Can Burma make a comprehensive peace deal with ethnic Kachin? | Asian Correspondent

Can Burma make a comprehensive peace deal with ethnic Kachin? | Asian Correspondent
Zin Linn, Jun 17, 2013

Burma’s Government and Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) signed a preparatory agreement on 30 May to downsize military concerns in Kachin state and northern Shan state. Many analysts deem this preliminary agreement may lead to extra progress towards accomplishing a diplomatic finale. But, it looks like uncertain.

However, armed-forces loyal to Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) clashed numerous times with the Burma Army over the past week in northern Shan state, quoting a KIO source the Kacin News Group said. It was the first recorded clashes since both sides met for peace talks in Kachin state capital of Myitkyina at the end of May this year.

On 10 June, conflict broke out between KIO Mungshawa Hpyen Hpung (MHH) civilian militia ‘section 5’ and government infantry battalion 125 close to Hpai Kawng village in Pangsai (Kyukok) region. The government battalion was supported by the Kutkai based militia troop commanded by Hkun Myant from the ruling USDP party. Hkun Myant runs his own militia for drug trafficking which is booming in Shan state. Two government soldiers found dead at the end of the fighting. A few clashes occurred throughout last week, according to a KIO official.

Kachin armed forces received strict orders not to strike first, said one KIO official who spoke to the Kachin News Group (KNG) on condition of anonymity due to restrictions in place on speaking to the media. Despite the KIO’s restraints, clashes occurred after government military units entered KIO controlled areas without word of warning, the anonymous official said.

During the latest three-day talks (28-30 May) in Myitkyina, the government peacemaking team and the KIO reached a seven-point preliminary agreement pledging both sides would take necessary steps towards reducing tensions and establishing a troop monitoring mechanism to prevent unnecessary clashes like these. Despite the goodwill gestures displayed in Myitkyina’s peace talks and later reported to the media by Aung Min, head of government peace negotiator, warfare hasn’t been ceased. As a result, a proper end of hostilities still seems far from realization.  

Peacemaking team of Government of Burma and delegates of the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) signed a preparatory agreement on 30 May 31, 2013 (Thursday) in Myitkyina, the capital of the Kachin state, inside Burma.(Photo credit: Min Zaw Oo’s Face Book)

In the last three-day talks, the government’s peace delegation was led by Union Minister Aung Min and Lt-Gen. Myint Soe who is head of the Bureau of Special Operation-1 that watch over military operations in Kachin State. The KIO delegation was led by Brig-Gen Sumlut Gun Maw, the Deputy Chief-of-Staff of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA).

It was remarkable that Vijay Nambiar, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s special adviser on Burma, was also present as an observer during the three-day talks between the KIO and the Burmese government. Representatives from China and other ethnic observers from United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC) were also in attendance. Even though the KIO wanted to invite observers from the US and British governments, they were not in attendance. Their participation in the talks is reported to have been vetoed by the Chinese government, KNG said.

The central committee of Kachin Independence Organization released a public statement on June 12, 2013 reiterate the seven-point agreement signed between KIO and Burmese government delegation at Myitkyina’s Ma-nau compound on May 30. The statement expresses appreciation for all parties involved during the meeting and to welcoming crowd for their supports. Thousands of Myitkyina and Waing Maw residents lined up waving Kachin national flag to welcome KIO delegation on May 27, the Kachinland News said.

The KIO’s statement said the seven-point agreement was signed hoping that it would lead towards sustainable political conclusion and long-term peace. KIO again said in the statement that political discussions will halt long running civil-war and equal rights will guarantee all ethnic nationalities in Burma to live in peace and harmony, according to the Kachinland News.

As both sides had agreed on paper to set up a ‘Joint Monitoring Committee’ to trim down military tension, discussions on the safety of return and resettlement for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and refugees would continue as a priority in the upcoming talks, said the statement. Yet, the agreement appeared to be a preparatory step toward a truce rather than a step forward. The KIO maintains on a political solution, not just a ceasefire.

