Kachin (economic, social, cultural, political)
Kachin material also in the Internal armed conflict section
Websites/Multiple Documents
Source/publisher:
"Kachin News"
Date of entry/update:
2010-12-14
Grouping:
Websites/Multiple Documents
Language:
Kachin
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Description:
"Kachin Development Networking Group is a network of civil society groups and development organisations in Kachin State, Burma. KDNG?s purpose is to effectively work for sustainable development together with locally-based organisations in Kachin State. It?s aim is to promote a civil society based on equality and justice for the local people in the struggle for social and political change in Burma"
Source/publisher:
Kachin Development Networking Group
Date of entry/update:
2008-12-26
Grouping:
Websites/Multiple Documents
Language:
English
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Description:
Original website is down but the Kachin National Organization has Facebook page.
Date of entry/update:
2010-12-14
Grouping:
Websites/Multiple Documents
Language:
English
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Source/publisher:
Kachinnet
Date of entry/update:
2010-12-14
Grouping:
Websites/Multiple Documents
Language:
Kachin
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Description:
"These are Burma?s voices for change, extraordinary stories of people of Burma from all walks of life. Their experiences, struggles, fears, and successes. These are unheard stories of incredible spirit of resilience and courage, voices of hope and dreams that have emerged from decades of oppression. Help us spread these voices across the globe!"...Stories and voices from Karen, Karenni, Shan, Kachin, Chin, Rakhine, Mon, Palaung, Pa-O, Nagas and other ethnic minorities.
Source/publisher:
Burma Link
Date of entry/update:
2016-03-14
Grouping:
Websites/Multiple Documents
Category:
Ethnic groups in Burma: general studies and articles, Kachin (economic, social, cultural, political), Karen (cultural, historical, political), Mon (cultural, political), Karenni (Kayah) - cultural, political, Chin (Zo)- economic, social, cultural, political, Lahu (cultural, political), Nagas (cultural, political), Sub-national administrative areas - general, States and Regions (covering more than one State or Region)
Language:
English
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Description:
A website related to the book of the same title edited by Mandy Sadan."This website contains some materials that are intended to illustrate or to extend some of the chapters in the book. More material will be added as time permits. You will find general information in About the Book; abstracts for each chapter, questions for further research and supporting documentation in Contents; you can Read the Introduction in full and download it; we also encourage ?Thinking about ...? how the issues raised in the book map onto bigger questions about how societies adapt themselves to war-peace transitions, with a particular emphasis on understanding history, experience, aesthetics and culture, and mobilities."
Mandy Sadan
Source/publisher:
Mandy Sadan
Date of entry/update:
2018-01-24
Grouping:
Websites/Multiple Documents
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Individual Documents
Description:
"From February 12 to 15, hundreds of people gathered in Bordumsa, a village in the Changlang district of northeast India’s Arunachal Pradesh, to celebrate Manau, a Kachin traditional festival. Women in bright, diamond-patterned outfits jingling with silver neck and waist ornaments lined up next to sword-bearing men in longyis and tasseled headbands. Twice a day, they sang and danced in spirals around a set of colorful pillars that serve as a Kachin cultural icon.
Manau carries deep cultural significance for Kachin people, but in Myanmar, its celebration has been overshadowed by war since the collapse of a seventeen-year ceasefire between the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) and military in 2011. The ensuing clashes displaced more than 100,000 people, leading many Kachins in Myanmar to boycott the event ever since.
This war has only intensified since the February 2021 military coup, pushing the prospects of a festive Manau within the country even farther into the distance. But the Kachin ethnic identity goes beyond international borderlines and has managed to endure these upheavals in northeast India, where a small Kachin community known as Singphos has kept the tradition going
Singphos, together with Jinghpaws in Myanmar, make up the largest of six major Kachin tribes along with Lachik, Lawngwaw, Lisu, Rawang and Zaiwa, and like many ethnic groups, their identity predates colonial borders.
Kachin people began migrating westward from the Hukawng valley, Sumpi Yang and Putao regions of today’s northern Myanmar in the 16th and 17th centuries, according to Kachin linguist Langjaw Kyangying of Myitkyina. In Assam, they were some of the first people to take up tea cultivation, which remains a popular Singpho livelihood today. Recruited by the British Imperial Army, Singphos also played an active role in India’s struggle for independence.
Singphos were first divided into a separate administrative territory from their Kachin kinfolk with the implementation of the Government of India and Government of Burma Acts in 1937. India’s independence from Britain in 1947 and Burma’s a year later further set the two communities on distinct historical paths.
Today, Singphos are thought to number in the tens of thousands. Dispersed across the Changlang and Namsai districts of Arunachal Pradesh and the Tinsukia district of Assam state, they live closely with Tai Khamtis, a population known in Myanmar as Hkamti Shans. In Arunachal Pradesh, Singphos are listed among sixteen “scheduled tribes,” granting them certain protections under India’s constitution.
Their Manau festival, named Shapawng Yawng after the legendary forefather of Kachin people, has been celebrated annually since 1985. Ten interviews conducted during a visit to this year’s festival and by phone suggest that it offers a rare opportunity to bring geographically-dispersed Kachin people together, and also serves as a vital means of cultural preservation.
“As time goes on, some people don’t write their titles as Kachin. Some people intermarry, change their titles and forget their identities,” said Singdu Nong Marip Singpho, a former president of the Singpho Development Society, who like many Singphos uses his ethnic group as his surname. “Before, there were Singphos in different places, but we didn’t know each other and had no reason to gather together. But after forming this Singpho Development Society and organizing the Manau year by year, even if someone forgets what tribe they are, when they see the Manau, they remember.”
Kachin folklore offers various legends to describe the origins of Manau, most of which trace the dance’s patterns to the flight of birds. According to a version printed in a Singpho Development Society pamphlet and recounted during two interviews, the dance was introduced to humans by a man named Mading Yau.
As the legend goes, Mading Yau had the ability to understand the natural world but was poorly understood by his own community. Banished to a basket hanging from the branch of a banyan tree, he watched birds gather the tree’s fruit and learned their songs, language and flight patterns, which he later taught to the people. According to some versions of the legend, the dance represents the coming together of all the birds in the universe.
Manau festivals traditionally commence with the sacrifice of a buffalo to ancestral spirits known as nat jaw. Although the practice continues in India, it has been abandoned in Myanmar, where most Kachins now follow Christianity. The dance encircles a set of four to twelve pillars, each decorated with its own pattern. Two lines led by Naushawng – men wearing robes and hornbill bird headdresses – move in swirling patterns, singing and dancing to music played on drums, gongs and wind instruments.
Manau festivals can be held for a variety of purposes including to celebrate prosperity and appeal for further wealth, prepare for war, and celebrate wartime victory. According to Singdu Nong, the Shapawng Yawng festival incorporates several purposes. “We dance to remember our forefather Shapawng Yawng and ask for his blessings, wisdom, wealth and protection,” he said.
In her 2005 doctoral thesis for the School of Oriental and African Studies, Dr. Mandy Sadan describes Manau festivals from before the British colonial era as “part of a deeply significant ritual system around which many aspects of socio-cultural and political structure cohered.” In her book Being and Becoming Kachin, published in 2013, she elaborates that these days-long festivals were most strongly defined by offerings to spirits and recitations of the genealogical origins of the host, performed by spirit-priests known as jaiwas.
Held for reasons including to mark moments when lineages separated or when communities came together to affirm their kinship, these festivals also enabled Jinghpaw chiefs to consolidate their socio-political positions, according to Sadan. Her research found that between World War I and World War II, the role of Manau shifted, as British colonial administrators began organizing the festivals as a way to strengthen their relationships with Jinghpaw chiefs and headmen and to expand their reach in Upper Burma and the Kachin Hills. By the late 1920s, the British were also using Manau to announce key policies, and the festival’s animist traditions were increasingly overshadowed by its administrative functions.
When Burma gained independence from Britain, the central government designated January 10 as Kachin State Day and began organizing Manau festivals in the state capital of Myitkyina to recognize it. Then in 1961, the KIO began its revolution for political autonomy and these events ceased. Instead, the KIO held a Manau festival in its territory to mark the outbreak of armed hostilities. According to Sadan, the festival was the first to explicitly celebrate a pan-Kachin, or Wunpawng, ethno-political identity representing six Kachin subgroups.
With the signing of a ceasefire between the military and KIO in 1994, Kachin State Day festivals in Myitkyina resumed, at times attended by both the KIO and military as well as military-aligned KIO splinter groups. But in the years leading up to the ceasefire’s collapse in 2011, the military increasingly took control over these events – an act described by local media outlet Kachin Newsgroup as “akin to cultural genocide.”
In February 2011, meanwhile, the KIO held its own Manau festival at its eastern regional headquarters of Mai Ja Yang to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Kachin Revolution Day. By this time, the military had restricted travel to KIO territory, and those attending the festival from areas under its administration had to take a circuitous route via China. War between the military and KIO resumed that June, and Kachin State Day festivals in Myitkyina have since seen a heavy military presence as well as strong opposition from Kachin civil society. At times, Kachin activists have instead used these Manau grounds to hold large protests against armed military offensives.
As Manau festivals in Myanmar remain shrouded in controversy, Kachin populations in other countries have carried on the tradition. In the Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture of China’s Yunnan province, home to a significant community of Jinghpaw and Zaiwa-speaking people collectively recognized as Jingpo, the festival is known as Munao Zongge and is organized by the Chinese government. Now in its 39th year, it was most recently held this February and included 60,000 attendees according to Chinese state media.
The festival is also celebrated in the village of Banmai Sammaki in Thailand’s Chiang Mai province. Established in the late 1970s by ex-KIO members, the village acquired official status in 1982. Shortly after, its residents began holding Manau festivals on the birthday of the late Thai king Bhumibol Adulyadej; the most recent of these festivals was held in 2018.
India’s Shapawng Yawng festival, held every February, is organized by the Singpho Development Society. According to Singdu Nong, the festival enables Kachins across the India-Myanmar border to reconnect. “Even though we settled in different countries, we hold this Manau to remember that we are all of one blood,” he said.
During this year’s festival, some of those in attendance were Jinghpaws from the Hukawng valley, many of whom are closely related to India’s Singphos. Along with vendors from Myanmar who came to sell souvenirs, they mostly traveled overland, briefly entering Sagaing region from the Hukawng valley before crossing the Pangsau pass.
The mountainous border crossing is located on Ledo Road, constructed during World War II to enable the Western Allies to deliver support to China in its fight against Japan. Then, it was nicknamed “Hell Pass” for its difficult terrain. Today, although a bilateral agreement reached in 2018 between India and Myanmar allows local people to travel visa-free within 16 kilometers on either side of the border, travel further inland remains otherwise restricted to the public – with the exception of the Shapawng Yawng festival, when visitors from Myanmar can apply for a permit through Indian border authorities to attend the festival on the condition that they return immediately after.
The festival saw particularly large participation from Myanmar for its 25th anniversary in 2009, when those who joined included jade tycoon Sutdu Yup Zau Hkawng. Two years later, however, the Kachin political context dramatically changed with the collapse of the KIO-military ceasefire; since the coup, fighting has further escalated amid a widespread armed uprising against the junta.
According to Singdu Nong, such grand events as the 2009 festival are no longer possible due to a tightening of the issuance of border passes by Indian authorities. “The government is very strict about how many people are coming,” he said. “We used to formally invite hundreds of delegates [from Myanmar] with permission from the [Indian] government, but because of the political environment, this year we didn’t invite them. Even if we were to invite them, they wouldn’t have been able to come.”
