Kachin ask China to forge peace

Leaders of Myanmar's ethnic Kachin insurgency are urging Beijing to pressure the country's military leaders to end intensifying attacks near Myanmar's border with China and create a 'meaningful' peace.

Dr La Ja, general secretary of the Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO), said he believed only China - rather than the United States and other powers - could influence the Myanmese generals determined to crush the Kachin insurgency.

'We know China wants a stable border so they can come in and invest ... but we want China to know that they can help by putting pressure on the army to stop the attacks and work seriously to create a real and lasting peace,' he told the South China Morning Post yesterday. 'They won't get a stable border any other way ... it is not just about a ceasefire, it is about a real and equal peace.

'The army is still running this, and not the executive of President Thein Sein - and it is the army that China can influence like no other country. The artillery pieces they are now firing at us are from China.'

Talks between the Kachin and the government have failed to stop the fighting that has raged since a 17-year ceasefire shattered in June last year amid tensions over a Chinese-built dam in the Kachin region.

Chinese officials and envoys have spoken repeatedly of the need for stability and reconciliation in Myanmar but have not been directly involved in attempts to settle its long-restive border insurgencies.