Ban Ki-moon hails Kachin “ceasefire” as fighting continues

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon issued a statement on Sunday hailing the Burmese government's declaration of a unilateral ceasefire in Kachin state. Ban's comments came despite the fact that heavy fighting between Burma's military and the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) continues some three days after the ceasefire was supposed to go into effect.

“The Secretary-General welcomed the announcement by the Government of Myanmar on Friday of a cease-fire in Kachin and has been following the various reports from the ground on its implementation”, according to the statement which made no specific reference to reports from the BBC, New York Times, the Irrawaddy and other respected news sources indicating that the ceasefire was non-existent.

Although President Thein Sein's office has publicly claimed that government forces would only be shooting in self-defense and not engage in any aggressive actions against the KIO, over the past 72 hours the army has repeatedly fired shells on KIO outposts at Hka Pot located north of Laiza and Hka Ya Bum located to the west of the KIO's de facto capital.

During a press briefing on Monday in New York Ban Ki-moon's chief spokesperson Martin Nesirky was asked to clarify the UN's stance on the ceasefire in light of the reports of continued fighting. Nesirky responded to the question posed by Inner city Press reporter Matthew Russell by reading out Ban's statement without commenting on reports that the fighting continues unabated.

Ban's statement comes just days after UN's special envoy to Burma Vijay Nambiar completed a visit to the country. During the press briefing Nesirky revealed that Nambiar visited Kachin state although it is unclear who he met with or what he did when he in the war torn state. A statement issued by Nambiar upon his departure from Burma noted that during his trip he met with several key government ministers including Thein Sein's chief negotiator Aung Min.

The statement released by the Secretary General also reiterated previous calls made by the UN to be allowed “renewed access to vulnerable civilian populations in the area to enable the supply of humanitarian assistance to them”. Burmese government authorities have barred the UN and its related agencies from delivering aid to internally displaced people's camps located in KIO territory since June of last year. According to reports on the ground in Kachin state the situation in the camps is increasingly dire.

An estimated 100,000 people have been displaced by the fighting in Kachin and parts of north Eastern Shan state since a 17-year ceasefire between the government and the KIO fell apart in June 2011. Most of the refugees displaced by the fighting are said to be living in camps in KIO territory along the Kachin China border. The safety of the refugees remains increasingly uncertain. Last week three civilians in Laiza died following government shelling of the town which currently houses some 25,000 refugees.

The future of the IDP camps in the KIO's second largest town Mai Ja Yang also appear uncertain. Over the weekend government forces continued to shell KIO outposts located less than a kilometer away from the largest refugee camp in the Mai Ja Yang area.


www.kachinnews.com
www.burmese.kachinnews.com
www.kachin.kachinnews.com