Concerning the inhumane war in Kachin state,
many people do not believe that the Burmese government has been going along a
right reform path.
As the
government’s soldiers are violating various human rights on the Kachin
frontline, many people start slamming the inconsistent peace policy of the
Thein Sein regime.
During
Ban Ki Moon’s recent visit to Rangoon and Nay Pyi Taw, the Secretary General
asked all parties involved in the Kachin conflict to cease offensives and to
find a peaceful resolution. However, the Burmese government did not care about
the UN top envoy’s words. Ban’s three-day trip to Burma, which began April 29,
coincided with the Burmese army escalating its offensive against KIO’s
locations in Kachin state, especially around the rebels’ Laiza headquarters.
According
to the Human Rights Watch 83-page report “‘Untold Miseries’: Wartime Abuses and
Forced Displacement in Burma’s Kachin State,” the Burmese army has cruelly
attacked Kachin villages, razed homes, pillaged properties, and forced the
displacement of tens of thousands of people. Soldiers have threatened and
tortured civilians during interrogations and raped women. The army has also
used antipersonnel mines and conscripted forced laborers, including children as
young as 14, on the front lines.
HRW
also said in the report, which was released on 20 March, that the Burmese
government has committed serious abuses and blocked humanitarian aid to tens of
thousands of displaced civilians since June 2011, in fighting in Burma’s
northern Kachin State. Some 75,000 ethnic Kachin displaced persons and refugees
are in desperate need of food, medicine, and shelter, HRW said.
At a
press conference in Washington on Thursday following her meeting with Burma’s
Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin, US secretary of State Hilary Clinton said
the Obama administration is “concerned about violence in Kachin State in recent
weeks”, KNG reported. She added “I was very pleased to hear about new
mechanisms, both official and non-governmental, to encourage meaningful
dialogue. And as I said, the government must do all it can do.”
On the
contrary, heavy battles continued raging across Kachin land between the Kachin
Independent Army and the Burmese government’s armed forces. KIA’s 10th Battalion
under 1st Brigade has fought against the Burmese Army’s 382nd LIR between Hpare
village and Wa Chyawn village on May 14. KIA sources say 10 Burmese soldiers
were killed in action during this encounter, according to Kachinland News.
Heavy
battles have been going on adjoining of Laja-yang and Nalung villages situated
near Kachin administrative capital Laiza, Kachinland News (KLN) frontline
sources reported. KIA’s HQ security forces and Burma Army’s soldiers from 388th
LIR under MOC (3) and Momauk-based 320th LIR under MOC (21) had been fighting
for the whole day on May 17.
It was
said that the combined armed forces of KIA and All Burma Students’ Democratic
Front (ABSDF- Northern) overrun strategic Burma Army post in Laja-yang on April
27. As their base has fallen under control of the KIA, Burmese soldiers moved
to a nearby higher mountain. A series of fierce battles took place when more
reinforcements came to give support to those soldiers left on the
mountain. Moreover Burmese soldiers
attempted to recapture former post in Laja-yang area.
Burmese
armed forces stationed at Hkangkai hill base reportedly fired several rounds of
105 mm shells to Na Lung and Laja Yang villages started 6 am on 17 May.
Eyewitnesses in Laiza said that echoes of Burmese Army’s artillery fire could
clearly hear from their places. Most artillery shells fell along the forest
environs between Laja-yang and Laiza. Quoting the KIA sources, KLN reported
that soldiers from ABSDF (North) joined them in this battle fought against
Burmese armed forces.
Since
fighting in areas close to Laiza began, the road between Laiza and Bahmo has
temporarily been closed. Even though the sound of artillery firing was heard
almost the whole day on 17 May, Laiza residents go on with their usual daily
lives, a resident of Laiz told KLN.
If Thein
Sein government has a genuine scheme of political reform all over the country,
the first thing it must to do is to stop the war in Kachin state at any cost.
Human Rights Watch called on the Burmese government to ask the UN Office of the
High Commissioner for Human Rights to establish an office in Burma with a
standard protection, promotion, and technical assistance mandate.
Elaine
Pearson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, reminds towards the
international community that the situation in Burma’s Kachin state is not at a
point of satisfactory. People of Burma have to go for a long way, particularly
those in conflict areas, to meet the benefit from recent reform promises of the
current quasi-civilian government.
In
fact, the government’s armed forces are behind war crimes and crimes against
humanity. The human rights violations of Burmese soldiers in Kachin State are
grave breaches of international laws. It is also the duty of the current
government to provide humanitarian assistance to thousands of war refugees and
internally displaced populations in various ethnic states.
How
much time does Burma need to bring about national reconciliation, a transition
to democracy and full respect for human rights? The cost of further
postponement will be paid in thousands of innocent lives, lost opportunities
and prolonged civil war. President Thein Sein should not drag his feet to end
war in Kachin state and also should not hesitate honoring ethnic people’s
self-determination.
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