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Image: KIA artillery position in northernmost Burma. (Photo: my.tianya.cn) Govt ‘Plotting Kachin Attack’ despite Peace Rhetoric | The Irrawaddy Amid apparent attempts to arrange peace talks, the Burmese military is preparing for a large scale offensive against Kachin rebels in northern Burma with large troop deployments at the frontline, according to local sources. La Nan, a spokesperson for the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), said that Burmese government troops keep arriving by land and boats along the Irrawaddy River with an estimated 30,000 soldiers from battalions under Light Infantry Divisions 44, 77, 88 and 99 currently on the ground. The road from Bhamo City to the KIO’s headquarter in Laiza, on the Sino-Burmese border, is also being inundated with government forces to protect military supplies and food shipments, according to La Nan. Similar security deployments can also be found along the road between Waingmaw and Kampati townships in southeastern Kachin State. Despite KIO leaders writing to government peace negotiators in July to arrange another round of talks in Ruili, in China’s Yunnan Province, there has been no official response from Burmese officials so far, said La Nan. Instead, “[The government] is sending more troops and military supplies. They have tripled their troops to protect against attacks by KIA [Kachin Independence Army] soldiers,” said La Nan. The KIA is the military wing of the KIO. He also expected government troops to use armored units if fighting intensifies with ammunition for artillery and rocket launchers being transported to the conflict zone. “Kachin State is in a risky situation,” said La Nan. “We can’t avoid war if they intend to wipe out us. We will try to cut their military supplies. We will launch attacks against their security forces using any means.” Meanwhile, parliamentary debates have reportedly taken place between government peace negotiators and military officials over ceasefires with ethnic armed groups. Sources from Naypyidaw said that Railways Minister Aung Min, the government’s chief negotiator, proposed accelerating the peace process. However, Gen Soe Win, the deputy commander-in-chief of the Burmese armed forces, joined other military officials in objecting to Aung Min’s proposal by citing the hefty casualties suffered while fighting the KIA. Soe Win is also part of President Thein Sein’s peace committee. Burmese Vice-President Sai Mauk Kham, an ethnic Shan, reportedly said that he also wants internal conflicts to be resolved as all ethnic rebels and government troops are citizens of Burma. Last week, Sai Mauk Kham also said that ceasefire agreements do not guarantee lasting peace and are always breakable. According to KIO sources, Aung Min has informally agreed to hold a political dialogue with rebel leaders but the exact location remains a sticking point. Peace talks have been held repeatedly since early this year but no tangible agreement has been reached so far. The KIO signed a ceasefire agreement with the Burmese government in 1994, but this truce broke down in June last year leading to more than 60,000 Kachin civilians being displaced to temporary camps by the Sino-Burmese border The government’s Myanmar National Human Rights Commission recently visited Kachin State to witness the situation on the ground firsthand. A report released this week said that both KIA and government troops committed human rights abuses and called for an end to the war in northern Burma. The rights body also said that child soldiers were being recruited by the KIA, but did not mention similar allegations made by the Kachin rebels about the Burmese military. (That article on the KIA’s allegations linked above can also be found here, for the people who can’t access The Irrawaddy properly in case it doesn’t load. Additional note: more on the child soldiers in Burma here.)

Image: KIA artillery position in northernmost Burma. (Photo: my.tianya.cn)

Govt ‘Plotting Kachin Attack’ despite Peace Rhetoric | The Irrawaddy

Amid apparent attempts to arrange peace talks, the Burmese military is preparing for a large scale offensive against Kachin rebels in northern Burma with large troop deployments at the frontline, according to local sources.

La Nan, a spokesperson for the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), said that Burmese government troops keep arriving by land and boats along the Irrawaddy River with an estimated 30,000 soldiers from battalions under Light Infantry Divisions 44, 77, 88 and 99 currently on the ground.

The road from Bhamo City to the KIO’s headquarter in Laiza, on the Sino-Burmese border, is also being inundated with government forces to protect military

supplies and food shipments, according to La Nan. Similar security deployments can also be found along the road between Waingmaw and Kampati townships in southeastern Kachin State.

Despite KIO leaders writing to government peace negotiators in July to arrange another round of talks in Ruili, in China’s Yunnan Province, there has been no official response from Burmese officials so far, said La Nan.

