Nearly 30 civil society groups on Friday called on international organizations to assist the more than 100,000 Kachin refugees in northern Myanmar displaced by conflict as the focus shifts to restoring peace in the region following two years of renewed fighting between rebels and government troops.
Twenty-eight organizations gathered at the Central Hotel in Myanmar’s economic hub Yangon marking official talks to end hostilities between the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and the military which have left several thousand dead since June 2011 and highlighting the plight of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Kachin state.
Daw Jarnan, vice chairman of the Myanmar NGO Shalom (Nyein) Foundation, said that a tentative cease-fire agreement inked last week between the KIA and the government had paved the way for international organizations to provide assistance to IDPs in the region.
“It is important to allow international organizations to go to the IDP camps,” Daw Jarnan told RFA’s Myanmar Service, noting that the government had been blocking access to IDPs located within KIA-controlled areas of Kachin state.
“IDPs have a lot of needs beyond simple daily survival. If they return home, they will require more support, and we need to prepare for this in advance. Today’s event is about sending a message to the international organizations about these people.”
According to the Washington-based Refugees International, more than 50 percent of IDPs are located behind rebel lines, in areas administered by the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), the KIA’s political wing.
The group said that while the KIO has granted humanitarian agencies permission to enter their territory and deliver assistance, as recently as April, the Myanmar government was blocking the United Nations and international donors from accessing KIO-controlled areas.
The majority of IDPs in Kachin state are largely dependent on local community based organizations for shelter, food, health care, water, and sanitation, access to medicines, education, and protection, Refugees International said.
Organizers of Friday’s event said that two years of conflict had left significant amounts of land mines scattered around Kachin state which would also require assistance from both the military and the KIA to remove.
They called on the government and the KIA to ensure that talks proceed smoothly with the goal of bringing long-lasting stability to the region.
Representatives said they plan to hold an event at Maharbandula park in Yangon on Sunday in memory of those who died as a result of the fighting in Kachin state, including soldiers from both sides of the conflict.
Fierce fighting occurred as recently as December, when the Myanmar military used air strikes against the KIA, but the violence has since eased.
According to rights groups, civilians in Kachin state were subjected to various rights abuses during the two-year conflict, including widespread sexual violence against ethnic women as a weapon of war.
IDPs have reported the rape of women and children, arbitrary execution, torture, forced labor, the burning and looting of villages, and being subjected to mortar bombing.
Peace talks
Last week Myanmar signed a seven-point agreement with the KIA following three days of talks in the Kachin state capital of Myitkyina.
The two sides agreed to continue holding talks, work on preventing further fighting, establish a joint monitoring committee with representatives from both parties, and resettle IDPs.
The agreement also called for negotiations on the placement of soldiers, the establishment of a team of KIO representatives to work closely with the Myanmar government in Myitkyina, and further, more inclusive talks to be held in the near future.
The Kachin have called for greater autonomy and increased representation in reformist President Thein Sein’s nominally civilian government, which took power from the former junta in 2011 and set the country on a path to democracy.
Thein Sein has signed cease-fire agreements with most of Myanmar’s armed ethnic groups, but the KIA had held out on peace talks until recently. The two sides had a cease-fire agreement in place for 17 years until it broke down in June 2011.
Reported by Thiha Tun for RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.