Bangkok (dpa) – Government troops and Kachin rebels in Myanmar have blocked humanitarian aid from reaching more than half of the 75,000 Kachin refugees who have fled fighting in their northern state, Human Rights Watch said Tuesday. “The Burmese army is committing unchecked abuses in Kachin State while the government blocks humanitarian aid to those most in need,” said Elaine Pearson, the group's deputy Asia director. While Western democracies have applauded Myanmar's government for making political reforms since it came to office a year ago, the military has been carrying out an offensive against the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) since June, displacing up to 75,000 civilians belonging to the Kachin ethnic minority. The government has signed ceasefires with a half-dozen other ethnic minority rebel groups this year but has failed to conclude a peace pact with the Kachin. Both sides in the Kachin conflict were using antipersonnel mines and forced labour on the front lines, including children as young as 14, Human Rights Watch said in a report based on more than 100 interviews with refugees and aid workers. It also accused the army of rapes and other sexual violence. “Concerned governments should urgently support an independent international mechanism to investigate abuses by all sides to the conflict in Kachin State and in other ethnic areas,” Pearson said. The greatest threat to Kachin refugees is their lack of access to humanitarian aid, the report said. Human Rights Watch said both sides in the conflict had blocked aid to about 45,000 of the refugees who have fled to 30 camps in territory under the control of the Kachin Independence Organization, the political arm of the KIA, on the Myanmar-China border. The government of Myanmar, also known as Burma, has granted UN agencies access to this area once, in December. The KIO on one occasion rejected the delivery of humanitarian aid from the Kachin State Rescue and Resettlement Committee, which is connected with Myanmar's parliament, and from the government agency the Myanmar Red Cross Society. “There's still a long way to go before the people of Burma, particularly those in conflict areas, benefit from recent promises of reform,” Pearson said. “The international community should not become complacent about the serious human rights violations still plaguing Burma.” BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/oA9LY Tags: Aid, Conflict, Kachin, Myanmar Section: Latest News, Southeast Asia
