TUESDAY, 26 JUNE 2012 00:00DVB<\/p>\n
The Chinese government is guilty of systematic human rights violations against Kachin refugees fleeing violence in Burma, including the denial of vital humanitarian assistance and forced repatriation, a new report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) has warned.<\/p>\n
Up to 10,000 Kachins live in squalid, makeshift camps in Yunnan province without access to the legal protection or humanitarian aid prescribed by international refugee law, while fighting rages between Burmese troops and Kachin rebels across the border.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome Kachin refugee families have returned to Burma from Yunnan because of pressure from Chinese authorities or the lack of adequate humanitarian aid,\u201d said the report. \u201cThere they are exposed to ongoing fighting, hostile Burmese army forces, and landmines that have been widely laid by both the Burmese army and the KIA [Kachin Independence Army].\u201d<\/p>\n
The Chinese government has authorised a small number of local NGOs and church groups to operate along the border, but continues to block international aid or monitors from entering the region and refuses to recognise any of the refugees.<\/p>\n
As recently as May 2012, a government spokesperson dismissed the Kachin population as \u201cborder residents\u201d who \u201ccome to visit friends and relatives.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to the report, refugees \u201cremain in dire need of shelter, food, safe water and sanitation, non-food items, and health care.\u201d It further accuses the government of exploiting Kachins through discriminatory and abusive practices.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost children have no access to schools. In search of income, adults seek day labor and are vulnerable to exploitation by local employers,\u201d warned the report. \u201cOther Kachin refugees have been subject to arbitrary roadside drug testing, arbitrary fines, and prolonged and abusive detention by the Chinese authorities, all without due process or judicial oversight.\u201d<\/p>\n
As a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention, HRW is adamant that China must do more.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Chinese government has generally tolerated Kachin refugees staying in Yunnan, but now needs to meet its international legal obligations to ensure refugees are not returned and that their basic needs are met,\u201d said Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch.<\/p>\n
\u201cChina has no legitimate reason to push them back to Burma or to leave them without food and shelter.\u201d<\/p>\n
HRW has documented at least two bouts of refugees being refused entry or forced to return from China in June and November last year. \u201cMy aunt in Namhka tried to enter the China side in Nawngtaw,\u201d explains an ethnic Lisu woman. \u201cThey all had passports but were turned away\u2026[Chinese authorities] told them they are Burmese citizens and because of that they couldn\u2019t enter.\u201d<\/p>\n
The threat of refoulement has led to widespread fear among displaced Kachins, whose villages have often been razed to the ground by Burmese troops.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t feel secure here at all because we are still on the border and too close to the Burma side,\u201d a 25-year old refugee told HRW. \u201cI worry as the fighting continues, if the Chinese don\u2019t accept us, where will we go? Where can we live?\u201d<\/p>\n
The KIA\u2019s refugee committee (IRRC) recently told DVB that until late April residents in Laiza regularly witnessed Chinese soldiers at the official border gate express open hostility to Kachins crossing the border.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the past when the situation got intense the soldiers at the border would practice pushing people away at the border using shields and sticks,\u201d said Salang Kaba Doi Pyi Sa, head of the IRRC. \u201cIt was clearly to show that they would not accept refugees crossing into China.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since then Kachin officials and local Chinese authorities have informally discussed the possibility of resettling refugees into camps in Yunnan province. But as of yet no progress has been made and it remains unclear whether these plans have received sanction from Beijing, notorious for its silence \u2013 and some say tacit complicity \u2013 in the Kachin conflict.<\/p>\n
In March, the Burmese army is reported to have crossed the border and executed a Chinese citizen, but even this elicited a measured response.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe thought that this time the Chinese government would be angry,\u201d May Li Aung from humanitarian NGO Wunpawng Ninghtoi (WPN) told DVB. \u201cBut instead they brought food rations to the Burmese soldiers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Local aid groups have continuously expressed concern about China\u2019s recalcitrance as funding cuts precipitate a growing food and humanitarian crisis in the camps. All humanitarian supplies for displaced Kachins inside Burma must be smuggled across the border, while local authorities \u201clook the other way.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Chinese government is not only legally obligated, but fully capable of temporarily protecting Kachin refugees and meeting their basic needs,\u201d Richardson said.<\/p>\n
Violence between rebels and Burmese troops flared in June 2011 over a disputed territory near a Chinese-backed hydropower dam, ending a 17-year ceasefire. The Kachin Independence Organization cites concerns about large-scale development projects \u2013 largely dominated by Chinese economic interests \u2013 as a primary obstacle to durable peace.<\/p>\n
photo (Reuters)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
TUESDAY, 26 JUNE 2012 00:00DVB The Chinese government is guilty of systematic human rights violations against Kachin refugees fleeing violence in Burma, including the denial of vital humanitarian assistance and forced repatriation, a new report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) has warned. Up to 10,000 Kachins live in squalid, makeshift camps in Yunnan province without […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4934,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/equalitymyanmar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/equalitymyanmar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/equalitymyanmar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/equalitymyanmar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/equalitymyanmar.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4933"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/equalitymyanmar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4933\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4935,"href":"https:\/\/equalitymyanmar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4933\/revisions\/4935"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/equalitymyanmar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/equalitymyanmar.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/equalitymyanmar.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/equalitymyanmar.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}