The Kachin Independence Army (KIA) last week seized two junta strongholds in its ethnic homeland, marking what could be a historic turning point in the battle for control of Kachin State in northernmost Myanmar.
The KIA launched an offensive to take Chipwi and Tsawlaw towns on September 29, targeting the area for its strategic significance as a rare-earth mining hub on the border with China.
KIA forces captured Chipwi on the evening of September 30, inflicting heavy casualties on junta troops and seizing large piles of weapons. Three days later, they seized Tsawlaw town along with a frontline outpost of Infantry Battalion 298 on October 2.
The KIA cut off routes to the towns early this year, deploying its Brigade 7 based in Chipwi and Tsawlaw and Brigade 5 based in Sadone (Sadung) to block the road from the Kachin capital of Myitkyina.
Chipwi is a small town by the N’Mai River, located about 100 kilometers northeast of Myitkyina. Tsawlaw lies east of the river, 50 km north of Chipwi. The two townships straddle the snowcapped Imawbum Mountains wedged between the N’Mai River and the Chinese border.
The remote area, characterized by harsh weather, is sparsely populated mainly by two Kachin tribes: the Lachik (or Lashi) and the Lhaovo (Maru).
Imawbum Mountain, rising over 4,000 meters (13,000 feet) east of Tsawlaw, overlooks the villages of Hpimaw, Gawlam and Kangfang on the Chinese border. In 1960, Myanmar’s Anti-Fascist People’s Freedom League government signed a border treaty that ceded the territory to China. The loss of their ancestral lands angered ethnic Kachin people and contributed to their rebellion against the central government.
The KIA has been active in the area since the 1960s.
In 1968-69, over 100 troops led by junior officers Zahkung Ting Ying and Lawek Zalwan broke away from the KIA to join the Communist Party of Burma (CPB) and control what became the CPB’s 101st Military Region.
When the CPB collapsed in 1989, the group rebranded as the New Democratic Army-Kachin (NDA-K) and signed a truce with the military regime, the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC). The group’s territory was designated as Kachin State Special Region 1.
Under the 2008 constitution written by SLORC’s successor, the State Peace and Development Council, the NDA-K rebadged as the Border Guard Force (Kachin-BGF), with three battalions based in Hpimaw, Gawlam, and Kangfang and neighboring Kanpiketi Township.
Kachin-BGF chief Zakhung Ting Ying won an Upper House seat in the 2010 general election.
KIA forces clashed with Zakhung Ting Ying’s BGF troops in Kachin’s Lupi and Pangwa in 2012.
Ethnic armed forces have controlled this border area since 1960, with central government command confined to Chipwi District, comprising Chipwi and Tsawlaw townships and Pangwa sub-township. Though district-level government offices are based in Chipwi, most of the population lives in Hpimaw, Gawlam, Kangfang, Pangwa, Manji and Wasok, under the control of BGF Battalions 1001 and 1002 and a Pangwa people’s militia.
BGF Battalion 1003 and junta troops control the nearby border trade town of Kanpiketi. The town has been cut off since the KIA seized Sadone, located on the Waingmaw-Kanpiketi road, in June.
The KIA’s capture of Chipwi and Tsawlaw towns has also isolated Hpimaw, Gawlam, Kangfang and Pangwa. The junta reportedly has only a single battalion and tactical command HQ in Pangwa, effectively ceding control of the territory to two BGF battalions and the Pangwa militia. The regime can only airdrop reinforcements and ammunition into the area.
With victory here, the KIA would reclaim Hpimaw, Gawlam, Kangfang – one of the aims that sparked the Kachin people’s rebellion.
More significantly, the ethnic army would gain control over rich rare earth deposits east of the N’Mai River, valued at around US$ 400 million in annual sales to China.
The China-operated 100-megawatt Chipwi Nge hydropower plant, which supplies the Myanmar national grid, would also fall into the hands of the KIA.
Additionally, a successful offensive here would consolidate KIA control over a larger territory, uniting areas like Injanyang and Sumprabum (KIA Brigade 1), Chipwi and Tsawlaw (Brigade 7), and Sadone (Brigade 5) into a single domain.
The main obstacle to a KIA victory remains the Kachin-BGF and Pangwa militia, which retain control of Hpimaw, Gawlam, Kangfang, Pangwa, Manji, Wasok, Lupi, Sinkyaing and the Ngaw Chan Kha River.
Despite the NDA-K’s transformation into the BGF, Zahkung Ting Ying issued a “military order” in the name of Special Region 1 targeting advancing KIA troops in July, demonstrating that the regime has no influence in the region.
The BGF and Pangwa militia, drawing manpower from the Lachik and Lhaovo tribes, face a daunting challenge in confronting the KIA alone. But the ethnic army must also overcome tall mountains, harsh weather and ice forming as the rainy season subsides.
The KIA captured Chipwi and Tsawlaw towns in just four days, but securing the rest of this region will require both military strength and strategic acumen.
If successful, it would gain control of a crucial territory on the Chinese border that has been dominated by the Myanmar military and allied Kachin militias since 1969-70.
Ko Oo is an ethnic affairs analyst.