For Kachins from China and other countries, attending the festival is even harder due to a history of territorial disputes between India and China in the Tawang district of Arunachal Pradesh. Foreign nationals wishing to visit the state must apply for a Protected Area Permit through India’s Ministry of Home Affairs.
Nnau Brang Nan, a lawyer from Innao, Arunachal Pradesh, described a situation in which Kachins and other ethnic nationalities whose populations span borders became “sandwiched” by geopolitics. Unable to legally visit his relatives in Myitkyina by crossing the land border, he is instead required to apply for a visa through the Myanmar embassy and fly into the country, while Kachin nationals living in Myanmar face a similar dilemma when visiting India. “We have been victimized as an ethnic border race – not only Kachins, but Chins, Nagas, [and other] Tibeto-Burman groups,” he said. “We have to go round and round…That feeling is very painful.”
Kachins from Myanmar already living in India are more easily able to join the Manau festival. This year, around a dozen university students traveled from Shillong, the capital of northeastern India’s Meghalaya state, singing songs around a campfire late into the night with their Singpho peers. “After so many years being far away from our own community, this is the first time coming back and getting this vibe of Kachin. It is a very warm feeling,” said Tsam Rawng Seng Maji, who studies political science at North-Eastern Hill University.
But he and others expressed concern that the Singpho cultural identity is disappearing. “My main wish is to be united with this Singhpo community and grow with the Singhpo community… [and for the] language and culture not to be erased or vanish,” said Mung Ran Awng, a physics student at the same university.
Also joining the festival were a handful of Kachin missionaries from Myanmar who live in India. While the vast majority of Kachins in Myanmar are Christian, most Singphos practice a combination of Theravada Buddhism and the worship of ancestral spirits.
Religion appears to be a somewhat sensitive issue between the two communities. “Even when hanging out with friends or visiting neighbors, we have to speak very carefully when the conversation goes to religious topics,” said Hka Tawm Maran, who runs a Kachin Baptist mission school in Inthem, Assam State. Still, she described a general understanding that has developed. “We cannot preach the gospel outside of the [school] compound, but we can practice our religion freely, because they understand that we are Christians and we are also doing our worship,” she said.
Nnau Brang Nan, the lawyer from Innao, also said that the two communities were able to overcome their religious differences. “Here in India, we have no religious connections with Kachins in Burma, but the thing making us connected across the border is the culture, tradition, language and belongingness from Majoi Singra Bum,” he said, using the Kachin name for a mountain in today’s Tibet.
In addition to its social functions, the Shapawng Yawng Manau festival has encouraged the sharing of Kachin traditions. In 1995, naushawng from Myanmar trained Singpho men to lead the dance. Then in 2009, Langjaw Kyangying, the Kachin linguist from Myitkyina, composed a song for the festival whose lyrics describe the westward migration of Kachin people into today’s northeast India.
The festival’s keyboard player, Jau Lat Manje of Margherita, Assam State, studied under a keyboard player from Myanmar in 2018 and then on YouTube. “I was learning music since I was young, so I thought maybe I could try it,” he said. “Now it’s my responsibility. It’s been five years that I’ve been involved, and it feels great.”
One role still lacking among India’s Singphos is a buffalo horn player, a rare skill across Kachin society. This year, Salang Magawng Awng joined the festival from Myitkyina, climbing a tall bamboo tower to play three melodies which helped direct the dance’s movements.
In further efforts to promote Kachin culture and traditions, the Singpho Development Society organized competitions including in folk tale and essay writing, drawing, and dance. The latter was performed during nightly stage shows alongside singing and a fashion show featuring traditional costumes and talents.
The main event on the last night was a performance by Anong Singpho, a Bollywood singer and songwriter who also composed the popular Kachin love song Yu Saalai. In an interview after his performance, he said he hopes to inspire other Singpho youth. “We have so many different kinds of people in our society. Some are good in sports, some are good in music, and some go in different directions – peer pressure, drugs, opium, anything which can harm them and harm their society,” he said. “I hope that some youngsters can take me as a role model.” He is now working on his second Singpho song – a particular challenge because like many Singpho youth, he is not fluent in the language. During the festival, youth from India and Myanmar often spoke English for this reason.
Singphos are not alone: the government of Arunachal Pradesh counts 26 “major tribes” and 110 “sub tribes” in the state, each with its own language or dialect. In recent years, however, the state government has taken initiative to promote this diverse linguistic and cultural heritage. In 2022, it launched mother tongue instruction in eight languages alongside Hindi and English. Although Singpho was not among them, the chief minister invited all ethnic communities in the state to prepare textbooks in their mother tongue. The state government has also allocated funds toward the celebration of traditional festivals since 2020, and in January of this year, announced plans to build an Indigenous prayer hall in every district.
“In Assam, we do not have facilities regarding our literature and the value of our identity, but in Arunachal…we have the opportunity to promote our culture, identity, language and literature,” said Singdu Nong..."
Source/publisher:
"Tea Circle" (Myanmar)
Date of publication:
2023-04-24
Date of entry/update:
2023-04-24
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Kachin State, Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, Kachin (economic, social, cultural, political)
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"၁။ ယနေ့ ၂၀၂၂ ခုနှစ် သြဂုတ်လ (၁၀) ရက်နေ့သည် ကချင်တော်လှန်ရေးအတွက် အသက်ပေး သွားကြသည့် ကချင်အာဇာနည်ခေါင်းဆောင်ကြီးများကို အောက်မေ့သည့် အထိမ်းအမှတ်ဖြင့် ပြုလုပ် သည့် (၄၇) နှစ်မြောက် အာဇာနည်နေ့ (Share Shagan Nhtoi) ဖြစ်ပြီး ကချင်တော်လှန်ရေး၏ သန္ဓေကို စုပေါင်းထမ်းရွက် ဆောက်တည်ခဲ့ကြသည့် ကချင်အမျိုးသား အာဇာနည်များအတွက် အောက်မေ့ဖွယ် နေ့ရက်တစ်ခု ဖြစ်သည်။
၂။ ကချင်လူမျိုးများ၏ ကိုယ်ပိုင်ပြဌာန်းခွင့်နှင့် နိုင်ငံရေးတန်းတူညီမျှခွင့်အတွက် ရွပ်ရွပ်ချွံချွံ တာဝန်ထမ်းရွက်နေသော ကချင်တော်လှန်ရေး ဖခင်ကြီးများအား တော်လှန်ရေး မှေးမှိန်ပျောက်ကွယ်ရန် ရည်ရွယ်၍ အာဏာရှင်များက ၁၉၇၅ ခုနှစ် သြဂုတ်လ အစောပိုင်းရက်များတွင် စနစ်တကျ လုပ်ကြံသတ်ဖြတ်ခဲ့ခြင်းဖြစ်သည်။ ၎င်းဖြစ်ရပ်သည် ကချင်လူထုအတွက် ကြီးစွာသော ဆုံးရှုံးနစ်နာမှု ဖြစ်ခဲ့သလို၊ နှစ်ပေါင်းများစွာ ပူဆွေးဝမ်းနည်းခဲ့ရသည့် ကြေကွဲဖွယ်ဖြစ်ရပ် တစ်ခုလည်းဖြစ်သည်။
၃။ ဤသို့ ဝမ်းနည်းဖွယ် ဖြစ်ရပ်ဖြင့် ကြုံတွေ့ခဲ့ပါသော်လည်း ကချင်တော်လှန်ရေးသည် ဦးမကျိုးခဲ့ဘဲ (၄၇) နှစ်တိုင်တိုင် ဆင့်ကဲပြောင်းလဲ တာဝန်ထမ်းရွက်မှုဖြင့် ကချင့်တော်လှန်ရေးတပ်ဦးဖြစ်သည့် KIO/KIA ကို ညီညွတ်စွာ စုစည်း၍ ဆက်လက် ဦးဆောင်ချီတက်နိုင်ခဲ့သည်မှာ လေးစားဂုဏ်ယူဖွယ် ဖြစ်သည်။
၄။ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရသည် ခေတ်အဆက်ဆက်က တိုင်းရင်းသားလူမျိုးများ၏ နိုင်ငံရေးအရ ရပိုင်ခွင့် အခွင့်အရေးများကို လျစ်လျူရှုကာ လက်နက်အားကိုး အုပ်ချုပ်ခဲ့သော အာဏာရှင်စနစ်ကို အပြီးသတ်ချေမှုန်းပြီး ကချင်လူမျိုးများအပါအဝင် တိုင်းရင်းသားလူမျိုးများ အားလုံးလိုလားသည့် အမျိုးသားတန်းတူရေး၊ ကိုယ်ပိုင်ပြဌာန်းခွင့်နှင့် ဒီမိုကရေစီကို အပြည့်အဝ အာမခံသည့် စစ်မှန်သော ဖက်ဒရယ်ပြည်ထောင်စုကို တည်ဆောက်ရန် သန္နိဋ္ဌာန်ချထားသည့် အစိုးရဖြစ်သည်။
၅။ သို့ဖြစ်ပါ၍ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရသည် ၂၀၂၂ ခုနှစ် သြဂုတ်လ (၁၀) ရက်နေ့တွင် ကျရောက် သည့် (၄၇) နှစ်မြောက် ကချင်အာဇာနည်နေ့တွင် ကချင် တမျိုးသားလုံးနှင့်အတူ ဝမ်းနည်းကြေကွဲရ သကဲ့သို့ ကချင်တော်လှန်ရေး အင်အားစုများနှင့် လက်တွဲကာ စစ်အာဏာရှင်စနစ်ကို ဖြုတ်ချပြီး ကချင်လူမျိုးများ အပါအဝင် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတိုင်းရင်းသားအားလုံးလိုလားသည့် ဖက်ဒရယ်ဒီမိုကရေစီပြည်ထောင်စုကို တည်ဆောက်သွားရန် လေးနက်စွာ သန္နိဋ္ဌာန်ချထားကြောင်း ဤသဝဏ်လွှာကို ပေးပို့အပ်ပါသည်။..."
