Is China backing Burma’s war against Kachin rebels?

 By Zin Linn Jul 01, 2011

As the war  in Burma’s Kachin State continues, more and more people are seeking refuge along the Sino-Burma border. According to Kachin News Group (KNG), more than 20,000 Kachin war refugees fled to China since the conflict began, fearing torture, abuse, rape or being used as porter by Burmese troops.

Meanwhile, Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and Burmese army officials met Thursday morning in Lagayan town for proper talks, said the Irrawaddy News. This is the first time the two sides have sat down together since hostilities in Kachin State resumed on June 9. The renewed warfare near the Chinese border effectively broke a 17-year-old armistice between the two sides.


Burmese military delegation, led by Colonel Than Aung, minister for border affairs in Kachin State met with Kachin officials led by General Gun Maw, second-in-command of the KIA. During the meeting, representatives of the KIA called on the Burmese government to release a reliable letter by authoritative body, such as a memo from Union Government, to back up the official promise toward a proper ceasefire, according to a KIA Source. As said by Gun Maw, Thursday’s meeting may be a beginning but he did not know the next meeting date.
Despite the meeting, there is no sign of the Burmese military standing down. More than a hundred Chinese-made military trucks were reported to have arrived in Muse, a busy border trade town on the Sino-Burma border since Sunday, raising the question whether they will be used in the war against Kachin Independence Army (KIA), quoting local sources Shan Herald Agency for News (S.H.A.N.) said.

The six-wheel Chinese trucks are produced by Japanese Howo Company in China and exported to Burma by way of Jiegao-Muse. Hundreds of Burma Army soldiers are also reported to have been sent to the town to take delivery of the trucks. The arrival of both military trucks and troops has fueled fear among the populace whether the war with the KIA may spread to the area, according to Herald Agency for News.

As a result, the Kachin community in the United Kingdom plus others from the Burmese community and Tibetans protested during the visit of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao to London on June 27 in front of British Prime Minister David Cameron’s house.

Prime Minister Wen Jiabao arrived in Britain on June 25 on a three-day visit to UK and has signed a billion dollar trade agreement between the two countries. Organized by ‘Students for a Free Tibet, UK’, activists and UK-based people from the Burmese community, Kachin people and those showing solidarity demonstrated, said a participant.

Since China is an ally of the Burmese government, demonstrators protested against the military offensive on Kachin State by the Burmese Army.

Kachin people around the world held demonstrations on June 24 demanding China stop supporting the military backed Burmese government. The protestors also demanded to let Kachin war refugees taking safe haven in China. At the same time, they pressured the Burmese government to stop offensive in Kachin State and urged the international community to help thousands of war refugees, who fled to the Sino-Burma border.

KIA officials said thousands of war refugees need immediate aid and there is no organization or international aid agency on the ground.

Actually, the spillover affects of refugees into neighboring countries is caused by the Burmese government and it should take responsibility for the problem. But, the Burmese government seems to have no sympathy for its own ethnic people; instead it has been incessantly launching war against its own citizens who call for equal rights.

Source : http://asiancorrespondent.com/author/uzinlinn/