KIA battalion 36 soldiers withdraw from their headquarters Howa and Howa Bum in Muse district in Northern Shan State on April 22, 2019

Following a three-day offensive in violation of its own unilateral ceasefire, the Tatmadaw takes the KIA post in northern Shan State.

The Burmese military has taken over the headquarters of the Kachin Independence Army’s (KIA) Battalion No. 36 in Muse, northern Shan State, following a three-day offensive.

Battalion No. 36, which is under Brigade 6, is based in the village of Howa and on Howa Bum hill near Mungbaw village. They had to abandon the posts on the evening of April 22, KIA forces said, after being attacked by troops from the Tatmadaw’s Light Infantry Division (LID) 99.

“Our forces withdrew from the headquarters of KIA Battalion No. 36 at around 5:10 p.m. yesterday,” a KIA Brigade 6 officer told KNG on Tuesday. “Government forces seized the Howa old village, Ting Sa Kawng and Wudang Bum hill.”

According to the officer, three military columns from the Burma Army attacked the KIA camps for days before the withdrawal.

Sources within the KIA’s Brigade 6 have said that around 300 Tatmadaw soldiers have gathered around the village of Dima, presumably in an attempt to seize the headquarters of the KIA’s Battalion No. 9. The Burma Army’s LID 99 and Light Infantry Battalion 418 clashed with the KIA’s Battalion No. 9 near Manjang village on April 18.

Representatives of the government’s National Reconciliation and Peace Center are scheduled to meet the four members of the Northern Alliance of ethnic armed groups—which includes the KIA—on April 30. They are expected to discuss the possibility of a bilateral ceasefire with the Burma Army.

The fighting this week, and seizure of the KIA’s Battalion No. 36 headquarters, occurred in violation of a four-month unilateral ceasefire declared by the Burma Army in December 2018 in five command areas, including northern Shan State.