Thousands Flee Kachin Fighting

Burmese government soldiers (L) return to Kachin rebel military officers (R) the body of rebel fighter Chyang Ying, who was killed in battle, June 11, 2011. It was part of a prisoner exchange deal.

Thousands of people have left their homes and villages to avoid deadly clashes between Burmese government troops and rebel fighters in the Kachin region north of the country near the Chinese border, reports say.

Rebel sources are now describing the situation as "civil war."

"Over 10,000 Kachin refugees fled to the China border with the commencement of civil war over the last three days between the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and Burmese troops in Northern Burma," the Kachin News Group (KNG), which has close contact with the rebels, said on its website Thursday.

The clashes have spread in recent days, prompting rebel forces to blow up bridges built by the Burmese government to halt the advance of government forces, which rights groups accuse of carrying out a brutal counter-insurgency campaign in ethnic minority areas involving the rape, torture, and murder of villagers.

Local reports said the refugees were fleeing to escape being preyed upon by government forces, rather than because they feared the fighting itself.

Thousands flee

KIA spokesman U La Naan said Thursday that Kachin soldiers had made some gains against the Burmese military, but that thousands of ethnic nationals had left the area as fighting raged on.

“Kachin forces today captured three Burmese soldiers of the North-East Command and three civilians—a carpenter, a mechanic, and a clerk—who were with the soldiers. They were caught moving inside the KIA’s Brigade 4 Region and surrendered without a fight. They are being well looked after by the KIA," U La Naan said.

"Meanwhile, about 5,000 civilians, including Shans and other ethnic nationals from villages along the Myitkyina-Bhamo Road, fled the war zone and arrived in Laiza [town]. Another 5,000 entered the No. 3 and No. 4 Regions of KIA territory," he said.

"The total number of refugees could be around 10,000. Tension is on the rise because the Burmese army units have not withdrawn from their positions. Security has been tightened in Myitkyina and even the police force has been put on alert."

The fighting, which has erupted sporadically over the past week, has been concentrated around a large hydropower project being built on the Ta Pein (Taping) River to provide power to China.

A Burmese government official confirmed that some bridges were destroyed in the fighting in Kachin State on Wednesday.

Call for calm

The U.S.-based rights group Campaign for Burma called on the junta to stop attacking ethnic resistance groups along the borders with China and Thailand, warning that the fighting could spark large-scale human rights abuses.

Overseas rights groups and the KNG said the government launched the first attack on KIA troops on June 9.

"Both sides have reinforced their troops with additional forces and severe fighting is expected to continue, not only in Kachin State, but also in other ethnic states," the group warned in a statement on its website Wednesday.

One of the largest ethnic armies in Burma which has signed ceasefire agreements with Burma, the KIA is believed to number around 10,000 troops.

"Last month, the regime began its attack against the Shan State Army-North, another cease-fire group, in Shan State and is now following suit with the KIA," the Campaign for Burma said.

It said several thousand people had already been displaced, used as human shields and forced laborers by the regime’s troops in the region over the past two months.

"It is widely feared that the resumption of armed conflict in Kachin State will result in larger scale displacement and human rights abuses," it said.

Plea for assistance

Campaign for Burma executive director Aung Din called on Beijing to open its borders to the refugees and provide them with humanitarian assistance, particularly at the Yingjiang border crossing in its southwestern province of Yunnan.

"[China should] provide protection and refuge to all villagers fleeing the fighting and allow humanitarian aid organizations access to the refugees,” Aung Din said.

The KIA has largely avoided conflict with the ruling military junta since signing a ceasefire agreement in 1994.

The Kachin people are mostly Baptist and Catholics in a Buddhist country, and make up around seven percent of Burma's population.

Aung Din told Agence France-Presse that about 16 state soldiers were thought to have been killed and more than 80 wounded, while four KIA troops died. No casualty figures were provided by the Burmese government.

While AFP said more than 1,800 villagers had crossed the border into China's Longchun district, the KNG denied that any of the estimated 10,000 refugees in the border area had done so.

Fighting in Burma's Kokang state in August 2009 drove thousands into refugee camps in China, earning the military regime a public reprimand from long-time ally Beijing.

Reported by RFA's Burmese service. Translation by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English with additional reporting by Luisetta Mudie.