Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Vice Chief of Staff Brigadier General Gwan Mau said that a state-run media report of a shoot-out during a Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) meeting was propaganda to discredit trust in the KIO.
The report said that one person was killed in the shoot-out during a meeting of top KIO leaders at its headquarters in Laiza.
“This is an attempt to drive a wedge into the KIO and sow dissension and suspicion among us––to cause other groups not to trust the KIO,” Gwan Mau told Mizzima.
The New Light of Myanmar reported on Thursday that an exchange of gunfire took place at a KIO meeting in Laiza on September 1.
The report said the gunfire exchange involved KIO officials, retired servicemen in the Kachin Independence Army and pro-war KIO leaders after a heated debate and argument. The article said one person was killed and one KIO leader was injured.
Local residents said that the government distributed the false report on Friday at busy roads in Myitkyina, Bhamo and Phakant.
Gwan Mau said state government officials called him and told him that since he was injured, they would give him treatment.
According to state-run media, the KIO planned to escalate fighting against government troops using guerilla warfare in Kachin State. Gwan Mau said no such meeting was held at KIO headquarters.
KIO leaders said they assumed that the false report was spread in retaliation for the distribution of VCDs by the KIO on August 28 in which Gwan Mau delivered a speech in the Kachin language.
“These VCDs made the government lose its credibility and they created this rumour to save their image,” said KIO spokesman La Nan.
In the VCDs, the KIO said they have been denied a political dialogue for 17 years [the cease-fire period], and it would hold out to engage in a genuine political dialogue this time under the leadership of the United Nationalities Federal Council, an alliance of 12 ethnic groups.
Meanwhile, the government has forced local residents in Myitkyina to call for the KIO to sign a peace agreement with the state government, said local residents. The ethnic alliance group has refused separate peace negotiations, calling it a divide and rule policy.
The KIO said that there were 6,000 war refugees in Myitkyina, more than 8,000 war refugees in Waimaw and more than 20,000 in Laiza.
