(ESTIMATED PUB DATE) STATUS REPORT OF THE TASK FORCE SOUTHEAST ASIA COVERT ANNE

Created: 8/22/1962

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STATUS REPORT OF THE

TASK FORCE SOUTHEAST ASIA

COVERT ANNEX-BURMA2 August)

ic Minority Insurgency

1. The Burma Army, under instruction of the Union Revolutionary Council, istrong effort to pacify the Kachin State and eliminate the threat of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA). The Army has transferred the First and Fourth Kachin Regiments to the Kachin State for operations against the KIA, in the belief that the Kachins will be less hostile towards their own tribesmen than they have previously been toward the Bur mans. This strategy has reportedly met with some success. It has been previously reported (see Covert Annex-Burmahat the Kachin State Supreme Council hadolitical action plan to cause dissension among KIA forces and to lessen the influence of the KIA within the Kachin State. No information on the progress of this plan has been received.

The KIA commands considerable sympathy among the Kachin people, and has recently demonstrated surprising political acumen by dropping its rabid anti-Burman slogans in favor of demandseturn of parliamentary democracy. The KIA now states that it is not anti-Burman but only opposed to the "fascist" Union Revolutionary Council.

No significant changes have been reported in the activities of other ethnic insurgent groups operating in Burma during the reporting

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