Disarm order deadline passes quietly; new diplomatic headway
By Ryan Libre / November 01, 2009

The October 31st deadline for the ethnic crease-fire groups in Burma to disarm has passed quietly in the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) held capital of Laiza.  There was no shelling today, nor much trading.  Many of the traders and businessmen based in Laiza have gone elsewhere in case the military government decided to attack.

After nine negotiation proposals were rejected by the Junta, the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) changed the framing of the issue at hand.  The KIO's tenth proposal put the Junta on the defensive by asking them to respect a power-sharing agreement signed by the government and the ethnic groups in 1947.

The one page Panglong Agreement states the central government will not “operate in respect to the Frontier Areas in any matter which would deprive any portion of those areas of the autonomy which it now enjoys in internal administration.”  From the first constitution later in 1947 until today, the promise of internal autonomy for the outlying ethnic areas has never been realized. 

 A Kachin cultural and political historian said “If you give us the full meaning of that agreement, of the human rights and ethnic minority rights stated on that paper, we will surrender.”

KIO Vice Chairman Gauri Zau Seng, KIA Vice chief of staff Gen. Gun Maw and others will meet with the Junta's Northern command in Myitkyina.  The meeting is expected to take place in the first week of November. This will be the first time since just after the military seized power in 1961 that it is willing to discuss the Panglong Agreement. 

A source inside the KIO said, “ Now we are back on the right track, but we are not sure how far it will go.” 

The meeting is likely to be the first of many to discuss the meaning of the original agreement and to reinterpret how to apply it to the current political climate. 

(Ryan Libre is a photo journalist based in Thailand, reporting from Laiza, Kachin State)