30 Tatmadaw soldiers die in Kachin jade district

DOZENS OF GENERAL PEOPLE ARE SEARCHING JADE STONES AT A COMPANY'S MINE IN HPAKANT, WESTERN KACHIN STATE, PHOTO: KACHIN NIWS GROUP

At least 30 Burma army soldiers died on Wednesday following heavy fighting with the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) in the jade rich Hpakant (also Phakant) district of western Kachin state, according to local KIA officers.

The soldiers were killed following a guerrilla ambush by a KIA unit from the group's 6th Battalion. According to a KIA officer who spoke to the Kachin News Group on condition of anonymity the fighting took place in the vicinity of the Gwi Hka jade mine. No KIA soldiers were killed in the fighting the officer said.

On Friday January 18th the KIA was forced to withdrawal all troops from the 6th Battalion headquarters, located a few miles northeast of Hpakant town in Ginsi. According to KIA officials the abandonment of the battalion headquarters was a strategic withdrawal carried out prior to government troops advancing on the area.

Fighting in the Hpakant region has intensified significantly since the beginning of the year when more than 40 trucks carrying government reinforcements from the Northern Regional Military Command arrived in Hpakant via Myitikyina, the Kachin state capital, according to local residents.

According to local sources in the jade business an estimated two-thirds of Hpakant's jade pits have been taken over by the KIA since the fighting began in Kachin state in June 2011. During the Burmese government's 17-year ceasefire with the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) Burma's second strongest armed group ceased collecting taxes from the jade mining industry. After the ceasefire ended the KIO resumed taxing the jade industry. Taxing the jade industry has reemerged as a lucrative source of revenue for the KIO.

Meanwhile fighting in the jade district has had a major toll on civilians in the area. Relief workers say that since January 18 and 19 more than 3,000 Kachin civilians from Hpakant's district's Ginsi village and other nearby villages have taken shelter in churches and Buddhist monasteries based in the government-controlled towns of Lawng Hkang (also spelled Lonkin) Hpakant, and Seng Tawng.

According to churches, there are now more than 20,000 internally displaced people sheltering in Hpakant town however none of them have received aid from UN aid agencies due to government restrictions.

Although Burma's government announced a unilateral ceasefire last week fighting continues throughout Kachin state. Areas near Laiza, the group's defacto capital remain the location of heavy fighting says the KIO's chief spokesperson Lah Nan.

A fleet of government helicopters carrying fresh troops and weapons have made at least 10 trips to the Pangwa region of eastern Kachin state along Chinese border since the New Year. The area long the territory of the government backed New Democratic Army-Kachin (NDA-K) has also seen heavy fighting between the KIA and government troops.

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