UN finally arrives in Mai Ja Yang

A MEMBER OF THE UN HIGH COMMISSION FOR REFUGEES (UNCHR) HANDS A FAMILY AID KIT TO KACHIN MOTHER AT THE SEHG MAI PA REFUGEE CAMP NEAR MAI JA YANG ON MARCH 28, 2O12.

MAI JA YANG, Burma — More than 9 months after the Kachin conflict began, a UN team finally arrived Tuesday in Mai Ja Yang, the Kachin Independence Organization's second largest town currently serving as home for about 20,000 people displaced by the ongoing government offensive in Kachin and northern Shan states.

Staff from UNICEF, the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), the World Food Program (WFP) and UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) accompanied three large trucks carrying supplies for about 400 families in the Mai Ja Yang area.

On Wednesday morning the convoy visited the Seng Mai Pa refugee camp home to about 600 people mostly from Bhamo (Manmaw) township.  The UN staff distributed family emergency aid kits and rice to camp residents while other UN staff evaluated the conditions of the camp.


Although the UN visit was appreciated by the local refugees, the food distributed to each family will only last a month and will do little to address long term problems that the refugees face including, poor access to clean water and extremely congested sleeping conditions.

Recent Visit first since December
On March 24 a similar UN convoy arrived in the KIO controlled Sadang township and delivered aid for about 1,000 people.  The visits to Sadang and Mai Ja Yang were the first UN visits to KIO territory since December 12 when a small team visited refugees in and around the KIO's Laiza headquarters.

The latest UN convoys comes one month after UN special envoy to Burma Vijay Nambiar told a press conference in New York on February 24 that during his during his February 13 to 17 visit to Burma he had personally negotiated an agreement with Burma government authorities to allow more UN aid convoys to access to refugees in KIO controlled territory.

On March 14 following questions by Inner City Press correspondent Matthew Russell Lee the UN admitted that despite Nambiar's previous announcement the UN was still in fact negotiating with government authorities to gain access to refugees in KIO controlled areas.

UN tactics leave some unsettled
Several of the Burmese UN staff at Seng Mai Pa appeared to be unhappy that a volunteer with Wunpawng Ninghtoi (WPN) a local aid group was taking photos of the UN aid distribution process.  According to those present one of the UN team members grilled WPN staff about the identity of the photographer in such an aggressive manner that observers were left wondering if the UN staffer was in fact a member of Burma's dreaded security forces.

The inquisitive staffer was ostensibly a driver of one of the UN trucks.  According to witnesses and some of the people interrogated by this individual he carried himself in a manner befitting of someone with more authority than one would expect from your typical truck driver.

The harsh grilling from the UN "driver" about the identity of the WPN photographer came despite the fact that UNOCHA has used WPN photos of refugees in the Mai Ja Yang area for its own reports, most recently a report released in early March.

During the Seng Mai Pa camp visit, with the exception of one UNOCHA staff person from the Philippines all of the UN staff were Burma nationals. Many refugee advocates have questioned the UN's decision not to send more international staff to accompany the UN visits to territory controlled by the KIO.  Due to nature of the conflict which has pitted the Burman dominated army against ethnic Kachin forces it is widely believed that Kachin refugees would feel more comfortable opening up and speaking to international UN staff about their experiences.