Source/publisher:
National Unity Government of Myanmar
Date of publication:
2022-08-10
Date of entry/update:
2022-08-10
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
National Unity Government (NUG), Kachin (economic, social, cultural, political), Political History
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pdf
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377.05 KB
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"၁။ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံရှိတိုင်းရင်းသားလူမျိုးအသီးသီးတွင် မိမိတို့လူမျိုးများ၏ လွတ်လပ်ရေး၊ ငြိမ်းချမ်းရေး၊ တရားမျှတရေးနှင့် တန်းတူအခွင့်အရေးရရှိရေးတို့အတွက်သာမက ဖက်ဒရယ် ပြည်ထောင်စုတည်ဆောက်ရေးတို့အတွက် ကိုယ်ကျိုးစွန့်အနစ်နာခံကာ သက်စွန့်ကြိုးပမ်း ဆောင်ရွက်ခဲ့ကြသည့် အာဇာနည်သူရဲကောင်းများကို အောက်မေ့တသတန်ဖိုးထားဂုဏ်ပြုသည့် အနေဖြင့် အာဇာနည်နေ့အဖြစ်သတ်မှတ်ကြပါသည်။ ကချင်အမျိုးသားများ၏ လွတ်လပ်ရေး၊ အာဏာရှင်စနစ်ဆန့်ကျင်ရေးနှင့် ဖက်ဒရယ်ဒီမိုကရေစီစနစ်ထူထောင်ရေး ရည်မှန်းချက်များကို အကောင်အထည်ဖော်ရန်အတွက် ကချင်အမျိုးသားခေါင်းဆောင်ကြီးများကို မလိုမုန်းထားသူ ရန်သူတို့ဘက်မှ ကချင်တို့၏တော်လှန်ရေးခရီးစဉ်အား မှေးမှိန်ပျောက်ကွယ်စေလိုသောကြောင့် လုပ်ကြံသတ်ဖြတ်ရခြင်းခံရသည့်နေ့ကို အောက်မေ့တသသောအားဖြင့် ကချင်အာဇာနည်နေ့ အဖြစ်ကျင်းပခဲ့ကြသည်မှာ ယနေ့တွင် ( ၄၇ ) နှစ်မြောက်သို့ရောက်ရှိခဲ့ပြီဖြစ်ပါသည်။
၂။ မိမိတို့နိုင်ငံကို အင်္ဂလိပ်ကိုလိုနီနယ်ချဲ့လက်အောက်မှ လွတ်လပ်ရေးရအောင်ကြိုးပမ်း စဉ်ကလည်း ကချင်တိုင်းရင်းသားများ၏ ဇာတိသွေး၊ ဇာတိမာန်နှင့် မျိုးချစ်စိတ်ဓာတ်အပြည့်ဖြင့် တွန်းလှန်တိုက်ထုတ်ခဲ့ကြပုံကိုလည်း သမိုင်းတွင်အထင်အရှားပင်ဖြစ်ပါသည်။ ခေတ်အဆက် ဆက်၌မတရားဖိနှိပ်ချုပ်ချယ်မှုများနှင့် တန်းတူအခွင့်အရေးတို့အတွက် ရဲဝံ့စွာဆန့်ကျင် တော်လှန်ခဲ့ကြသည့် ကချင်လူမျိုးများသည် ယခုအခါအကြမ်းဖက်စစ်အာဏာသိမ်းအုပ်စုအား ဆန့်ကျင်တော်လှန်နေသည့် မြန်မာ့နွေဦးတော်လှန်ရေးခရီးကြမ်းတွင်လည်း ဒီမိုကရေစီ အင်အားစုများနှင့်အတူတကွ ခိုင်မာစွာရပ်တည်ကာ အင်အားကောင်းသောတော်လှန်ရေး အင်အားစုကြီးအဖြစ် လက်တွဲကြိုးပမ်းနေသည့်အတွက် များစွာဂုဏ်ယူဝမ်းမြောက်ပါကြောင်း ဖော်ပြအပ်ပါသည်။
၃။ ပြည်ထောင်စုလွှတ်တော်ကိုယ်စားပြုကော်မတီ အနေဖြင့် ကချင်အာဇာနည် သူရဲကောင်းများ၏ဆန္ဒဖြစ်သည့် တောင်တန်းနှင့်မြေပြန့်မခွဲခြားဘဲ တန်းတူညီမျှရရှိမှု၊ လွတ်လပ် မှုနှင့် တရားမျှတမှုစသည့် ဖက်ဒရယ်ဒီမိုကရေစီစံချိန်စံညွှန်းများနှင့်ပြည့်စုံသော အနာဂတ် ဖက်ဒရယ်ဒီမိုကရေစီနိုင်ငံတော်သစ်အား အမြန်ဆုံးတည်ဆောက်သွားနိုင်ရေး ကချင်အပါအဝင် ပြည်ထောင်စုတိုင်းရင်းသားညီနောင်များနှင့်အတူ မဆုတ်မနစ်လက်တွဲ ကြိုးပမ်းဆောင်ရွက် သွားမည်ဟု လေးနက်ခိုင်မာစွာကတိသစ္စာပြုရင်း ယနေ့ ၁၀-၈-၂၀၂၂ ရက်နေ့တွင်ကျရောက် သည့် (၄၇) နှစ်မြောက် ကချင်အာဇာနည်နေ့သဝဏ်လွှာအား ပေးပို့အပ်ပါသည်။..."
Source/publisher:
Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw
Date of publication:
2022-08-10
Date of entry/update:
2022-08-10
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH), Kachin (economic, social, cultural, political), Political History
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"၁။ ယနေ့ကျရောက်သော (၄၇) နှစ်မြောက် ကချင်အာဇာနည်နေ့ကို လေးစားစွာဖြင့် ဦးညွှတ်ဂုဏ်ပြု အပ်ပါသည်။
၂။ ကချင်လွတ်လပ်ရေးအဖွဲ့ (Kachin Independence Organization)၊ ကချင်လွတ်လပ်ရေး တပ်မတော်(Kachin Independence Army) ကိုစတင်ထူထောင်ကာ ကချင်တော်လှန်ရေးကို ဦးဆောင်ခဲ့ကြသော ကချင်အမျိုးသားခေါင်းဆောင်များ ဖြစ်ကြသည့် KIO/KIA ဥက္ကဌ စစ်ဦးစီးချုပ် ဗိုလ်ချုပ် GOC-Lahtaw Zau Seng၊ ဒုတိယ စစ်ဦးစီးချုပ် VCS-Lahtaw Zaw Tu နှင့် အထွေထွေ အတွင်းရေးမှူး Salang Kaba PungShwi Zau Seng တို့ကျဆုံးခဲ့ကြသည့်နေ့ကို ဂုဏ်ပြုလျက် ကချင်အာဇာနည်နေ့ဟု သတ်မှတ်ကျင်းပခဲ့ကြသည်။
၃။ ခေတ်အဆက်ဆက် အာဏာရှင်စနစ်ဆန့်ကျင်ရေးနှင့် ဖက်ဒရယ်ဒီမိုကရေစီပြည်ထောင်စု တည်ဆောက်ရေးတို့အတွက် အသက်သွေးချွေးများစွာ ရင်းနှီးပေးဆပ်ပြီး တွန်းလှန်တိုက်ပွဲဝင်ခဲ့ ကြသော ကချင်အာဇာနည်ခေါင်းဆောင်ကြီးများနှင့်တကွ ကချင်ပြည်သူလူထုတစ်ရပ်လုံးအား လေးနက်စွာ အောက်မေ့ ဦးညွှတ်ဂုဏ်ပြုပါသည်။
၄။ ယနေ့ကျရောက်သော (၄၇) နှစ်မြောက် ကချင်အာဇာနည်နေ့တွင် ကချင်အာဇာနည်ခေါင်းဆောင် ကြီးများ မျှော်မှန်းခဲ့သော ကိုယ်ပိုင်ပြဌာန်းခွင့်အပြည့်အဝရရှိရေး၊ တန်းတူရေး၊ တရားမျှတရေးနှင့် ဖက်ဒရယ်ဒီမိုကရေစီပြည်ထောင်စုတည်ဆောက်ရေးတို့ကို ပြည်ထောင်စုဖွား တိုင်းရင်းသား ပြည်သူ လူထုတစ်ရပ်လုံးနှင့်အတူတကွ လက်တွဲ၍ ကြိုးပမ်းအောင်မြင်နိုင်ပါစေကြောင်း ဆုမွန်ကောင်း တောင်းလျက် ဤသဝဏ်လွှာကို ဂုဏ်ယူစွာဖြင့် ပေးပို့အပ်ပါသည်။..."
Source/publisher:
Ministry of Defence - National Unity Government of Myanmar
Date of publication:
2022-08-10
Date of entry/update:
2022-08-10
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
National Unity Government (NUG), Kachin (economic, social, cultural, political), Kachin history
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169.87 KB
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"၆၁ နှစ်ပြည့်ကချင်တော်လှန်ရေးနေ့အထိမ်းအမှတ်အဖြစ် မြစ်ကြီးနားမြို့နယ်အခြေခံပညာကျောင်းသားများသမဂ္ဂသို့ ပေးပို့သောသဝဏ်လွှာ
ဗဟိုအလုပ်အမှုဆောင်အဖွဲ့
ရန်ကုန်တက္ကသိုလ်ကျောင်းသားများသမဂ္ဂ..."
Source/publisher:
University of Yangon Students’ Union
Date of publication:
2022-02-05
Date of entry/update:
2022-02-05
Grouping:
Individual Documents
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"The Wunpawng Migrated South crossing the rivers Kinsa Hka, Lam Taing Hka, and Nu Hka to finally reach Putao, From Putao they a pread East, West and South to this day we find Wunpawng in india ( Assam ), China ( Yunnan ) and in Shan states.
TRADITION AND CULTURE:- Before the impact of the American Baptist mission-aries, the Wunpawng were animists and the practice of animism comes under clannish - kinship system, unlike the European Feudalism, the Wunpawng feudal Authority had boundary and subjected to kinahip-relation mutual arrangement, the society of the Wunpawng is closely coalesced under kinship-relationship with a common language conversant by all ethnics, The communities of Wunpawng have a pattern of rule of chiefs who worked out their relationship in kinship manner brought down from generation to generation. The Du Was ( Wunpawng Chiefs ) did not under take subordination among themselves, they understood that were equal, in respect to liberty, ownership of property and the right to resist oppression subjugation and aggression. No chief would single out hims elf and considered himself to bo senior or more powerful than the others because of his affluence. For this reason alone, there was not one chie f to promote himself as lord of the others Du Was, Thus in the history of Wunpawng people d o not have any king, the society had no central authority but communities as republics on equal and independent. The republic of Wunpawng land as emerged to day has never bear subordinated to any of the Burmese king. Even in 1884 when the British annexed upper Burma, the British administration was only set up Bhamo and Myitkyina Leaving for the most part, Kachin frontier areas to Du Was, to administers according to their traditional customary, it was only in 1932 after Burma was separated from India, did the British consider it was obligatory to take charge of the Du Was territories and classified them as scheduled kachin frontiers to be taken care of by the Governor of Burma it was no English men but the Americans who brought in civilization religion and Education to the Wunpawng, with Christian teaching and western education, the inherent nationalism whish Wunpawng fostered through ages is leaning towards western Democracy.
MILITARY POTENTIAL AND CAPABILITY:- That during the seies of Rangoon in 1824 that Burmese king solicited wunpawng mercenaries to come to his did through the2 renawu Burmese General MAHA BANDOOLA many Wunpawng mercenaries fought for the Burmese king against the British india seroys, Bandoola was a Wunpawng by the name of BUN DU LA, the Burmans usually obliterated the right proper name to cancel authenticity, upserp ation is the common practice of the Burmans above all recognition and respect to Wunpawng sovereignty as and independent nation that Burmese king himself did present his majestic dress to Wunpawng chiefs, it is still with DAI HPA DU WA Hukawng District, and it is a salient fact indeed. It took the British decade to pacify the Wunpawng resisting spirit against s subordination to the British. In 1928 when the British government brought and freed the slaves, then only did the Du Was reconciled with the British authority and become vassals to the Governpr of Burma. With aptitude to military carcer, Wunpawng were drafted into military services. First, military police fprce, then Burma Army, and in world warI the Wunpawng military unit (Bhamo Battalion ) rank and file of 1589 strong were s ent to mediterranean theatre for active combat. In 1917, some 349 Wunpawng soldiera took part in Mesopotamia and Turkey battle frontline actions.
A company strength was stationed in Egyt for garrison d uty, the total casualty of Wunpawng soldiers in world war I, was sixty dead and 113 wounded..."
