The Kachin Independence Army (KIA; Kachin: Wunpawng Mungdan Shanglawt Hpyen Dap; ) is a non-state armed group and the military wing of the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), a political group of ethnic Kachins in Northern Myanmar (formerly Burma). The Kachins are a coalition of six tribes whose homeland encompasses territory in China's Yunnan, Northeast India and Kachin State in Myanmar.
The Kachin Independence Army is funded by the KIO, which raises money through regional taxes and trade in jade, timber and gold. It is armed with a combination of AK-47s, locally made rifles (such as KA-09) and some artillery. The Kachin Kalashnikov in Myanmar. The Firearm Blog. Miles Vining. July 24, 2018. An Inside Look at Myanmar Resistance Groups’ Weapons Manufacturing Factories. Rajeev Bhattacharyya. October 4, 2023. The Diplomat (magazine). The KIA also makes their own self-neutralizing landmines with roughly a 3-year lifespan.
Kachin Independence Army headquarters are in Laiza, in southern Kachin State near the Chinese border.
In 2009, before the cease-fire was broken, Thomas Fuller of the New York Times estimated the number of active KIA soldiers at about 4,000. The Myanmar Peace Monitor currently estimates over 12,000 active troops. They are divided into eight brigades and one mobile brigade. Most are stationed in bases near the Chinese border, in KIO-held strips of territory. In October 2010, KIA commanders said that they had "16,000 regular troops and 10,000 reservists". In May 2012, the group had about 8,000 troops.AP, 4 May 2012, Myanmar state media report battles between government troops, Kachin rebels killed 31 The Kachin Independence Army members are mostly militants.
History
Origins: 1948–1959 In 1949 Naw Seng, a Kachin, was a captain in Kachin Battalion 1. He went underground during the Kayin-Bama riot and joined the Karen National Defence Organization (KNDO). He was active in northern Shan State as a KNDO agent in 1950. At that time, Zau Seng was attending the government high school in Lashio. He contacted Naw Seng, and followed him underground. Naw Seng took refuge in China in 1951, and Zau Seng remained in the KNDO in Than-daung and Baw-ga-li.
In 1959 Gyi Loveland (Kachin name Zau Bawk), assigned as a counselor, was sent to organize residents to carry out underground operations in northern Shan State. Zau Seng and Gyi Loveland took shelter in Nam Um village, Hu Gawng district (where Gyi Loveland's mother was a teacher) and began their mission. Zau Tu (Zau Seng's younger brother, a university student) left school and joined Zau Seng underground.
Lance Corporal Lamung Tu Jai, who was studying in Theinni after he was dismissed from Kachin Battalion 4, and Lama La Ring (who returned to Kutkai after leaving university) contacted Zau Seng and formed the Kachin Independence Organization in 1960.
Zau Seng became the head of the unit; Zau Tu was its deputy head, and Lama La Ring the secretary. They provided the KIO with ammunition to form a private army with 27 members.
Insurgency: 1960–1962 The KIO raided a bank on 5 February 1960. When armed attacks began, Kachin youths (organized by Zau Seng and Zau Tu) went underground. With a force of 100, the KIA and the Kachin Independence Council (KIC) were formed in Loi Tauk, Sin Li (Theinni) on 5 February 1961. Zau Seng became commander-in-chief, and Capt. Zau Bawk (Loveland) became a major. Base Camp 1 was built about east of the village of Sin Li, near Kutkai in northern Shan State, and a basic military course was taught on 16 March 1961.
Battalion 1 was established in Nbapa, Mammaw; Battalion 2 was established in Man Si and Mon Htan by Lama La Ring with a force of 300. Villager defense forces, equipped with percussion lock firearms, were ordered to disrupt Tatmadaw forces.
Buddhism became the state religion on 26 August 1961, with the right to practice other religions protected by Act 17, 1962, (Law of Constitution, third amendment), but non-Buddhists believed that they had lost this right and protested. The KIO expanded beyond its original 27 members. Demonstrations protested the announcement of the inclusion of the Phimaw, Gawlan and Kanphan regions into China in the Burma–China border treaty. These changes and the federal policy of the Shan Monarchy gave the KIO an opportunity to attack, declaring their aim to establish an independent Kachin republic.
