The villagers scattered as machine guns raked the darkness, fleeing from the Myanmar government troops into the thick of the jungle. When day came, they crept from their hiding places to find each other.
Nu La could not see his wife until he followed the wail of their two-week-old baby. Her body lay close to her son, between two large rocks, slumped to the right. The slash wound that killed her ran all the way from one side of her chest to the other.
The mother of four was a casualty of a brutal six-month conflict between the government and ethnic minority rebels from Kachin State, a state in northern Myanmar bordering China.
This is a war that has killed and maimed countless civilians and caused 30,000, probably more, to flee, yet has gone almost entirely unnoticed, as the outside world chooses instead to focus on the possibility of a thaw and rapprochement with the generals. As US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton visited the country last month — and as British Foreign Secretary William Hague prepares for a rare official visit to Myanmar early in the new year, fighting has intensified in Kachin.
“There’s so much focus on political reforms from the international perspective, but human rights abuses that are continuing are being ignored. It doesn’t fit into the narrative,” said Lynn Yoshikawa of Refugees International, who visited the region this month.
The government announced a ceasefire last week, but sources in Kachin areas said clashes continued. Among the allegations made by Kachin civilians interviewed along the China-Myanmar border were:
‧ Troops attacked villages without warning, injuring and killing civilians.
‧ Numerous civilians vanished in areas occupied by the military.
‧ Soldiers pillaged homes and forced villagers to carry away their plunder.
‧ Troops subjected men to brutal interrogations.
‧ Chemical agents were used around one village, possibly to push people out of the area.
Groups, including Human Rights Watch, Physicians for Human Rights and Partners Relief and Development, have also gathered numerous accounts of abuses. Organizations say that while the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) has also committed violations, government soldiers are responsible for the vast majority.
“Troops know they won’t be held accountable for serious violations of the laws of war,” Human Rights Watch Myanmar researcher David Mathieson said, adding that similar military behavior had been documented around the country. “It’s like a set menu of abusive practices: forced labor, torture and the destruction of property and livelihoods.”
The long-running conflict is one of many between the Myanmar state and ethnic groups that reignited two years ago as the government sought to extend its hold. Skirmishes between government troops and the KIA erupted into outright conflict in June, ending a 17-year ceasefire.
Villager Nu La fled with his family, but they were caught while sheltering in a jungle camp overnight.
Troops called: “Don’t flee.”
The families were too frightened to comply.
“It was like a battle. Then the machine guns came,” Nu La said. “The shooting was for around 15 minutes. They shot and we fled ... We were all afraid and ran in different directions.”
He wept as he described finding his wife of 15 years the next morning. Beside him, their eight-year-old daughter dandled her baby brother in an imitation of motherhood.
Another civilian gave a detailed account of an assault last month on settlements between KIA and government military lines. Hkun Awng described a four-day attack, with the army firing what he believed were chemical agents into areas around their villages — possibly to force them further and further out of the territory.
“With the one that explodes on the ground, the smoke is black and everything afterward is black. It was like you had poured engine oil on the ground ... The grass and leaves and bark were all completely black,” he said. “With the other, it explodes in the air. They shoot two [shells] together: one with white cloudy smoke and the other with brown smoke.”
When villagers went to investigate, children and the elderly were immediately affected, he said, and others more gradually.
“The throat dries up. It feels like wanting to cough. You feel nauseous and want to vomit and your body weakens,” he said.
Experts said the nature of the substances was unclear. Anti-crop agents would usually take days or weeks to work. While CS gas makes some individuals nauseous, irritant effects usually predominate, said Alastair Hay, professor of environmental technology at Leeds University.
CS gas and other riot control agents can be used in civil disturbances, but are forbidden in warfare under the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), which Myanmar has signed, but not ratified. Julian Robinson, an expert on chemical weapons at Sussex University, said allegations of use in Myanmar were “both numerous and — at least to my mind — unresolved.”
Some witnesses said that troops seemed to assume all Kachin were KIA members or active supporters.
“In other cases, it is clear they have simply gone into an area and shelled the village and watched people run away — and then quite often destroyed food and made the area uninhabitable. They create huge areas which are free fire zones and basically shoot on sight,” Mathieson said. “It is not necessarily to kill people, but to drive them away, to deny support [for the KIA] and tie up their resources as people flee into their areas.”
The Guardian has changed the names and withheld details of interviewees, because they fear retaliation.
Government authorities did not respond to questions. An official at the embassy in Beijing said that information on Kachin was available from state media and that the foreign ministry was busy preparing for a summit.
The government has signed deals with other ethnic groups in recent weeks and has met Kachin representatives for discussions, bringing hope for a resolution.
Burmese Minister of Industry Aung Thaung, the head of the Union Level Peace-Making Group, said on Friday that the government wanted “everlasting peace” and hoped to sign agreements with all ethnic groups within three years.
Asked why troops had not followed the presidential order to withdraw from combat with the Kachin, he told Reuters there might be skirmishes owing to problems communicating with troops in remote areas.
In another possible sign of progress, UN Childrens’ Fund and UN High Commissioner for Refugees officials last week were allowed to visit Majiayang, where many of the displaced Kachin have fled.
The World Food Programme has been able to visit only government-controlled areas, but hopes it may now be able to extend its program — at least until funding for Myanmar runs out, in February.
A Kachin volunteer said psychological issues were as acute as food shortages and health problems, with traumatized families further distressed by recent fighting.
“People are crying in their mind,” she said.
When they hear gunshots, “they are frightened and want to escape again,” she said.
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