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Posted: 2018-05-07 08:59:48

Updated May 08, 2018 00:10:21

While international eyes focus on what the UN has called the ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, another deadly conflict is heating up in the mountains of the country's north.

Aid workers say they are "profoundly concerned" by fighting near civilian populations in Kachin State, where a decades-old conflict has flared with new clashes which are being described as the most intense since the 1960s.

Thousands of civilians have fled, but thousands more are trapped without supplies.

An officer with the Kachin Independence Army, Captain Labang Ze Lum, said they would keep fighting for "as long as the Burmese keep coming at us."

This conflict goes back a long time, and while it has ebbed and flowed for years, recently it has intensified.

When Burma — now called Myanmar — gained its independence in 1948, its many ethnic groups were promised that they would later be able to break away and form their own lands.

But that has not happened, and ever since the ethnic armies have fought against the army, known as the Tatmadaw.

Oxfam programme advisor Dustin Barter was recently in Kachin State and said the recent escalation in fighting was worrying as it had spread over five townships.

"We're also seeing a lot fighting in civilian areas, which has displaced thousands of civilians and also trapped many people in the conflict areas," he said.

"We're unable to get humanitarian access or safe passage for the civilians from those conflict areas."

Mr Barter said civilians were trapped by the fighting in the jungles.

"We're still trying to get access and safe passage for approximately 2,000 people who are trapped in the jungle and unable to escape," he said.

One 40-year-old man from Bum Nan Yang village said he and his family fled their village when the fighting started.

He said there were air strikes, artillery and then small arms fire.

"My children were on the other side of the village and fled into the jungle," he said.

"I worry about their education. If the fighting stops, they can come back and go freely to school.

"My two children are still in the jungle after six days. There is no phone connection."

A woman from the same village said she had just started preparing for the monsoon rice planting and wanted to return, but she was scared about reports of torture.

"If the government takes the military away, I want to go home because I just started preparations for rice-planting season," she said.

"My livelihood is there and it's also not safe here."

Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi has described peace as her highest priority.

Yet there has been little progress in government-run peace talks, with some of the biggest ethnic groups — including the Kachin Independence Army — refusing to take part.

Topics: unrest-conflict-and-war, burma

First posted May 07, 2018 18:59:48

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