Ahead of the 30-May talks, the Kachin National Consultative Assembly (KNCA) issued a press statement on 22 May concerning the conflict in Kachin state. The Assembly demands four main points in the statement – Equal ethnic rights, justice and peace; Self-rule over our traditional territories; Full rights of self-determination and autonomy; Establishment of a genuine Federal Union.

On the other hand, President Thein Sein government said that it looks forward to achieve an all-inclusive peace agreement with every ethnic group in the near future. However, the KIO also has been under pressure from the Kachin general public not to bargain beyond their preferred demands with the government. 

In Burma, Answers to Ethnic Conflict Elusive | The Irrawaddy Magazine

In Burma, Answers to Ethnic Conflict Elusive | The Irrawaddy Magazine
TODD PITMAN / AP WRITER, February 22, 2013

LAWA YANG, Kachin State — Kneeling beside a line of freshly dug trenches carved like one long, open wound into a lush hillside, the rebel sergeant peered through dusty binoculars at all his troops had lost.

Scattered across the sprawling valley below, a dozen thatched-roof homes stood quiet, abandoned by fleeing villagers as government forces drew near. Towering above: four forested mountain ridges seized by Burma’s army after some of the bloodiest clashes here in decades—so fierce the ethnic Kachin guerrillas who survived said the artillery fire came down like rain.

If the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), the last armed insurgent group still at war in Burma, loses just one more mountain ridge, there will be little to stop government forces from taking their stronghold on the Chinese border. They are ill-equipped—some rebels wear helmets made only of hardened plastic and admit running low on ammunition—but they remain defiant.

“We’re very vulnerable because the army now holds the high ground,” rebel Sgt. Brang Shawng said as he scanned the new front line at Lawa Yang, where his unit retreated last month.

But he added: “We will never give up. For us, this is a fight for self-determination, and I’ll keep fighting for it until I die.”

Government soldiers, bolstered for the first time by screeching fighter jets and helicopter gunships that pounded the hills for weeks, advanced late last month to within just a few kilometers of the rebel headquarters town of Laiza, the closest they have ever come.

The region has been relatively calm since, but even so, the dramatic upsurge in fighting underscores how far Burma is from achieving one of the things it needs most—a political settlement to end not just the war with the Kachin, but decades-long conflicts with more than a dozen other rebel armies that have plagued the country for decades and still threaten its future.

Much is at stake for this Southeast Asian nation, which has stunned the world by opening politically and economically over the last two years following five decades of military rule. President Thein Sein’s government rose to power in 2011 following elections that rights groups said were neither free nor fair, but it has since ushered in reforms, freed political prisoners and allowed opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her supporters to be elected to Parliament.

Still, Burma has yet to resolve a multitude of conflicts with its ethnic minorities, which make up about 40 percent of the population. Their persistent push for political autonomy has turned vast patchworks of territory along the borders with China and Thailand into rebel fiefdoms rich in jade, timber, gold and opium.

In Kachin State alone, the control of which is split between rebels and the government, resource-hungry China has invested billions of dollars in hydroelectric dams. A Chinese-backed pipeline project is due to begin pumping oil and gas from the Bay of Bengal in May, and more development projects are planned, including highways and railways that would link Indian Ocean seaports with the rest of Southeast Asia. Most of them cross rebel zones.

Thein Sein’s administration has signed truce deals with 18 armed groups—everyone except the Kachin, according to Min Zaw Oo, who heads cease-fire negotiations at the Myanmar Peace Center, a government-appointed body that is coordinating peace talks.

Most of those truces had already been negotiated with the former junta, but the nation’s former military rulers “never accepted the need for a political settlement,” Min Zaw Oo said.

Thein Sein’s administration, by contrast, realizes a cease-fire alone is not sufficient, he said. “This government sees dialogue as key. It is ready to talk. That’s a major policy distinction.”
Min Zaw Oo said he believes Burma has the best chance in 60 years of ending the country’s ethnic conflicts. But he acknowledged that “practically, there are a lot of obstacles in the way.”

Distrust runs deep, and even the truces remain fragile. The army and rebels in eastern Shan State, for example, have clashed at least 44 times since agreeing a cease-fire last year, Min Zaw Oo said.

