“We usually had a good relationship with the soldiers stationed here during the ceasefire, but now there is no communication, since they shot two of our soldiers recently.”
It is not just the day-to-day relations between frontline troops that have changed, says the captain. “There is a big difference between the Burmese troops stationed close to KIA-held areas since the now defunct 1994 ceasefire, and those sent from elsewhere to fight this war,” he explains. “They are better armed and better trained, but so are we, so they usually just shell us from distance rather than face us in a fight.”
Another difference, according to Labang Doi Pyi Sa, head of the KIO Relief Committee, is in the battalions deployed to fight in Kachin state. “As far we know some of these are soldiers trained to face foreign enemies, so it seems that the army sees us as a foreign people,” he claims.
Most of the 70,000 Kachin people driven from their homes by fighting fled as Burmese troops approached. The vast majority of those interviewed by The Irrawaddy—at six camps near Laiza and Mai Ja Yang—say that they ran when they heard gunfire in the distance, leaving before the army arrived at their villages. Only two of those interviewed say they saw or know any civilian who was killed or physically-harmed by Burmese troops. Khaitang Marin, a mother-of-two from near Bhamo but now at Seng Mai camp outside Mai Ja Yang, said, “When the army came, we all ran, but they shot one man.”
Many say they left without most of their possessions, and that they heard the army either ransacked or burned their homes. Sitting inside a bamboo hut at Jeyang camp, Lama Bawk Htoi says that most of Nam San Yang—her village 12 miles away on the other side of Laiza—was burned down by Burmese troops. “It is not safe for us to go back, though we want to as we have been here for eight months now.”
The Jeyang camp—a 15 minute drive from Laiza beside the eponymous river that marks the border with China—hosts more than 5,600 people, making it the biggest refuge for those fleeing fighting inside KIA territory. Kareng Naw Awng, mayor of Laiza who helps manage the camp, says “it would be hoping against hope for them to get their property back, as the Tatmadaw [Burmese government troops] take their animals and valuables from their homes.”
Back at the bridge, the downside for civilians living by isolated Burmese army positions on the Laiza-Myitkina road is that soldiers regularly shake down passers-by, as troops cannot be supplied by the army. Maran Naw Bawk and wife Seng Tawng walked for 11 hours with their three cattle by the time they passed the bridge at Laja Yang. “We took a long way around,” said Seng Tawng, “as they [Burmese soldiers] try to take a cow or some money from people who go to Laiza.”
Seng Tawng and her husband are two new names added to Kachin State's growing number of internal refugees. “There was more fighting last Sunday,” said Maran Naw Bawk. “It was the closest yet to our village, so we think it is not safe any more.” Asked where they will go, he said, “I have relatives in Laiza, we can stay there.” And with a quick goodbye he gives the lead cow a firm crack of his bamboo stick and ushers the animals towards the town.
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