Displaced Kachins who crossed border to China reportedly ordered back to conflict zone by Chinese authorities
BANGKOK (AlertNet) – Tens of thousands of displaced ethnic Kachins in northern Myanmar are facing food shortages and health problems, a local aid group told AlertNet, as the United Nations made its first aid delivery to people seeking shelter in rebel-controlled areas.
Diarrhoea had already broke out in a makeshift camp housing some 2,000 displaced people, mainly women and the elderly, because of a lack of proper sanitation and access to clean water, killing a one-year-old baby, said Mary Tawm from local relief group Wunpawng Ninghtoi (WPN).
“The conditions are pretty bad. We are very concerned because the food they are eating is not really nutritious and they didn’t manage to get their belongings so they’re living very roughly. They also need non-food items, medicine”, she said, adding mothers and children needed nutritious food.
“It is also getting very cold here, even for those of us who live in a house, so imagine what it must be like living in huts.”
Some of the displaced crossed the border to China but now face the prospect of returning to the conflict zone after the Chinese authorities ordered them to go back to Myanmar a few days ago, Tawn told AlertNet.
The people had fled fighting between government troops and the Kachin Independency Army (KIA) in pockets of the jungle in the northern state of Kachin – which is controlled by the KIA and its political wing, the Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO) – after a 17-year ceasefire broke down.
Located in Mai Ja Yang, one of the main KIO bases, WPN had been working with the displaced since the decades-old conflict flared up in June.
U.N. URGES FOR FUNDING
“We have been providing rice, oil, salt, beans, a local snack, candles and bars of soap to about 20,000 people in makeshift camps around the area every 15 days. This is not sufficient but what’s worse is we only have enough stuff for two more rounds of rations,” Tawn told AlertNet.
“We have been receiving assistance from local and overseas Kachin communities and some international aid agencies but it has been more short-term and ad hoc.”
Last week, Refugees International warned that a humanitarian crisis is brewing in Kachin state and urged international aid agencies to fund local relief groups.
After months of lobbying by the international community, Myanmar’s nominally civilian government, which came to power in March, allowed the U.N. to deliver aid into Laiza, the KIO’s administrative headquarter near the border with China.
On Monday, U.N. agencies provided household items to 800 families in Laiza, where some 12,000 people are scattered in halls and temporary camps.
“This was the first delivery made to Laiza and we hope to be able to continue delivery of humanitarian assistance as long as is needed,” said Aye Win, spokesperson for the U.N. in Myanmar.
“However, the situation of stocks (of food and non-food items) in-country is dire… More funding is therefore needed to enable continuation of assistance to all those in need.”
In total, a third of Myanmar's population lives in poverty.
TOLD TO GO HOME
Five days ago, Chinese authorities in Yunnan province told some 2,000 people at a temporary camp in La Ying that if they don’t leave they will be returned by force to Myanmar, said Tawn.
“We were going there to give them their rations and the authorities told us to bring our rations back and said the refugees must leave. They said the orders came from Beijing,” she told AlertNet.
The authorities wanted the people to leave the next day but they managed to ask for a five-day reprieve, she said. The people are unwilling to go back or move to other areas due to safety concerns and the deadline has now passed. It is unclear what the next step is.
And despite reports of Myanmar’s president ordering the military to cease attacks against the KIA, fighting had not stopped, she added.
“We were so happy when we first heard of the president’s order,” Tawn said.
“But fighting seemed to have increased. Just three or four days ago we saw 3 planes in the air followed by an ear-splitting noise that scared everybody. We’re used to the sound of weapons but this was different,” she added.
“So we’re really concerned the offensive has not stopped. We feel like we have nowhere to go.”
She said villagers living under the planes’ path said they had been bombed.
(Editing by Rebekah Curtis)
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