KIA Conducts Militia Training

News - War Written by LAWI WENG/The Irrawaddy Thursday, 04 February 2010 19:27

The Kachin Independence Army (KIA), one of a number of ethnic cease-fire groups under pressure to transform itself into a border guard force under Burmese army command ...

The Kachin Independence Army (KIA), one of a number of ethnic cease-fire groups under pressure to transform itself into a border guard force under Burmese army command, is giving militia training to civilians in Mung Seng Yang, a military training center near the Sino-Burmese border, according to Kachin sources.

“The KIA plans to conduct militia training for civilians over a wide area of their territory,” said Wunpawng Mangshang, a 32-year-old ethnic Kachin living in Thailand, speaking to The Irrawaddy on Thursday.

“They conducted their first militia training in November with about 200 civilians, and the second training, with more than 100 civilians, started in the middle of December. They intend to use the people when they need them,” he added.

Another ethnic Kachin who lives on the Sino-Burmese border said: “They (the KIA) trained the people with the intention of setting up a civilian force in their controlled area to protect their villages.”

The sources said that the training lasts one month and involves military exercises and learning how to shoot and maintain a gun. The trainees are between 18 and 50 years old.

Upon completion of the training, trainees return to their home villages, where they either remain on active duty as village guards or return to civilian life.

This is the first time the KIA has conducted militia training for civilians since the group signed a cease-fire agreement with the Burmese military junta in 1994, according to the sources.

The source based on the Sino-Burmese border, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the KIA was recruiting one adult male from each local family to join the militia training.

“They are being forced to join. Some people don't want to go because there are no other men in their families to provide support,” he said.

However, Wunpawng Mangshang denied this, saying the training is voluntary, with some people coming from as far away as the state capital Myitkyina to join.

KIA will mark the 49th anniversary of Kachin Revolution Day tomorrow. A ceremony will be held in N-Gum La at KIA Brigade 1, near the Sino-Burmese border.

Since last year, the Burmese military junta has pressured the KIA and other cease-fire groups to transform themselves into border guards before the country holds an election later this year.

Burmese Military Affairs Security Chief Lt-Gen Ye Myint and leaders of the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), the political wing of the KIA, met in Myitkyina last week, but failed to achieve a breakthrough in border guard force negotiations.

The Burmese authorities and KIO leaders have held 10 meetings since April 2009 to discuss the border guard force issue, according to the Thailand-based Kachin News Group.

With about 4,000 soldiers, the KIA is one of the strongest ethnic cease-fire groups that has resisted the regime's border guard force order.

Original source: http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=17738