Burma : Chinese authorities tell Kachin refugees to move from camps

Major News of  <Mizzima> :  Chinese authorities tell Kachin refugees to move from camps

Wednesday, 25 July 2012 14:46 Phanida

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Chinese authorities have ordered more than 4,000 Kachin war refugees staying in camps in China to move within one month, according to the Kachin Independence Organization refugee relief committee.

Dwe P Sar said that on July 20-21 authorities in Ruili in Yunnan Province summoned KIO Brigade 3 officials and told them to prepare for the move.

“Chinese authorities said the refugees must move within a month. So we are worried. Refugees have difficulty in the rainy season,” he told Mizzima. He said refugees do not want to return to Burma at the present time.

More than 4,000 refugees are in six refugee camps in Nongdao, said Dwe P Sar. Most of them come from Burma’s Manwingyi, Mansi Township, Bhamo districts.

Meanwhile, KIO officials are preparing to house the returning refugees, but in areas farther from their homes and villages.

Hkun Htun, an official of Nongdao IDPs Camp Committee, said that there is a primary school in his refugee camp now that serves 868 students.

Students are now attending classes, he said, and their education would be interrupted again. It will be difficult to establish school facilities again, he said. Camp residents also don’t want to move right now because they will have to go farther away from their homes and fields, making it harder to take care of their animals and property, which they can now check on occasionally.

“If they have to more farther away, the will have problems with transportation,” Hkun Htun told Mizzima.

In early July, Chinese authorities ordered refugees staying in Yang Lu and Law Hpai camps in Nongdao to move. But, the KIO negotiated successfully to allow the refugees to continue staying in the camps in China.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch issued a report titled “Isolated in Yunnan” saying that 1,000 Kachin refugees fled to Yunnan, China, on June 26, but Chinese authorities forced them to return [to Kachin State]. In response, on June 27, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said that Chinese authorities were still helping Burmese citizens who have taken refuge in China and they did not force the refugees to return.

According to Dwe P Sar, more than 53,000 people are taking refuge at the area controlled by the KIO and more than 26,000 are taking refuge in towns, totaling 79,000 IDPs.

On July 22, Upper House MP Zahkung Ting Ying, an independent, told 2,000 war refugees fleeing from 17 villages in Pangwa Township in Burma to leave China and go to Pangwa as soon as possible.

Dwe P Sar said if the refugees move to Pangwa, the Chinese government would help.

On July 19, Zahkung Ting Ying told about 700 refugees fleeing from Hpre in upper Pangwa to move back to Pangwa.

Many refugees said they did not want to move to Pangwa, Dwe P Sar said. 

news@theasian.asia