Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Artillery Attack Killed 23 Officer Cadets

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Artillery Attack Killed 23 Officer Cadets


By KLN
hkrat-sum-mat-ai-hpyendu-shalat-jawng-ma-ni
Burmese army’s 105 mm mortar attack on Wednesday killed 23 officer cadets from KIA’s officer training school at Woi Chyai Bum near Laiza. 18 other cadets were seriously wounded by the point-blank artillery fires from Burmese army positions at Hka Ya Bum, Bumre and Dumbang Bum.
Officer cadets were in tactical training session when a 105 mm mortar shell fell on them. 21 officer cadets died immediately after the attack and two cadets were later died at Mung Lai Hkyet Hospital in Laiza.


22 Dead as Burma Army Fires on Kachin Military Academy, Kachin Say

RANGOON — Twenty-two ethnic Kachin soldiers were killed and 15 others wounded when Burmese troops fired on a rebel base in Laiza on Wednesday, rebel officers confirmed.
La Nan, a spokesperson for the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), which is headquartered in Laiza, told The Irrawaddy by phone that “22 military academic trainees died and 15 were injured due to artillery shelling by the government [military base] at Hkayabum.”
All of the injured are currently being treated at Laiza General Hospital.
The soldiers were all under 30 years of age and were training for combat in a rebel base at Jawng Rung.
La Nan said that the fighting is still ongoing in some areas and described the Laiza encounter as an “ambush.”
“Government troops attacked with artillery. At 12:15pm, Light Infantry Battalion No. 390 attacked with 105mm [caliber ammunition]. At 12:36pm, Hkarabum Infantry No. 389 shot a 105mm into the military academy,” he said, adding that the academy is within close range of a camp for internally displaced persons (IDP).
A military official representing the northern command of the Burma Army in Myitkyina could not offer any confirmation or further details as of Wednesday afternoon.
“We need to find out what is going on on the ground. We can’t provide any detailed information at the moment,” the officer said on condition of anonymity.
At least two other offensives against KIA soldiers were reported this week in Kachin and Shan states.
KIA sources said that clashes beginning on Monday left one dead in northern Shan State, while fighting that erupted in Kachin State’s Hopin Township continues after causing one casualty.
Fighting has continued in northern Burma’s Kachin State since a government offensive led to the breakdown of a 17-year ceasefire in mid-2011. More than 100,000 people have been displaced by the conflict to date, many living in isolated and impoverished IDP camps.
The KIA is one of Burma’s only major ethnic armed groups that has not secured a bilateral ceasefire with the government as negotiators continue to push for a nationwide pact.
By http://www.irrawaddy.org/burma/22-dead-burma-army-fires-kachin-military-academy-rebels-say.html

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Kachin CSOs Urge President Obama to Voice Their Concerns

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By KLN
2011_State_of_the_Union_Obama by whitehouse
Kachin Civil Societies in a letter dated Nov 10 call for US President Obama to support peace process, to call upon Burma President Thein Sein and his ruling party to amend constitution, and to refrain from giving legitimacy and prestige through premature military engagement.
President Obama is due to arrive in Naypyidaw on Thursday to participate in the Ninth East Asia Summit and U.S. – ASEAN Summit. This is his second visit to Burma. President Obama will hold bilateral meetings with President Thein Sein and Opposition leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi during his two-day stay in Burma.
In the letter addressed to President Obama, Kachin Civil Societies said, “Humanitarian assistance is still needed for Kachin IDPs until they can return safely home.” They also reminded that return and resettlement of IDPs should be done only when conditions are met to ensure safety. “Foreign investment policies should support the peace process, not exacerbate the conflict,” the letter mentioned. Kachin Peace Network organized Kachin Civil Societies organizations from around the world to cosign the joint letter.
The ranking members of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Rubio and Kirk, shared their concerns about Burma’s trajectory in a letter last week. “The Burmese Government has failed to fulfill nearly all commitments to measurably improve Burma’s human rights and nonproliferation practices, made between you and President Thein Sein during your November 2012 visit,” said Rubio and Kirk.
Kachin Alliance, a network of Kachin communities and organizations in US, also expressed similar concerns. “Although we applaud the Burmese government for some progressive actions it has taken, we must denounce its inactivity or unwillingness to curb the violence being committed against unarmed civilians in the Kachin area and other parts of the country,” said in a letter dated Nov 7.
Gum San Nsang, the president of Kachin Alliance said, “We see this trip as a chance to strengthen the relationship with Government of Burma and also reinforce the administration’s commitment to national reconciliation and democratic transition process.” He continued, “I’d like to say to President Obama to use calibrated approach when utilizing sanctions and aids to incentivize national reconciliation.”
Gum San said he told Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes and Assistant Secretary of State Tom Malinowski in Kachin Alliance’s meetings with US officials that if Government of Burma has genuine intention to resolve the longest civil war in the world, it would invite diverse international observers including US to current ceasefire talks. “Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement without addressing code of conducts and joint monitoring mechanism is not an international norm. Our Kachin public is bearing the brunt of protracted civil war, but we are determined to wait until equitable arrangement come into fruition,” said Gum San.

