The Kachin Independence Army (KIA) has dismissed reports from junta-controlled media alleging that some members of the KIA and the Kagabu People’s Force (KPF) in Kachin State’s Putao Township have defected to the junta.

The junta claimed that 11 Kachin resistance members had defected after realizing the regime’s true intentions and peace efforts. In its original statement, the junta referred to the KIA and KPF as terrorist organizations.

However, KIA spokesperson Colonel Naw Bu firmly rejected claims that KIA troops had defected to the junta, accusing the regime of fabricating the story.

“The junta has been using allied militia members to pose as our troops and stage fake defections with weapons. Right now, fighting is ongoing near Chipwi and Pang towns. During this time, the junta is spreading a false narrative that KIA troops have surrendered, defected. It’s pure propaganda, nothing but lies,” he said.

Colonel Naw Bu added that, in fact, some members of militias under the junta’s command had defected to the KIA.

“The junta keeps pushing propaganda with false stories. It organized protests against us and staged fake defections to make it look like our troops surrendered. But no one from the KIA has defected. In fact, some of their militia members have joined us instead,” he said.

Colonel Naw Bu said the junta had also staged fake anti-KIA protests, forcing civil servants under its control and hiring paid participants to join the rallies, making them entirely lacking in credibility.

The junta claimed that the KIA and KPF members who allegedly defected had previously been forcibly conscripted and suffered hardship and discrimination within the organizations. It also asserted that they decided to defect because they could no longer tolerate acts of terror, including torture and killings among fellow troops, attacks on civil servants, and the destruction of civilian infrastructure.

Furthermore, the defectors gave up because they could no longer withstand its formidable offensive, had lost the will to fight, and had begun to believe in the regime’s peace efforts, hoping to live as law-abiding citizens, the junta announced.

According to junta media, a ceremony to return the 11 alleged defectors to their families was held on October 13 at the main hall of the Northern Regional Military Command in Putao Town, attended by the command’s officials.