Burma’s democracy icon Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s conviction by the military junta’s court has been along expected lines, a top official of the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) told KNG today.
Suu Kyi, General Secretary of the National League for Democracy (NLD) was initially sentenced by the court to three years in prison with hard labour but later the sentence was commuted to 18 months of house-arrest in Rangoon by an executive order from Senior General Than Shwe. The ruling has resulted in international condemnation and anger.
Dr. Lahkyen La Ja, General Secretary of the KIO said, "The junta never cares for international pressure. Whenever we meet the junta, it always says that it wants to accomplish its seven-step roadmap to so-called disciplined-democracy in the country".
Till now, the KIO and the junta have stuck to their demands -- the junta wants the KIO to transform Kachin Independence Army (KIA), the armed-wing of KIO to a battalion of a Border Guard Force (BGF) whereas the KIO wants the junta to allow transforming KIA to a brigade level Kachin Regional Guard Force (KRGF). It has also demanded KIO's direct participation in the new Kachin State government after next year’s general elections in the country, added Dr. La Ja.
Dr. La Ja assured KNG that the KIO will maintain the current trend of discussion with the junta. The KIO always believes that political problems must be solved by political means through dialogue, without waging war, he said.
The 88 generation Kachin student leader Awng Wa and Mading Hkun Htu, party senior member of Kachin State's capital Myitkyina-based Kachin State National Congress for Democracy (KNCD) which won three seats in the 1990 general elections said, the junta sees Suu Kyi and her NLD party as enemy No. 1 because she can be a hurdle for next year’s elections. The house-arrest of Suu Kyi will be like "cutting the legs of NLD" because the NLD can do nothing without Suu Kyi.
Both Awng Wa and Mading Hkun Htu believe that the junta will pressurize ethnic ceasefire groups like KIO, United Wa State Army (UWSA), Kokang ceasefire group and Mongla-based National Democratic Alliance Army-Eastern Shan State (NDAA-ESS) which has refused to transform their groups to the Burma Army-controlled Border Guard Force (BGF).
Military tension has already escalated in the areas near the ethnic armed groups' territories since last July and the groups have decided to retaliate together if the junta starts war with any group in the alliance, according to sources close to the groups.
KNCD Hku Htu told KNG, that civil war will not take place between the Burmese Army and ethnic armed groups along the Sino-Burma border because China does not want fighting near its border as well as exodus of Burmese refugees to China's territories because of a conflict.
