The business community is being forced to pay a fixed amount of money by the Burmese military junta in Kachin State in northern Burma as funds for "forming Border Guard Force". The money will be used to change the Kachin ceasefire group, the New Democratic Army-Kachin to BGF, local sources said.

On  the orders of the junta's Northern Command commander Maj-Gen Soe Win, the appointed army officers and civilian workers have collected 2.5 million Kyat (US$2,370) from each company, especially in the Hpakant jade mining areas and Myitkyina since June, sources in the companies said.
There are over a hundred jade mining companies in Hpakant jade land, about 80 miles west of Kachin State's capital Myitkyina, according to Hpakant sources.

The Myitkyina-based Loi Ngu Bum Company Limited owned by former Lasang Awng Wa Peace Group has already doled out 2.5 million Kyats, said the company's sources.

So far, the junta has collected hundreds of millions Kyat from the companies in Kachin State, said sources.

The fund collected, is meant for use in the process of transforming the New Democratic Army-Kachin (NDA-K) to three battalions of the BGF under the control of the Burmese Army, said former NDA-K officers.

The NDA-K led by Zahkung Ting Ying accepted the junta-controlled BGF proposal in June but the official ceremony of conversion was held in the rebel's headquarters Pangwah near the Sino-Burma border east of Kachin State on November 8.

Again, soldiers in the newly formed BGF transformed from NDA-K were welcomed in a special ceremony in the Town Hall in Myitkyina on November 14 by the ruling junta.

The junta has assured that each military personnel in the new BGF will earn monthly salaries equal to soldiers in the Burmese Army--- between 40,000 Kyat (US$38) and 120,000 Kyat (US$114).