Why Kachin conflict threatens Myanmar peace
By Hilary Whiteman, CNN
January 24, 2013 -- Updated 1108 GMT (1908
HKT)
An injured Kachin Independence
Army soldier receives an injection from a medic on Hka Ya mountain in Kachin
province on January 20, 2013.
Tens of
thousands of people have been forced from their homes by fighting in Kachin
State. Many are sheltering in camps like this one, the Nhkawng Pa Internally
Displaced People's (IDP) camp in Moe Mauk township, near Laiza. Photo dated
September 19, 2012.
Tens of
thousands of people have been forced from their homes by fighting in Kachin
State. Many are sheltering in camps like this one, the Nhkawng Pa Internally
Displaced People's (IDP) camp in Moe Mauk township, near Laiza. Photo dated
September 19, 2012.
KIA
soldiers pray before taking their positions at a frontline camp near Mai Ja
Yang, outside Laiza, in September 2012. Kachins are predominantly Christian
Baptists and Roman Catholics, unlike the majority of people in Myanmar who
practice Buddhism.
KIA
soldiers pray before taking their positions at a frontline camp near Mai Ja
Yang, outside Laiza, in September 2012. Kachins are predominantly Christian
Baptists and Roman Catholics, unlike the majority of people in Myanmar who
practice Buddhism.
Kachin
children play outside wooden shacks at the N-Hkawng Pa Internally Displaced
People's (IDP) camp outside Mai Ja Yang, May 2012.
Kachin
children play outside wooden shacks at the N-Hkawng Pa Internally Displaced
People's (IDP) camp outside Mai Ja Yang, May 2012.
Children
walk past giant statues of monks at a pagoda in the town of Myitkyina, in Kachin
province in May 2012.
Children
walk past giant statues of monks at a pagoda in the town of Myitkyina, in Kachin
province in May 2012.
Kachin
people greet Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi at Myitkyina airport on
February 23, 2012. Suu Kyi has urged an immediate end to hostilities in Kachin
State.
Kachin
people greet Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi at Myitkyina airport on
February 23, 2012. Suu Kyi has urged an immediate end to hostilities in Kachin
State.
Myitkyina, seen at the top of the map, is the capital of
Kachin State. Many villagers caught in fighting between the Myanmar military and
the Kachin Independence Army have attempted to flee across the border to Yunnan,
China.
Myitkyina, seen at the top of the map, is the capital of
Kachin State. Many villagers caught in fighting between the Myanmar military and
the Kachin Independence Army have attempted to flee across the border to Yunnan,
China.
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Conflict in
Myanmar's Kachin State
Conflict in Myanmar's
Kachin State
Conflict in Myanmar's
Kachin State
Conflict in Myanmar's
Kachin State
Conflict in Myanmar's
Kachin State
Conflict in Myanmar's
Kachin State
Conflict in Myanmar's
Kachin State
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STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Renewed fighting reported in Kachin despite government ceasefire order
- Both Myanmar government and the KIA trade accusations of attacks
- Fighting started in June 2011 after a 17-year ceasefire was broken
- KIA is the only one of 10 armed ethnic groups that hasn't agreed a ceasefire
Hong Kong (CNN) -- High in a rugged, mountainous region in
Myanmar's north, the country's army remains locked in a conflict that seems to
contradict the image of a nation committed to abandoning its brutal past.
Days after a government-ordered
ceasefire on January 19, clashes were reported between Burmese soldiers and the
Kachin Independence Army (KIA) around the town of Laiza on the Chinese
border.
The Myanmar government said its
troops were ordered to fire only in self-defense, but the Kachin Independence
Organization (KIO), the KIA's political arm, claimed it was under attack
Laiza is the headquarters of the
KIA and the KIO. Around 20,000 people live there, and thousands more are
sheltering in temporary camps around the town after being driven from their
homes, according to human rights groups and other reports.
"People who live in Laiza, they
are standing by to flee. Every day they hear bombing and the noise of guns. The
government is saying that it's stopped the offensive, but the reality in the
Kachin area it has not stopped, and the fighting and the offensive is ongoing,"
Moon Nay Li, coordinator for the Kachin Women's Association told CNN on Tuesday.
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Though based in Thailand, Moon
Nay Li said she'd been speaking with people in Laiza who were "afraid for their
future." She said they were digging holes to shelter from the shelling, and were
desperate for the fighting to stop.
Why has fighting
intensified now?
In a statement dated January 18,
the Myanmar government said that it had requested back up from the Air Force to
ensure "accurate hitting of KIO/KIA targets" after repeated attacks
on convoys seeking to resupply an outpost near Laiza. It accused the KIA of
blasting roads and bridges, attacking troops and recruiting and abducting
civilians to aid its fight.
Despite the government's
self-defense claims, Matthew Smith, a consultant to Human Rights Watch (HRW), told CNN
the government appeared to have recently stepped up attacks on Kachin fighters,
possibly in an attempt to gain more ground and leverage in any future peace
talks.