Thursday, September 4, 2014

Kachin Alliance

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About

An organization founded by the Kachin community in America to advocate for the rights of Kachin ethnic minorities
Mission

Our mission is to promote justice, equality and peace for Kachin ethnic minorities.
Description

What Do We Do

We organize awareness campaigns and conduct presentations, speaking engagements and other activities to educate the general public, local and international organizations in the US about human rights conditions of the Kachin ethnic minorities especially those in Burma.

We gather data and present reports on human rights violations and on-going atrocities against the Kachin ethnic minorities in order to draw global attention and responsiveness to on-going crisis and emerging issues concerning the Kachin ethnic minorities.

We coordinate relief efforts and raise fund for Kachin refugees around the world and internally displaced individuals in Burma. 

Basic Info

Contact Info


Thursday, April 17, 2014

Army Lost 2 Helicopters, Suffered Heavy Personnel Losses in Past Kachin Offensive: Report

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Monday, April 14, 2014

Washington DC kaw du taw ai Srn, Khon Ja Kawn manu dan ai lam sang lang dan(KPN-Video)

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USA du nga ai Kachin ni sanglang hpawng hat madat hkam la nga yang ....Click on video link

URGENT RELEASE: HUMANITARIAN CRISIS UPDATE FOR KACHIN STATE AND NORTHERN SHAN STATE

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Dear Colleagues, Partners and Friends

The Joint Strategy Team for Humanitarian Response in Kachin & Northern
Shan States has issued the following statement (also attached as PDF
document) on current Humanitarian crisis in Man Win Gyi areas and
further displacement of over 3,000 IDPs and Refugee in China boarder
area this weekend.

We urge you to share this information.

Sincerely,

BRIDGE, Kachin Baptist Convention (KBC), Kachin Relief and Development
Committee (KRDC), Kachin Women Association (KWA), Kachin Development
Group (KDG), Karuna Myanmar Social Services (KMSS), Metta Development
Foundation, Shalom Foundation and Wunpawng Ninghtoi (WPN)



URGENT RELEASE: HUMANITARIAN CRISIS UPDATE FOR KACHIN STATE AND NORTHERN SHAN STATE


It has been more than 30 months since armed clashes between the
Myanmar government armed forces and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA)
forces were first rekindled in 2011, resulting in more than 120,000
IDPs.
Despite the ongoing peace negotiations, skirmishes between the Myanmar
government armed forces and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) have
been increasing.
Government deployed more armed troops to the current conflict area
based on the census data collection period and it has increased
tension between two armed groups. Fighting between the Myanmar
government army and the KIA broke out on 10th  April 2014 close to Man
Win Gyi, southern Kachin State. Recent, Thursday's fighting comes less
than 48 hours after a KIO delegation took part in joint talks in
Yangon involving government officials and the KIO's fellow
representatives from the National Ceasefire Coordination Team
(NCCT).The fighting has affected several villages in the area, which
is located on the borders between Kachin State, northern Shan State,
and China. Four camps are located in close vicinity to the fighting:
Man Wing Gyi Catholic Church and Man Wing Gyi Baptist Church (approx.
2,700 people), Lagat Yang (over 800 people), and Hka Hkye Zup (approx.
190 people). Many of these people have been forced to run away from
their camps. IDPs in these locations had already been displaced during
fighting in November 2013.  This will be the third displacement for
some of them.
Under this situation which threats IDPs lives and security and hampers
the peace process, the undersigning organizations, (the Joint Strategy
Team), are actively responding to the urgent needs of IDPs and their
safety and security, with additional support from UNHCR and
international organizations, and want to deliver the following urgent
key messages to all stakeholders are:
1.      We urge for an immediate cessation of hostilities: A peaceful
solution to the conflicts in Myanmar is a critical priority for the
future of the country and its people. Both parties should not violate
agreements that have been reached previously and they must implement
the agreements immediately.

