Myanmar junta transforms Kokang rebels into 'border guards'

Yangon - Myanmar's junta has officially transformed the rebel army of the Kokang region into a border guard force under its command, state media reported Saturday. A ceremony marking the metamorphosis from former rebel force to the Kokang border guards was held in Si-aw in Laukkai district of the Shan State Friday, The New Light of Myanmar reported.

Kokang leader Pe Sauk Chain said that the formation of the new border force in the region showed "they have embraced the chance of discharging national defense duties in cooperation with the Tatmadaw [military]."

In August, the army occupied the Kokang region in Shan State in northern Myanmar after Kokang leaders opposed efforts to transform their 1,500-strong army into a "frontier force" under government control.

The attack on the Kokang was seen as a warning to other ethnic groups to heed the junta's demands to come under government control, deemed an important step toward holding a peaceful general election next year.

Myanmar's military junta last month reportedly persuaded the Kachin ethnic minority in the northernmost state of Kachin and the Kayah ethnic group in the eastern state of Kayah to become border guards.

The border forces will receive salaries, uniforms and other benefits afforded to the Myanmar military, the government claims.

Myanmar's junta has been stepping up pressure on the country's 37 semi-autonomous minority-group militias to agree to turn themselves into border forces under the command of the regime instead of local leaders.

Under the 2008 constitution, all ethnic minority armies, which the junta calls "ceasefire groups," must be turned into border guards as part of preparations for a general election planned next year to usher in what the junta has called "discipline-flourishing democracy."

The ethnic minority groups are to also encouraged to set up political parties to contest the polls, which are to be held on an unspecified date next year.

The junta signed ceasefire agreements with 37 ethnic minority insurgent groups two decades ago.

Those jungle forces were allowed a measure of autonomy in their traditional territories and permitted to keep their weapons.

There are fears that the largest ethnic groups, such as the Wa, would join with other forces that have never signed ceasefires with the government, such as the Karen and Shan, in openly opposing the junta's efforts to bring them to heel before the planned elections.