'Forgotten war' strips Kachin of hope

'Forgotten war' strips Kachin of hope

Displaced Kachin residents cross Malikha river on a ferry to escape the fighting in late April. (AFP photo)
Displaced Kachin residents cross Malikha river on a ferry to escape the fighting in late April. (AFP photo)

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.

Paritta Wangkiat is a columnist, Bangkok Post.

They said a number of similar events planned in Yangon were banned by authorities.

In Bangkok, the groups expressed their concerns over the lengthy war's impacts on livelihoods of future generations there.

The conflict between insurgents of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), the military wing of the Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO) political group, and Myanmar's state army (known as the Tatmadaw) has escalated this year.

There were a reported 206 clashes between January and May during which more than 6,000 people were forced to flee their homes, making the number of internally displaced people hit 130,000 recently.

The Tatmadaw was accused of forcing people to go back to their villages in the conflict zone where humanitarian aid can't reach. Over 2,000 people have been trapped there for months.

The Kachin conflict erupted in 1961. During that time, ethnic groups across the country demanded the right to establish autonomous states independent from the central government.

The conflict intensified after General Ne Win rose to power in 1962 and applied a policy of state control and ethnic repression. Kachin rebels formed the KIA to fight for self-rule and the state's independence.

In 1994, the KIO reached a ceasefire agreement with the military, giving the ethnic group control over Kachin territory while the Myanmar army was able to share benefits from development activities in the state.

The fighting resumed in 2011 when the Tatmadaw allegedly launched attacks on KIA forces, breaking 17 years of ceasefire. Since then, the Tatmadaw has launched air strikes and mortars indiscriminately.

Local people say the Tatmadaw use civilians as human shields. At least 76 women were raped during the seven years of conflict, according to the Kachin Women's Association Thailand, which conducted a series of interviews with the victims.

The Tatmadaw has claimed that it didn't target any civilians. But local villagers reported that the clashes often occurred nearby their homes, causing death and injuries among civilians.

The war is little known to outsiders because of the difficulty in accessing Kachin territory. Journalists are not allowed to visit the conflict zone, which makes it tough for them to verify information provided by the protagonists in the conflict.

Civilians have paid a high price of war as the conflict has carried on. International aid funding has declined, resulting in a decrease in food aid distribution at camps arranged for internally displaced people, each of whom now lives on under 20 cents a day.

But the most worrying issue is the future of Kachin children, said Gum Sha Aung, general secretary of the Joint Strategy Team -- a group of Kachin civil society workers responsible for humanitarian aid, at the Bangkok forum.

The war has resulted in widespread poverty with parents unable to afford school tuition fees for their children. Many students have dropped out of school to work.

Additionally, large numbers of displaced people can't find jobs. Some of them have tried to return home to the conflict zone to search for jobs along the Myanmar-Chinese border, exposing them to the risk of human trafficking.

Unlike other ethnic conflicts such as in Shan state where displaced people can move from the camps to try to find jobs in Thailand, the Kachin people are trapped in the middle of a war zone, unable to go anywhere.

"There's no guarantee of security at home but living in the camps has also become unbearable too," said Gum Sha Aung. "We need to stop this conflict as soon as possible."

But how can peace be established since trust between the two parties has collapsed?

Peace talks under the National Ceasefire Agreement, initiated in 2015 during the rule of military-back President Thien Sein, have not made significant progress under the current civilian government of the National League for Democracy.

The 1994-ceasefire agreement had also paved the way for excessive exploitation of Kachin state's rich natural resources by the military as part of irresponsible development. Kachin elites and state officials have set up businesses and reaped benefits from development projects there. As the Kachin territory is adjacent to the Chinese border, Chinese investors have been involved in projects such as hydropower development, mining and contract farming.

Recently, local people have lost their land to Chinese banana plantations. Heavy chemical use on the plantations has harmed both the environment and health of local people. Similar circumstances are reported in Chinese sugarcane plantations near the Myanmar-Chinese border towns which are under control of ethnic armed forces. Despite local people being able to get jobs in the plantations, they earn very little.

Moreover, thousands of people have been displaced by jade mining. Logging and gold mining in areas controlled by either the Tatmadaw and the armed ethnic group have aggravated deforestation and contaminated the environment.

These developments have led the Kachin conflict to be seen as a war over natural resources. While local people have suffered undesirable socioeconomic changes -- from poverty to unsecured livelihoods, Kachin's future generations will bear the brunt of the developments and the ongoing conflict the most. Children and youth are deprived of future prospects in education, employment and utilisation of natural resources.

The new generation of the Kachin ethnic group will be barred from making a contribution to the country's social and economic development. Every party has a responsibility to end the war because it is only peace that can pave the way for a brighter future for Myanmar.

Paritta Wangkiat

Columnist

Paritta Wangkiat is a Bangkok Post columnist.

Do you like the content of this article?
COMMENT (1)