KIO says leader in China for health reasons

The Kachin Independence Organisation, a powerful group based on the China-Myanmar border, claimed on Wednesday that the reason for its chairman Gen. N’Ban La’s current visit to China is a medical checkup. Local news outlet Kachin Sub-State Media previously reported that the Chinese government was holding the KIO chairman, who is more than 80, under house arrest. The detention was reportedly intended to pressure the organisation to halt an ongoing offensive by its armed wing, the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), against Myanmar’s military. The local media report, released earlier on Wednesday, said Chinese officials had called Gen. N’Ban La to a meeting in China before detaining him, as they did last year with Kokang army leader Peng Daxun, whom they had also been urging to negotiate a ceasefire with the regime. However, KIO spokesperson Col. Naw Bu said that Gen. N'Ban La had gone to China for routine medical examination, not to attend a meeting. “There’s a health checkup. They have health examinations about once every two months. It's a routine visit,” Col. Naw Bu told Myanmar Now. Col. Naw Bu did not give details about the date the medical visit was scheduled or when the KIO chair planned to return to Myanmar. Along with its armed wing, the KIO maintains a headquarters in Laiza, which is on the China-Myanmar border in Kachin State’s Waingmaw Township. The Chinese government previously detained the head of the Kokang armed group Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) Peng Daxun, 59, after the MNDAA’s refusal to withdraw fighters from Lashio, northern Shan State. After Peng Daxun was held in China, the MNDAA agreed to relinquish control of the city to the Myanmar military. They ultimately followed through with the agreement in April of this year, withdrawing their forces from the city they had captured eight months earlier as part of the sweeping Operation 1027 offensive against the Myanmar military. While holding him, the Chinese government also claimed that Peng Daxun was only in China for medical treatment. For months, China has been pressuring ethnic armed groups in Myanmar, especially those operating near its borders, to lay down arms and negotiate an end to hostilities with the Myanmar military regime rather than form or maintain alliances with the anti-junta resistance that emerged after Myanmar’s 2021 coup. Reuters news service reported on Tuesday that the Chinese government had threatened the KIA in May with halting rare earth mineral imports from Kachin State if the group continued to attack the town of Bhamo. Citing KIA officials, Reuters reported that Chinese officials also tried to offer incentives to encourage the KIA to suspend hostilities, promising to provide freer cross-border trade in KIA-controlled territories if the offensive stopped. Since the KIA launched a long-term offensive against the military in March of last year, the group has captured the town of Mabein in northern Shan State and more than a dozen towns in Kachin State: Dawthponeyan, Injangyang, Chipwe, Hpi Maw, Mansi, Momauk, Myo Hla, Pangwa (Pang War), Sadung, Sinbo, Sumprabum, Tsawlaw, and the border trade towns of Kan Paik Ti and Lwegel (Lweje or Loi Je).

KIO says leader in China for health reasons

The Kachin Independence Organisation’s spokesperson made the claim amid reports that Gen. N’Ban La was under house arrest by Chinese authorities, who have been pressuring Kachin forces to agree to a ceasefire with the Myanmar junta

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