Two Burmese army officers killed in rare fighting with KIA in Putao

Two Burmese army lieutenants were killed and several injured in a rare bout of fighting with the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) last week in Putao, Kachin, Burma's northernmost state, according to local sources.


The two officers were killed in conflict that began on Wednesday, August 28 between Mali Hka river and Chyai Hka river in Machyangbaw Township, say the sources, who are members of a local church.

According to KIA officials in the Laiza headquarters, the clashes began after a troop of Burma Army soldiers and members of a local militia twice attacked a KIA post held by Battalion 7 near the new Nhka Ga village. The officials claim the Burma Army soldiers from Machyangbaw-based Infantry Battalion No. 137 joined forces with a group known as the Rebellion Resistance Force, led by Tanggu Dang.

The pro-government militia leader Tanggu Dang is a businessman and Putao native of the Rawang tribe in Kachin.  He has been criticized by his own tribe for sending over 200 troops to reinforce the Burma Army during the Saffron Revolution crackdown of August 2007.

Burmese tycoon Tay Za, the son-in-law of former military strongman Than Shwe, has allegedly been granted 100,000 acres of logging field in the Putao district by the government.

Unknown numbers of villagers in the battle zone have fled to surrounding areas for their safety, say the church sources.

Kachin News Group has received information that the government is sending additional troops to the site of the conflict.

Additional skirmishes have been reported between government forces and KIA in two northeastern townships of Kachin sate, Chipwi and Sawlaw, since a combined troop of government Light Infantry Battalion No. 521, a local militia and the Border Guard Force (BGF) attacked the KIA post of battalion 10 in Law Hkawng on August 17, said Bawm Lang, a pro-government militia officer in Pangwa.

Sumlut Gam, leader of Kachin Independence Organization (KIO)’s peace talk delegation, criticized the government's continuous attacks on the KIO armed-wing KIA bases in the two regions in Kachin state, as well as KIA 4th brigade areas in northern Shan state.

The KIO is keeping its troops under control in accordance with the Myitkyina 7-point agreement reached in May, whereas the government forces breached the agreement by attacking KIA bases, Sumlut Gam added.

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