The Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) is underintense pressure for its failure to support the Myanmar military’s condemnation of the UN Security Council’s decision to discuss Myanmar.
The government of Myanmar has asked the ethnic groups with whom they have ceasefire agreements to speak out against last month’s UNSC actions. The KIO, however, wrote the regime saying that it would not oppose the UNSC.
“We replied that we wanted to be neutral,” said a KIO member on Wednesday
Residents of Kachin State claim that travel has been severely limited since the KIO announcement. In addition to limiting individual mobility, the restrictions are effecting major trade roots.
“What they are banning is timber, gold and, at the moment, trading from Laiza,” a Kachin on the Sino-Burmese border told reporters. “Goods from China enter here. From here, timbers are exported. They banned all these. An unlicensed motorcycle transported from KIO (areas) to Myikyina fetches 100 Chinese money (Yuan). Even this is not possible anymore. There are quite a lot of consumers in Laiza. Nothing could be transported, not even fresh produce. Almost all the businesses are shut down during recent days.”
Irrawaddy: KIO resists regime pressure to condemn UNSC – 4 Oct
