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Spurned by West, Myanmar’s Kachin look to China
 [ATimes] One of Myanmar’s strongest and most powerful ethnic armies has a new leader, one more aligned with China and apparently less keen to win sympathy from the West for his group’s long armed struggle for autonomy in a federal union.In January, the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), the political wing of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), elected General N Ban La, 70, as its new chairman. The KIA is now engaged in intense fighting with the Myanmar military in the country’s northern region bordering with China. Under N Ban La’s leadership, the Kachin rebel movement has moved to forge an alliance with the United Wa State Army (UWSA), the country’s largest armed militia which maintains close ties to Chinese security forces. Last year, the KIA joined the Federal Political Negotiating and Consultative Committee (FPNCC), an alliance led by the UWSA that also includes armies from the Shan, Kokang Chinese, Ta’ang (Palaung) and Arakanese ethnic minorities, as well as a group in easternmost Shan state comprised of a mixture of peoples. The FPNCC represents 80% of all armed rebels in the country, and with China’s apparent backing, Beijing has emerged as a main – some would argue sole – interlocutor in the conflict between Myanmarauthorities and ethnic armies. The “first chairman” of the FPNCC is the UWSA leader Bao Youxiang, with N Ban La serving as its “second chairman”, a position he assumed before becoming the KIA’s new chairman. In an exclusive interview with Asia Times, N Ban La said Kachin relations with China have become a lot easier since the KIA joined the Wa-led coalition: “Our people can now travel more freely in and out of China,” he said. There are even indications that China might allow the internally displaced person (IDP) camps inside KIA-controlled areas – where tens of thousands of civilians who have fled recent fighting now languish – to receive supplies of food and medicines from the Chinese side of the border. Until now, cross-border shipments have been severely restricted. The Myanmar government and military are now blocking international agencies from providing any humanitarian support to the camps. At the same time, other sources assert that Chinese security agents have told the Kachins not to engage with the West – or India and Japan, with whom N Ban La’s predecessors aimed to maintain friendly contacts.
Posted by: 3dc 2018-01-25 |
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