Source/publisher:
Major N’Chyaw Tang
Date of publication:
1980-00-00
Date of entry/update:
2022-01-26
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, Political History, Kachin history, Kachin (economic, social, cultural, political)
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"Today marks the 74th anniversary of Kachin State Day. In 1947 the liberation of our Kachin brothers and sisters was set in motion, but this liberation was never to come. With the tragic murder of Gen. Aung San, plans for greater autonomy and self-determination for ethnic people, and a federal democracy, were dashed. Successive governments and, ultimately, decades of military dictatorship saw fit to rob the Kachin people of the autonomy and self-determination they were promised, and for which they fought and shed their blood.
The contributions of our Kachin brethren to our nation are beyond question. Through their efforts, sacrifices and passion they have helped us to build a better Myanmar. But at every turn, their efforts for greater autonomy and self-determination have been undermined by a selfish and cruel military who seek only to rule over Myanmar like kings governing slaves.
Let us this year mark the founding of Kachin state with a recognition of our Kachin brothers and sisters. A celebration of their rich culture and heritage. Appreciation for the many contributions and selfless sacrifice to our country and people, and a pledge, to win this fight, to restore democracy, and to honour the agreement made so long ago, to create a truly Federal Democratic Union Myanmar for all the people of Myanmar, with greater autonomy and self-determination for all our ethnic States, including the brave and courageous Kachin..."
Source/publisher:
Ministry of International Cooperation Myanmar
Date of publication:
2022-01-10
Date of entry/update:
2022-01-10
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
National Unity Government (NUG), Kachin history, Kachin (economic, social, cultural, political)
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"On 14–17 December 2017, Lisu Protestants celebrated their Literature Centenary
Jubilee in Pummati of Myitkyina, the capital city of Myanmar’s northern Kachin State.
Local community members, Lisu guests outside Myanmar, government officials and
leaders of Kachin subgroups gathered together to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the
creation of the Lisu Christian script, known as the ‘Fraser script’. Central to the festivities were daytime worship services, transnational fellowship meetings, cultural shows
and evening music concerts. People could visit the business area, which was packed
with trading stalls selling food, Lisu traditional clothes, handicrafts and Lisu‐language
music albums. Between 2012 and 2014, I conducted fieldwork on the church singing
and socio‐religious change of the Lisu in Yunnan’s northwestern Nujiang Prefecture.
That doctoral work set the path of my postdoctoral book project on how transnational
sound production, circulation and consumption become integral to the Lisu perception and practice of faith on the China–Myanmar border. The conceptualisation of the
book benefited from an intensive 40‐day field trip (December 2017–February 2018) in
Myanmar’s Kachin State and Yangon. Therefore, I was fortunate to attend the Jubilee
that drew the Lisu from around the globe during that fieldwork in addition to my
interviews with Lisu media practitioners and observations of their studio production.
I was intrigued by an apparent paradox I had seen in the Jubilee. It was advertised
as a cultural event, but was permeated by Christian formality. It seemed to have provided an opportunity for Lisu participants to share their Christian identity while having consciously incorporated traditional artefacts and musical traditions to articulate
ethnic identity. This presented a contrast to what I had observed in Nujiang, where
most Christian Lisu still followed the unwritten rule of abstaining from animistic worship, traditional performing arts and other traditional practices deemed inappropriate.1
Moreover, ‘litpix’,2 a Lisu term that was unfamiliar to me, was frequently used to refer
to ‘culture’ during my conversation with Lisu participants and in the church and political leaders’ public speech. It appeared in the name of the Jubilee’s organising committee, the Lisu Tot’et be Litpix Zzujei Yong (Lisu literature and culture committee).
Pummati, the Lisu land purchased in around 2013 for hosting community events, was
appraised as ‘Lisu Litpix Mut’ (the land of Lisu culture). During my time in Myanmar,
most people I talked to – Christian leaders of various domains, media practitioners,
Bible school teachers and students, and performers of Lisu cultural dance – used ‘tradition’ interchangeably with ‘culture’ to explain to me the meaning of ‘litpix’. But
when I asked them to articulate what ‘culture’ stands for, they would turn to specific
artefacts, performing arts and customs for reference.
Why is there a renewed interest among the Burmese Lisu in their pre‐Christian
traditions? How does the notion of litpix come into use, and for what purposes? In this
paper, I examine a Christian Lisu elite’s attempt to gain access to competitive political,
economic and cultural resources to achieve future‐making goals through their positive
engagement with traditional culture for the performance of self‐representation. In particular, I look into litpix’s operations and efficacies as markers of distinction and the
ways that this relationship is articulated in practice against the background of the Lisu
people’s ‘double‐minority’ status both within Kachin State and in the Burmese nation.
As I will show, the Lisu elite’s future‐making attempt is not only for the development
of the future generation but also for their greater involvement.
The Lisu are a Tibeto‐Burman speaking highland group of over one million who
reside across the mountainous areas of southwestern China and Southeast Asia.3 Over
100 years of migration from western Yunnan southwards to Myanmar, Thailand and
elsewhere, the transformative social experiences of the Lisu have been shaped by different factors. The classic anthropological work highlighted the role of new economic
conditions in transforming the social structures (Gillogly 2006) and gender relations
(Hutheesing 1990) of the small Lisu community in northern Thailand. In Lisu‐populated areas of the China–Myanmar border, one important factor for social
change has been conversion from animistic practices (Durrenberger 1975) to
Protestantism since the early 20th century. Despite constraints facing the Lisu as marginalised members of society, they constantly attempt to establish a resilient path to
becoming self‐positioned subjects as an autonomous but compliant people.
In Myanmar, where Buddhism is deeply intertwined with the country’s culture
and the Bamar‐ethnic majority, about 90% of the 500,000 Lisu population self‐
identified as Christians by December 2017.4 Kachin State hosts the largest Burmese
Lisu population (more than 200,000). It is also home to several other small ethnic
groups defining themselves in contrast to the dominating Bamar and Jinghpaw populations yet being part of the Kachin collective affiliation as their primary marker of
socio‐political identities. In 1955, the national parliament recognised six sub‐groups of
the Kachin – the Jinghpaw, Lawngwaw (Maru), Nung‐Rawang, Lisu, Zaiwa (Atsi) and
Lachik – and grouped them under one umbrella.5 The word ‘Kachin’ started to serve as
an ethno‐political category. It is against this historical background that I explore the
recent formation of the litpix space by the Christian Lisu elite and how it becomes a
significant discursive site relating to Lisu self‐representations of modern selves and
relations.
I should pause to clarify how I use the concept of ‘elite’ among the Lisu. I use
‘elite’ to refer to both long‐established church leaders, and emerging leaders of ethnic
organisations, politicians and other sociocultural activists. Akin to the place of the village chief (vutddut reitsu) and animist priest (nitpat) in Lisu traditional socio‐political
organisation, they are regarded by the Christian community members as ‘leaders’ who
can guide community development based on their authorities in religious and social
knowledge. My Lisu interlocutors identified three groups of Christian elite: church
leader, cultural leader and political leader. The so‐called church leader – comprised of
priests, senior preachers and pastoral team members at various levels – has long been in
a monopoly ‘elite’ position among the Burmese Lisu in the sense that institutionalised
churches of five denominations have been wielding influence over Lisu public and private life since the latter half of the 20th century. The church leader also constitutes the
intellectual authority and remains in control of printed material and public speech, as
well as paradigmatic shifts in socio‐religious practice. The emergence of leadership in
cultural and political domains over the last three decades is a result of a Christian elite’s
engagement with changing national economic, social and political circumstances and
interaction with the forces of neighbouring Kachin and Burmese populations.
General assumptions persist that those who are the ‘elites’ must control material
resources (Scott 2008), maintain tight closed networks (Mills 2000 [1956]) and face
confrontations with other social groups (see also the introduction of this issue). The
Christian Lisu elite in the non‐Western, non‐industrial context challenge these assumptions. First, their elite position arises not out of any form of superiority but through
serving as the community advocate for their ‘non‐elite’ people (see also Rumsby, this
issue). Second, the foundation of Lisu elite status relies on their interactions, rather
than confrontation, with superior groups such as the Jinghpaw and Burmese leaders. The concept of elite, from this perspective, is dependent more on relationships (political, religious, etc.) between (elite) groups than it is on specific qualifications. This
echoes the view of Salverda and Skovgaard‐Smith’s recent article (2018) that the status
of elites are both contested and attributed by people they interact with and relate to.
Third, Lisu practice exemplifies how ‘the elites … are adapted and altered under the
influence of social changes’ (Salverda and Abbink 2013: 10), as new leadership emerged
out of religious authority.
In the analyses that follow, I examine through what kind of politics the state, religion, ethnicity and other actors possibly influence the Christian Lisu elite’s renewed
interest in their pre‐Christian litpix traditions, as well as the challenges involved in
translating the singularity of its abstraction into various embodied forms through viable projects. Central to this process is the selection, revision and standardisation of
previously marginalised traditional artefacts and practices in the Christian community
which are readily tagged as ethnically Lisu when assertion of difference is needed. I
argue that the construction of a specifically litpix space independent of religion was
crucial in a Christian Lisu elite’s attempt to gain access to political, economic and cultural resources and to legitimise claims to rights for survival and future development of
the Lisu while maintaining the church’s predominant influence in the faith community..."
Source/publisher:
Special Section Article
Date of publication:
2021-00-00
Date of entry/update:
2021-10-10
Grouping:
Individual Documents
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581.8 KB
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Description:
"ပြည်ထောင်စုသမ္မတမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်
အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ
၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ် ဩဂုတ်လ (၁၀) ရက်နေ့တွင် ကျရောက်သည့် (၄၆) နှစ်မြောက်
ကချင်အာဇာနည်နေ့သို့ ပေးပို့သည့် အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ၏ သဝဏ်လွှာ
၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ် ဩဂုတ်လ (၁၀) ရက်
၁။ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံရှိ လူမျိုးအသီးသီးတွင် မိမိလူမျိုးများအတွက် ငြိမ်းချမ်းရေး၊ တရားမျှတမှုနှင့် တန်းတူ အခွင့်အရေးရရှိရေးတို့အတွက်သာမက ဖက်ဒရယ်ဒီမိုကရေစီပြည်ထောင်စု ထူထောင်ရေးတို့အတွက် ကိုယ်ကျိုးစွန့် အနစ်နာခံကာ သက်စွန့်ကြိုးပမ်း ဆောင်ရွက်ခဲ့ကြသည့် အာဇာနည်သူရဲကောင်းများ အများအပြား ရှိကြပါသည်။
၂။ ကချင်အမျိုးသားများ၏ အာဏာရှင်စနစ်ဆန့်ကျင်ရေးနှင့် ဖက်ဒရယ်စနစ်ထူထောင်ရေး ရည်မှန်းချက်များကို အကောင်အထည်ဖော်ရန်အတွက် ကချင်အမျိုးသားများအစည်းအရုံး (KIO)၊ ကချင် လွတ်မြောက်ရေးတပ်မတော် (KIA) ကို စတင်တည်ထောင်ကာ ဦးဆောင်ခဲ့ကြသည့် ကချင် အမျိုးသား ခေါင်းဆောင်များဖြစ်ကြသော KIO/ KIA ဥက္ကဋ္ဌ စစ်ဦးစီးချုပ် ဗိုလ်ချုပ် GOC – Lahtaw Zau Seng ၊ ဒုတိယ စစ်ဦးစီးချုပ် VCS – Lahtaw Zau Tu နှင့် အထွေထွေအတွင်းရေးမှူး Salang Kaba Pungshwi Zau Seng တို့ ကျဆုံးခဲ့ကြသည့်နေ့ကို ဂုဏ်ပြု၍ ကချင်အာဇာနည်နေ့အဖြစ် ကျင်းပခဲ့ကြပါသည်။
၃။ (၁၀-၈-၂၀၂၁) ရက်နေ့တွင် ကျရောက်သည့် (၄၆) နှစ် မြောက် ကချင်အာဇာနည်နေ့တွင် အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရအနေဖြင့် ကျဆုံးလေပြီးသော ကချင်အမျိုးသား ခေါင်းဆောင်ကြီးများကို သတိရ အောက်မေ့ကြောင်းနှင့် ခေါင်းဆောင်ကြီးများနှင့်အတူ မွေးဖွားလာသည့် ကချင်လူမျိုးများ၏ ကိုယ်ပိုင် ပြဋ္ဌာန်းခွင့်ရရှိရေး၊ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတွင် ဖက်ဒရယ်ဒီမိုကရေစီစနစ် ပေါ်ထွန်းလာရေး ရည်မှန်းချက်များ အောင်မြင်ပါစေကြောင်း လေးနက်စွာ ဆန္ဒပြုလျက် သဝဏ်လွှာ ပေးပို့အပ်ပါသည်။..."