"Some of the strategic outposts
that the Burmese government has been attacking over the last several weeks are
strategic to the protection of Laiza so I think that appears to be the target,"
said Smith, who wrote a damning report for HRW on the conflict between the two
sides called "Untold Miseries - Wartime Abuses and Forced Displacement in
Burma's Kachin State," which was released in March 2012.
How long have they been
fighting?
The Myanmar army and the KIA --
which formed more than 50 years ago -- have been trading shots since a series of
incidents brought a sudden end to 17-year ceasefire in June 2011. Smith said
tensions rose after leaders of the KIO were unable to participate in the
November 2010 election -- the first vote to be held in Myanmar in 20 years.
According to Smith's report, the
Burmese army launched a "major military offensive" on June 9, 2011, to which the
KIA rapidly responded by blowing up bridges, planting land mines and ambushing
military convoys.
At the time, conservationists claimed the two sides were fighting for
control of a multi-billion dollar hydropower dam project on the Taping River,
one of several being built in the region.
However, dams are not the only
source of tension in the area, Smith said. It is also rich in mineral deposits,
including the jade mines of Hpakant, a source of some of the world's most
valuable stones. And pipelines snake through the state delivering lucrative oil
and gas to China.
How has the world
responded?
Fighting threatens Myanmar's
displaced
Myanmar in grip of economic
revolution
School focuses on peace
lessons
News of the escalation of
attacks in Kachin has raised concerns outside the country as the international
community keenly watches Myanmar's transition to democracy from a military
regime.
"We're obviously deeply troubled
by the increased violence," U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland
said in a
news conference in early January.
Later, China urged both sides to
"exercise maximum restraint" after a bomb landed about 500 meters over the Chinese border on January 15. "We
believe that talks are the only correct solution to the north Myanmar conflict
and expect all related parties to seek a ceasefire and start negotiations," said foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei on January 22.
The United Nations welcomed President Thein Sein's calls for a
January 19 ceasefire but the Secretary-General's Special Adviser on Myanmar,
Vijay Nambiar, said it did not want renewed tensions to "undermine the overall
direction of reform and transformation in the country or adversely affect the
positive international atmosphere that had been generated so far."
My government will continue to do everything necessary to turn ceasefire
agreements into lasting peace
Thein Sein, Myanmar President
Since coming to power in March
2011, Sein has won praise for steering the country on the path of reform, easing
media restrictions, granting amnesty to political prisoners and opening up the
political system to competing parties.
How committed is the
government to peace?
Days after the apparent failure
of the ceasefire, Sein reiterated that he wanted the fighting to stop. "I have
ordered the Tatmadaw (Myanmar's military) and other relevant government agencies
to seek a peaceful solution to the conflict," he told Myanmar's first Development Cooperation Forum on January
21.
He also suggested that the KIO
would need "to reciprocate in a similar way."
The KIO is the only one of 10
armed ethnic groups in Myanmar that hasn't yet agreed a long-term ceasefire with
the government. Talks would start soon with the other ethnic groups, Sein said,
as he again extended an invitation to the KIA to join the process.
"My government will continue to
do everything necessary to turn ceasefire agreements into lasting peace," he
said. "It is very important to create job opportunities in order to improve
socio-economic conditions of internally displaced people and ceasefire groups,"
he added.
How have civilians been
affected by fighting?
Since June 2011, tens of
thousands of Kachins have been terrorized by renewed fighting, according to
HRW.
More than 90,000 people have
been forced from their homes, according to the latest estimates. However, the
exact number of internally displaced people -- or IDPS as they're known -- is
hard to confirm because the government has limited access to the region.
The lack of access has worried
aid agencies who say tens of thousands of people are being denied vital
care.
"The government feels it's
unsafe so they're not granting access," said Maria Guevara, Medecins San Frontiere's
Humanitarian Representative for ASEAN. "We've tried to support some of the areas
with drug supplies but the roads that we've used in the past are generally
inaccessible, because that's where the fighting usually takes place, so it's
been difficult to resupply."
She called on the government to
allow humanitarian agencies "independent and neutral access" to affected areas,
while Smith warned of "a looming humanitarian emergency."
What are the chances of
a long-term ceasefire?
You have an entire population of ethnic Kachin who for the most part right
now are very bitter towards the Burmese government
Matthew Smith, HRW
consultant
There are no easy solutions to
resolve the unrest in Kachin. It dates back to the early 1960s when the KIO and
KIA were established to protect the interests of the Kachin people against the
influence of the central government.
The KIO still has administrative
control over most of Kachin State, providing schooling, teacher training
colleges, a police service, a TV station, newspapers, libraries and hospitals,
according to the Free Kachin
Campaign website.
HRW says the latest offensive
has deepened divisions between the Kachins and the government, which threatens
to spill over into other ethnic groups.
"You have an entire population
of ethnic Kachin who for the most part right now are very bitter towards the
Burmese government and that's going to be a serious problem, not only for Kachin
state but the other ethnic nationalities throughout the country right now who
are negotiating peace agreements.
"They're taking all this into
consideration so this could pose a serious problem for long-term peace in the
country," he said.
Ref:CNN
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Ref:CNN
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