Peace talks: 1963 Local peace talks were held in Rangoon (present-day Yangon) and the regions, with a meeting with the Rakhine Kway Zan Shwee's communist party held in Ngapali. Almost 300 troops were in the Lashio-Kutkai region and about 380 in Mamaw-Myitkyina in 1962. By early 1963 the KIA had one brigade, six battalions and its numbers had increased to over 1,000. The army grew after it occupied the Mamaw-Sein Lung and Mamaw-Man Wing roads, advancing to the west bank of the Irrawaddy and the northeastern Myitkyina and the Hukawng Valley.
When the revolutionary council announced a local peace offer on 11 June 1963, the KIA was invited to Mamaw. Delegate Zau Dan went from Mamaw to Mandalay on 31 August. Divisional authorities met with him again on behalf of the revolutionary council on 1 September, after tentative talks with the Brigade 7 officer.
Zau Dan demanded: autonomy for ethnic groups self-determination, the revolution's primary aim a treaty after secession, based on: a mutual agreement to restore territory and sovereignty peace non-intervention in local affairs reciprocity co-existence The demands for independence were denied. KIA leader Zau Tu occupied nearly all the villages in Kamaing and Bamaw during the talks. After the talks failed, the KIA amassed insurgents, weapons and ammunition; it may have numbered 20,000 by the end of 1963.
Evolution: 1964–1965 The KIA could have formed one brigade and six battalions with 1,000 insurgents before the peace talks. During the talks, Zau Dan's group gathered supporters and extorted money. Zau Tu crossed the Ayeyarwady River and invaded Kamaing, a gemstone-mining region. Most villages in Kamaing were controlled by the KIA, which grew by the end of 1963.
In 1964, KIA formed Brigade 2. Zau Seng commanded Brigade 1, which consisted of Battalions 1, 2 and 5. Brigade 1 was based in the village of Nbapa in Mansi township. Brigade 2, commanded by Zau Tu, was based in Magibon. Battalion 7, also commanded by Zau Tu, had 800 insurgents.
Zau Tu increased the Brigade 2 strength to 1,400, and it operated in Putao, Chihpwi, Lawk Hkawng, Myitkyina, Mamaw and Kokant. Leaders Zau Seng, Zau Dan and Zaw Tu were known as "The Three Zaus".
The Tatmadaw carried out successful operations against the KIA from December 1964 to September 1965 in Gan Gaw, Aung Myay, Kaung Ya Bwam and Kha Yang as the KIA weakened in Kachin State and northern Shan State. KIA losses were 696 wounded, 377 killed, 2,223 surrendered and 1,064 arrested by the Tatmadaw.
Zau Seng went to Thailand for help, establishing a base for trading drugs and jade in the border area of Htam Ngawp with KMT permission. Gyi Zau Bawk, his advisor, sought assistance from SEATO in Chiang Mai, Bangkok and Farthermost in December 1965.
Defeat: 1965–1970 Foreign Minister Maran Brang Seng went to the Chaw Kan valley to discuss the KIA's need for assistance in 1966, but the army received none. Early in the year, the Tatmadaw pulled some of its forces from Kachin State to establish the 77 Brigade and attack the Communist Party of Burma (CPB); this gave the KIA an opportunity to regroup.
In July 1967, Brigade 2 commander Maran Brang Seng and his comrades took military and political courses and looked for weapons. They acquired 42 rifles, 36 bombs and two boxes of bullets, returning in September. Brigade 2 commander Zau Tu left Burma (Myanmar) in October 1967, accompanied by secretary Pung Shwi Zau Seng, Maran Brang Seng and 425 men, to seek weapons and political and military training.