2.      We call for full respect for the international humanitarian law and
human rights laws. All parties to the conflict (the Myanmar government
armed forces and the KIA) should respect the rights of civilians, and
observe the principles of distinction between civilians and combatants
and take precaution in the case of attacks to avoid civilian victims.
As well as ensuring that civilians are not exposed to any "violence to
life and person, cruel treatment and torture, outrages upon personal
dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment."

3.      Protection and safety of the internally displaced persons is an
urgent concern. The children and IDPs themselves will have been
traumatised by recent experiences. All stakeholders should ensure that
IDPs' protection needs and concerns are addressed.

4.      We urge the People's Republic of China government to respect the
principle of "non refoulement ", as stated by International
humanitarian law, as well as refugee law and refugees' rights.

5.      We call upon all international and national humanitarian
organisations and the donor community to provide the urgently needed
humanitarian assistance and advocacy support. Noting that the
displaced persons have the following immediate humanitarian needs:
protection and safe arrival to other IDP camps; access to foodstuffs,
shelter and non-food items (e.g., blankets and warm clothes). These
IDPs are seeking safety and have no other resources with them.
The facts: The above messages are based on the following facts which
are provoking this dramatic situation:
The Government Army conducted multiple attacks in the Nawng Luk, Nawng
Lum, Lahkum Pa, Nam Hka, Lagat Daw, Gawng Ngu Yang, Nam Hee and Kyawk
Hpya areas in Mansi Townshipduring these few days. The attacks reached
less than 1 kilometer from the Lagat Yang IDP camp, driving over 800
IDPs away while over 2,000 Shan, Kachin and Palaung villagers fled to
the China border. Over 200 IDPs from Lagat Yang camp and over 2,000 of
villagers from Bang Glam, Nam Hi, Na Lung, Nawng Jun, Nawng Luk and
others surrounding villages (from 24 villages) stayed at Shan Buddhist
temple, relatives home and public space of Kachin village  at Nawng
Dao village in China.Heavy bombing machine shot by Government army
shield reached to near the Lagat Yang Camp. Provoking more than 1,400
IDPs.
By today (14 April 2014), the situation along the border line in China
side is still chaotic.  People's Republic of China authorities,
allowed some IDPs to enter into China as the fighting intensified.
The refugees fled from Hka Hkye camp to Lung Krawk, across the river
in China side.   Chinese soldiers are guarding the camp at all time.

Refugees from Shan villages are desperate because they could not
finish their sugarcane harvesting. Most of the villagers in this area
are depending on sugarcane plantations for their livelihood.

14 April 2014; Yangon, Myanmar
BRIDGE, Kachin Baptist Convention (KBC), Kachin Relief and Development
Committee (KRDC), Kachin Women Association (KWA), Kachin Development
Group (KDG), Karuna Myanmar Social Services (KMSS), Metta Development
Foundation, Shalom Foundation and Wunpawng Ninghtoi (WPN)

Friday, April 11, 2014

Kachin IDP refugee photo update today news

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FB-Lachid Kachin By. (Namhkai Hka )
Like ·  · 

