Overnight Clash in Kachin State

Kachin Independence Army troops. (Photo: Ryan Libre)

Tensions finally snapped in Kachin State on Thursday when fighting broke out between Burmese government troops and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) in Momauk Township, according to Kachin sources.

Speaking with The Irrawaddy on Thursday, Seng Aung, a local resident of Laiza, the KIA headquarters near the Sino-Burmese border, said that an armed clash broke out before at 2 am on Thursday and continued until noon.

“It is like the government troops are intimidating the KIA,” he said. “They want to test the Kachin army because it had previously warned them not to cross into its area.”

Seng Aung said the fighting involved KIA Brigade 3's Battalion 15 and Burmese Battalion 437. Causalities are as yet unknown, but both sides have suffered losses, he said.

Momauk Township lies under the control of KIA Brigade 3 where tension between the government and KIA troops had been rising for months, said a source close to the KIA.

On Feb. 7, an armed clash between government troops and the KIA occurred just southeast of Bhamo, another area that is under the control of KIA Brigade 3. Kachin sources claim that one Burmese battalion commander was killed.

Although the Kachins had signed a ceasefire with the Burmese government in 1994, tensions had been mounting since last year when the KIA rejected Naypyidaw's border guard force (BGF) order.
“Becoming a BGF means submitting yourself to the total control of the government,” said Col. James Lun Dau, a KIO central committee member.

On Oct. 18 2010, an office of the KIA’s political wing, the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), was raided by government troops who arrested two KIO officials. A few days later, the regime's state-run media The New Light of Myanmar referred to the KIA as “insurgents” for the first time in years, and the long-held but fragile ceasefire was all but declared broken.

In September, the KIA troops also fired at a helicopter owned by the government-friendly Htoo Group of Companies while it flew over KIO headquarters in Laiza, according to Kachin sources.
Meanwhile, tensions also appear ready to boil over in Karen State, sources say.

Karen sources reported that the Burmese army has reinforced three battalions near ethnic Karen rebel-controlled areas of Kawkareik Township in southern Karen State.

A Burmese official in Myawaddy in southern Karen state said that three government battalions under Light Infantry Division 22 were sent to south of Kawkareik with the aim of launching an offensive against the Karen troops from Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) Brigade 6.
On May 24, an internal conflict broke out within the Karen BGF, formerly known as the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), at the group's former headquarters, Myaing Gyi Nyu in southwestern Karen State. A faction of the Karen BGF, Battalion 1012, seized total control of Myaing Gyi Nyu after defecting from the BGF.
Tensions between the government troops and Battalion 1012 have remained high ever since. Other Karen armed groups are reportedly prepared to provide military assistance to any breakaway Karen BGF if it is attacked by government troops.

Maj-Gen Thet Naing Win, the chief of the Bureau of Special Operations-4 arrived earlier this week in Pa-an, the capital of Karen State, to discuss with colleagues the latest military developments in the region.
In recent weeks, both major clashes and minor skirmishes have been reported on an almost daily basis from southern Karen State, most notably in and around Three Pagoda Pass, Kawkareik and Kyainseikgyi.
Most of the confrontations have occurred between government troops and a coalition of Karen armies, including the DKBA and the KNLA.

Meanwhile Burma’s state-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper has blamed ethnic Karen rebels for a bombing on a passenger train last month that killed two people.

The report said Thursday that a suspect was arrested in Karen state 10 days after the May 19 bombing. The report said he confessed he was assigned by senior members of the KNLA and provided with explosives.


Source : Irrawaddy