PHOTO: Supplied by Kaung Htet.
Somebody said,
While international eyes focus on what the UN has called the ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, another deadly conflict is heating up in the mountains of the country's north.
First off, the above line was spoken in reference to the ethnic Kachin, of Kachin state, in the north of Myanmar. While the statement may be true, it has to be noted that, besides the Rohingya and the ethnic Kachin, there are other unreported, smaller ethnic groups who don't want to remain occupied under Myanmar. They all have been facing death and destruction for decades, dating back to the British colonial days.
The British, I must say, could have done a much better job before they left Asia. Not only in Myanmar, in northeast India also the colonial British had left behind a dictionary list of painful, unresolved territorial conflicts at the time of their departure.
The latest escalation in military conflict between the Kachin Independence Army and the Myanmar army, who came with aerial support, has caused the ethnic Kachin civilians to flee and hide in hunger and thirst. Women and children, like in other conflicts, have been the most vulnerable lot.
Captain Labang Ze Lum, of the Kachin Independence Army, said they would keep fighting for "as long as the Burmese keep coming at us."
This latest fighting has spread over five townships, with aids denied to the distressed civilians. Won't the international community give other ethnic groups the same level of attention given to Rohingya?
REFERENCES
Fighting escalates in Myanmar's Kachin State, trapping civilians in conflict zones
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