In Kachin State, there has been speculation the government was trying to strengthen its hand at negotiations by escalating the war to new heights with airstrikes. But rebel Col. Zaw Taung, director of strategic analysis for the KIA, said the skirmishes only pushed the two sides further apart.

“They say they want peace, but they just threw everything they have against us,” he said. “With one hand they’re trying to burn us, with the other, they’re trying douse us with water. They cannot be trusted.”

The army, like the rebels, insists it fought only in self-defense.

On Wednesday, government envoys resumed talks in the Thai city of Chiang Mai with the United Nationalities Federal Council, an alliance of 11 ethnic militias, including the Kachin, that banded together last year. Few expected any breakthroughs, and no cease-fire was reached with the Kachin, which have met the government more than a dozen times since war in the north reignited in 2011.

The talks are “only about the framework of future discussions,” said Hkun Okkar, a senior alliance member. “We’re demanding a political dialogue, and the government agrees, but real dialogue hasn’t started.”

Last week, Thein Sein acknowledged that his country’s history of ethnic conflict has been a major barrier to progress, and that achieving stability is crucial as it pursues a democratic future.

His words, though, were delivered on an occasion infused with bitter irony: Union Day, which commemorates the 1947 deal between Suu Kyi’s father, independence hero Gen Aung San, and ethnic leaders to break away from Britain’s colonial arms together.
The so-called Panglong Agreement also granted ethnic minorities autonomy, but it fell apart after the assassination of Aung San.

The Kachin, who are predominantly Christian in a majority Buddhist country, first took up arms in 1961. A 1994 truce with the army lasted 17 years, but during that time, rebel demands for rights and a federalist system were never addressed.

Instead, the junta in 2008 forced through a new constitution. The nation’s minorities say it places enormous power in the hands of the central government and the military, which rights groups say has orchestrated a campaign of discrimination, forced labor and abuse against the Kachin and other groups for decades. The constitution can be amended only with approval of the armed forces, which even now control 25 percent of Parliament.

Tensions rose further in 2009, when the junta tried to persuade ethnic armies to join a new border guard force. Most, including the Kachin, refused.

Two months after Thein Sein took office in 2011, the Kachin truce finally broke down when the army bolstered its presence near a hydropower plant in Dapein that is a joint venture with a Chinese company, and rebels refused to abandon a strategic base nearby.
Since then, more than 100,000 Kachin civilians have been displaced, and the rebels have progressively lost territory, pressed closer and closer against the Chinese border.

Only one major mountain ridge now separates Laiza from Burma’s army, and a grim mood has settled over the town.

At the main cemetery, workers are erecting concrete tombstones for rebels who died in the latest fighting. At least 23 are buried here under mounds of red dirt, though rebel officials declined to say how many were killed altogether.

Every night, a single-file candlelight peace vigil organized by a Catholic priest snakes through Laiza’s darkened and nearly deserted streets. Shops are closed. Displaced people crowd camps perched on a rocky river that marks the border with China.

The rebels, clearly outgunned, say they will not even try to retake lost ground. There is talk of the rebels abandoning Laiza if need be, of shifting their headquarters to a secret location if the army makes a push for the town. Most of their offices on a hillside overlooking town already appear empty, and the rebels’ most senior leadership is no longer here.

“For a guerrilla army, what matters most is not holding ground, but maintaining the support of the people,” Zaw Taung said, speaking at a Laiza hotel the rebels use as an office that is decorated with wall-to-wall maps.

Judging by comments from many Kachin, across many levels of society, they overwhelmingly support the rebels, whom they see as protectors and their legitimate government, perhaps now more than ever.

Asked why the rebels were the only armed group that has yet to sign a truce with the government, Zaw Taung was dismissive.

“We tried that for 17 years. What did it get us?” he asked. “The only thing that will end the war is a political solution. Without that, a truce means nothing. The fighting will go on.”

Burma resumes peace talks with KIO in China, along with charter row | Asia News – Politics, Media, Education | Asian Correspondent

Burma resumes peace talks with KIO in China, along with charter row | Asia News – Politics, Media, Education | Asian Correspondent
Zin Linn Feb 04, 2013 

The Government of Myanmar (Burma) has welcomed peace gesture proposed in the statement issued by KIO’s Central Committee on February 1, 2013, as per Press Release (6/2013) of its Information Team via the state-run newspapers on 2 February.

