More than 100 Kachin villagers trapped near Putao after heavy fighting

More than 100 Kachin villagers have taken shelter in a forested area in Kachin's Putao district, after fighting broke out nearby between Burmese military forces and troops from the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) last week. According to an official from the Kachin Baptist Convention (KBC), one of the main groups assisting internally displaced people in Kachin state, the displaced who are overwhelmingly women, children and the elderly are enduring great hardship in the remote mountainous corner of northern Kachin state.

Nearly the entire population of Nhka Ga village has fled to the forest since the fighting broke out. About 20 mostly elderly and sick people remain in the village, this despite the fact that fighting has raged very nearby. Located between the Mali Hka and Chyai Hka rivers, Nhka Ga was prior to the fighting home to about 50 families mostly employed in small scale farming.

Reached by phone in Myitkyina on Thursday morning KBC general secretary Rev. Hkalam Samsun said his organization is currently looking into how to assist those displaced. “We have done nothing so far.  We are going to discuss this later today with the Kachin state government,” he said.

The displaced villagers have had little food or shelter and are facing increasingly dire conditions says Rev. Hkalam Samsun.  About 30 people from Nhka Ga have fled to the nearby government controlled towns of Machyangbaw and Nawng Hkai but most of the villagers remain trapped in the countryside unable to leave because of the fighting, according to Rev. Hkalam Samsun.

U Hpung San, a Kachin state legislator from Machyangbaw and several other Kachin state government officials met with a senior military commander from the Putao district yesterday to discuss the plight of the local IDP. Following the meeting Kachin state government officials told journalists in Myitkyina that they had reached an agreement with the military and would be soon delivering aid to those displaced in the Putao region. Despite this agreement however it remains unclear when the aid will be delivered to the IDP who remain in an area that is difficult to reach during the best of times, something made more difficult by the fighting and recent heavy rains.

At least two lieutenants from the Burma Army’s Infantry Battalion No. 137 were killed and several troops injured during the fighting last week which involved troops from the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) battalion 7, according to a local church pastor.

A pro-KIO blog reported that the fighting broke out when a combined group of troops from IB No. 137 and a local pro-government Kachin militia called the Rebellion Resistance Force, attacked a KIA post near the village on August 29th. The Rebellion Resistance Force is led by Danggu Tang (also known as Ahdang), a prominent Rawang businessman who used to be a senior official in another pro government Kachin militia the New Democratic Army-Kachin (NDA-K). He formed his group in 2006 after splitting from the NDA-K reportedly at the encouraging of the then Northern Commander Maj-Gen Ohn Myint. Danggu Tang is known to own to several jade mines in Hpakant and a recording studio in Myitkyina. His militia which is thought to have about 200 men is comprised almost entirely of Lisu and Rawang tribes.

The fighting near Nhka Ga erupted less than a day after Vijay Nambiar, the United Nations special envoy to Burma, made an unprecedented visit to the KIO headquarters in Laiza as part of the ongoing peace process between the KIO and the central government.

Over 100,000 people from Kachin and parts of north western Shan state have been forcibly displaced since a 17 year cease fire collapsed in June 2011. The UN has been largely blocked by the both Chinese and Burmese governments from sending food and other humanitarian aid to IDP camps in KIO controlled areas where the majority of the Kachin IDP have taken shelter.

www.kachinnews.com

www.burmese.kachinnews.com

www.kahcin.kachinnews.com

www.kachin-news.blogspot.com

http://www.facebook.com/Kachin-News-Group