Source/publisher:
National Unity Government of Myanmar
Date of publication:
2021-08-10
Date of entry/update:
2021-08-10
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
National Unity Government (NUG), Kachin State, Kachin (economic, social, cultural, political)
Language:
Format :
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Size:
204.81 KB
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Topic:
KIA, Kachin Independence Army, Myanmar military, Kachin State, Momauk
Sub-title:
The notorious division has been implicated in mass killings against the Rohingya and the murder of protesters in Yangon
Topic:
KIA, Kachin Independence Army, Myanmar military, Kachin State, Momauk
Description:
"Twenty soldiers from the Tatmadaw’s notorious 77th Light Infantry Division were killed on Thursday during an attack by the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) in Momauk township, a KIA officer said.
The clash took place at the bottom of Alaw Bum, a strategically important hill base that the KIA seized late last month. The Tatmadaw has launched numerous intense attacks in a bid to reclaim it but has suffered heavy losses.
The KIA confiscated 18 weapons during Thursday's attack, said the officer, who is familiar with the incident but asked not to be named because he is not a spokesperson.
The Tatmadaw responded with six airstrikes but they failed to inflict any damage on the KIA’s side, he added.
The 77th LID has been implicated in mass killings during the campaign against the Rohingya in Rakhine State in 2017, as well as the murders of protesters in Yangon.
The shock troops were sent to Alaw Bum as reinforcements after the Tatmadaw accidentally bombed one of its own units on April 24 during a clash between the KIA and the 88th LID, causing many casualties, the KIA officer said.
The day after the friendly fire incident, the regime deployed three military units to attack Alaw Bum again and also launched airstrikes.
The KIA said it suffered casualties, though it did not specify how many, during several days of sustained airstrikes. But it said the military faced heavier losses.
On Thursday the KIA also launched an artillery attack near Waingmaw airport and hit a weapons warehouse.
The clashes have forced civilians to flee their homes.
“Someone’s house was shelled in Kone Law village on April 28,” a Momauk local told Myanmar Now. “Everyone from the village is fleeing, except one or two who stayed to look after their homes.”
One person was heavily injured and reportedly sent to the Momauk military hospital, he said, while another man from the nearby Nwam Lan village was also injured. “I heard he might have to have a hand amputated.”
There was another clash on Friday, he added. “They opened fire with artillery today but no jets yet.”..."
Source/publisher:
"Myanmar Times" (Myanmar)
Date of publication:
2021-04-30
Date of entry/update:
2021-04-30
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Armed conflict in Kachin State - general articles, Armed conflict in Kachin State - human rights violations, Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Kachin (economic, social, cultural, political)
Language:
more
Topic:
Kachin Independence Army, Myanmar military
Sub-title:
The junta has reportedly not been able to recapture any of the camps that they have lost to the Kachin forces
Topic:
Kachin Independence Army, Myanmar military
Description:
"The Kachin Independence Army (KIA) has seized at least 10 of the junta’s army bases since fighting escalated with the Myanmar military following the February 1 coup, according to local sources.
Clashes between the KIA and the regime’s armed forces have been ongoing since early March, when the KIA began to launch offensives to capture military bases and police stations in the Kachin State townships of Hpakant, Mogaung, Waingmaw, Putao and Tanai, as well as in northern Shan State.
Among the locations since overtaken by the KIA are the Alaw Bum and Ywathit military outposts in Momauk Township, as well as one police base; the Tan Khawn and Aungbalay bases in Hpakant; and the Nambyu base in Tanai.
“The KIA raided and seized around 10 bases, including small ones,” a Myitkyina resident and military observer said, adding that Kachin forces continue to maintain control over some locations, and others they destroyed. “They set fire to the military bases that they did not continue to occupy, so now neither force is at those,” the individual added.
He said that the military junta had not been able to recapture any of the camps they lost.
KIA information officer Col Naw Bu told Myanmar Now on April 21 that Kachin forces had seized some bases belonging to the junta, but that further details were unavailable, with fighting ongoing in multiple locations.
Much of the regime’s focus has been on regaining control of the strategic Alaw Bum hilltop base in Dawphoneyang sub-township of Momauk.
Since April 11, the junta has carried out repeated airstrikes against the KIA in an attempt to drive them out of Alaw Bum and areas controlled by KIA’s Brigades 8 and 9, but the military has reportedly suffered heavy casualties in the offensive, according to KIA sources.
These sources have said that hundreds of Myanmar military troops, including battalion commanders, were killed in the fighting, and at least one whole battalion– LIB 320– was wiped out.
Myanmar Now has not been able to independently verify these casualties.
A KIA officer told Myanmar Now that, at the time of reporting, more than 1,000 junta soldiers had been airlifted to Momauk Township as reinforcements.
Locals have noted that since a previous 17-year ceasefire with the Myanmar military broke down in 2011, the KIA had been largely fighting on the defensive; only since the coup had they started engaging in offensives against Myanmar’s armed forces.
“It is like the KIA is attacking places that they used to control in the past. The tension can only escalate from here,” a resident of Hpakant said..."
Source/publisher:
"Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
Date of publication:
2021-04-23
Date of entry/update:
2021-04-23
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Kachin State, Armed conflict in Kachin State - general articles, Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), Kachin (economic, social, cultural, political), Political role of the Tatmadaw, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état
Language:
more
Sub-title:
explains findings from a recent public opinion survey of Kachin in Myanmar.
Description:
"What are Kachin’s attitudes toward their country of citizenship? To what extent do they feel attached (Burmese: Tan yaw zin, Jinghpaw: Myit magyep kap ai) to it? These questions about ethnic minorities are relevant not just to the Kachin, but instead, underlie larger issues of national unity in Myanmar. The answers to these questions reveal the doubts and mental reservations that Myanmar’s ethnic minorities, such as the Kachin, feel about the political community they belong to.
Between 2018 and 2019, I conducted qualitative interviews and collected original survey data to answer these questions about Kachin’s attitudes toward Myanmar. The data reveals that the answers depend on understandings about how inferences are drawn, the limitations of utilizing quantitative and qualitative data, and how different types of data might complement one another.
Most surprisingly, I found that qualitative interviews and survey data produced differing results. According to my interviews with several Kachin activists, religious leaders, and Baptist youths, Kachin feel a relatively weak attachment and harbor, more or less, unfavorable attitudes toward Myanmar, perhaps due to the renewed armed conflict with the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) and the recent increase in Kachin ethnonationalism. In contrast, according to the survey data, Kachin exhibit relatively high national pride in being citizens of Myanmar and a relatively strong attachment to Myanmar. How can we make sense of these divergent answers? I suggest several explanations that reveal the limitations of my qualitative and quantitative data. Ultimately, my analysis suggests that the divergence most likely resulted from limitations in my qualitative approach, which glossed over diversity within the Kachin community..."
Source/publisher:
"Teacircleoxford" (Myanmar)
Date of publication:
2020-07-02
Date of entry/update:
2020-07-10
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
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Topic:
Kachin State, Rawang, ethnic issues, manau, Kachin, language, culture, conflict
Sub-title:
A dispute over how to name the Kachin State Day Manau Festival in Myitkyina has revealed fissures in Kachin’s multi-ethnic society.
Topic:
Kachin State, Rawang, ethnic issues, manau, Kachin, language, culture, conflict
Description:
"AS A CHILD, Khang would eagerly look forward to Kachin State Day on January 10 and the accompanying manau dancing in the state capital, Myitkyina. This year, that feeling all but disappeared, said Khang, now aged 26.
“I feel like Kachin State Day is just for show. The celebration doesn’t come from the bottom of our heart,” said Khang, who is from the Rawang ethnic group in Kachin. “We Kachin are lacking harmony… It’s like there is something between us, that we are not all the same.”
The festival planned for January 5-12 this year was to be the first Kachin State Day celebration initiated by Kachin society, rather than the government, since conflict resumed between the Kachin Independence Army and the Tatmadaw in 2011. The event, commemorated with traditional dancing around the six pillars that stand in Myitkyina’s Kachin National Manau Park, is known popularly as the Manau Festival.
Discord leading up to this year’s Kachin State Day event, however – including a cancellation and last-minute resumption – dampened the spirits of many Kachin.
The dispute, which stemmed from disagreement over what to call Kachin State Day in Jinghpaw, the Kachin lingua franca, touched a nerve within Kachin’s diverse society and prompted a broader debate about Kachin identity and who gets to define it.
Anthropologist of Kachin society Mr Laur Kiik describes Kachin as a multi-ethnic nation, integrating people from six or more ethnic groups to widely varying degrees. Debate over the names and boundaries of a Kachin identity, he said, has existed for decades; and Kachin State Day manau festivals have previously brought these debates out into the open.
Though the Myanmar government recognises 12 Kachin “sub-groups”, the Kachin National Association of Tradition and Culture, or Wunpawng Myusha Htunghking Hpung Ginjaw (known by the clipped acronym WHG), represents six linguistically distinct groups – Jinghpaw, Lachid, Lhaovo, Lisu, Rawang and Zaiwa..."
Source/publisher:
"Frontier Myanmar" (Myanmar)
Date of publication:
2020-01-14
Date of entry/update:
2020-01-14
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Kachin State, Languages of Burma - general, Languages of Burma/Myanmar, Society and Culture, Burma/Myanmar - general studies, Kachin (economic, social, cultural, political)
Language:
more
Description:
"Ethnic language teachers who are working in government schools in Sumprabum Township in Kachin State’s Putao District say they have not received a salary since the start of the school year in June.
“As of today, we haven’t received a salary since school started. I teach at school everyday. I have taught at school since it began in June,” high school Jinghpaw language instructor Zau Nan told NMG.
Sumprabum town, where Zau Nan works, has one high school and nearly 10 primary and middle schools. There are reportedly 10 ethnic language teachers working in the town’s government schools, teaching Jinghpaw and Lisu languages since 2016.
“Even though the government has given a promise, we have yet to receive our salaries. Even though we haven’t received our salaries, we are still teaching children in school,” Zau Nan explained. “If I don’t teach, I am so worried that our Kachin children will not be able to read our language. But if I wasn’t a teacher, I could afford to support my family. Now I cannot afford to support my family. Now I am working at another job after school hours because I need to support my children and my family.”
According to ethnic literature and culture organizations, while the government has given permission for them to teach their languages in public schools, proper government assistance and compensation has not been provided..."
