KNO’s Duwa Bawmwang sends vital aid to Kachin refugees in KIO area

DUWA BAWMWANG LARAW

Exiled Kachin activist Duwa Bawmwang Laraw recently donated 5,000 sacks of rice and a large amount of warm clothing to support the growing number of Kachin refugees sheltering in territory controlled the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO).

The donated aid which is also being sent to refugees who have crossed into China, is urgently needed as UN agencies and other major international relief organizations have been largely absent from providing assistance to refugees in KIO territory.

Duwa Bawmwang Laraw, a successful businessman is the founder and main benefactor for the Kachin National Organization (KNO), the largest Kachin political organization in exile.

According to a statement released last week by the Pan Kachin Development Society, 2,000 sacks of rice donated by Duwa Bawmwang Laraw were sent to the KIO’s main relief in Laiza on November 21. An additional 3,000 sacks of rice were sent to a relief center located in the KIO’s Eastern Region in Manmaw (Bhamo) district. Warm clothing donated by Duwa Bawmwang Laraw was also sent to both places.

Local Kachin aid groups operating on the ground estimate that more than 50,000 Kachin people have forced from their homes in Kachin and neighboring Shan State since June, when fighting broke out between the KIO and the Burmese government. The overwhelming majority of the refugees have fled to the KIO territory; Burmese state media reported that 14,113 people have sought shelter in Burmese government controlled territory.

Until earlier this month when the Burmese regime allowed a small UN relief convoy to visit the KIO’s Laiza headquarters, refugees living in KIO territory had only received aid donated by church groups and members of the Kachin Diaspora. Those refugees who crossed into China have also not received any assistance from major international NGOs or UN related agencies.

Refugees who have fled to government controlled areas in Kachin State are sheltering in mainly Baptist and Roman Catholic Churches, according to Rev. Hkalam Samson, general secretary of Kachin Baptist Council. Rev. Samson said the Zomi (Chin) Baptist Convention has also supported the refugees with badly needed supplies. Some aid has also been distributed by Oxfam and UNICEF.

Since August the UN’s World Food Program (WPF) has distributed rice to displaced people sheltering in Myitkyina and Waingmaw. WPF and other UN related agencies however have been largely restricted from sending aid to the majority of refugees sheltering in KIO territory.

According La Rip, cordinator-2 of Laiza-based Relief Action Network of IDP and Refugee (RANIR) there are at present more than 30 permanent and temporary refugee camps in KIO controlled areas located along the China Burma border.

There are least 16 unofficial refugee camps in Chinese territories. Refugees now in China are increasingly worried that the Chinese government will forcibly relocate them back to Burma and into the hands of the Burmese army.