A KIO Official Said LNDP’s Statement Not Based On Facts

Kachinland News (KLN) | May 24, 2017

Lisu National Development Party (LNDP) issued a statement on April 21 accusing the Kachin Independence Organization as a terrorist organization carrying out arbitrary killings, collecting illegal money and recruiting new soldiers.

In the statement, the LNDP accused the KIO/KIA of torturing and killing U Zaw lay, aged 36, of Hka Shi village in Wai Maw Township. The statement said U Zaw Lay was killed by the KIA soldiers on April 4, 2017 while working in a slash-and-burn farm in Tar Law Gyi village.

The statement also accused the KIO/KIA of killing U Taung Si (19), U Ngwa Tar (24), U Ngwa Luu (55), Daw Gu Magu (50) and U Ngwa Lay (31) in Kampaiti and Sadung areas in 2016 and 2017.

When KLN inquired KIO officials about those incidents and killings mentioned in the statement by LNDP, a high ranking KIO central committee member said it is a defamatory statement that is exaggerated and not based on facts.

He said U Taung Si died in Laiza hospital because of high fever. U Taung Si was diagnosed HIV positive in Laiza hospital. The reason KIA soldiers have been accused is that U Taung Si was stopped by KIA troops guarding a gate while riding on a motorcycle. U Taung Si was punished with a stick for not stopping at soldiers’ command at the gate.

U Ngwa Tar was killed during a firefight at a raid on an opium field. The KIO leader said U Ngwa Tar began firing anti-drug campaigners with a musket when they approached nearer to his opium field.

The KIO leader said the killings of U Ngwa Luu and his wife Daw Gu Magu were not committed by KIA troops. KIA officers had investigated about the murders of the couple, and found that their troops did not commit such a horrible crime. The case still remains unsolved even after several Lisu community leaders investigated and visited the crime scene.

The murder of U Ngwa Lay in Panse village was committed by one of their fellows, said the KIO leader. U Ngwa Lay’s wife who was with her husband during the murder was survived by stab wounds.

According to KIA’s 255th Battalion officers, U Zaw Lay was shot by their troops as he run away despite being shouted repeatedly to stop during an encounter near Hkai Ring Yang village. KIO officers said U Zaw Lay was mistaken for a Burmese army soldier. They said KIA soldiers who shot U Zaw Lay has been reprimanded and charged with manslaughter.

Lisu National Development Party (LNDP), based in Myitkyina, is known to closely associated with Burmese army. On May 22, LNDP together with some Lisu community leaders organized a protest against the KIO/KIA in Myitkyina.