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Monsoon threatens Myanmar's displaced Kachins – agencies

by Thomson Reuters Foundation correspondent | Thomson Reuters Foundation
Monday, 10 June 2013 16:04 GMT

A Kachin refugee boy wraps himself in a blanket at a refugee camp at Man Si township in Kachin State January 19, 2013. REUTERS/Kaung Htet

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The UN has appealed for $50 mln to help people displaced by one of Myanmar's bloodiest conflicts

BANGKOK (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – About 100,000 people uprooted by fighting in northern Myanmar need urgent help to survive the monsoon season, aid agencies warned as they urged donors to support a $50 million appeal. 

Many of the displaced are living in squalid camps along the Myanmar-China border - beyond the reach of most international agencies - after fleeing fighting between the Burmese army and ethnic Kachin rebels, the Kachin Independence Army (KIA). 

"It's been raining consistently this whole week. The bamboos used for the shelters are starting to rot and the huts are now leaking," said La Rip, coordinator of the Relief Action Network for IDPs and Refugees (RANIR) which helps displaced Kachins in the rebel-controlled area. 

"Some camps are in very high altitudes and it is getting very cold. People don't have enough warm clothes and it's getting more and more difficult to find firewood for cooking and staying warm," he told Thomson Reuters Foundation. 

Oliver Lacey-Hall, regional head of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said overcrowded and rundown shelters were "in critical need of repair or replacement”.

 “It is especially urgent that funding is received now, as the onset of the monsoon rains has increased needs,” he added.

Fighting flared in June 2011 after a 17-year ceasefire broke down over longstanding grievances, but the two sides signed a preliminary agreement towards a ceasefire last month.

The United Nations is providing aid to displaced people in government-controlled areas, but has not been allowed access to those in rebel-controlled areas since last July.

It has appealed for $50.9 million to help some 120,000 people until December. This includes 50,000 people living in camps in areas beyond the government’s control and 35,000 in camps in government areas. The Kachin Response Plan will also help 20,000 people who have taken displaced people into their homes.

The appeal has so far only attracted $4.2 million. La Rip said it could be a struggle to get it fully funded, pointing to the difficulties of meeting last year’s $36 million appeal. The appeal eventually received $31 million but most of this came towards the end of the assistance period. 

"If it was that difficult to raise $36 million, I think it would be even more difficult to raise $50 million," he added. 

DISCREPANCIES IN AID

Very few international aid agencies have access to areas outside government control. Community-based organisations like RANIR are working in the rebel-controlled areas but have faced funding shortages.

Last month’s agreement between Myanmar and the Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO) has raised hopes that humanitarian aid could be allowed through.

“We are encouraged by the recent peace talks ... OCHA hopes that this development will lead to full and unimpeded access by all parties to all people displaced in Kachin and northern Shan State,” Lacey-Hall said.

Prolonged displacement and lack of humanitarian aid has forced many uprooted Kachin to seek work across the border in China, creating “a perfect storm” for the trafficking of Kachin women, according to a report released last week.

The Kachin Women’s Association Thailand (KWAT) has documented 24 cases of actual or suspected trafficking from Kachin border areas to China since the fighting resumed. Thirteen of those involved girls aged 18 or younger, who were tricked, drugged, raped and sold for about $6,500 each to Chinese men and families as brides or bonded labourers.

HEALTH CONCERNS

The Kachin Response Plan highlights the risks of people dying from water-borne diseases, acute respiratory infections and skin infections in the camps.

There are also fears that overcrowded living conditions could encourage the spread of TB, which is endemic in Kachin.

A lack of medicines in camp clinics has raised additional concerns that a multi-drug resistant TB strain and drug resistant HIV/AIDS could develop. Difficulties in accessing drugs mean people have interrupted their courses of treatment.

“If the plan is not funded the health needs of tens of thousands of displaced people may go unmet; people will be at risk of having poor or non-existent shelter, and the nutritional status of children will worsen,” Lacey-Hall said.

La Rip said the displaced had had no means of earning a living for two years and were completely reliant on humanitarian aid.

"They need lifesaving assistance. Their living and health conditions will get much worse if there isn't enough funding," he added. 

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.


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