Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Following seven-days of fierce fighting between Burmese government troops and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), local farmers and refugees are fleeing the area. Many are crossing into China.
Farmers from areas around Moemauk, Waimaw, Dawphoneyan, Manshi, Laiza and Myitkyina have stopped their normal work on preparing their fields prior to the planting season.The former treasurer of the New Democratic Army-Kachin (NDA-K), Muyin Daung Khaung, who lives in Myitkyina, told Mizzima that he saw about 70 farmers leaving the area with their belongings.
The farmers in the area generally grow rice on the mountain sides using the slash-and-burn method.
‘Leaving their farmlands means ruining their livelihood’, he said. ‘All these farmers are going back to their homes and abandoning their farmland. If the war continues for a long time, the people will face a food shortage in the coming months’, Muyin Daung Khaung said.
People in the area are very frightened, he said. ‘The commodity prices are rising as the transport routes are disrupted by the war. If the situation remains unchanged for two more days, commodity prices will increase’.
A resident in Laiza, the KIA stronghold, said many people are fleeing to Ruili on and Jie Gong on the Chinese side of the China-Burma border.
‘They are afraid the government troops will force them to serve as porters in their military operations’, he said. He said reports estimated that 15,000 people had fled to China.
Most of the people leaving for China are old and elderly, women and children. Many had made preparations earlier by renting houses or telling relatives they planned to evacuate if fighting broke out.
‘They left able-bodied men as caretakers of their homes’, said a man who is preparing to flee.
According to local sources in Moemauk and Bhamo where the current fighting started on June 9, government troops suffered heavy casualties. Sources said the troops used local people and convicts as porters.
A Kachin leader said the government may send two more army divisions to the war theatre and it may use air power to support its ground troops.
An area resident said, ‘We have had many sleepless nights. We are in constant fear of shells falling on our homes. I can’t sleep whenever I hear explosions on the outskirts of our town’.
On Tuesday, all passenger buses and trucks stopped their services in the war zone. One passenger bus on the Laiza-Myitkyina route left the bus terminal on Wednesday.
A KIO spokesperson complained that the state government and the Kachin political parties that supported the central government have been silent during the hostilities. The Shan Nationalities Democratic Party (SNDP) or White Tiger party, the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), the National Unity Party (NUP), the Unity and Democracy Party are not available at this time of crisis, he said.
He said,‘These parties formed at the behest of the government and all of them are pro-junta. They don’t do anything for their supporters now when they face difficulties. We cannot expect anything from them’.
He said there had been little local media coverage in state-run publications.