Source/publisher:
"Network Media Group" (Thailand)
Date of publication:
2019-10-21
Date of entry/update:
2019-10-22
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Other Tibeto-Burmese languages (Zo, Karen etc), Kachin (economic, social, cultural, political), Kachin State
Language:
more
Description:
"A group of politically active Kachin gathering in the Kachin State capital Myitkyina says they were very alarmed by the Myanmar army’s decision to send a convoy of military tanks and other military vehicles down the same road they were gathering on. In what the activists say was a clear attempt to intimidate them. The convoy of about 10 vehicles appeared on a major road in Myitkiyna on September 9th as Kachin youth and representatives of a Kachin opposition party were gathering.
“I think they rule the country with an iron fist. If something happens they show off their military power. It should not be like this. Especially when we are going to build a federal nation,” said Duwa Gumgrawng Awng Hkam, a long time Kachin activist and the vice-president of the newly formed Kachin State’s People’s Party.
Another Myitkyina based activist told KNG he considered the action to be a threat to the public. “People were shocked when tanks came into downtown. In other words its threatening people. From a peace perspective, it deviates from the peace process. Do they really want peace? People can ask questions about this” said Tsaji from the Kachin Development Network Group (KDNG).
Lum Zawng, the head of the All Kachin Students and Youth Union (AKSYU), also took issue with the convoy which occurred a day before a high profile court case filed by the army against the head of the Kachin Baptist Convention (KBC) for recent public comments he made about the military to US President Donald Trump. The suit against the KBC chief has since been dropped.
“I think it wasn’t for the security of people but it’s showing off their military power. Because there is a court hearing today at the township court for the case involving the KBC chairman and the army. They intentionally showed off their military power to threaten people,” explained Lum Zawng. Lum Zawng added that he saw no reason for the military to enter Myitkyina’s downtown or patrol the downtown area..."
Source/publisher:
"BNI Multimedia Group" via Kachin News Group
Date of publication:
2019-09-12
Date of entry/update:
2019-09-13
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Kachin State, Kachin (economic, social, cultural, political), Peace processes, ceasefires and ceasefire talks (websites, documents, reports and studies)
Language:
more
Description:
"A court in the Kachin State capital, Myitkyina, has penalised the organisers of the first demonstrations in the city to be held by youth displaced by fighting since a ceasefire collapsed in 2011.
Nhkum La Nu, 20, and Malang Hka Mai, 50, were on September 10 each sentenced to seven days’ imprisonment or a fine of K20,000, and opted to pay the fine. The protests were held over three days, on September 5, 6 and 9.
La Nu and Hka Mai, who are both IDPs, were convicted under section 20 of the Peaceful Assembly and Peaceful Procession Law over the display of unauthorised placards at a demonstration in the state capital on September 5. Two of the offending placards read “War is not the answer” and “We hate war”.
They were also convicted under the same offence because of slogans on T-shirts that condemned attempts by the Tatmadaw to stifle freedom of expression.
The T-shirts were worn by members of Yangon-based freedom of expression advocacy group Athan, who travelled to Myitkyina to protest at the township courthouse against the Tatmadaw's complaint against Kachin Baptist Convention President Reverend Hkalam Samson. After the complaint was withdrawn on September 9, the Athan members joined the final day of the IDP demonstration instead.
La Nu said that within hours of the September 5 protest, he and Hka Mai were summoned to Myitkyina police station and told they would be charged under a complaint filed by a township police officer because prior approval had not been given to some of the placards displayed at the event, which was attended by about 250 people..."
Source/publisher:
"Frontier Myanmar"
Date of publication:
2019-09-12
Date of entry/update:
2019-09-12
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Freedom of opinion and expression: - the situation in Burma/Myanmar - reports, analyses, recommendations, Discrimination against the Kachin, Kachin State, Kachin (economic, social, cultural, political)
Language:
more
Description:
"Kachin Baptist Convention president Reverend Hkalam Samson has thanked the prayers of his supporters at home and abroad for the military’s decision to drop its complaint against him for remarks he made to United States President Donald Trump.
In a video posted to the KBC’s social media page on September 10, a day after the case was withdrawn, Hkalam Samson also urged the Kachin community’s different Christian denominations to remain united, and to keep praying in solidarity for the future of the nation.
Tensions have been high in the Kachin State capital Myitkyina in recent days, with a convoy of military vehicles containing armed soldiers rumbling past demonstrators near the Myitkyina Township Court shortly before the court was due to announce if the case against Hkalam Samson would proceed.
The complaint was filed by the Northern Command’s Lieutenant-Colonel Than Htike on August 26 over comments made by Hkalam Samson when survivors of religious persecution from throughout the world met Trump at the White House on July 17.
Samson told the US president that that there was no religious freedom in Myanmar and that oppression and torture were common.
He also described as “helpful” a decision the US announced the previous day to sanction Tatmadaw Commander-in-Chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing and three other senior officers over what the US State Department called “gross human rights violations” during the “ethnic cleansing” against Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State. The decision bans the four officers and members of their families from travelling to the US..."
Source/publisher:
"Frontier Myanmar"
Date of publication:
2019-09-11
Date of entry/update:
2019-09-11
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Freedom of opinion and expression: - the situation in Burma/Myanmar - reports, analyses, recommendations, Religious freedom: reports of violations in Burma, Kachin State, Kachin (economic, social, cultural, political)
Language:
more
Description:
"In 2018, Burmese government
troops stepped up their war in
Kachin State, further driving out
indigenous populations and expanding control over the area’s
rich natural resources and strategic
trading routes. The fiercest offensive
was fought in northwest Kachin
State’s Hugawng Valley, to secure
the historic Ledo Road linking India
and China, which is part of China’s
Belt and Road Initiative, and to seize
hugely lucrative amber mines.
Kachin State amber is a global
treasure: it is the only type in the
world formed during the age of the
dinosaurs. “Blood amber” is the
Chinese name of the extremely rare,
deep red variety of the gem found
only in the Hugawng Valley – a
name which resonates grimly with
local residents who have been driven
out by the recent offensive.
The amber mining boom began
in 2010, due to demand from the
Chinese market, causing tens of
thousands of migrant miners from
across Burma to flock to the region.
In 2015, discovery of a 99-millionyear-old feathered dinosaur tail in
Hugawng Valley amber further
fuelled the trade..."
Source/publisher:
"Kachin Development Networking Group (KDNG)"
Date of publication:
2019-08-19
Date of entry/update:
2019-09-10
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Kachin State, Kachin (economic, social, cultural, political), Peace processes, ceasefires and ceasefire talks (websites, documents, reports and studies), Armed conflict in Kachin State - economic factors associated with the conflict
Language:
Format :
pdf pdf
Size:
17.21 MB 1.33 MB
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Description:
"Three ethnic Kachin political parties said on Monday they sought the “permanent suspension” of the multi-billion dollar Myitsone Dam, discrediting a Chinese embassy statement that implied support for the divisive project among the state’s political leaders.
Manam Tu Ja, chair of the Kachin State Democracy Party, told Frontier that the statement, which was signed by the KSDP, the Kachin Democratic Party and the Unity and Democracy Party, is a clarification of their position aimed at the Kachin people. It could also help the Chinese embassy to understand the wishes and policies of the three parties, he said.
“We have no plan yet to respond directly to the Chinese embassy because some [other] parties in Kachin could have said that they support the project,” he said.
The embassy’s statement on January 13 concerned a December visit by Chinese ambassador Mr Hong Liang to Myitkyina, the Kachin State capital, where he held discussions with political leaders and social organisations on the peace process and IDP resettlement, the anti-drug campaign in northern Myanmar, and investment.
Kachin political leaders and social organisations had a “positive attitude” towards the 6000-megawatt Myitsone Dam, the statement said. It said they assured Hong Liang that “local people of Kachin State do not oppose the Myitsone hydropower project; It is some individuals and social organizations from outside that oppose the project”.
But Reverend Hkalam Samson, chair of the Kachin Baptist Convention, who met Hong Liang during the visit, told Frontier that the statement was untrue..."
Source/publisher:
"Frontier Myanmar"
Date of publication:
2019-01-14
Date of entry/update:
2019-09-09
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Kachin State, Assessment of hydropower projects in Burma/Myanmar, Dams and other hydropower projects (global, regional), Dams and other projects on the Irrawaddy and its tributories, Kachin (economic, social, cultural, political), Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
more
Description:
"The Myanmar military (or Tatmadaw) has dropped a lawsuit against an ethnic Kachin religious leader who discussed religious freedom with US President Donald Trump and asked him to support Myanmar’s transition to “genuine” democracy and federalism at the White House last month.
On Monday, Myitkyina Township Court judge U Than Tun said the plaintiff, Lieutenant-Colonel Than Htike, had withdrawn his legal complaint against the Rev. Dr. Hkalam Samson, who is president of the Kachin Baptist Convention (KBC). Based in Kachin State, the group represents Myanmar’s mostly Christian Kachin ethnic group.
U Than Tun told the media that the court would not proceed with any legal prosecution against Dr. Samson, in accordance with the plaintiff’s will. He did not elaborate on the reason for the plaintiff’s decision.
Rev. Dr. Hkalam Samson told The Irrawaddy on Monday he welcomed the military’s decision to withdraw the complaint against him. He said there had been no negotiations between the KBC and the military aimed at resolving the case..."
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy"
Date of publication:
2019-09-09
Date of entry/update:
2019-09-09
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
more
Description:
"This History Thread is about the #Amber War in #Kachin State, #Burma #Myanmar. While Kachin St. is known as “the land of jade” other resources have been a conflict curse. Amber is the latest precious commodity to bring hardship instead of prosperity. When I visited Kachinland in 1991 a Kachin Independence Army officer remarked on my amber earrings (from Poland) “Kachin women wear earrings made of that, too.” Baltic Sea and Kachin St. are two regions where amber, fossilized tree sap that is millions of years old, is found. Amber from Kachinland is known as #Burmite. Formed between 95-108 million years ago in the #Cretaceous period, it is the oldest, hardest amber, often a dark cherry red color. Kachins traditionally wore amber jewelry, such as the pointed patlokan earrings of Hkahku women..."
Source/publisher:
"Project Maje"
Date of publication:
2018-02-07
Date of entry/update:
2019-09-03
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
more
Description:
"This History Thread is about the #MilitaryHistory of the land of the
#Kachin people of northern Burma (Myanmar.) Fiercely independent Kachin warriors fought for and against Shans and Burmese. Kachins (Jinghpaw and other tribes) were allies of Burmese in wars against Assam and British. Many Jingphaw rulers accepted British administration in 1826 but in 1843 raiding flared up again. Britain annexed all of Burma 1885 but Kachin Triangle region continued to resist for decades, incl. 1914 uprising. WW1 Kachins in British 85th Burma Rifles won medals for bravery in Mesopotamia (Iraq.) 1930s Kachin troops helped suppress anticolonial Burmese & Wa rebellions. WW2 #Kachin land was nexus of China/Burma/India Theater. Japan invades, British retreat to India, Japan pushes north, Allies (Britain, US, China) fight to retake. India-China Ledo Rd supply rte begun 1942. Air transport over Hump (Mts.) and Flying Tigers flew above Kachinland..."
