Zin Linn, Oct 19, 2012
The ethnic Kachin people of Burma yearn for a ceasefire so as to avoid war crimes in their regions. They are calling for a meaningful political dialogue among the stakeholders to reinstate peace in the war-torn state. The government’s armed forces are still committing war crimes and crimes against humanity. The human rights violations of Burmese soldiers in Kachin State, involving rape, forced labour, torture, the killings of civilians, and religious persecution are grave breaches of international laws.
In such a time of inhumane war in Kachin state, many people are not so happy hearing about the news of Burma military’s observer status with the US’s Cobra Gold, a US-Thai joint military exercise.
The United States will invite Burma (Myanmar) to observe Cobra Gold, which brings together more than 10,000 American and Thai military personnel and participants from other Asian countries for joint annual maneuvers quoting officials from countries participating in the exercises Reuters News said Friday.
Burma’s notorious military has robbed 25 per cent of the parliamentary seats by using undemocratic 2008 constitution drawn by itself. Without retreating from the Parliaments, such kind of military did not deserve any reward by the democratic states.
When President Thein Sein of Burma met national races affairs ministers from regions and states in Nay-Pyi-Taw in September, he said that national races live in the country have the basic rights of citizens stated in the constitution.
However, Thein Sein also admitted that ethnic regions still failed to sustain development on education, health, transportation, and the economy due to the long-lasting armed conflicts. There is no rule of law in the conflict ethnic areas, he acknowledged.
Thein Sein highlighted that there has been progress in making peace with the ethnic armed-groups, with the exception of the Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO) and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA).
“Currently, peace negotiations are going on at two levels, the first at region/state concerned. The process at region/state level would be smoother with the participation of all local national races including national races affairs ministers,” the President told the state-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper.
“At the final stage, discussion and decisions would be made at the Parliament,” he added.
The government’s three-step peace plan says that first to make ceasefire at state level talks, second to establish a Kachin ethnic political party and third the ethnic party has to put forward the ethnic questions to the parliamentary assembly where the problems have to solved out in line with the 2008 constitution.
However, KIO prefers its own three-step process — the first step would be an agreement on the distribution of troops and their locations; the second step would be an all-inclusive discussion similar to the Panglong Conference in order to work out long-standing political disagreements; the third and final stage would be to enforce the agreement in whatever structure is fitting.
Up to now, armed clashes between the government and the KIA have continued mostly in eastern and central Kachin State. Fighting goes on fatally all through Kachin State in the face of government peacemaking pledge to the United States and the EU. The KIO targets to cut the supply lines of the government troops in southern Kachin state.
The current clashes are taking place in the Kachin state’s western jade rich Hpakant district where the Kachin resistance has claimed major victory over the past few weeks. The government’s control of the Hpakant jade-land has reportedly earned billions in revenue since the early 1990s when the KIO gave up control of most of the area.
According to KIO’s spokesperson and Deputy General Secretary-2, Salang Kaba Lah Nan, the government army has been gearing up for a major military offensive against the KIO using massive military strength of over 80 battalions.
A 17-year-old truce between the Burmese Government and the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) collapsed on June 9, 2011, sending many thousands Kachin war-refugees fleeing toward the Sino-Burma border with no sufficient international humanitarian assistance.
According to recent figures released by the IDPs and Refugees Relief Committee (IRRC), based in Laiza, a large town in Kachin State, there are currently nine official Kachin refugee camps in China housing 7,097 people. Another 3,000 Kachin civilians are staying with relatives or in unofficial temporary settlements near the Chinese border, the IRRC says.
This is in addition to the more than 62,000 people displaced within Myanmar, including 24,000 in government-controlled areas, and close to 40,000 in KIA-controlled areas, the UN estimates.
KIO has persistently asked the government to withdraw its troops toward the line agreed upon in the 1994 ceasefire agreement to show its peace proposal is sincere and genuine. The most recent battles took place in the KIO’s territories acknowledged during the 1994-2011 ceasefire period.
If Burma Army refused to withdraw from the KIO’s territories of 1994 truce, the United States should not invite Burma to observe Cobra Gold maneuver.
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