Despite Kachin “ceasefire” fighting continues

Col. Nhkum Zau Doi, commander of KIA's Battalion 6 based in Hpakant jade mining township, western Kachin state.

Less than a day after Burma's government announced a unilateral halt in its offensive against the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), fighting continues across Kachin state including areas close to Laiza the KIO's de facto capital and in the jade rich Hpakant (Phakant) region in the far west.

According to a government announcement issued on state TV Friday evening the army would no longer “carry out offensive attacks except in self-defense” beginning at 6 AM Saturday morning. The pledge made on the eve of an international donor conference held in Naypidaw was met with skepticism from KIO officials. “The Burmese... never keep promises," KIO spokesman James Lum Dau told Agence France Press (AFP) on Saturday.

The BBC quoted another KIO spokesman as saying that some 3 hours after the ceasefire was supposed to go into effect army units fired shells at KIO positions in Lajayang, a village of strategic significance located less than 6 miles from Laiza. Over the past three weeks Lajayang has seen some of the heaviest fighting to hit Burma in decades, part of a massive government offensive that included repeated air strikes on KIO targets in the area. The army's onslaught on Lajayang forced the KIO to retreat from several key outposts raising fears that Burma's army will soon be in a position to advance on Laiza, home to more than 25,000 refugees.

Throughout the day Saturday army units continued with attacks on KIO outposts at Hka Pot located north of Laiza and Hka Ya Bum located to the west of the KIO capital. Burma's army does not appear to have used any airstrikes since the ceasefire was declared.

Fighting between Burma's military and the KIO resumed in June 2011 after the army unilaterally chose to end a 17-year ceasefire with Burma's second strongest armed ethnic group. Although representatives of both sides have met nearly a dozen times for peace talks over the last 18 months, a cessation in the violence has to yet to materialize. The fighting which began some three months after President Thein Sein and his nominally civilian government took power has forced an estimated 100,000 civilians to flee from their homes.

The government's announcement came shortly after Burma's parliament passed a non-binding motion on Friday calling for a ceasefire. The motion was tabled by Dwe Bu, a Kachin professor who serves as an MP from the Unity and Democracy Party of Kachin State (UDPKS) a small party allied with the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP). Despite being a member of a pro government party Dwe Bu whose name is also spelled Doi Bu, has been quite vocal in calling for an end to the Kachin conflict and the repeal of a government policy making the KIO an unlawful organization.


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