Northern tensions rise as Kachin troops fire at junta helicopter

Thursday, 23 September 2010 22:06

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) - Kachin troops fired shots today at a Burmese Army helicopter flying low over one of their strongholds in the north of Kachin State, amid building tensions between the ethnic group and the military junta, an officer said.

The Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO) troops were showing the army that they refused to be intimidated, whether the flight was sent to watch or cajole them, an officer of the group’s armed wing, the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), told Mizzima on condition of anonymity.

“The KIO encampment is in the hills [surrounding Laiza], so, viewed from there, the height of the helicopter seemed a little low as it flew from the south of Laiza to [Kachin State capital] Myitkyina,” the officer said. “So KIO troops tried to shoot it down in order to browbeat them [the junta’s airborne troops].”

The incident occurred as the junta army’s Northern Command is raising the ante against the KIO, which on September 1 passed the junta’s deadline for bringing its armed wing under Burmese Army control within its Border Guard Force (BGF), which the KIO has flatly rejected. The ethnic Kachin group signed a ceasefire deal with the junta in 1994.

“I think the helicopter aimed to observe us, or the flight was intended to frighten us. But, local residents were not afraid. They are carrying on as usual,” the officer said.

The case was still being investigated by the KIO, local residents said.

Mizzima reported on Monday that the KIO had ordered gold mines in areas under its control in the north of the state to halt production, miners said.

The KIO was also moving all its furniture, equipment and documents from its Laiza office to its previous headquarters at Lai Zin Bum (“bum” means mountain in Kachin language), near the Sino-Burmese border. Similarly, local people had moved belongings across the border to China, the miner said.

Early last month, the junta imposed travel restrictions on KIO members, requiring them to report their travel plans first to Military Affairs Security (MAS) and to move only with permission of the Northern Command. The new rules also banned KIO or KIA from wearing uniform or carrying any arms while they travelled.

After that, rice trading had slowed on the Myitkyina-Bamao highway and prices of a range of commodities were rising, a trader in Laiza said.

The junta army was also practising direct saber-rattling, with troops erecting a barbed-wire barricade at their Lajayan checkpoint near Laiza, manned by Infantry Battalion (IB) 142. No one may pass through between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., a source said.

Meanwhile, the Union Election Commission (UEC) issued a notice last Thursday that said village tracts under KIO control were not in a position to host free and fair elections, set by the junta for November 7.

Other exile media were reporting today rapid and sizeable troop build-ups near KIA outposts in the state, and that residents were being forced to build fences and accommodation for the extra soldiers.