Peace still elusive for Kachin ethnic minority in northern Myanmar

MYITKYINA, Myanmar--The days when the generals lorded it over Myanmar are gone, but some ethnic minorities still live in fear of the military.

The ruling junta in Myanmar was replaced in March 2011 by a civilian government, and since then the country has embraced various reforms.

But for the Kachin of northern Myanmar, there seems to be no let-up in civil strife between the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) and government forces, which flared again in June 2011.

Many Kachin come under the category of internally displaced persons, or IDPs, and are forced to live in camps.

Although some progress was achieved earlier this year in peace negotiations between the government and ethnic armed groups including the KIO, they are still unable to return to their hometowns.

RAPE, MURDER AND DENIAL

In late March, I visited the Jan Mai Kawng Camp in Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin State, and met a 41-year-old IDP named Lu Bu.

Her eldest daughter used to work as a volunteer teacher for children in rural villages. In January this year, the daughter, then 20 years old, and her 19-year-old colleague were both raped and killed by unknown people in their house at a Kachin's village in the northern part of neighboring Shan State where they were working.

As the battle broke out between KIO and government forces in 2011, Lu Bu's family fled their village. The daughter attended a high school while living as an IDP. After graduating from the school, she took up voluntary teaching in 2014, saying, "I want to help people in hardships."

"Two months before she was killed, she called me on the telephone and said, 'How are you, Mom?' It was our last conversation," said Lu Bu, weeping.

Myanmar government soldiers began to be stationed in her daughter's village two days before the slayings, which occurred late at night. That fueled local suspicions that soldiers were behind the outrage.

However, the military denied any involvement and warned in a state-run newspaper that it would take legal action against anybody who asserts that government soldiers were responsible for the slayings.

However, the Kachin Baptist Convention (KBC), which dispatched voluntary teachers to the village, is still not convinced that soldiers stationed at the village were not involved.

"Residents in those villages dare not go outside at night because they fear the soldiers," said an individual with ties to the KBC.

Even when human rights violations occur in which soldiers are suspected, it is not easy to raise the issue.

In 2012, a Kachin man filed a complaint, saying that his daughter, then 14 years old, was shot dead by soldiers.

For his efforts, the man was indicted on a charge of making a false accusation and given a fine.

"Soldiers who have to protect citizens were stationed nearby. In spite of that, why were they unable to protect my daughter?" asked Lu Bu.

100,000 DISPLACED PERSONS FORCED TO LIVE IN CAMPS

Although nearly 90 percent of Myanmar's population is said to be Buddhist, many Kachin people in the states of Kachin and Shan are Christian.

The KIO, which was seeking expanded autonomy for the Kachin, had been maintaining a cease-fire agreement with the Myanmar military government since 1994.

But in June 2011, a few months after the transfer of power from the military junta to a civilian government, hostilities broke out again between government forces and the KIO, resulting in a stream of IDPs in the two states.

At the end of March of this year, the government reached an agreement with ethnic minorities, including the KIO, on a draft for a nationwide cease-fire accord. On the front lines, however, tensions still remain high, which prevents about 100,000 IDPs living in 120 camps in the northern part of the country from returning home.

Gam Awng, a 46-year-old IDP living in the Maina KBC Camp near Myitkyina, sometimes goes to the orange groves in his village to gather firewood, where government troops are stationed.

The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) provides food assistance to IDPs, such as rice and beans, but not firewood.

If soldiers suspect he is a KIO member, he could be detained.

"When I encountered soldiers on my way to my village, I quickly hid in the forest," he said.

IDPs in the camps live in bamboo-made stilted row houses. Many of them make a living as day laborers on construction sites or do farm work. Their daily wage is equivalent to 500 yen (about $4.20).

A 29-year-old woman named Nan Lu, who lives in the Jan Mai Kawng Camp, found work as a seamstress after undergoing vocational training.

"In our village, we had freedom though we were poor," she said, adding, "What we can do now is only to pray so that we can return there as early as possible."

http://www.information.myanmaronlinecentre.com/peace-still-elusive-for-kachin-ethnic-minority-in-northern-myanmar/