by Phanida
Saturday, 05 September 2009 14:01
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – The Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), under mounting pressure from the Burmese military junta to transform its armed wing into a Border Guard Force (BGF), is holding a mass rally on an emergency basis today on the Sino-Burma border town Laiza.
This mass rally is to discuss and decide on the course of action the KIO must adopt keeping in mind the future of the Kachin people. It is being attended by KIO leaders, religious leaders in Kachin State and representatives of the Kachin cultural organizations. The rally is being held at the KIO headquarters in Laiza.
“We have invited all from all nooks and corners of Kachin State to discuss the future of the Kachin people and to present the feelings of the Kachin people. Some of them have already arrived,” a KIO official said on Friday.
The rally is being attended by about 300 delegates, including some from the New Democratic Army-Kachin (NDA-K), a rally organizer said.
Religious leaders from Monyin, Moe Goung, Hopin, Pha Kant, Ka Maing, Bamo, Shwe Gu and many other places and representatives of the Kachin Defence Army (KDA) arrived in Laiza on Friday.
The mass rally comes before a meeting between Kachin leaders and the Military Affairs Security (MAS) Chief Lt. Gen. Ye Myint on September 6 in Myitkyina.
Lt. Gen. Ye Myint and regional command commanders met six ceasefire groups on April 28 in separate meetings on the BGF issue.
Kachin people are apprehensive of a fresh outbreak in hostilities after the Burmese Army attacked and subdued another ceasefire group the Kokang recently.
In the wake of the junta sending more military reinforcements to Kachin State, some local residents in Laiza have moved their belongings to neighbouring China.
“The people are carrying their belongings to China fearing a possible war that could be unleashed by the junta. The local people are afraid of a situation akin to the Kokang offensive,” a local resident from Laiza told Mizzima over telephone.
The KIO has rejected the junta’s proposal of transforming the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) into the BGF to be controlled by the Tatmadaw (Armed Forces). It has come up with its own proposal wanting to transform its armed wing into a Kachin Regional Guard Force (KRGF).
KIO, which has been fighting the regime for rights of self-determination, reached a ceasefire pact with the junta on 24 February 1994.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
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