principal of the junta's Official Training School (OTS) based in Pyin Oo Lwin, also called Maymyo granted logging permission. However he also promised that he will completely eradicate drugs in the state, participants told KNG.