KIO troops march in Kachin Independence Army Day celebrations in Laiza in 2008. (Photo: The Kachinstate.com) A meeting between Burmese Military Affairs Security Chief Lt-Gen Ye Myint and leaders of the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) in Myitkyina, the Kachin capital, on Friday failed to achieve a breakthrough in border guard force negotiations, said a Kachin source on the Sino-Burma border.
In the meeting, KIO leaders discussed the importance of the spirit of the Panlong Agreement and avoided direct negotiations involving the regime's order to form a border guard force (BGF) under the command of the government, according to sources.
In response, Lt-Gen Ye Myint, one of the regime's chief negotiators with ethnic cease-fire armies, told KIO leaders that they should transform their troops in a border guard force and that alternative proposals were not needed.
A source in Myitkyina who is close to KIO leaders told The Irrawaddy on Monday that more meetings on the issue will take place.
Maj-Gen Soe Win of the Northern Regional Command and other regime officials also participated in the negotiations, along with KIO leaders including Lanyaw Zawng Hra, the KIO chairperson; Lt-Gen Gauri Zau Seng, KIO vice-president 1; and Brig-Gen Sumlut Gun Maw.Burmese authorities and KIO leaders have held 10 meetings since April 2009 to discuss the border guard force issue, according to the Thailand-based Kachin News Group.
In related matters, local Burmese authorities in KIO-controlled areas have started to restrict some trade involving rice, oil and other products by KIO businessmen on the Sino-Burmese border, according to Awng Wa, a Kachin source on the border.
With a military wing of about 4,000 soldiers, the KIO is one of the strongest ethnic cease-fire groups that has resisted the regime's BGF order. The United Wa State Army with 25,000 soldiers has also rejected the order and is still in talks with the regime.
Source :http://irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=17715
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