Burma’s army and ethnic Kachin rebels were fighting since June, once they broke a 17-year-old cease-fire. The move sent tens of thousands of civilians fleeing into makeshift refugee camps. Rights groups accuse authorities of forestalling aid from reaching camps in rebel-held territory.
Four hundred Kachin refugees get regular donations of food and other aid at a Catholic-run camp. The youngest were born while within the camp, enlarging families that fled fighting between the Burmese military and the Kachin Independence Army.
Some have lost friends or relatives within the conflict. Others, like farmer Nar San Too, were themselves injured.
"While i used to be searching for mushrooms within the forest one morning in July last year, a landmine exploded…I stepped at the wire cable of the mine and it exploded beside me," he explains.
Tin Tun Kwut Nan says she and her eight members of the family fled Nan San Village after it was attacked.
"We ran from our village in fear," she says. "I don’t know exactly what number villagers were killed. Our village was burnt down by Burma’s Army.â€
The refugees are supported by donations from local officials, a native Catholic church, and the arena Food Program.
Volunteer food coordinator Daw Kyar Phyu says most arrived in October and are available from 10 different villages.
"They'll return to their villages when there's peace. Now, they're worried for his or her security so that they won't return their villages where there isn't any peace yet,†she says.
Although they're unable to come back home, these refugees are still at an advantage than the estimated 30,000 in rebel-controlled areas, where the govt. has cut-off food deliveries, except for just some U.N.aid convoys.
The last delivery in March contained simply enough food to feed just a few thousand for one month.
From WhatNewsToday.net
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