Thursday, April 10, 2014

Hundred Displaced as Burma Army Shells Kachin Rebel Post

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9 mins · 

Burmese government troops launched an attack in eastern Kachin State today, forcibly displacing more than 300 local residents. The fighting broke out less than 500 meters away from a camp for internally displaced people (IDPs). As the fighting continues, aid workers worry that more than 1,000 IDPs will be affected.
If the conflict spreads, the affected IDPs will likely attempt to cross the border to Yunnan Province, China only to be stopped by the Chinese and forced to stay in Burma's deadly conflict zone. http://bit.ly/1kwJ9lk
photo: Bodenham/AFP/Getty Images
===================================
MAI JA YANG, Kachin State — Heavy fighting between government forces and troops from the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) displaced more than 300 local residents in eastern Kachin State on Thursday.
The fighting began Thursday morning when government troops attacked KIA Third Brigade positions close to Mai Ja Yang, the second-largest town controlled by the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), aid workers operating in the area told The Irrawaddy. The KIO is the political wing of the KIA.
The fighting has already displaced some 300 people from U Yang and Nam Hka villages who arrived in Man Win Gyi, a government-controlled town, on Thursday afternoon. As the fighting has continued, more are expected to arrive at the local Catholic church.
Aid workers worry that the fighting will affect more than 1,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) currently staying at the Lagat Yang IDP camp, which is in KIO-controlled territory. Throughout the day on Thursday, Burma Army forces fired heavy artillery at a KIA position on Na Lung Bum mountain, less than 500 meters away from Lagat Yang. A few of the shells landed very near to the camp, according to staff from Wunpawng Ninghtoi (WPN), a local Kachin aid group.
Also on Thursday, a 40-year-old Shan villager named Chit Bwe from the village of Nawng Jung, very near to Lagat Yang, was injured by a shell believed to have been fired from government positions at Nawng Lum, WPN staff told The Irrawaddy.
As of Thursday afternoon, many Lagat Yang residents were preparing to head to Nan Moon, a small Shan village on the Sino-Burmese border. If the fighting spreads, they will likely try and cross into China.
Chinese authorities, however, appear reluctant to allow the IDPs to cross into neighboring Yunnan province. “We are very concerned about the safety of the IDPs,” said WPN’s director Mary Tawm.
While most of the affected IDPs are ethnic Kachin, some are also Shan and Palaung. Many of the residents of Lagat Yang were previously living at a camp in Nam Lim Pa village that came under attack by the army last November. Nam Lim Pa was seized by government forces just minutes after an aid convoy from a church group affiliated with the Burmese Catholic church entered the KIO-controlled village via government territory.
In a related development, the road from the government town of Man Win Gyi to the Chinese town of Nandau was closed by Burmese government authorities, potentially complicating efforts by humanitarian groups trying to reach the newly arrived IDPs.
Thursday’s fighting comes less than 48 hours after a KIO delegation led by Gen. Gun Maw took part in joint talks in Rangoon involving government officials and the KIO’s fellow representatives from the National Ceasefire Coordination Team (NCCT).
Fighting has been on and off between the ethnic Kachin rebels and government troops since June 2011, when a 17-year ceasefire agreement between the two sides collapsed.
by-irrawady blog

Friday, April 4, 2014

A Kachin man named Sumlut Gun Gam from Northern Shan Sate''was found severely injured due to torture and beaten by Myanmar Government Troops.''