GOM said that it has believed the legitimate peace desired by all people can be achieved only through political dialogue. The Government welcomes peace efforts assisted by ethnic ceasefire groups and other organizations in an attempt to support the Union Peace Working Committee and KIO/KIA to resume peace talks and put an end to armed conflicts, according to the press release.

According to the 7Days News Journal, government peacemaking team and ethnic KIO peace delegation will hold talks in the Chinese border town of Ruili in China on 4 February (Monday), after severe fighting in the Kachin State of Burma nearly 18 months.

Officials say the talks will begin Monday in the Chinese border town of Ruili. The meeting comes after the army seized several strategic guerrilla-held hilltops this month in the hills around Laiza, which serves as a headquarters for the rebel movement, AP News said Sunday.

On 11 January 2013, the Lower House of Burma (Myanmar) made a request to Union Peacemaking Central Committee and KIO/KIA at the second day sixth regular session of the First People’s Parliament. The call made by the Lower House to Union Peace-making Central Committee and KIO/KIA says the members of parliament have felt sadness for local people of Kachin state who have been suffering the consequences of the ongoing war. The fighting caused loss of both sides due to daily armed conflicts in Kachin state, it says.

The request keeps on saying that there have been difficulties to hold talks between the members of peace-making team of the government and representatives of KIO/KIA as military action swelling in the region continuously. The request letter says to ease the military tensions in favor of the people’s voices while building trust through the negotiation. Hence, it would pave the way for the lasting peace, says the request letter signed by the Lower House Speaker Thura Shwe Mann.

The key point of disagreement between the KIO and the military-backed government is the attitude with the 1947 Panglong Agreement. KIO has declared that it will talk through the ethnic alliance, the United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC), keeping on the spirit of the Panglong Agreement.

On the contrary, the military-backed government made its negative response of peace talks based on the principles of the 1947 Panglong Treaty advised by the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO). The government sticks to the 2008 controversial constitution as the guideline for the peace talks.

The landmark Panglong Agreement mainly guaranteed self-determination of the ethnic minorities and offered a large measure of autonomy, including independent legislature, judiciary and administrative powers. However, the dream of equality and a federal union is far from being realized some six decades after signing the Panglong Agreement.

The new constitution, approved in a May 2008 referendum, is inundated with misleading principles. It says the country must be united under one military command. To bring the ethnic groups in line with this proviso, the military regime has ordered all armed rebel groups to become part of Burma’s border guard force ahead of the 2010 election.

Ethnic minorities have been suffering through five decades of immoral military operations in the name of national unity. Attacks on these rural civilians continue on a daily basis. There is a constant demand from Burma’s ethnic groups to enjoy equal political, social and economic rights. The Constitution must guarantee the rights of self-determination and of equal representation for every ethnic group in the Parliament. It must also include provisions against racial discrimination.

During the June-2004 National Convention sponsored by the previous junta, 13 ceasefire groups put forward a political offer demanding equal access to the plenary session. But the convention’s convening committee dismissed the proposal as improper. When the 2008 Constitution came out, none of the political points proposed by the ethnic representatives were included.

On this political issue, there is a big gap between the military junta and the NLD led by Aung San Suu Kyi. To the military autocrats, allowing the ethnic minorities to enjoy equal political, social and economic rights is a risk towards a collapse of sovereignty.

To the NLD and ethnic alliance parties, granting equal rights to ethnic minorities will certainly guarantee peace, stability and prosperity of the country. Actually, the military-backed government leaders strongly support the unitary state instead of a federal union state. On the other hand, the NLD and ethnic leaders continuously demand in favor of a democratic federal union state.

At the first Union Parliament second regular session on 22 August 2011, President Thein Sein said, “We know what happen to people and what people want. And we are striving our best to fulfill their needs to the full extent. To conclude my speech, I promise that our government as a democratically-elected government will do our best for the interests of the people.”

