Kachin demonstrate in New Delhi

ONE YEAR KACHIN OFFENSIVE: KACHIN PROTESTED BURMESE GOVERNMENT IN NEW DELHI ON JUNE 9.

The Kachin community and fellow countrymen staged a demonstration in New Delhi, India demanding the Burmese government to end their military offensives in Kachin State.

Approximately one-hundred people gathered at Jantar Mantar Park on the one-year anniversary of the conflict (June 9). Similar actions condemning the Burmese government for causing the humanitarian crisis in Kachin State took place around the world.

“Today we protest because we want to tell the international community what is happening in Kachin State,” said Gun La, a Kachin community leader in Delhi.

“I did not see how there can be real change and peace in Burma unless we address the root of problem which is the military,” said 88 students leader Kyaw Than during a speech at the protest.

A petition requesting the Burmese government to stop all military offensives in Kachin State, conduct meaningful dialogue and do more help to the Kachin civilians was endorsed by many international and local organizations.

The petition was sent to the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi, to India Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the Burmese Embassy in India addressed to President Thein Sein, Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon and Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Burma Tomas Ojea Quintana.

Burmese government soldiers have committed various human rights abuses against ethnic Kachin civilians.  They have been responsible for killings, rape, torture and burning of villages.

More than 75,000 Kachin civilian have been displaced since the conflict began.  They are living in Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps in KIA-controlled territories or China.

Although Thein Sein ordered the military to stop attacking the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) in early December daily clashes between the KIA and government soldiers are ongoing.

The government is restricting the access of international aid agencies bringing aid to the thousands of IDPs in KIA controlled areas along the Chinese border.