Getting news out of Burma’s more remote corners — such as the Kachin Independence Army/Organisation headquarters at Laiza — can be a difficult job at the best of times. When there is inherent, and perhaps even deliberate, ambiguity thrown into the mix it is almost impossible.
Nonetheless I was startled to see the contrasting headlines for two recent and very important articles. They are, just to clarify, about exactly the same matter!
- Lawi Weng, “Kachins reject Border Guard role”, The Irrawaddy, 10 June 2009.
- KNG, “KIO accepts junta’s idea of transformation of armed-wing”, Kachin News Group, 9 June 2009.
Taken together it looks like there is acceptance of “transformation” while the junta’s immediate effort to convert the Kachin Independence Army into a “Border Guard” has been rejected. Or has it?
Whatever the reality of the recent negotiations it sounds like the Kachin are playing a smart hand up at Laiza. They even managed to get the only coverage of these historic matters to take the story in completely different directions.
As this excellent article recently pointed out, these are interesting (and tough) times for many of Burma’s ceasefire groups.
3 responses so far ↓
1 Dylan Grey // Jun 12, 2009 at 7:01 pm
New Mandala readers might be interested in this recent NY Times piece written from Laiza. Good information on recent KIO activities:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/11/world/asia/11iht-myanmar.html
2 Matt // Jun 12, 2009 at 7:23 pm
If one is interested in further parsing out the status of the KIO/SPDC negotiations, more has been publish in the last day or so – though that’s not to say there’ve been any actual developments…
Yesterday, the Democratic Voice of Burma perhaps took the middle ground between the Irrawaddy and KNG stories:
“Kachin ceasefire group waver over transformation,” DVB 6/12/09
http://english.dvb.no/news.php?id=2617
KNG also ran a story the next day with a slightly better explanation of the KIO’s position on transforming the KIA into “Border Guards”:
“Junta’s offer of dialogue to ceasefire groups is ridiculous: Kachin politicians,” KNG 6/10/09
http://www.bnionline.net/news/kng/6449-juntas-offer-of-dialogue-to-ceasefire-groups-is-ridiculous-kachin-politicians.html
Making an interesting pair, also on June 10th KNG ran a story highlighting large land grants recently given to highly positioned KIO officials:
“Junta allots large tracts of virgin land to senior KIO leaders,” KNG 6/10/09
http://www.bnionline.net/news/kng/6463-junta-allots-large-tracts-of-virgin-land-to-senior-kio-leaders.html
Does anyone know more about the “virgin soil” give-aways described in the last article? KNG seems to imply that more than just the KIO leaders mentioned have been recipients.
3 aiontay // Jun 12, 2009 at 10:44 pm
Matt,
I don’t know anything about the virgin soil give aways, but I am sure that in just about every case the land is probably in some way, either for hunting, firewood, grazing etc. by local communities. Also, given the Kachin State’s status as a biodiversity hotspot, clearing the land to facilitate the military regime’s latest agricultural program isn’t the smartest idea.
Leave a Comment
Please note: New Mandala encourages vigorous debate. However, for the moment we will only be publishing high-quality comments that make original contributions to discussion. There will, of course, still be space for pithy, humorous, eccentric and cheeky input. Short and sweet will usually trump long and involved. Repetitive ranting, unimaginative point-scoring and idle abuse will not be entertained. Comments which carry a real name are also more likely to be approved. Thank you for your ongoing interest and contributions.