Source/publisher:
"Project Maje"
Date of publication:
2018-10-25
Date of entry/update:
2019-09-03
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
more
Description:
"This History Thread is background on public protests against the war in #Kachin land, Myanmar (Burma.) Civil society groups and individuals also take other steps for peace, incl. negotiation support, conflict resolution training, collective statements, creative work, charity. Anti-war protests were impossible in Myanmar (Burma) under junta rule. Marchers in 1988 and 2007 focused on demands for democracy and economic issues. But overseas, exiled demonstrators connected the regime’s investors to oppression of ethnic groups including Karens and Mons. In 2011 war resumed after a 17 year ceasefire in Kachin State and later adjacent areas of Shan State. Myanmar’s military, the Tatmadaw attacked the Kachin Independence Army and its allies. Myanmar's first major public peace protests were in response to this North War...ဓ
Source/publisher:
"Project Maje"
Date of publication:
2018-05-16
Date of entry/update:
2019-09-03
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
more
Description:
''A court in northern Myanmar sentenced Lum Zawng (m), Nang Pu (f), and Zau Jet (m) today to six months imprisonment and a fine of 500,000 MMK (320 USD) each. On 3 September 2018, the three peaceful activists were charged under Section 500 of the Penal Code with defamation of the Myanmar military.
The charges relate to statements they made at a peaceful rally in Myitkyina, Kachin State, on 30 April 2018 and at a press conference the next day, following major escalation in fighting in early April 2018 between the Myanmar military and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), an ethnic armed group in Kachin State.
The fighting displaced more than 5,000 civilians, 2,000 of whom were trapped for several weeks in a forest near the village of Aung Lawt, without access to humanitarian assistance or safe passage from the conflict-affected area...''
Source/publisher:
Amnesty International
Date of publication:
2018-12-07
Date of entry/update:
2019-01-18
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Armed conflict in Kachin State - human rights violations, Kachin (economic, social, cultural, political), Discrimination against the Kachin
Language:
English
more
Description:
"On December 9, the KPSN joined prominent international human rights groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch in condemning the conviction and jailing of these three activists. Their statement argues ‘the jailing of these activists is designed to silence criticism of the military,’ but reiterates KPSN’s firm belief that it will not succeed in suppressing the voices of Burma’s ethnic minorities. ‘Ethnic people will stand united for our rights, for peace, and for our freedom.’
KPSN demanded that the NLD use its constitutional power to immediately release all political prisoners and repeal section 500 of the Penal Code, which criminalizes defamation..."
Karen News
Source/publisher:
Karen News
Date of publication:
2018-12-11
Date of entry/update:
2019-01-14
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Various rights: reports of violations against several ethnic groups, Kachin (economic, social, cultural, political)
Language:
English
more
Description:
''Hostilities in Kachin State and northern Shan State remain almost a daily occurrence. Compared to the first two weeks of June which had five clashes and 12 attacks, July has had nine clashes and nine attacks. Most clashes have occurred in Danai and Hpakant townships. Heavy rains have reduced the number of clashes in the region, yet civilians and combatants still suffer from continued Burma Army advances. Throughout the first half of July there were six military actions in Danai Township. Nawng Nyang and Zup Mai villages, approximately 15 kilometers east of Danai Town and the Myitkyina – Danai highway, as well as Nam Hkam Village, approximately 20 kilometers southwest of Danai Town, were the areas of contention. Over 2000 people were displaced east of Danai in April, some of which only recently emerged from hiding in the jungle.
Over the 14th, 15th and 16th of July, there was heavy fighting in Hpakant Township in the region west of Kamaing Town.
The biggest battle occurred throughout the day of July 14th when KIA soldiers from Bum Chyang Post defended against approximately 100 Burma Army soldiers from Ja Ra Yang Base. At 1630 Burma Army forces fired four mortar rounds toward Bum Chyang from Ja Ra Yang...''
Source/publisher:
Free Burma Rangers
Date of publication:
2018-07-30
Date of entry/update:
2018-12-14
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Armed conflict in Kachin State - general articles, Armed conflict in Shan State - general articles, Kachin (economic, social, cultural, political), Shan (cultural, historical, political) articles
Language:
English
more
Description:
"The Burma Human Rights Network is calling on authorities to dismiss charges against three Kachin protesters accused of defamation following mass protests between April 30th and May 6th. The protesters called on the evacuation of civilians from conflict areas after fighting displaced more than 6,000 people in Tanai, Injangyang, Hpankant and Mogaung townships. Following the protests, two were fined 30,000 Kyat for violating the peaceful assemby law section 19. Afterwards, Ko Lum Zawng, U Zaw Jat and Daw Nang Pu were charged in violation of penal code section 500 for defamation of the Military..."
Source/publisher:
Burma Human Rights Network via "Progressive Voice"
Date of entry/update:
2018-06-18
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
more
Description:
"?Peaceful demonstrations are not a crime, they?re a right,” said Matthew Smith, Chief Executive Officer of Fortify Rights. ?The authorities should immediately and unconditionally drop the charges against these human rights defenders.”..."
Source/publisher:
Fortify Rights via "Progressive Voice"
Date of publication:
2018-05-12
Date of entry/update:
2018-05-21
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
more
Description:
"The continued offensives by the Burma Army (or Tatmadaw) against the Kachin Independence Army in Kachin State escalated rapidly in April, displacing over 5,000 civilians. On April 30, over 5,000 people protested in Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin State, calling on the government to free more than 3,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) trapped in war zones. Additional protests took place in other major cities across the country including Yangon. Protests led by Kachin diaspora have also been staged at Myanmar embassies around the globe.
The majority of affected civilians remain trapped in dangerous conflict zones, despite multiple letters from religious and civil society organizations urging the Kachin State and Myanmar governments to evacuate the IDPs. Consequently, Kachin youth have set up sit-in protest camps in Myitkyina to call for the rescue of the displaced civilians. If the IDP issue in Kachin State is not solved, similar protests could surface in other states and regions..."
Source/publisher:
Ethnic Nationalities Affairs Center
Date of publication:
2018-05-08
Date of entry/update:
2018-05-21
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
Format :
pdf
Size:
32.74 KB
Local URL:
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Description:
"I was born and brought up in Mandalay, the former royal capital of Myanmar. It is one of the biggest cities in Upper Myanmar, which also meant I grew up among Bamars. Although my dad is half Bamar and half Kadu (one of the ethnic minorities from Sagaing, in the northern part of Myanmar) and and my mom is Karen (one of the ethnic majorities that live in the Delta region), at home, we usually speak in Burmese. My mom said I could speak in fluent Karen when I was young, but my knowledge of Karen vanished as soon as I went to pre-school, where the only language taught was Burmese. I had never considered myself a minority as one-fourth of my identity is Bamar, and because I speak Burmese and grew up among Bamars in Mandalay..."
Source/publisher:
TEACIRCLEOXFORD
Date of publication:
2018-01-15
Date of entry/update:
2018-01-18
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
more
Description:
"[Editor?s Note: In this week?s set of two posts, Dr Mandy Sadan, Reader in the History of South East Asia at SOAS University of London, discusses recent experiences of the piracy of her work in Myanmar and reflects on the difficult and competing demands placed upon academics to publish their work in peer reviewed, elite university presses while also reaching a local audience. She also ponders in this essay on the unintended consequences of knowledge piracy upon Myanmar?s higher education sector in a so-called ?digital age?.] ...
Is mimicry the highest form of flattery?
For most of my academic career I have taken a serious interest in the illicit (re)production, circulation, and consumption of ?things? in Myanmar, especially ideas and photographic images. I have also written and talked quite a lot about this interest in various publications and at conferences, and have even followed the progress of some circulations over two decades. I can hardly claim, therefore, to be an innocent bystander to such practices when I express myself so openly to be intrigued and fascinated by them.
However, in October 2017 I was alerted to a translation into Burmese of my book Being and Becoming Kachin: Histories Beyond the State in the Borderworlds of Burma (British Academy and OUP 2013). A young relative had sent a photograph showing the book?s cover and she commented that she was feeling proud that her auntie?s book had finally been translated into Burmese and that she would now be able to read it. I was perturbed by the fact that the translator had not been in touch with me but was prepared to give him or her the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps they had done me a favour? Any work of translation requires time and commitment/energy and I would not be thoughtlessly dismissive of that effort..."
Mandy Sadan
Source/publisher:
teacircleoxford
Date of publication:
2017-11-30
Date of entry/update:
2017-12-01
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
more
Description:
"Mandy Sadan discusses the piracy of her work and tensions between academic publishing and reaching local audiences...
[Editor?s Note: In this second part of a two piece series, Dr Mandy Sadan, Reader in the History of South East Asia at SOAS University of London, discusses recent experiences of the piracy of her work in Myanmar and reflects on the difficult and competing demands placed upon academics. She also ponders the unintended consequences of knowledge piracy upon Myanmar?s higher education sector in a so-called ?digital age?. You can find Part I here.]...
A noble path of improving access to knowledge in Myanmar takes a wrong turn
It is very sad that what may have begun as a noble effort to spread and improve access to knowledge in Myanmar has ended up being potentially so counter-productive to this aim. We academics involved in Myanmar also may need to rethink some of our assumptions about these practices and how we personally engage with them. In a time where digital reproduction and circulation changes the scene, we should perhaps reflect more on the distinctions we make between different practices and the damage they may cause within a broader context of trying to rebuild higher education and public learning in Myanmar.
Where do we put the boundary markers of our own academic integrity? Academic integrity is a crucial concept in rebuilding academic standards in Myanmar, but academic integrity is really no more than a set of practices that uphold each other ? or conversely, a spectrum of activities that serve gradually to unravel the academic integrity of an individual, a project or research group, or an institution. The pressured nature of academic life also tends to embed tendencies towards making shortcuts, which can cumulatively undermine this vital ethical underpinning of academic life. Copying as piracy is perhaps the most obvious of a spectrum of activities with which foreign academics involved in Myanmar are sometimes complicit. Many of us unwittingly contribute to a climate in which this kind of activity proliferates. I include myself in this..."
Mandy Sadan
Source/publisher:
teacircleoxford
Date of publication:
2017-12-01
Date of entry/update:
2017-12-01
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
more
Description:
"Despite a number of peace talks having been conducted between the central government and Kachin Independence Army (KIA), there is no sign of the war ceasing in Kachin state. The ongoing armed conflict has been driving thousands of civilians out of their villages. Many IDPs are now living in church supported camps along with relief from international humanitarian agencies. IDPs living in crowded camps with limited support face various obstacles as they cannot practice their livelihood anymore. Women have always been the ones who share most part of family burden and face many issues including domestic violence. In this interview, Burma Link AOC (agent of change) talks to Pausa Kaw Nan (PSK), a 44-year-old Kachin woman, in one of the IDP camps in Bhamo, Kachin State."
Source/publisher:
Burma Link
Date of entry/update:
2016-03-20
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Kachin (economic, social, cultural, political), Internal displacement/forced migration of Kachin, Armed conflict in Kachin State - displacement and the humanitarian situation, The Plight of Women and Children in Burma, Kachin State
Language:
English
more
Description:
"We are at a critical juncture in our history, more promising than at any time in recent memory. The country will have a civilian-majority government that came to office through the votes of a multitude of smaller nationality groups for a pan-national party promising political change. If this political transition is to succeed, poverty must be alleviated, corruption curtailed, drug abuse radically reduced, and a host of other social crises addressed that have long blighted our country. At the beginning of the year my son came to the Kachin state with his newly-wed bride to receive our blessings for his marriage. For the first time I began to think about becoming a grandmother, holding a tiny grandchild and then actually thinking that, at some time in the future, I would welcome a granddaughter or grandson to our home for another happy wedding. What can I pass on to this future generation? What will unfold before their eyes? Snow-capped mountains and orchids hidden in deep forests? Streams rushing downhill to join the great Irrawaddy? Flourishing farmlands?
