KIA Massacre at Sa-done

(Translation of articles and photos from Kachin Daily News –KDN’s WWW site.)

Kachin Independence Army (KIA).

Since they unilaterally terminated the 17 years-long ceasefire agreement last year and resumed the hostilities against the Burmese army KIA has been facing massive casualties and severe loss of materials and weaponry.

Thus as a recent strategy change KIA has now avoided the army mobile columns and fortified army bases, the hard targets, and started attacking the so-called soft targets such as small army outposts and undefended government offices in the Kachin State.

(Photos and video are graphic. Weak-hearted should not read the rest!)

Killing of Public Servants in Sa-done Town

Sa-done Town by the China Border.

At about 2 pm in April 28 this year about 50 troops from the Third Battalion of KIA Fifth Brigade violently raided the Sa-done town near the China border. They shot the town indiscriminately and then entered the Township Administrative Office and captured seven members of the staff while other six managed to escape.

The KIA men tied four staff members (all non-Kachins) including the Town Administrator to the building’s timber posts and executed them by shooting like they normally do to the dogs for dog-meat. Brutally killed were the Township Administrator Khin Maung San (Burmese) and the junior clerks Zaw Sai (Shan) and Hay One (Shan) and Zaw Myo Thant (Burmese).

 

The KIA men left the town after looting money and gold and other valuables from the town people and the government office. They also took along with them three prisoners captured from the Township Administrative Office.

According to the town locals the brute KIA men are just simply terrorizing the people by killing innocents by laying land-mines indiscriminately and now the deliberate execution of government officials who are just doing their jobs for the people of this Kachin State.

“We do not want to get involve and say anything against the battles happening now between the army and KIA as we all know that two sides have irreconcilable differences. But shooting the town deliberately and killing the innocent public servants who had nothing to do with this meaningless conflict was just an ugly act of terrorism and we as the locals of Sa-done Town strongly protest against the KIA and we’ll also respond together with the government forces,” was what Sai Zaw Naung a local Shan sadly said of the KIA’s brutal  raid on his native town.

According to an anonymous KIA officer from KIA HQ in Laiza the serious dent in the active strength of KIA frontline troops from the whole year of fighting against overwhelming government troops has forced KIA to deliberately avoid direct confrontations with the army.

And instead concentrating on attacking the so-called soft targets like small towns and villages and government offices in population centers and major bombing campaign to terrorize the populace into submission, he added.

KIA Intimidating the Local Populace of Sa-done

KIA General S. Gun Maw.

To implement that new grand strategy of terrorizing the populace the Third Battalion of KIA Fifth Brigade issued a public order prohibiting the movement of motorized vehicles inside Sa-done Township on April 15 this year.

The KIA order basically prohibited the vehicles from travelling on the main Myitkyinar-Kanpaikti Road that pass through the Sa-done Township. The KIA order included the punishment of death for ignoring their order.

According to U La-zae of Sa-done Town the road blockage has altogether stopped the outside connections and jacked up the general prices in the town many folds. To tighten their terror grip on the townsfolk further KIA has now committed this atrocious terrorist act of brutally and deliberately killing the innocent public servants, he added.

Release of Kachin Hostages as a Racist PR Stunt

On 29 April, the day after the massacre of public servants in Sa-done Town, Two Kachin men out of three public servants taken as the hostages were released as a public-relation stunt by KIA as they now know very well that killing their own Kachin nationals is not good for recruiting new soldiers and collecting monetary donations (otherwise known as Protection Money) and also their general image.

The two released are junior clerks Gun Jar Naw and Yaw Kwyae, both Kachins. KIA captors had taken them to their fortified based at Lon-htan and later sent them back to Sa-done.

“KIA men entered our office at about 2 pm in 28th. They tied us down with ropes and Chinese cable-ties and later shot the Administrator and other three staff members dead. But they took three of us to their Lon-htan camp and put us in the stocks. Only at night a high-ranking KIA officer arrived and talked to us and then let us go,” said Yaw Kwyae one of the released Kachin hostages. 

A Captured Burmese Army Captain just before Execution.

People of Sa-done are now really concerned about the life of the remaining hostage a non-Kachin Shan. According to the non-kachin locals, which is quite substantial percentage anywhere in this land just known as the Kachin State, KIA is a brutally racist organization as they have always treated other non-Kachin races even in their ranks and files differently from their own Kachins as all KIA officers are Kachins while the Shans and other mixed-races are just the cannon fodder.

Historically when the KIA troops captured any army soldiers on many occasions they executed Burmese and Shan soldiers in most brutal ways, especially the ethnic Burmese, while letting the Kachin soldiers live and join the KIA.
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  (Following video is the aftermath of KIA's successful ambush on IB 21's Weapon Company.)