Instead, “[The government] is sending more troops and military supplies. They have tripled their troops to protect against attacks by KIA [Kachin Independence Army] soldiers,” said La Nan. The KIA is the military wing of the KIO.

He also expected government troops to use armored units if fighting intensifies with ammunition for artillery and rocket launchers being transported to the conflict zone.

“Kachin State is in a risky situation,” said La Nan. “We can’t avoid war if they intend to wipe out us. We will try to cut their military supplies. We will launch attacks against their security forces using any means.”

Meanwhile, parliamentary debates have reportedly taken place between government peace negotiators and military officials over ceasefires with ethnic armed groups.

Sources from Naypyidaw said that Railways Minister Aung Min, the government’s chief negotiator, proposed accelerating the peace process.

However, Gen Soe Win, the deputy commander-in-chief of the Burmese armed forces, joined other military officials in objecting to Aung Min’s proposal by citing the hefty casualties suffered while fighting the KIA. Soe Win is also part of President Thein Sein’s peace committee.

Burmese Vice-President Sai Mauk Kham, an ethnic Shan, reportedly said that he also wants internal conflicts to be resolved as all ethnic rebels and government troops are citizens of Burma. Last week, Sai Mauk Kham also said that ceasefire agreements do not guarantee lasting peace and are always breakable.

According to KIO sources, Aung Min has informally agreed to hold a political dialogue with rebel leaders but the exact location remains a sticking point. Peace talks have been held repeatedly since early this year but no tangible agreement has been reached so far.

The KIO signed a ceasefire agreement with the Burmese government in 1994, but this truce broke down in June last year leading to more than 60,000 Kachin civilians being displaced to temporary camps by the Sino-Burmese border

The government’s Myanmar National Human Rights Commission recently visited Kachin State to witness the situation on the ground firsthand. A report released this week said that both KIA and government troops committed human rights abuses and called for an end to the war in northern Burma.

The rights body also said that child soldiers were being recruited by the KIA, but did not mention similar allegations made by the Kachin rebels about the Burmese military.

(That article on the KIA’s allegations linked above can also be found here, for the people who can’t access The Irrawaddy properly in case it doesn’t load. Additional note: more on the child soldiers in Burma here.)



Image: KIA recruit during training near Laiza. (Photo: The Irrawaddy) KIA Claims to Have Captured Child Soldiers A large number of child soldiers have reportedly been found among 34 government troops being detained by the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) at its Laiza headquarters. The captives were seized by the rebels during battle and are currently in limbo as they do not dare to go back to their families for fear of being arrested under military law. KIA spokesman La Nan told The Irrawaddy on Friday that his organization would allow the soldiers to return but they are worried about coming to harm or being imprisoned. Around 30 of those captured are under age while two are only 15 years old, according to La Nan. Fighting broke out in Kachin State in June last year to put an end to a 17-year ceasefire between the rebels and Burmese government. La Nan added that only once has the KIA officially handed captured troops back to the government since the resumption of hostilities over a year ago. Leaders of the 88 Generation Students group from Rangoon met the 34 captives during a trip to Laiza last week that was principally organized to meet some of the 70,000 or so Kachin refugees who have fled the ethnic conflict. Video footage of the meeting shows young soldiers describe how they began their military careers by being grabbed on the street and forced to enlist despite protesting they were underage. A large number of child soldiers have reportedly been found among 34 government troops being detained by the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) at its Laiza headquarters. The captives were seized by the rebels during battle and are currently in limbo as they do not dare to go back to their families for fear of being arrested under military law. KIA spokesman La Nan told The Irrawaddy on Friday that his organization would allow the soldiers to return but they are worried about coming to harm or being imprisoned. Around 30 of those captured are under age while two are only 15 years old, according to La Nan. Fighting broke out in Kachin State in June last year to put an end to a 17-year ceasefire between the rebels and Burmese government. La Nan added that only once has the KIA officially handed captured troops back to the government since the resumption of hostilities over a year ago. Leaders of the 88 Generation Students group from Rangoon met the 34 captives during a trip to Laiza last week that was principally organized to meet some of the 70,000 or so Kachin refugees who have fled the ethnic conflict. Video footage of the meeting shows young soldiers describe how they began their military careers by being grabbed on the street and forced to enlist despite protesting they were underage. More on the use of child soldiers in Burma here.

