Christmas brings no peace in Burma

ANXIETY IS INCREASING among front-line soldiers and refugees in Christian-dominated Kachin state in northern Myanmar as the government's recently revealed use of foreign-sourced heavy artillery suggests that the bloody conflict will only intensify and that hopes for the ethnic group's cause may be dwindling.

For about 100,000 Kachin displaced persons huddled into refugee camps in Laiza, the ethnic group's administrative capital on China-Myanmar border, and others who have been driven into the jungle by the bloody conflict engulfing their state, the prevailing mood of this holiday season is one of fear.

Myanmar's ethnic Kachin community, which is more than 90 percent Christians, traditionally celebrates Christmas complete with decorations, caroling and church worship every year. But, due to ongoing civil war, the festivities that the Christian majority ethnic group would under better circumstances be enjoying—holiday decorations, Christmas caroling, church services—are either very low key or absent entirely.

“Christmas Eve is a very important night for us because we're Christian, but I don't think I will enjoy it this year because we're all scattered and separated from our families due to the war,” said Mary Tawm, one of thousands of Kachin refugees in Laiza.

A sense of dread pervades Kachin communities as refugees and soldiers say that the Myanmar army has increased attacks on the ethnic group in the northern state and introduced heavy artillery into the equation. Kachin rebels comprise one of Myanmar's strongest ethnic groups, with about 15,000 fighters.

A veteran Swedish journalist Bertil Lintner revealed that ethnic Kachin soldiers found Swedish-made 84mm Carl Gustaf M3 recoilless rifles in the hands of Myanmar soldiers. That report, a violation of an arms embargo on Myanmar, brought international attention to the conflict.

According to Lintner and Kachin on the ground, the government army was also using 105mm howitzers, 120mm mortars and Russian Mi-24 Hind helicopter gunships. The armed attack helicopters were used extensively by Soviet forces in Afghanistan in the 1980s and it took Stinger surface-to-air missiles for the mujahideen there to bring them down. Anti-aircraft machine guns would have little or no impact.

“By deploying such a powerful weapon the Burmese [Myanmar] army has raised the conflict in Kachin State to a new stage _ it's now a full-scale civil war,” Lintner said.

Speaking from a front-line outpost on a hill in Kachin state's Lajayang region, about 11km from Laiza on the Chinese-Myanmar border, Min Htay of the All Burma Students' Democratic Front (ABSDF), an armed group fighting alongside the Kachin rebels, said he didn't expect the conflict to end any time soon.

On Dec. 23, the Myanmar Army has issued an order to the KIA armed ethnic rebels that observers say is akin to a declaration of war. In a letter sent on Sunday, the government’s Burma Army ordered ethnic rebels to vacate an important route near their headquarters.

The letter said that all soldiers from the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) should leave the route to Lajayang region, about 11 kilometers from their headquarters in Laiza.

The letter was signed by Brig-Gen Tun Tun Naung, northern commander of the government’s army, and sent through the independent Peace Talk Creation Group. It said government soldiers would be deployed to the Lajayang region to work on administrative processes there.

But Aung Kyaw Zaw, a Myanmar military watcher on the Sino-Myanmar border, said he believed the deployment would serve a military purpose.

“It’s not normal; it’s a declaration of war,” Aung Kyaw Zaw said, adding that government forces would likely wipe out KIA troops if the rebels remained on the frontlines.

The Kachin leaders responded that they would stand their ground.

The bloody 18-month conflict in northern Myanmar which has resulted in 100,000 internally displaced persons in Kachin state, Shan state and on the Chinese-Myanmar border, is escalating but the international community, including the UN, has largely been ignoring the devastation, say Myanmar watchers.

Last year, Christmas in Kachin State was also a silent night for Kachin refugees.

The ethnic Kachin people also normally gather at churches on Christmas Eve to worship, pray and exchange gifts. Due to ongoing civil wars, they can't freely celebrates Christmas for two years.

La Nan, the main spokesperson for the KIO said that despite Myanmar President Thein Sein's order for his army not to attack the KIA, several strategic bases as close as 6-10km from the KIA's headquarters in Laiza have come under fire from both air and ground forces.

“We have now told all our troops in strategic bases to be on high alert as we worry that they [government army] will open more fronts in the war,” La Nan said.

For the refugees, the New Year holds little promise of being any less menacing than the one that will soon pass.

“We want peace on Christmas Eve. I don't understand why they [the government army] have so severely increased their war against us, even during the holidays,” refugee Mary Tawm said.