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A Kachin man named Sumlut Gun Gam from Northern Shan Sate, Hka Lam village in ( Wandin kapna ) was arrested by Government Troops (Tatmadaw) from Light Infantry 507 on the 25th March from his home. He was tied and severely tortured.
The village leaders requested Tatmadaw to release Sumlut Gun Gam, and he was released on the 1st of April 2014. At the time of his released, Sumlut Gun Gam was found severely injured due to torture and beaten. People thought he was already dead at the time of his release.
At this moment, Sumlut Gum Gam is heaving medication at the Hospital in Ruilli (Shweli) in China.
The issue of brutal arrest and tortured are not new to Myanmar. The people in the war zone are always scared of that type of abuses.
By-khonja
ေက်းရြာလူႀကီးမ်ားမွ ဦးဆြမ္လြတ္ဂြန္၀မ္ အားျပန္လည္လြတ္ေပးပါရန္ အမ်ိဳးမ်ိဳး သြားေရာက္ေတာင္းပန္ေျပာဆိုရာ ဧျပီ (၁)ရက္ေန ့တြင္မွ ျပန္လည္ လြတ္ေပးခဲ့ေႀကာင္းသိရသည္။ ျပန္လည္လြတ္ေပး၍ သြားေရာက္ေခၚေဆာင္ရာ ဦးဆြမ္လြတ္ ဂြန္၀မ္ အား ေသလုေမ်ာပါး ဒဏ္ရာ ဒဏ္ခ်က္မ်ားစြာျဖင့္ တစ္ကိုယ္လုံး ေနရာမလပ္ ရိုက္နွက္ နွိပ္စက္ကာ ေသျပီအထင္ျဖင့္ ပစ္ထား ေႀကာင္း သြားေရာက္ေခၚေဆာင္သူ ေက်းရြာလူႀကီးမ်ားက ေျပာသည္။
ယခုအခါ အဆိုပါ မတရားဖမ္းဆီး နွိပ္စက္ ခံရသူ ဦးဆြမ္လြတ္ ဂြန္၀မ္အား တရုတ္ျပည္ ေရႊလီဘက္ျခမ္းရိွ ေဆးရုံတြင္ ေဆးကုသမႈ ခံယူေနေႀကာင္း သိရိွရသည္ ။ ျမန္မာ အစိုးရတပ္ မ်ား မွ ယခုကဲ့သို ့ ရြာသူရြာသားမ်ား အား မတရားသျဖင့္ ဖမ္းဆီး နွိပ္စက္မႈမ်ား အေႀကာင္းျပခ်က္မရိွ မႀကာခဏ ျပဳလုပ္ေနေသာေႀကာင့္ အဆိုပါေဒသရိွ ရြာသူရြာသားမ်ားမွာ အျမဲတမ္း စိုးရိမ္ထိတ္လန္ ့ေနႀကရေႀကာင္း သိရိွရသည္ ။
ကခ်င္အမ်ိဳးသား တစ္ဦးအား ျမန္အစိုးရတပ္ မွ မတရား ဖမ္းဆီးနွိပ္စက္
4 April 2014 post by Jade Land
ရွမ္းျပည္ေျမာက္ပိုင္း ( Wandin kapna ) ေဒသ ခါ့လန္မ္ ေက်းရြာတြင္ ေနထိုင္ေသာ ကခ်င္အမ်ိဳးသား ဦးဆြမ္လြတ္ ဂြန္၀မ္ အား ျမန္မာအစုိးရတပ္ ခလရ (၅၀ရ) တပ္ မွ မတ္လ (၂၅)ရက္ေန ့က အိမ္တိုင္ရာေရာက္ လာေရာက္ဖမ္းဆီးသြားခဲ့ျပီး ၄င္းတို ့၏ တပ္စခန္းထဲတြင္ ခ်ဳပ္ေနွာင္ထားကာ လူမဆန္စြာ အမ်ိဳးမ်ိဳး ရိုက္နွက္ နွိပ္စက္ ညဥ္းပန္းခဲ့ေႀကာင္းသိရသည္။
ေက်းရြာလူႀကီးမ်ားမွ ဦးဆြမ္လြတ္ဂြန္၀မ္ အားျပန္လည္လြတ္ေပးပါရန္ အမ်ိဳးမ်ိဳး သြားေရာက္ေတာင္းပန္ေျပာဆိုရာ ဧျပီ (၁)ရက္ေန ့တြင္မွ ျပန္လည္ လြတ္ေပးခဲ့ေႀကာင္းသိရသည္။ ျပန္လည္လြတ္ေပး၍ သြားေရာက္ေခၚေဆာင္ရာ ဦးဆြမ္လြတ္ ဂြန္၀မ္ အား ေသလုေမ်ာပါး ဒဏ္ရာ ဒဏ္ခ်က္မ်ားစြာျဖင့္ တစ္ကိုယ္လုံး ေနရာမလပ္ ရိုက္နွက္ နွိပ္စက္ကာ ေသျပီအထင္ျဖင့္ ပစ္ထား ေႀကာင္း သြားေရာက္ေခၚေဆာင္သူ ေက်းရြာလူႀကီးမ်ားက ေျပာသည္။
ယခုအခါ အဆိုပါ မတရားဖမ္းဆီး နွိပ္စက္ ခံရသူ ဦးဆြမ္လြတ္ ဂြန္၀မ္အား တရုတ္ျပည္ ေရႊလီဘက္ျခမ္းရိွ ေဆးရုံတြင္ ေဆးကုသမႈ ခံယူေနေႀကာင္း သိရိွရသည္ ။ ျမန္မာ အစိုးရတပ္ မ်ား မွ ယခုကဲ့သို ့ ရြာသူရြာသားမ်ား အား မတရားသျဖင့္ ဖမ္းဆီး နွိပ္စက္မႈမ်ား အေႀကာင္းျပခ်က္မရိွ မႀကာခဏ ျပဳလုပ္ေနေသာေႀကာင့္ အဆိုပါေဒသရိွ ရြာသူရြာသားမ်ားမွာ အျမဲတမ္း စိုးရိမ္ထိတ္လန္ ့ေနႀကရေႀကာင္း သိရိွရသည္ ။
Lahta Sammung, Wandin kapna buga, Hkalen mare hta shanu nga ai Slg. Sumlut Gun Wang hpe Myen hpyen dap Hkly 507 kaw na rim woi mat wa let zinri da ai. 25.3.2014 shani mare kata e nan sa rim woi mat nhtawm mare salang ni hte seng ang ai ni bai hkan sagawn la ai majaw 1.4.2014 shani she bai sa lu woi la ai. Slg. Sumlut Gun Wang hpe myen hpyen ni kawn la pyi nmai mat hkra adup zinri da ngut ai hpang si sai shadu ai majaw sha she mare salang ni hpe bai sa woi la shangun ai hku re. Ya e Slg. Sumlut Gun Wang gaw Miwa Mung, Shweli mare na tsirung e tsi tsi hkam nga ai hku re. Ya na zawn myen hpyen ni jahkring hkring galaw ai majaw mare masha ni mung grai hkrit let nga nga ma ai.

