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War clouds seem to be hovering over Kachin State. With tension rising after the ethnic Kachin
rebel group – the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) disobeyed the junta’s order to
surrender its weapons, the Burmese Army seems to be preparing to launch an offensive against
them in the country’s famous Hpakant jade mining area in the north, said local residents.

The Burmese Army is taking up positions in Sang Hka and even in the Prayer Mountain of the
local Kachin Roman Catholic Church. Soldiers are digging bunkers here to take on the Kachin
Independence Army (KIA) the armed wing of the KIO, said eyewitnesses.

A Burmese Army base exists in Sang Hka and the 6th battalion of the KIA is situated opposite it.
It is an eye ball to eye ball situation, with the two sides separated by the Sang Hka stream.

Burmese troops operate under a rotational system every three or four months in the Mohnyin
based Infantry Battalion No. 15. They are led by commander Major Soe Win Khine currently
based in Sang Hka. The areas constitute the frontline for the Army, sources close to the army
base said.

The Burmese Army is preparing to use the Sang Hka military base as a stronghold if an
onslaught is launched against the KIA.

On the flip side the KIA’s battalion 6 is also gearing up to defend itself against the Burmese
military, said sources close to the KIA battalion 6.

Palpable tension has been evident since the KIO, the political wing of the KIA announced on
August 30, following its party congress, that it will not surrender its weapons to the regime.

Troops from the Burmese military base are checking all people, including jade miners and
traders, travelling between Sang Hka and the KIA’s battalion 6. Soldiers have blocked the
mass-supply of all commodities and fuel transported to the KIA side since July, said residents of

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Sang Hka.

There are tens of thousands of people, including Kachin civilians, jade miners and traders and
sellers in Hpakant. They are extremely worried that the latest military preparations would lead to
clashes, jade mine people said.

Before the KIO signed a ceasefire agreement with the Burmese junta in 1994, over 80 per cent
of Hpakant jade mining areas were controlled by the KIO. However, the KIO lost control of it
soon after the ceasefire and it is now under the direct control of the junta’s Ministry of Mines.

Like the other ethnic armed groups--- the United Wa State Army (UWSA), the National
Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA), the Shan State Army-North (SSA-N) in Burma’s Shan State,
the KIO also rejected the junta’s order to surrender weapons starting September 1.

The ethnic rebels are unwilling to toe the junta’s line before the political imbroglio is solved.

The rebels feel that “maintaining peace or resuming civil war” in the country is completely in the
hands of the Burmese military rulers.

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