Kachin News Group

A Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) delegation reached Myitkyina, the capital of Burma’s northern Kachin State yesterday for yet another meeting with Burmese junta officials, KIO sources told the Kachin News Group today.

In keeping with the agreement of a meeting between officials from either side before the end of December, the KIO delegates left their Laiza headquarters in east of Kachin State, near the China border, said KIO sources.

This will be the first meeting since October after negotiations fell through on transforming KIO to the Burmese Army controlled Border Guard Force, and the last meeting for both parties this year.

Sources close to KIO delegates said, KIO officials will meet the junta’s Myitkyina-based Northern Regional Command commander Maj-Gen Soe Win rather than Lt-Gen Ye Myint, Chief of Military Affairs Security and Naypyitaw’s chief negotiator on transforming ethnic armed groups to the BGF.

The KIO delegation is led by Vice-President No. 1 Lt-Gen Gauri Zau Seng along with Chairman Lanyaw Zawng Hra, General Secretary Dr. Lahkyen La Ja and other senior officials, said KIO officials in Laiza.

Bangkok-based KIO Foreign Relation deputy in-charge James Lum Dau told Kachin News Group today, “The KIO will not submit any new proposal this time but we expect to hear the junta’s response to the KIO’s recent proposal”.

The KIO rejected the junta-proposed BGF and submitted a final proposal to the junta supremo Snr-Gen Than Shwe saying that the KIO would surrender its arms if the government accepts the fundamental spirit of the Panglong Agreement and implements it.

In the Panglong Agreement, Burman majority leader General Aung San and ethnic minorities the Kachin, Chin and Shan leaders agreed to form a multi-ethnic Union of Burma on February 12, 1947. The country received independence according to the agreement from British rule the next year.

The KIO firmly believes that the creators of the union must have equal political rights. They also have the duty to work on the union’s future prosperity.

Since April, the KIO has been under intense pressure to disarm and has been advised to go in for private business ventures and floating political parties to contest the 2010 elections.

Meanwhile, the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), the armed-wing of the KIO is on alert in its controlled areas both in Kachin State and Northeast Shan State for defending itself against any offensive by the Burmese Army, said KIA officials.