Gov’t press release reveals troop casualties in Kachin

Min Thu Ta – Since fighting resumed in 2011 between the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) and the Tatmadaw, Burma’s government army, a large number of government troops have been killed or seriously wounded, according to a press release by the Republic of the Union of Myanmar Information Team on January 18.

“From December 10, 2011, to January 15, 2013, the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO)/Kachin Independence Army (KIA) engaged with government troops 1,095 times, and the KIO/KIA have blasted roads and bridges 122 times and attacked military outposts 64 times. Because the KIO/KIA troops ambushed government convoys that were transporting rations to the government’s outpost in Lajayang three times, 35 government men fell and 190 were wounded.”

The press release also stated that the government was obliged to request air support from the Myanmar Air Force to deliver troop rations after the KIO/KIA surrounded the Lajayang base with barbed wire.

U Aung Kyaw Zaw, a China-based Burmese military observer, spoke with the Burmese section of the BBC on Saturday.

“After gaining independence, and throughout the history of [civil] war in [Burma], the war in Kachin is the worst and most brutal after the Insein War. The way I see it, the Burmese Army has spent about US $2.3 million on military expenses.”

Over the 2012 Christmas holiday, government troops reportedly used fighter jets and helicopter gunships to fire 105-120 mm cannons and drop bombs and rockets during offensives near the KIO headquarters at Laiza. On January 11, a government helicopter used during an aerial attack against KIA troops broke down near Ta-Lawkyi Village in Myitkyina Township.

In a statement released on January 19 by the KIO’s executive committee, members asked the government army to stop all military offensives throughout Kachin State, not just in Lajayang, and urged the Republic of the Union of Myanmar Information Team to reveal more details of recent military activities.

At the Myanmar International Convention Center in Naypyidaw, President Thein Sein delivered a speech on January 19 inviting the KIA to engage in a peace dialogue and ordering both the Tatmadaw and the KIA to end all military offensive attacks in Kachin State. He also said the government is prepared to commence political dialogue later this month with the 10 ethnic armed groups that signed ceasefire agreements.

Since U Thein Sein took office in March 2011, the government has met with KIO representatives 11 times, but has yet to attain a ceasefire agreement with the group.