If the president really knows what people want, he should think about amending of the controversial constitution in which none of the political aspirations suggested by the ethnic representatives was integrated.

If the existing government truthfully committed to start political reforms, the first thing it should bear in mind is providing access to debate on constitutional flaws in the parliament.

Without a debate on the 2008 Constitution by all stakeholders, Burma will not rise above its political fiasco including the Kachin conflict.

Kachin Activists, Monks Begin 2-Month March | The Irrawaddy Magazine

Kachin Activists, Monks Begin 2-Month March | The Irrawaddy Magazine
LAWI WENG / THE IRRAWADDY, January 22, 2013

RANGOON—A group of activists and monks have embarked on a peace march from Rangoon to Kachin State, urging the government to stop the fighting between ethnic rebels and the national army in Burma’s northernmost state.

The march, which is expected to take two months, began on Monday morning from Rangoon’s city hall but was delayed after the 15 activists and five monks were stopped by local authorities.

“We plan to walk 30 miles every day, but we couldn’t do that today because the authorities blocked us for a while, so there has been a delay,” Aung Min Naing, one of the activists, told The Irrawaddy on Monday.

Authorities told the marchers they needed to apply for government permission, Aung Min Naing said, adding that the group had already shared their plans with the government’s peace center and ethnic affairs committee.

The activists are calling for an end to the conflict that has raged in Kachin State since a 17-year ceasefire between ethnic rebels and the government broke down in June 2011.

After weeks of heavy fighting this month, President Thein Sein said the government had ordered a ceasefire in the resource-rich northern state, but clashes continued on the ground.

The activists and monks are marching to Laiza, a town near the border with China where tens of thousands of civilians live and have taken shelter in camps for internally displaced persons (IDP). The town has been the target of recent air raids because it is where ethnic rebels from the Kachin Independence Army have established their headquarters.

The government has forbidden international aid groups from accessing the IDP camps in Laiza and other rebel-held areas.

In Rangoon, onlookers gave the marchers food and money for the displaced Kachin civilians.
“This is how they show us that they want to have peace,” Aung Min Naing said. “We’ll keep walking to reach Laiza unless the government puts us in prison.”

The activists reached Pegu Division, on the border with Rangoon Division, on Tuesday but were again restricted by local authorities.

“They told us not to hold up our flags,” said Yan Naing Tun, another activist on the march.
Like many ethnic groups in Burma, the KIA has long fought for basic rights and greater autonomy from the national government, and is calling for political dialogue to discuss a resolution.

Kachin media war continues | New Mandala

Kachin media war continues | New Mandala
Nicholas Farrelly, May 3rd, 2012

The media war in Kachin State continues, with the The New Light of Myanmar ramping up the regularity of its coverage. Earlier I pointed out the months of quiet — when the Kachin war was completely missing from Burma’s official news. There are now almost daily reports from Kachin State, with stories on everything from the explicitly tactical to the charmingly mundane. The most recent tells us:

KIA (Kachin) armed group blasts Myitkyina-Mandalay railroad again

NAY PYI TAW, 1 May- About one and a half miles from Hsahmaw railway station on Myitkyina- Mandalay railroad, about two-foot rail tracks and nine sleepers of east and west rail tracks were destroyed in double mine blasts plotted by KIA (Kachin) Armed Group at 1.05 am today.

Fifteen 200-gram TNTs, 13 detonators, six eight-inch tripwires and two intensification explosives were found near the damaged rail track and 18 200-gram TNTs and related items 75 yards from the scene by the officials who deactivated the explosives.

A Kachin national who is in service in Nay Pyi Taw said he doubted whether KIA are doing the good for the people as they proclaimed because of such destruction of non-military targets and public places — railways, motor roads and bridges – and firing heavy weapons to villages, undermining transportation and socioeconomic standards of national people in Kachin State.-MNA

The remarkable part of this brief story is the paraphrashing of a “Kachin national who is in service in Nay Pyi Taw”. He isn’t named, nor do we hear him in his own words. For me at least, this sums up the old school approach to news reporting still practiced at The New Light.

On the Kachin Independence Army side, where media savvy has long been considered a strategic commodity, some must be chuckling into their tsa pi.