Kachin feud outcome rests on KIA

According to Shan ceasefire leaders who are monitoring the intra-party strife that began on 14 September on the Sino-Kachin border between the two factions of the National Democratic Army- Kachin, the outcome will to a certain extent depend on what its rival group, the Kachin Independence Army/Organization will do.

"It is unlikely to become another Mongkoe," an officer from the Shan State Army-North hopefully says.

He is referring to a similar coup in Shan State's Mongkoe Defense Army in 2000, where the MDA's two warring factions fought for supremacy for a month, 24 October- 24 November, when both were wiped out by the Burma Army forces, whom each was turning for assistance.

Burmese units are reportedly closely monitoring the events in the NDA-K's Hpimaw in the North and Pangwah in the south.

The KIA is said to be supporting the mutineers, according to the Shans.

Asked what the quarrel is about, he said, "We cannot pinpoint it exactly, but Sakhong Ting Ring (the ousted leader) being Lashi (one of the main branches of Kachin) and the coup leaders being Maru is something we cannot touch lightly upon."

Kachin or Wunpawng is a general term covering Jingpo, Maru, Rawang, Lashi, Atsi and Lisu, according to a recent paper published by the New Era Journal.

Others have pointed out to a conflict of business interests and the deposed leader's penchant for surrounding himself with Chinese security guards.

The NDA-K was formed by former KIA commanders, Sakhong Ting Ring and Zalum, who defected to the Communist Party of Burma in 1968. Their territory became 101 War Zone under the CPB. After the fall of the CPB in 1989, the group renamed itself the NDA-K and concluded a ceasefire pact with Rangoon.