Myanmar's "forgotten war" in Kachin state has received little public attention despite the scale of the impact it has had on people who have become internally displaced and the casualties caused by the fighting between ethnic rebels and the army.

Worse still, the war has caused long-lasting socio-economic effects for the Kachin people, depriving them of hope.

To remind the world about the war, civil society groups from Kachin last Friday held a forum at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok to mark the seventh anniversary of the ongoing conflict which reignited on June 9, 2011 after the collapse of a 17-year ceasefire.