20 polling station for KIO controlled areas

By KNG
The Burmese military junta will set up about 20 polling stations in The Triangle Areas in Kachin State, Northern Burma with the assistance of the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) which signed a ceasefire agreement with the junta in 1994, local sources said.

The Triangle Areas are controlled by KIO's 1st Brigade and some of the polling stations will be set up in the most populated villages known as N-gumla and Ja Htu Yang in Mali-N'mai Walawng and Ja Ra Yang and Hting Nan in Mali-Hkrang Walawng, a local Kachin told KNG today.

About a dozen selected vote commissions in Mali-Hkrang Walawng and Mali-N'mai Walawng in the Triangle Areas left Myitkyina the capital of Kachin State on April 24 for a short training on the vote commission imparted by the junta, he added.

According to residents, each vote commission was sanctioned 50,000 Kyat (est. US $ 45) for local travel costs but they were forcibly selected and pressurised to attend the junta organised vote commission training for the ensuing constitutional referendum on May 10.

The KIO has promised to provide security for all polling stations and food for voters who are not villagers of the host polling stations on demands by the ruling junta because the villages in Triangle Areas are located in remote mountain areas, sources close to KIO said.

There are over 20,000 people in the Triangle Areas but most people do not have high school education and the areas are one of the lowest developed in KIO controlled areas in Kachin State, local sources added.

Most people do not know about the constitutional referendum and about 10 out of 100 persons may have understood it, according to a local.

KIO's Vice-president No. (2) and former leader of KIO delegates to the National Convention, Dr. Manam Tu Ja recently clarified to KNG that "We, the KIO will not suggest to civilians whether to vote 'Yes' or 'No' in the referendum but we will see the end of the seven-step roadmap to democracy of the junta."

On April 23 the junta's Kachin State organizer, Minister Brig-Gen Thein Zaw of the Ministry of Post, Communication and Telegraph met over 300 people in Wainmaw Township in Maina Village (Mungna) after his referendum campaign in Bhamo Township, the resident said.

The meeting was joined by the leaders of all Kachin ceasefire groups--- the KIO, New Democratic Army-Kachin (NDA-K) and Lasang Awng Wa Peace Group, according to participants.

Source