Former foes – the Burmese military junta and the largest ethnic Kachin insurgent group in Northern Burma, the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) played a 'friendship football match' on October 18 (last Saturday) in Myitkyina, the capital of Kahin State, said local sources.

The 'friendship football match' between the ruling junta's Northern Military Command headquarters (Ma Pa Kha) and the KIO was played in the State Football Stadium in Myitkyina from 4 pm to 6 pm local time. Soldiers from the two sides beefed up security, said a spectator.

The friendly football match followed four days after two Burmese Army soldiers of the Infantry Battalion No. 105 based in Lajayang village severely beat up and tortured Ladai Brang Awng, the junta's village headman of Nalung near Lajayang accusing him of recruiting for the KIO.

Ma Pa Kha won the soccer match scoring four goals to KIO's one. The two sides played the football match without a public announcement, according to residents of Myitkyina.

Spectators said the Ma Pa Kha team comprised commander Maj-Gen Soe Win and his high ranking military officers, whereas the KIO team had Vice President No. 2 and the Chairman of Kachin State Interim Committee (KIC) Dr. Manam Tu Ja including Vice-chairman Lt-Gen N'ban La Awng, Chief of Staff Maj-Gen Gunhtang Gam Shawng and other senior officers.

The KIO and its armed wing the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) was formed on February 5, 1961 for secession from Burma. However the goal was changed to autonomy for Kachin State in 1976.

The KIO however went against its own people and signed a ceasefire agreement with the ruling junta in 1994. Later it supported the junta's seven-step roadmap to so-called "disciplined-democracy."

The leadership of KIO and the three main Kachin organizations, the New Democratic Army-Kachin (NDA-K), Lasang Awng Wa Ceasefire Group and Kachin National Consultative Assembly (KNCA) formed the KIC on June 20 to identify itself as a political party to participate in the 2010 general elections.