 |
| Kachin people in Indian capital New Delhi marked 53rd anniversary of Kachin Revolution Day .Photo: Kachin News Group |
 |
| Kachin people in Indian capital New Delhi marked 53rd anniversary of Kachin Revolution Day .Photo: Kachin News Group |
 |
| Kachin people in Indian capital New Delhi marked 53rd anniversary of Kachin Revolution Day .Photo: Kachin News Group |
 |
| The 53rd Kachin revolution day in a brief ceremony in KIA headquarters. Photo: Kachin News Group |
 |
| Add c The 53rd Kachin revolution day in a brief ceremony in KIA headquarters. Photo: Kachin News Group |
Those attending prayed for all KIO troops fighting on the front line. A prayer was also made for all of the Kachin troops who had fallen in battle with the Burma army since fighting began in June 2011. As part of the ceremony a message from KIO chairman Lanyaw Zawng Hra was read aloud according to Kareng Nawng Awn, a KIO officer who attended the service.
In his message which was also distributed to troops at the frontline, Zawng Hra noted that federalism is not possible under Burma's 2008 constitution. Zawng Hra said that the KIO will continue however to push for federalism so as to help all of Burma's ethnic people.
Zawng Hra also said that Burma's pro military constitution has empowered the army to carry out its offensive against the Kachin people while fooling the international community about the government's intentions.
Simultaneous ceremonies were also held in and around Laiza including Mung Lai Hkyet training school, Laiza High School and several IDP camps. Laiza remains a town under siege and has been increasingly isolated over the past few weeks as government troops have taken over strategic hill tops in the area following heavy fighting. Most of the staff from the KIO's operations headquarters are said to have evacuated to other more secure places in KIO territory.
Modest ceremonies were also held in other parts of KIO territory but these all remained very small. In previous years the KIO marked the anniversary of their uprising with a large Manau dance festival. Since the onset of increased tensions with the central government in 2009 these ceremonies have all been scaled down significantly.
The KIO's original uprising was fueled in part by widespread opposition from the Kachin public to efforts by Prime Minister U Nu government to make Buddhism the country's national religion. Another factor motivating the KIO's formation was the failure of the U NU government to live up to the February 1947 Panglong agreement which General Aung San had made with leaders of the Kachin, Shan and Chin communities.
As part of Panglong Aung San agreed to give Burma's ethnic communities a significant amount of autonomy over their own affairs in exchange for their support for his bid to make Burma an independent nation. Aung San and most of his pre-independence cabinet were killed months later and the agreement was never fully implemented by his successor U Nu. What little gains the Kachin and other ethnic groups had made during the U NU era were largely reversed in the years that followed Ne Win's 1962 coup.
Kachin in Delhi, India also mark KIO anniversary
Members of the Kachin community and solidarity groups in New Delhi, India also held a ceremony to mark the anniversary of the beginning of the Kachin uprising on Tuesday. The commemoration was attended by about 100 people. Organizers held a held prayer service to honor those refugees trapped by the 18 month conflict.
“They (Burmese government troops) are doing what they want,” said Gun La, a refugee who shared with others present the horrors of his childhood growing up in a village which was repeatedly under attack by the army in the years that preceded the 1994 ceasefire.
“There will be no resolution to the fighting,” said Gun La who now serves as a leader of the Kachin refugee community living in New Delhi. “All people of the country (Burma) should come together and work for peace like what we did to stop the Myitsone dam construction,” he said referring to the now officially suspended mega dam project.
www.kachinnews.com
www.burmese.kachinnews.com
www.kachin.kachinnews.com
0 comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.