Myanmar’s KIA helping northeast rebels to create bases in China

ITANAGAR - Arunachal Pradesh Sunday sounded a maximum security alert following reports that cadres of an influential Myanmarese guerrilla group have infiltrated into the region to create a safe-corridor for northeast India’s separatist groups to set up bases in China.

Arunachal Pradesh Home Minister Tako Dabi told IANS that there were definite intelligence inputs about ethnic guerrillas of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) from adjoining Myanmar infiltrating into the states Changlang district in recent weeks.

It could be possible that the KIA rebels are here to forge links with various militant groups active in the northeast and then help create a corridor through Myanmar to set up bases in China, the home minister said.

The KIA is the military arm of the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), a political group of ethnic Kachins in northern Myanmar and stretching up to Yunnan province in China.

The KIA formed in 1961 in response to a military coup in Myanmar led by General Ne Win, who attempted to consolidate Myanmarese control over regions on the periphery of the state which were home to various ethnic groups.

Originally the KIA fought for independence, but now the official KIO policy goal is for autonomy within a federal union of Myanmar.

We have already launched a military operation to drive out the KIA rebels, although we dont have any immediate information of them setting up bases in our state, Dabi said.

The home minister said the KIA controls large part of northern Myanmar - a region where up to a half-a-dozen Indian separatist groups from the restive northeast have well entrenched bases under KIAs direct patronage.

We are trying to ascertain facts about which northeast India militant group is the KIA trying to becoming thick with by entering Arunachal Pradesh. It could be that the KIA was planning to help northeast militant groups in exchange for huge sums of money to fund their own rebel campaign, Dabi said.

Changlang district in eastern Arunachal Pradesh adjoins Myanmar with the two countries separated by an unfenced border.

We cannot allow the KIA to stay here for long as it could have dangerous ramifications in the long run as Arunachal Pradesh does not have any home grown terror groups, but the state is becoming a hot bed of imported terror groups.

We are also trying to find out if the KIA is trying to become close with the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) to help them shift bases to Myanmar and China, the home minister said.

The NDFB is an outlawed rebel army fighting for an independent homeland for the Bodo tribe in Assam state.

The home minister said two of Assams main militant groups, the NDFB and the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), besides two other influential separatist groups from adjoining Nagaland - the Isak-Muivah faction and the S.S. Khaplang group of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland, have presence in Arunachal Pradesh.

The two NSCN factions have bases or presence in Chalang and Tirap districts, while the ULFA have some temporary set ups in Tirap, Lohit, and Changlang districts, and the NDFB is active in East and West Siang districts, Dabi said.