Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) chairman General N’Ban La vowed to end military dictatorship in Myanmar as he addressed the 63rd anniversary of the group’s founding on Wednesday.
The KIO is the political wing of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), which has been fighting the regime since the 2021 coup.
The KIO is working with other organizations revolting against the regime to build a federal democracy according to the 1947 Panglong Agreement, the KIO chair said in his Kachin language address.
Myanmar is on the verge of becoming a failed state, he said.
General N’Ban La urged people not to participate in the junta’s census and proposed general election and not to join its allied militias.
The KIA and its allies have seized four junta outposts in Kachin and northern Shan states this month. The KIA in its statement urged revolutionary organizations to continue to work together to crush the military dictatorship.
Duwa Lashi La, acting president of the parallel National Unity Government, also sent a message to the KIO, which was founded in 1960. He called on allied forces to redouble their efforts to end the dictatorship.
The NUG also sent a message to the KIO, saying a federal democracy, which will fully guarantee equality and self-determination for the Kachin people, can be built soon as Kachin leaders are working with the people and other revolutionary organizations.
The KIA has rejected the junta’s offer for peace talks and an invitation to attend the eighth anniversary of the signing of the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement.
Some resistance forces in central Myanmar, where the Bamar comprise a majority, have been trained and armed by the KIA.
The regime has often accused the KIA of supporting the resistance movement and attempted to stir up hatred between Kachin and Bamar people.
At least 63 people, including KIA officers, were killed and some 60 others injured in the junta’s aerial bombing of a concert to mark the 62nd anniversary of the founding of the KIO in a village in Hpakant Township last year.
Another junta strike killed 29 people, including 13 children, and injured 57 others at a camp for displaced people at Mung Lai Hkyet village, about 3km north of the KIA headquarters, on October 9. The regime has denied responsibility for the deadly strike but the regime has kept conducting air and artillery strikes near the Laiza headquarters.
The KIA has carried out a series of attacks in retaliation, seizing regime outposts. In a departure from its tradition of concealing casualties and defeats, Myanmar’s military reported its loss of the bases to the KIA in its media.
The KIA and allied resistance groups seized the Lal Long Aungja base in Momauk Township on October 20. Lieutenant General Gunmaw, the vice chair of the KIO, visited the base on Monday and encouraged KIA fighters.
The KIA’s chief said people’s defense forces, the Arakan Army, All Burma Students’ Defense Force, Chin National Army and Kuki National Army helped it fight off junta offensives around Laiza.
NUG defence minister U Yee Mon posted on Facebook about the seizures: “The victory in Aungja has broken the dream of the military council to threaten the headquarters of revolutionary organizations and is also an initial step in the strategic operations launched jointly by the revolutionary forces.”