Zau Tu and the CPB agreed to fight the government. Zau Tu and his party acquired 800 rifles, 170,000 bullets and other equipment. In January 1968, he and his group returned and supplied weapons to Mai Ron Con Jar and Con Sar Bout Naws’ fighters. Zau Tu tried to organise the local people by preaching the Communist doctrine of Mao Zedong, but they and the KIA resisted Mao's ideology. The Maru, Lisu and Lachid minorities did not accept the policy of appointing only Jinghpaw people as leaders, and were dissatisfied with the governance of Zau Seng, Zau Dan and Zau Tu.
In March 1968, Ze Lum (Maru) and Zahkung Ting Ying (Lachid) seceded from the KIA. Their group of about 120 co-operated with the CPB, which settled in Kachin State, Chihpwi, Law Hkaung and Sawle in 1968.
The KIA clashed with the CPB; in 1969 Zau Dan and his partisans fought the Kachin, and the KIA in northern Shan State negotiated with CPB Regiments 202 and 303. In 1970, KIA Brigade 2, Regiments 5 and 6 were controlled by Zaw Tu. They smuggled jade to Thailand from Kar Mine and Pha Kant to purchase weapons. China also provided weapons and trained the Phiso Naga in India. Zau Dan provided weapons and trained the Rakhine insurgents, negotiated with Thailand and opened a headquarters in Thanwoo.
Conflict with the CPB: 1971–1972
In 1972, the KIA fielded 2,950 insurgents and the army in Thanwoo was led by Zaw Seng. Brigade 1, led by Zau Dan, was in Kutkai, Lashio District and Mamaw. Brigade 2, led by Zau Tu, was in Hpakant and Myitkyina. They tried to increase the trade of jade.
In Brigade 1, Lum Dau led Battalion 2, Zau Bawm led Battalion 8 and Dau Hkawng led Battalion 9; they were responsible for Lashio district. Dwa Yaung led Battalion 1 and Gawruledwa led Battalion 5; they were responsible for Mamaw district.
In Brigade 2, Zau Tu led 1,469 insurgents. Zau Bawk led Battalion 3, Zuk Dai led Battalion 4, Lama La Ring led Battalion 6, Zau Bawk led Battalion 5, Mading Kyang Yaw led Battalion 10 and Kadaw Zau Seng led Battalion 11. They were responsible for Myitkyina district and western Ayeyarwady.
Communism and foreign aid In 1950, CPB members began to go abroad for political and military training. In July 1967, party leader Maran Brang Seng and 34 others went abroad.
The KIA accepted communism, and other countries agreed to provide political and military aid. From 4 November 1967 to 27 January 1968, 425 KIA insurgents led by Zau Tu, Zau Dan, Lamung Tu Jai, Maran Brang Seng and Pung Shwi Zau Seng held talks abroad with Ba Thein Tin and Naw Seng. The KIA received political and military assistance from abroad , and conducted more military operations.
At the end of 1976, the KIA had nine regiments with 1,750 troops in Kachin State, 500 in northern Shan State and received ammunition from Zau Seng in Thanwoo. In 1968 they fought in the Myitkyina area, occupied camps at Kowapan, Duyitgar and Tingarukaung and established Regiment 10, led by Zaw Dan
Although Zau Tu accepted communism, his subordinates and the public did not; the KIA was based on racial and religious beliefs, rather than ideology. In March 1968 Regiment 4 Group 1 leader Maru Ze Lum, Group 5 leader Zahkung Ting Ying and 120 followers left the KIA and the country. The Ze Lum and Zahkung Ting Ying groups became CPB Regiment 10, upsetting the army.
The CPB asked Kachin Captain Naw Seng to lead KIA and Kachin natives. An April 1968 meeting at KIA Brigade 2 headquarters designated Naw Seng's forces as the chief enemy, and the army began fighting them in June. Zau Tu rejected communism and the KIA, fighting the CPB, accepted outside aid. In 1969, they sent Indian Fiso Narga insurgents abroad for training. They obtained ammunition through Narga from overseas and forcibly conscripted 13-year-old boys and girls.
Battalions 1, 2, 5, 8 and 9 made up KIA Brigade 1, and Battalions 3, 4, 6 and 7 were Brigade 2. The KIA contacted the Tatmadaw and tried to forge a relationship against the CPB.