Burma: Army Committing Abuses in Kachin State

1
Lush rice fields in Kachin State, Burma. The Burmese army operations in the vicinity caused villagers to flee during planting season, risking food shortages when the crop is due to be harvested. © 2011 Human Rights Watch 268425
2
Sang Gang internally displaced persons camp, Kachin State. © 2011 Human Rights Watch 268425
3
Villagers from Sang Gang, in Kachin State, site of recent fighting, at a newly established internally displaced persons camp in southeastern Kachin State. © 2011 Human Rights Watch 268425
4
A man suffering from a goiter explains how his land was confiscated: “[My] farmland was confiscated by the Burmese government authorities [in 2006] and sold to a Burmese gold mining company...I received no compensation for my land.” After that, he and his family moved to an area controlled by the KIA and started a new life. When fighting began in June 2011, he hid along with other members of his village in the jungle for a month before fleeing to a displaced persons camp in eastern Kachin State, which is controlled by the KIA. Now, he says, he lost all of his property again. © 2011 Human Rights Watch 268425
5
Kachin Independence Army (KIA) fighters on the front line in southeastern Kachin State. © 2011 Human Rights Watch 268425
6
A woman said that when the fighting started she lost all of her property and belongings to Burmese soldiers now living in her village: “My friends and I [secretly] returned to the house to give the pigs and chickens some food, and when we arrived all the houses [in the village] were messy and destroyed. We were very afraid and we wanted to take our food but we could not...There are many civilians in our village sympathetic to the KIO [Kachin Independence Organization], so if we went back and stayed we would be killed.” She said that Burmese authorities had arrested her in 1986 on suspicion of being associated the Kachin Independence Army and sentenced her to two years in Bhamo prison: “I didn’t have a lawyer represent me, They didn’t allow me to do that.” © 2011 Human Rights Watch 268425
Burma’s armed forces have committed serious abuses against ethnic Kachin civilians in renewed fighting in Kachin State. Human Rights Watch conducted a fact-finding mission to the conflict areas in Kachin State in July and August, visiting abandoned villages and eight remote camps of internally displaced persons. Witnesses described serious abuses committed by Burmese soldiers, including killings and attacks on civilians, pillaging of villages, and the unlawful use of forced labor. Tens of thousands of people have fled through the mountains and jungle at the height of the rainy season, driven away by fear of army attacks.
Region / Country