2:31 PM
Waa Haa Haa
March 20, 2012 ...
Fears are growing for the future of tens of thousands of refugees
uprooted by ethnic conflict in northern Myanmar, despite the reformist
government’s talk of peace with the rebels.
Civilians in camps in
northernmost Kachin state lack adequate shelter, sanitation as well as
food and water supplies, and with the monsoon looming the risk of
malaria and other diseases is increasing, relief workers say.
UN
agencies are struggling to deliver aid to those most in need,
particularly in rebel-held areas in the mountainous state bordering
China, and access will become even harder when the rainy season starts
in around May.
“The weather would have a huge impact on anybody
that is displaced,” said Aye Win, a spokesman for the United Nations in
Yangon, urging “a solution so that aid can be delivered as soon as
possible.” The campaign group Refugees International has warned of the
risk of a “serious humanitarian crisis” in the region.
Many of
the refugees are traumatised after fleeing clashes between government
troops and guerrillas with the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), which
controls swathes of the state.
The predominantly Baptist and
Catholic Kachin account for about seven per cent of Myanmar’s population
and live in the remote far north near China. The KIA used to be one of
the most powerful armed rebel groups, but signed a ceasefire with the
junta in 1994. Today their guerrilla army is thought to be at least
several thousand strong.
The conflict re-erupted in June last year as anger grew over a clutch of Chinese-backed hydropower projects in the region.
Fighting
has raged since then despite the new quasi-civilian government’s
insistence that it wants to reach peace deals with the country’s various
armed rebel groups.
“When the mines exploded near our home, it
was like an earthquake. Our houses were shaken. We were really
frightened,” Khun Mai, a 37-year-old ethnic Kachin woman, said while
cradling her three-month-old baby at a camp housing hundreds of refugees
in a church compound.
Having reached the state capital
Myitkyina, which is relatively easy for relief workers to access, her
family has a temporary bamboo hut to sleep in and food donations from
local aid groups and the UN World Food Programme.
She and her
family fled their home near the town of Laiza, which is under the
control of the KIA, in June last year and crossed into government-held
territory.
Some of her relatives and friends, including children from her village, were killed by landmines or illness while escaping.
“My children think they have to run away forever,” Khun Mai said.
A
new report by Human Rights Watch, due out on Tuesday, estimates that
about 75,000 ethnic Kachin people have been displaced by the conflict.
It
accuses the Myanmar army of abuses such as the torture and rape of
civilians, conscripted forced labour on the frontlines — including
children as young as 14 — and blocking international relief efforts.
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Hla Hla Htay: Government talks, refugees suffer
Agence France-Presse
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