Tatmadaw launching attacks on Kachin positions, says KIA Skip to main content

Tatmadaw launching attacks on Kachin positions, says KIA


The Kachin Independence Army (KIA) said today that government forces have launched assaults on several positions across Kachin State, including rounds of artillery directed near the Kachin army’s headquarters at Laiza on the Sino-Burmese border.
Speaking to DVB by telephone earlier, KIA spokesperson Dau Kha said that the Burmese military started shelling its positions near Laiza before Christmas Day, however the assault ceased over this weekend.
“I think the Tatmadaw [Burmese military] are just biding their time before they attack us again. I don’t think they will stop until they achieve their goal,” he said, without elaborating on what he believed the military’s objective might be.
The Kachin army spokesman also reported renewed fighting between government units and the KIA in the Kachin townships of Tanai and Hpakant since 30 December. He said the fighting in Tanai Township is focused on an area near local amber mining projects.
Dau Kha said that thousands of villagers have abandoned their homes in Sha Dhu Zut village, Hpakant Township, and have taken refuge in local churches. Likewise, he said, villagers in hamlets around Tanai town have taken refuge in the main town as fighting escalated.
In June, fighting between the Tatmadaw and the KIA was preceded by air-dropped leaflets by Burmese aircraft warning the civilian population to leave the area. About 1,000 miners and their families who had been living at local extractive gold and amber sites fled to Tanai town at that time.
The Burmese military authorities have since barred the opening of camps in the area for fleeing villagers, known as internally displaced persons or IDPs. The move has been widely resisted by the Kachin Baptist Convention and other Christian organisations who have banded together to provide humanitarian aid to those who have been forced by war to abandon their homes.
DVB reported in September that IDPs in the Tanai area were facing grave food shortages.
Khon Ja, a coordinator from Kachin Peace Network, said that the situation for IDPs could worsen while the military refuses to allow IDP camps to be established.
“The IDPs are currently squatting in churches,” she said. “Perhaps only the villagers from Sha Dhu Zut will be safe enough to return home soon.”
KIA spokesperson Dau Kha told DVB today that the Kachin rebels had not yet had an opportunity to raise the matter of the current clashes with the Myitkyina-based Peace-Talk Creation Group, which frequently mediates negotiations between the KIA and government forces.
The KIA has declined to sign a nationwide ceasefire agreement (NCA) with the government since 2015.
Another non-signatory group to the NCA, the Shan State Progressive Party/Shan State Army (SSPP), has also reported fighting with government troops. It said the clash happened on 1 January ­in Mongshu Township, southern Shan State. Neither side has released any information regarding the hostilities.

http://www.dvb.no/news/tatmadaw-launching-attacks-kachin-positions-says-kia/79068
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Chronology of the Press in Burma

1836 – 1846 * During this period the first English-language newspaper was launched under British-ruled Tenasserim, southern  Burma . The first ethnic Karen-language and Burmese-language newspapers also appear in this period.     March 3, 1836 —The first English-language newspaper,  The Maulmain Chronicle , appears in the city of Moulmein in British-ruled Tenasserim. The paper, first published by a British official named E.A. Blundell, continued up until the 1950s. September 1842 —Tavoy’s  Hsa-tu-gaw  (the  Morning Star ), a monthly publication in the Karen-language of  Sgaw ,  is established by the Baptist mission. It is the first ethnic language newspaper. Circulation reached about three hundred until its publication ceased in 1849. January 1843 —The Baptist mission publishes a monthly newspaper, the Christian  Dhamma  Thadinsa  (the  Religious Herald ), in Moulmein. Supposedly the first Burmese-language newspaper, it continued up until the first year of the second Angl
Post a Comment
Read more

ARSA claims ambush on Myanmar security forces

Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) on Sunday claimed responsibility for an ambush on Myanmar security forces that left several wounded in northern Rakhine state, the first attack in weeks in a region gutted by violence. Rakhine was plunged into turmoil last August, when a series of ARSA raids prompted a military backlash so brutal the UN says it likely amounts to ethnic cleansing of the Muslim Rohingya minority. The army campaign sent some 650,000 Rohingya fleeing for Bangladesh, where refugees have given harrowing accounts of rape, murder and arson at the hands of security forces and vigilantes. Myanmar's military, which tightly controls information about Rakhine, denies any abuses and insists the crackdown was a proportionate response to crush the "terrorist" threat. ARSA have launched few attacks in recent months.  But the army reported that "about ten" Rohingya terrorists ambushed a car with hand-made mines and gunfire on Friday morning
Post a Comment
Read more

Thai penis whitening trend raises eyebrows

Image copyright LELUXHOSPITAL Image caption Authorities warn the procedure could be quite painful A supposed trend of penis whitening has captivated Thailand in recent days and left it asking if the country's beauty industry is taking things too far. Skin whitening is nothing new in many Asian countries, where darker skin is often associated with outdoor labour, therefore, being poorer. But even so, when a clip of a clinic's latest intriguing procedure was posted online, it quickly went viral. Thailand's health ministry has since issued a warning over the procedure. The BBC Thai service spoke to one patient who had undergone the treatment, who told them: "I wanted to feel more confident in my swimming briefs". The 30-year-old said his first session of several was two months ago, and he had since seen a definite change in the shade. 'What for?' The original Facebook post from the clinic offering the treatment, which uses lasers to break do
1 comment
Read more