Monday, February 17, 2014

"Shawng Nnan Na Miwa Sakhkrung 100 Ning Jaw Poi"

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Sara Lashi Naw gaw 1914 ning hta Sasana Sara Ing Ram hpe woi nna Miwa Sakhkrung ga de du shang wa nhtawm, Dingga mare kaw Hpung sa de hpang da ya ai gaw daining (100) hpring sai majaw, 20-24 / 2 / 2014 ya laman hta, wu wu di di 100 ning chyeju shakawn hpawng kaba galaw hkyen nga saga ai. Hpung masha ni alu bang bang ai gaw, she jahkring la wa ra mat sai, hkum bang manu ngu pyi lau tsun sai, Nga mung 20 jan sai, Wa mung 40 jan wa sai, U gaw n dang hti mat sai .... Seng ang ai, nyi nawn ai, jinghku jingyu ni mung lu du ai ni sa du shang lawm nna, Chyeju ningnan hkam la ga law ....
By: Nam hkai hka FB


Press conference on Ethnic's concerns of current Myanmar Census

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ယေန႔ ျပဳလုပ္တဲ႔ လက္ရွိသန္းေခါင္စာရင္းလုပ္ေဆာင္ထားမႈအေပၚတိုင္းရင္းသားမ်ားစိုးရိန္ေၾကာင့္က်ခ်က္မ်ားသတင္းစာရွင္းလင္းပြဲ။
တိုင္းရင္းသားလူမ်ိဳး၆မ်ိဳး (ကခ်င္၊ ကရင္၊ ခ်င္း၊မြန္၊ရခိုင္၊ရွမ္း)၏ သန္းေခါင္စာရင္းဆိုင္ရာညွိႏိႈင္းေဆြးေႏြးပြဲရလာဒ္ ပူးေပါင္းထုတ္ျပန္ျခင္း အခမ္းအနား။ (17.2.2014)
(photo-Maran Jaw Gun)

