The Chinese authorities have banned officials of the UN High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) from accessing Kachin refugees who are being
forced back home into war-torn northern Burma.
More than 2,000 refugees who took
shelter in China’s southwestern Yunnan Province have been deported to Burma
since last week. Aid workers, Human Rights Watch and the United States have all
urged Beijing to cease the forced repatriation as hostilities between Burmese
government troops and Kachin rebels are escalating.
Vivian Tan, the spokesperson for
the UNHCR in Asia, told The Irrawaddy on Friday that the Chinese authorities
did not grant permission for her organization to reach returning Kachin
civilians.
“The Chinese authorities said
that they can manage the situation and don’t need extra help from outside,” she
said. “We understand that China doesn’t recognize Kachin population who fled
into China as refugees.”
Tan said that the UNHCR has been
trying to access the refugees from the Chinese side but their efforts have been
thwarted. “So we don’t really know what is happening on the China side,” she
added.
Hostilities have been building in
recent weeks with fresh offensives by Burmese government troops around the
Hpakant jade mining region and the rebel’s Laiza headquarters where thousands
of Kachin refugees are currently taking shelter.
Capt Hla Dwell, of Kachin
Independence Army (KIA) Brigade 2 in the frontline, claimed that around 70
Burmese soldiers were killed by a heavy explosion in the Shrawng Kha area of
Hpakant at 5:30 pm on Wednesday evening when a mortar shell landed on a store
containing explosive materials and fuel.
Contacted by The Irrawaddy on
Friday, a police official in Hpakant confirmed the incident but declined to
verify if the KIA’s casuality figures were accurate.
Nevetheless, Tan revealed that
her relief team received permission to access the area from the Burmese side
three days ago and they are now planning go and find out what is exactly
happening in the conflict zone.
US State Department spokesman
Patrick Ventrell urged China on Thursday to abide by its international
obligations on the treatment of refugees.
“The US believes that refugees
should only return home by their own choice and in conditions of safety and
dignity,” he told reporters at a news conference.
La Rip, head of the Laiza-based
Relief Action Network for Internally Displaced Persons in Kachin State, told
The Irrawaddy on Friday that local relief groups including the Kachin
Independence Organization (KIO), the political wing of the KIA, are providing
assistance to the displaced including returning refugees.
However, he admitted that, “We
will face major problems in helping the refugees if we don’t receive further
assistance from nongovernmental organizations [NGOs]. Food is a major problem.
If NGO donors like the UN don’t support us, we can’t offer more food to the
refugees.”
La Rip said that the UN aid
agency visited refugees in KIO-controlled areas in April and provided
assistance for two months. But there has been no return visit since then.
Some 1,278 Kachin refugees have
returned from China to take shelter in KIA Brigade 3 region alone, around one
hour drive east of the state capital Myitkyina, according to La Rip.
Many others, however, returned to
different shelters operated by the rebels while some have risked hiding in the
jungle due to the difficulty of reaching a KIO-controlled camp. The refugees
also lack proper healthcare and their children are denied schooling as there
are no teachers or sufficient study materials such as books, pens and pencils,
said La Rip.
The UNHCR reported in July that
it has built around 2,500 shelters for Kachin civilians displaced by fighting
and more than 48,000 have received assistance from the organization in the form
of mosquito nets, blankets, tarpaulins and plastic floor mats.
Hostilities between the
government and the KIA broke out in June last year. Around 90,000 civilians
have been displaced by the fighting so far, according to local community-based
relief organizations.
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