KIO denied War on its Splinter Group
March 16, 2005

The Kachin Post

The Kachin Independence Organization, KIO, has denied ordering its troops to arrest members of a splinter group led by former KIO intelligence Chief Col. Lasang Awng Wa and branding them as an enemy, according to KIO statement released on Saturday.

A report from the KIO splinter group says that KIO handed out a statement declaring war on the splinter group. The group split from the KIO in January 2004, after an alleged coup attempt at KIO headquarters. Later, the splinter group took refuge in Pang Wa, Kachin State, which is under the control of the New Democratic Army-Kachin, NDA-K, another ethnic-Kachin ceasefire group.

Maj Doi La, a leading member of the KIO splinter group, said that last month he received a copy of an order signed by Kachin Independence Army, KIA, Chief of Staff Gen N’ban La asking that KIA troops arrest the splinter group members and their family members. The order also stated that they might face execution unless five people served as guarantors for each of the splinter members. Doi La estimated that over a dozen of its members and their relatives have been detained in KIO jails.

However, the KIO has denied these allegations. “As KIO believes itself as doing alright, we do not need to explain or reply on rumors and spin,” according to the statement. “We, the KIO, as an arm organization and revolutionary government have the authority to arrest deserters, drug dealers and thieves.”

An officer from the KIA, the armed wing of the KIO, said that an order to arrest the splinter group members had been issued to KIA battalions.

On November 12, 2004, splinter group leader Lasang Awng Wa agreed to send his members to the KIO. However, the negotiation of settlement between the splinter group and the KIO has lost momentum since Lasang Awng Wa was unable to attend the final reunification meeting in early of December 2004.

“It is not impossible for the KIO and its splinter group to reunite, because KIO declared us as enemy,” Doi La told The Kachin Post in a phone interview from NDA-K headquarters in Pang Wa.