Sunday, February 16, 2014

Shan NGO blasts ‘militia monks’

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Burma Army soldiers conduct military training in Talawgyi, Kachin State. (PHOTO: source unknown)Burma Army soldiers conduct military training in Talawgyi, Kachin State. (PHOTO: source unknown)
It is wholly inappropriate for Buddhist monks to participate in militia training, said a spokesman for the Shan Ethnic Affairs Organisation (SEAO), speaking to DVB.
His response came after a controversial photograph was published showing ethnic Red Shan monks receiving firearms training by men in military garb, at least one of whom was wearing an insignia of the Burmese army’s Northern Regional Military Command.
The monks in question have been widely criticised by Buddhist groups across Burma and abroad, with many commentators labelling them a “disgrace to their religion”.
SEAO deputy-chair Sai Sang Wai confirmed that the Northern Regional Military Command had been providing militia training to local villagers in Kachin State, including members of the Shan community, for about two years, apparently to protect themselves from alleged forced recruitment drives by the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) which is still at conflict with the central Burmese government.
But Sai Sang Wai also sought to downplay the incident, saying that the monks in the picture appear to be young “temporary” monks – a common practice in Southeast Asia where laymen can enter the monkhood for a short period in order to gain good karma.
“It was absolutely not military training for ordained monks,” he said. “I assume they were just novices – temporary monks – and they are not from Talawgyi.”
Talawgyi is a small Red Shan village near state capital Myitkyina where the Burmese armed forces have conducted several firearms training exercises in the past.
Sai San Wai said he and his group will be discussing the matter with local Buddhist monasteries to ensure such a scene is not repeated.
He added that forced recruitment and extortion by the KIA have been significantly reduced in the village since the militia training began. He noted that the SEAO is considering the formation of an official militia unit in the Red Shan village and that he expected numbers of voluntary militiamen to increase if the KIA persisted with their forced recruitment campaign.

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Burmese Army Continues Offensive Operations Against Kachin Independence Army

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Tatmadaw (Photo: MOD Myanmar)
Tatmadaw (Photo: MOD Myanmar)
Burmese army has launched a series of continuous offensives against KIA troops seizing two frontline posts in this week. Various local sources have reported continuous troops build-up in KIA’s 3rd and 5th Brigade areas.
A combined force of Burmese army’s 261st Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) and 423rd Light Infantry Regiment (LIR) attacked Kachin people militia (MHH in Kachin) troops led by Lieutenant Naw Ra and seized Hpung Maw Post on Feb 12 at 10:30 am. Hpung Maw Post is located in KIA’s 5th Brigade area which is home to KIO’s Laiza headquarter in south eastern Kachin State. A KIA source says MHH troops had to withdraw from Hpung Maw Post because of the heavy bombardment by government troops. At least 18 rounds of artillery shells were fired by Burmese army’s artillery unit based at Shadan Pa (Byuha Kone) on Wednesday. One Kachin soldier went missing during the fighting and his whereabouts is still unknown, said the KIA source.
On the same day, KIA troops stationed at Hka-U post withdrew from their post at around 10:30 am after facing an attack and surrounded by a large number of Burmese army troops. KIA sources say Burmese army continues heavy troops build-up and launched a series of attacks on KIA’s frontline posts with fewer soldiers in areas around Dagaw Manda, Ja Ing Yang and Hka-U village.
Local sources say that there have been signs of increased movements by Burmese army troops in areas close to Kachin administrative headquarter in recent days. Burmese army’s 318th LIR troops led by Major Hien Htet arrived at Jam Bu Bum yesterday. Local observers say continuous deployment of Infantry units and troops from 67th LIB, 236th LIB, 238th LIB, and 309th LIR in KIA’s 3rd and 5th Brigade territories heightens tension between KIA and Burmese army.
Meanwhile, an unknown number of villagers have been arrested and detained by government soldiers at a local monastery in Ja Ing Yang village. A heavy battle took place between Kachin people militia troops and a combined force of Burmese army’s 261st LIB and 421st LIR near Ja Ing Yang village on Feb 10.
http://kachinlandnews.com/?p=24156