Kachin News Group

The Burmese ruling junta’s Kachin State Commander Maj-Gen Soe Win was conspicuous by his absence in today’s ceremony on the “62nd Kachin State Day”, the largest and most important ceremony for ethnic Kachins and other races in the state, participants told Kachin News Group.

The State Day ceremony was held in Kachin National Manau Park, the largest Kachin cultural venue in Shatapru quarter in Myitkyina, the capital of Burma’s northern Kachin State, where a week-long ethnic Kachin Manau festival is being held, from 8 a.m. – 10 a.m. Burma Standard Time, said participants.

On behalf of Burmese military rulers in Naypyitaw, the country’s capital and Commander Soe Win, vice-commander Brig-Gen San Htun delivered a short speech, local participants said.

Sources in the junta’s Myitkyina-based Northern Regional Command headquarters (Ma-Pa-Kha) said, the commander was absent because he left for the border town Nam Yun, near the Indian border in Sagaing Division to attend a cultural festival of ethnic Naga.

Yesterday, on Kachin State Day eve, Commander Soe Win conducted the special welcome ceremony and held a dinner for the newly formed Border Guard Force converted from the New Democratic Army-Kachin (NDA-K), the second largest Kachin armed group in City Hall in Myitkyina.

Last year, the State Day ceremony was attended by the state military chief Maj-Gen Soe Win with the junta’s minister of Post, Communication and Telegraph Brig-Gen Thein Zaw.

A senior Kachin politician in Myitkyina, who attended today ‘s ceremony, told the KNG today, “It is clear that they (Burmese junta and Commander Soe Win) do not care for the Kachin State Day and the festival of Kachin people this time”.

The vice-commander in his speech praised the Manau festival saying it is the symbol of solidarity of national races in Kachin State but he did not mention the formation of the State Day, according to attendants.

Before Brig-Gen San Htun read his speech, Duwa Mading Zung Ting, president of the Central Kachin Cultural Committee explained the brief history of the formation of Kachin State in Burmese language, added participants.

After the speeches, a performance on the “62nd anniversary of Kachin State Day” was demonstrated by 600 students in Myitkyina University and the special State Day’s Manau dance followed in the circular Manau field with over 1000 participants, Manau officials told KNG.

Over 150 officials from the Northern Regional command, different Kachin armed groups and different government departments in Myitkyina, and hundreds of people joined this morning’s ceremony, said participants.

However, unlike last year, no Burmese and Kachin armed groups' soldiers were allowed to dance Manau in uniforms by Burmese military authorities except vice-commander Brig-Gen San Htun, said Manau festival officials.

The main Kachin armed group, the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) decided not to join the Manau festival because of palpable tension between the group and the junta on the Border Guard Force issue, said KIO officials.

On the special invitation of Burmese army officer in Myitkyina-based Northern Regional Command headquarters Lt-Col. Aung Kyaw Soe, only over 200 men and women in KIO and its armed-wing the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) attended the festival, added KIO officials.

Last year, about 2000 KIO and KIA personnel joined the State Day’s Manau festival, according to Manau festival officials.

Sources close to Manau festival officials said, the Manau Acting Committee, the committee for a week-long Manau festival, has been controlled more severely by the Burmese military authorities compared to last year.

Activists demand halt to Irrawaddy Myitsone dam

Today on the 62nd Kachin State Day, Kachin activists called all Kachin people inside the country and international communities to stop the dam project at the confluence, or Myitsone in Burmese in Irrawaddy River, over 20 miles north of Myitkyina.

The All Kachin Students’ Union (AKSU), an underground Kachin student organization distributed hundreds of leaflets saying “No Myitsone dam” by hand to residents of Myitkyina this morning, said student activist Naw Awng.

At the same time, the Thailand-based Kachin Development Networking Group (KDNG), monitoring the Myitsone dam project also called on all Kachins and international communities to pray to halt the dam project.

The KDNG’s letter warned that the electricity produced from the Myitsone hydropower project (6,000 MW) will be sold to China, benefitting only the Chinese and the Burmese military junta. Over 15,000 civilians in over 60 villages around the dam project will be forced to shift.

The lives of hundreds of thousands of people downstream of the dam are threatened. Livelihoods will be destroyed along with crop fields from floods from the outbreak of the dam, warned KDNG’s letter.

The construction of two huge dams side by side in Myitsone officially started since December 21, last year.