KIO retakes post in Pangwa area from Burma army

A BURMESE MILITARY TRANSPORT HELICOPTER FLEW TO PANGWA FROM MYITKYINA NORTHERN COMMAND IN EARLY THIS WEEK.PHOTO:KACHIN NEWS GROUP

The Kachin Independence Army (KIA) retook a front-line post held by Burma's military in the Pangwa region (also Pangwah, Pan Wah) of eastern Kachin State on Monday after 9 days of fighting, according to KIA officials reached at the group's Laiza headquarters.

The government side lost a significant number of troops during the last week of fighting, according to KIA officials who also acknowledge that their side lost at least three soldiers on Monday.  Most of the recent fighting took place between boundary markers No. 6 and 7, two pillars that demarcate Burma's border with China's Yunnan province.

The recaptured post at Ura Kawng had previously been lost to government troops on August 14.  The post is located near boundary pillars No. 6 and was retaken by troops from KIA Battalion 33 who serve under the group's 1st Brigade.

Despite the withdrawal of the government troops from Ura Kawng there remain two Burmese military posts with about 200 troops very close by.  Ura Kawng is also very near to a temporary refugee camp housing more than 700 displaced villagers.  The refugee camp is run by the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), the political wing of KIA.  More than 200 new refugees arrived at the camp since fighting began in the area at the beginning of the month, said Doi Pyi Sa, head of the KIO’s IDP and Refugee Relief Committee based in Laiza.

On October 15, a 7-year old boy in the refugee camp was killed following an artillery attack launched by Burmese government troops based at Ura Kawng, said Doi Pyi Sa.

A major point of trade between Burma and China, the Pangwa region was the long territory of the now defunct New Democratic Army-Kachin (NDA-K), a ceasefire group led by Zahkung Ting Ying (also spelled Za Khun Ting Ring).  In 2009 the NDA-K officially ceased to exist when its standing army of about 1,000 troops was absorbed by the national border guard force.

The NDA-K was the successor to a KIO unit led by Ting Ying that broke-away in 1968 to join forces with the Burma Communist Party (BCP). In 1989 following the complete collapse of the BCP, Ting Ying with the support of troops under his command created the NDA-K, quickly reaching a ceasefire with the central government.  The NDA-K's deal with Burma's military regime enabled the group to profit from the cross border timber trade at Kambaiti and Pangwa during a period that saw vast clear cutting of forests in Kachin State.

Army sending more troops to Pangwa area
Eyewitnesses in Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin State, report that since December 3rd the army has been sending large numbers of reinforcements from the locally based Northern Regional Military Command to Pangwa via military helicopters.

Last week, Brig-Gen Htun Htun Naung a senior official with the Northern Regional Military Command and Ting Ying who now serves as an MP visited Pangwa to cheer on the troops.  A repeat of a similar visit Zahkung Ting Ying made earlier this year when he infamously declared that the KIO would be crushed by the army.