Dear Friends,
We are sending the latest update from Kachinland.
18 JUL 2013:
9:15 am hours: The encroaching Burmese Army (Hka Ma Ya unit) 324 encountered with the KIA 8 battalion in Mung Hawm of the KIA’s Northern Shan State area.
BRANG SHAWNG was sentenced to two years in Myitkyina by Myitkyina court.
He was arrested by Burmese authorities in Jan Mai Kawng Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camp under suspicion of being part of a bombing operation and having contact with the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) on June 17, 2012.
MS. LABYAWNG BAWK JA, Chairwoman of National Democratic Front’s Kachin State branch and a Kachin activist, has been arrested by police in Mohnyin on July 18, 2013. She is now in police custody and will be brought to Myitkyina tomorrow, said one of her friend. Her phone has been confiscated by police.
Bawk Ja is holder of THE KACHIN CIVILIAN DEFENDER award 2011 awarded by the Kachin Communities in Europe on 50thanniversary of Kachin Revolution Day. This is the first time she has been arrested by police under quasi-civilian government led by U Thein Sein.
17 JUL 2013:
It was reported that the encroaching Burmese Army encountered with the KIA’s 8 battalion in its administrative territory.
16 JUL 2013:
The tin roofing sheets belonged to Nang Zaw Yang villagers of Wai Maw Township and the KIO’s Wa Shawng District Office were looted by the Burmese Army unit Hka.La. Ya (119) to build their military bases.
The same day, the Burmese Army unit Hka.La.Ya (142) ordered the surrounding villages to provide two tractors per village for their farming. Sincerely yours,-- -----------
Information & Public Relations
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The Kachin National Organization (KNO) is a political organization founded on the 9th of January 1999 as the result of extensive discussion between the overseas Kachins and the elders from the Kachin homeland. The main goals of the Kachin National Organization are to regain the inalienable rights of Kachin national, based on the founding principles of the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO).
A Brief Background of Ms. Bawk Ja:
Bawk Ja, who serves as the Kachin State chairperson for the National Democratic Force, first rose to national prominence four years ago, as a leading member of a group of 150 farming families who sued the Yuzana corporation and its chairman Htay Myint (now an MP from the ruling USDP) for expropriating their land in the fertile Hugawng Valley (also spelled Hukawng or Hukaung).
Bawk Ja briefly went underground in January 2011 after Northern Regional Command, Brig-Gen Zeyar Aung issued an arrest warrant against her in an apparent attempt to stymie her efforts to seek redress for the farmers. Ms.Bawk Ja had been subjected to intimidation by the government on several occasions.
Bawk Ja traveled to the US in February of last year at the invitation of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a US-government funded democracy promotion group. During her visit she met with then US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Bawk Ja also registered as an NDF candidate to run during last year round of by-elections. Ultimately she was denied a chance to contest when polling for the three seats up for grabs in Kachin state was called off, obstinately for security reasons.
She previously ran as an NDF candidate in the November 2010 election. While many people expected her to win a seat at the time, Bawk Ja lost to a candidate from the military backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) after 13,255 votes were controversially declared invalid.
Bawk Ja, initially challenged the final vote count in the Hpakant consistency, which gave the USDP candidate Ohn Myint 29,426 vote to her total of 21,633. In June 2011, Bawk Ja dropped her challenge after Ohn Myint resigned his lower house seat to become the union Minister for Cooperatives. Ohn Myint, who served as Northern Regional Commander in the Burmese army was instrumental in assisting Yuzana seize land in the Hukaung valley and considered close to the firm's owner.
