By WAI MOE, Wednesday, January 27, 2010
The Burmese junta’s top negotiator with ethnic groups, Lt-Gen Ye Myint, is likely to meet representatives of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), one of big ceasefire groups, at the end of January.
This will be Ye Myint's first meeting with a ceasefire group in 2010.
Sources close to the KIA on the Sino-Burmese border said Ye Myint, who is chief of Military Affairs Security (MAS), formerly known as the Military Intelligence Service, is reportedly scheduled to meet with his Kachin counterparts on Jan. 29 to once again discuss Naypyidaw’s Border Guard Force proposal.
“During the meeting in December in Myikyina, Maj-Gen Soe Win told Kachin delegates they will hold another meeting early this year,” said Thailand-based James Lum Dau, the deputy chief of foreign affairs for the Kachin Independence Organization, the political wing of the KIA.
In 2009, Junta officials and Kachin representatives met about 10 times and discussed the border guard force issue, he said, adding that the issue is likely to dominate future talks.
The last meeting between Burmese officials led by Maj-Gen Soe Win and Kachin leaders was in Myitkyina on Dec. 30.
Kachin sources told The Irrawaddy that during that meeting the Burmese junta withdrew the deadline for the Kachin to join the border guard force program by the end of 2009.
The Kachin favored the spirit of the 1947 Panglong Agreement, which provided the basis for a federal union in the Southeast Asian nation, the sources said.
Other ceasefire groups such as the United Wa State Army (UWSA), the strongest militia with an estimated 20,000 troops based in northern and southern Shan State, as well as the National Democratic Alliance Army in eastern Shan State have yet to agree to the border guard force plan.
As the electoral law and the timetable for the 2010 elections have yet to be announced, the deadlock between the junta and the cease-fire groups over the border guard force plan is a critical challenge for the election.
After the junta launched a military offensive in August 2009 against the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, the Kokang ethnic army that rejected border guard force proposal, Burma watchers expected that other cease-fire groups would be the next targets.
“At the moment, the border situation is as normal—the Burmese army is not making preparations for war in the border area,” said Aung Kyaw Zaw, an observer of Burmese military affairs based in Ruili, in China's Yunnan Province.
“Both the junta and ethnic groups seems to be negotiating for a peaceful solution,” he said.
Last week was a busy time for Burmese military commanders who handle issues in the north, northeast and eastern Burma, where the ethnic ceasefire groups that have yet to agree to the border guard forces are located.
Lt-Gen Tha Aye, chief of the Bureau of Special Operations (BSO)-1 visited sites across Kachin State, inspecting infrastructure projects along with Soe Win, commander of the Northern Regional Military Command, while Lt-Gen Min Aung Hlaing, the chief of the BSO-2, traveled in Shan State.
The state-run New Light of Myanmar reported on Wednesday that Min Aung Hlaing along with Maj-Gen Aung Than Htut, the commander of Northeast Regional Military Command, visited state projects in Laogai, the Kokang capital, on Jan. 23.
The visit was one of various trips by Min Aung Hlaing’s to the Kokang area after junta forces overran the area, forcing the Kokang ethnic army to flee in August 2009. At the time the junta accused Kokang Leader Peng Jaiseng of involvement in drug and arms trading. Kokang officials and their allies in the UWSA denied the allegation, however.
In an editorial on Wednesday called “Wipe the danger of narcotic drugs out,” The New Light of Myanmar highlighted the junta’s “drug elimination measures” along the border with neighboring countries.
The editorial said: “All global countries are trying their utmost to reduce and eliminate narcotic drug production and trafficking assisting each other in the fight against transnational crimes in border regions.”
Intentionally or not, The New Light of Myanmar put the report about Min Aung Hlaing’s trip to the Kokang area beside the editorial.
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