Image: KIA recruit during training near Laiza. (Photo: The Irrawaddy)

KIA Claims to Have Captured Child Soldiers

A large number of child soldiers have reportedly been found among 34 government troops being detained by the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) at its Laiza headquarters.

The captives were seized by the rebels during battle and are currently in limbo as they do not dare to go back to their families for fear of being arrested under military law.

KIA spokesman La Nan told The Irrawaddy on Friday that his organization would allow the soldiers to return but they are worried about coming to harm or being imprisoned.

Around 30 of those captured are under age while two are only 15 years old, according to La Nan. Fighting broke out in Kachin State in June last year to put an end to a 17-year ceasefire between the rebels and Burmese government.

La Nan added that only once has the KIA officially handed captured troops back to the government since the resumption of hostilities over a year ago.

Leaders of the 88 Generation Students group from Rangoon met the 34 captives during a trip to Laiza last week that was principally organized to meet some of the 70,000 or so Kachin refugees who have fled the ethnic conflict.

Video footage of the meeting shows young soldiers describe how they began their military careers by being grabbed on the street and forced to enlist despite protesting they were underage.

A large number of child soldiers have reportedly been found among 34 government troops being detained by the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) at its Laiza headquarters.

The captives were seized by the rebels during battle and are currently in limbo as they do not dare to go back to their families for fear of being arrested under military law.

KIA spokesman La Nan told The Irrawaddy on Friday that his organization would allow the soldiers to return but they are worried about coming to harm or being imprisoned.

Around 30 of those captured are under age while two are only 15 years old, according to La Nan. Fighting broke out in Kachin State in June last year to put an end to a 17-year ceasefire between the rebels and Burmese government.

La Nan added that only once has the KIA officially handed captured troops back to the government since the resumption of hostilities over a year ago.

Leaders of the 88 Generation Students group from Rangoon met the 34 captives during a trip to Laiza last week that was principally organized to meet some of the 70,000 or so Kachin refugees who have fled the ethnic conflict.

Video footage of the meeting shows young soldiers describe how they began their military careers by being grabbed on the street and forced to enlist despite protesting they were underage.

More on the use of child soldiers in Burma here.



The SPDC Army has more child soldiers than any other army in the world, their number estimated by Human Rights Watch in 2002 to be at least 70,000. Ranging in age from 11 to 17, most of them are forcibly conscripted and treated brutally in training and in the field. Cut off from all contact with their families, they are forced to loot food from the villages and round up villagers for forced labour. Most other armed groups in Burma, including the DKBA and KNLA, have child soldiers in far smaller numbers. Many of these are volunteers, seeking revenge against SPDC forces for abuses against their families or simply looking for a chance to be sent to school or a way to obtain regular meals. Though these armies could choose to send these children to schools, they are often deployed in active military units instead. Saw E—- is 13 years old, but the local officer of the KNU’s Gher Tha (known as the ‘local force’, part-time Karen National Defence Organisation village defence militia) in his village in southwestern Papun district ordered him to join. This photo was taken in January 2006. [Photo: KHRG] [Source]

The SPDC Army has more child soldiers than any other army in the world, their number estimated by Human Rights Watch in 2002 to be at least 70,000. Ranging in age from 11 to 17, most of them are forcibly conscripted and treated brutally in training and in the field. Cut off from all contact with their families, they are forced to loot food from the villages and round up villagers for forced labour. Most other armed groups in Burma, including the DKBA and KNLA, have child soldiers in far smaller numbers. Many of these are volunteers, seeking revenge against SPDC forces for abuses against their families or simply looking for a chance to be sent to school or a way to obtain regular meals. Though these armies could choose to send these children to schools, they are often deployed in active military units instead.

Saw E—- is 13 years old, but the local officer of the KNU’s Gher Tha (known as the ‘local force’, part-time Karen National Defence Organisation village defence militia) in his village in southwestern Papun district ordered him to join. This photo was taken in January 2006. [Photo: KHRG]

[Source]



A girl child soldier in Myanmar who at age 15 enlisted in an armed militia group after the National Army burned her village. (2000) Peter Mantello [Source]

A girl child soldier in Myanmar who at age 15 enlisted in an armed militia group after the National Army burned her village. (2000) Peter Mantello [Source]