I had a vision of reforested hills in Hpakant, travellers gathering pleasure from the peaceful countryside where camps for internally-displaced persons now dot the hills. I saw organic farmers, where today great swathes of monocultures for export have now displaced the original owners. And I could imagine thriving universities, where drug-addicted young people presently waste away their lives.
These reflections are not simply personal, but concerns that every parent has in our country today. We are now at a critical juncture in our history, more promising than at any time in recent memory. For the first time since the 1950s, the country will have a civilian-majority government that came to office through the votes of a multitude of smaller nationality groups for a pan-national party promising political change.
For non-Burman peoples, however, an underlying question remains, as it has in every political era since independence in 1948: can a multi-ethnic country of such cultural vibrancy and diversity be governed by a party that appears to be led by one majority group?..."
Lahpai Seng Raw
Source/publisher:
Transnational Institute (TNI)
Date of publication:
2016-03-17
Date of entry/update:
2016-03-18
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Dialogue/reform/transition after the NLD election victory, TNI-BCN Project on Ethnic Conflict in Burma, Peaceful Co-existence - Towards Federal Union of Burma, Kachin (economic, social, cultural, political), Natural Resource Use, Burma/Myanmar - reports, articles etc.
Language:
English, Burmese (မြန်မာဘာသာ)
more
Description:
"Moon Nay Li is the General Secretary of the Kachin Women?s Association Thailand (KWAT), an organisation which she joined in 2002 in order to work for her people and community. The KWAT was founded on September 9th 1999 in response to recognising the urgent need for women to organise themselves to help solve the growing social and economic problems in the Kachin State...The KWAT is very concerned that foreign aid and investment is serving to subsidise the government?s war machine. As Moon Nay Li points out; ?They (international community) are [giving] more support to the government, [but] now the government military has not stopped attacking the ethnic people.” Instead of funding the government?s offensives, ?they have to give pressure to Burmese government to have real political dialogue in our country,” says Moon Nai Li. ?They have to know that (the real) situation and also have to give pressure, not listen only to the government side. But also they have to listen to the ethnic leaders and also the ground, and CBOs and ethnic people.”
Source/publisher:
Burma Link
Date of publication:
2015-08-03
Date of entry/update:
2016-03-17
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Articles, reports and sites relating to women of Burma, Kachin (economic, social, cultural, political), Armed conflict in Kachin State - displacement and the humanitarian situation, Kachin State
Language:
English
more
Description:
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: "The Burmese government?s renewed war against the Kachin has exponentially increased the risk
of human trafficking along the China-Burma border. New documentation by KWAT indicates that large-scale
displacement, lack of refugee protection and shortages of humanitarian aid have become significant new push
factors fuelling the trafficking problem.
Burma Army offensives against the Kachin Independence Army since June 2011 and widespread human rights
abuses have driven over 100,000 villagers from their homes, mainly in eastern Kachin State. The majority of
these refugees have fled to crowded IDP camps along the China border, which receive virtually no international
aid. Desperate to earn an income, but with little or no legal option to pursue migrant work in China, many cross
the border illegally. Their lack of legal status renders them extremely vulnerable to exploitation by traffickers,
who use well-trodden routes to transport and sell people into bonded labor or forced marriage as far as eastern
provinces of China.
Although ongoing attacks and massive social upheaval since the start of the conflict have hampered systematic
data collection, KWAT has documented 24 trafficking cases from Kachin border areas since June 2011, mostly
involving young women and girls displaced by the war, who have been tricked, drugged, raped, and sold to
Chinese men or families as brides or bonded laborers. The sale of women and children is a lucrative source
of income for traffickers, who can make as much as 40,000 Yuan (approximately $6,500 USD) per person.
While some manage to escape, and may be assisted by Chinese authorities in returning home, others disappear
without a trace.
Kachin authorities and community-based groups have played a key role in providing help with trafficking
cases, and assisting women to be reunited with their families. No trafficked women or their families sought
help from Burmese authorities. The Burmese government lists an anti-trafficking border liaison office at Loije
on the Kachin-China border, but it is unknown to the community and thought to be non-functional.
Far from seeking to provide protection to the internally displaced persons (IDPs) and mitigate trafficking risks,
the Burmese government has continued to fuel the war, block humanitarian aid to IDPs in Kachin controlled
areas, and even attack and destroy IDP camps, driving refugees into China. It has also closed some of the
immigration offices on the Kachin-China border which could provide border passes for refugees to legally seek
work in China.
It is thus ironic that in 2012, Burma was recognized in the U.S. State Department?s Annual Trafficking in
Persons Report as increasing its efforts in combating human trafficking, resulting in a rise from its bottomlevel
ranking for the first time in the history of the report, and a corresponding increase in financial support to
Burma?s quasi-civilian government.
It is urgently needed to address the structural problems that have led to mass migration and trafficking in the
past and also spurred the recent conflict. The Burmese military?s gross mismanagement of resource revenues
from Kachin State over the past few decades, and ongoing land confiscation, forced relocation, and human
rights abuses, have pushed countless Kachin civilians across the Chinese border in search of peace and the
fulfillment of basic needs. These problems led to the breakdown of the 17-year ceasefire between the Kachin
Independence Army (KIA) and the military-dominated government in 2011. Refusing to engage in dialogue
to address Kachin demands for equality and equitable development, the government launched attacks to seize
total control over the wealth of resources in Kachin State.
Resolving the current conflict via genuine political dialogue would not only be a step towards peace, but
also a concrete move towards curbing human trafficking from Kachin areas. Launching a range of reforms
dealing with the political and economic factors driving people beyond Burma?s borders is critical to addressing
trafficking. Therefore, KWAT recommends the following:..."
Source/publisher:
Kachin Women?s Association Thailand (KWAT)
Date of publication:
2013-06-05
Date of entry/update:
2013-06-05
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Trafficking: Burma-specific material, Articles, reports and sites relating to women of Burma, Discrimination/violence against women: reports of violations in Kachin State, Kachin (economic, social, cultural, political), Armed conflict in Kachin State - displacement and the humanitarian situation
Language:
English
Format :
pdf pdf
Size:
1.05 MB 40.33 KB
more
Description:
On behalf of:
• All Kachin Students and Youth Union (AKSYU)
• BRIDGE
• Kachin Centre
• Kachin Development Networking Group
• Kachin Environmental Organization
• Kachin National Organization
• Kachin Women?s Association – Thailand
• Kachin News Group
• Life Vision Foundation
• Pan Kachin Development Society
Source/publisher:
Burma Partnership
Date of publication:
2012-01-17
Date of entry/update:
2012-10-06
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
Format :
pdf
Size:
74.99 KB
more
Description:
Sie werden nicht gefragt, nicht entschädigt und bald einfach fortgejagt: Ein Staudammprojekt am Ayeyarwady in Myanmar bedroht die Natur und die Existenz tausender Flussanwohner. Der Widerstand gegen die Pläne der Militärjunta ist lebensgefährlich. Chinesische Investitionen, Kachin; Chinese Investment.
Veronika Buter
Source/publisher:
Kontinente
Date of publication:
2008-00-00
Date of entry/update:
2010-12-14
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Chinese investment, Kachin (economic, social, cultural, political), Dams and rivers - articles, reports, resources
Language:
German, Deutsch
more
Description:
Executive Summary: "The remote and environmentally rich Hugawng valley in Burma?s northern Kachin State has been internationally recognized as one of the world?s hotspots of biodiversity. Indeed, the military junta ruling Burma, together with the US-based Wildlife Conservation Society, is establishing the world?s largest tiger reserve in the valley. However, the conditions of the people living there have not received attention. This report by local researchers reveals the untold story of how the junta?s militarization and self-serving expansion of the gold mining industry have devastated communities and ravaged the valley?s forests and waterways.
The Hugawng valley was largely untouched by Burma?s military regime until the mid-1990s. After a ceasefire between the Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO) and the junta in 1994, local residents had high hopes that peace would foster economic development and improved living conditions. However, under the junta?s increased control, the rich resources of Hugawng valley have turned out to be a curse.
Despite the ceasefire, the junta has expanded its military infrastructure throughout Kachin State, increasing its presence from 26 battalions in 1994 to 41 in 2006. This expansion has been mirrored in Hugawng valley, where the number of military outposts has doubled; in the main town of Danai, public and private buildings have been seized and one third of the surrounding farmland confiscated. Some of the land and buildings were used to house military units, while others were sold to business interests for military profit.
In order to expand and ensure its control over gold mining revenues, the regime offered up 18% of the entire Kachin State for mining concessions in 2002. This transformed gold mining from independent gold panning to a large-scale mechanized industry controlled by the concession holders. In Hugawng valley concessions were sold to 8 selected companies and the number of main gold mining sites increased from 14 in 1994 to 31 sites in 2006. The number of active hydraulic and pit mines had exploded to approximately 100 by the end of 2006.
The regime?s Ministry of Mines collects signing fees for the concessions as well as 35% - 50% tax on annual profits. Additional payments are rendered to the military?s top commander for the region, various township and local authorities as well as the Minister of Mines personally. The junta has announced occasional bans on gold mining in Kachin State but as this report shows, these bans are temporary and selective, in effect used to maintain the junta?s grip on mining revenues.
While the regime, called the State Peace and Development Council or SPDC, has consolidated political and financial control of the valley, it has not enforced its own existing (and very limited) environmental and health regulations on gold mining operations. This lack of regulation has resulted in deforestation, the destruction of river banks, and altering of river flows. Miners have been severely injured or killed by unsafe working practices and the lack of adequate health services. The environmental and health effects of mercury contamination have yet to be monitored and analyzed.
The most dramatic effects of this gold mining boom, however, have been on the social conditions of the local people. The influx of transient populations, together with harsh working conditions, a lack of education opportunities and poverty have led to the expansion of the drug, sex, and gambling industries in Hugawng valley. In one mining area it was estimated that 80% of inhabitants are addicted to opium and approximately 30% of miners use heroin and methamphetamines. Intravenous drug use and the sex industry have increased the spread of HIV/AIDS. Far from alleviating these social ills, local SPDC authorities collect fees from these illicit industries and even diminish efforts to curb them.
The SPDC continually boasts about how the people of Kachin State are benefiting from its border area development program. The case of Hugawng valley illustrates, however, the fundamental lack of local benefit from or participation in the development process. The SPDC is pursuing its interests of military expansion and revenue generation at the expense of social and environmental sustainability
This report documents local people speaking out about this destructive and unsustainable development. Such bravery should be encouraged and supported.".......The main URL for this document in OBL leaqds to a 1.5MB version, obtained by passing the original through ocr software. The original and uthoritative version can be found as an alternate link in this entry.
Source/publisher:
Kachin Development Networking Group (KDNG)
Date of publication:
2007-01-09
Date of entry/update:
2010-09-09
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Kachin (economic, social, cultural, political), Pollution (various sources), Gold mining and trade
Language:
English
Format :
pdf
Size:
1.51 MB
Local URL:
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Description:
Interview mit dem Präsidenten des Kachin Theological College (KTC).Im Gespräch mit Livenet berichtete er von seiner Schule in der Stadt Myitkyina, der grössten theologischen Ausbildungsstätte im Norden des Landes, die den Bachelor of Theology und den Master of Divinity verleiht und in den letzten 15 Jahren ein starkes Wachstum erlebt hat. Seit dem Zusammenbruch des Sozialismus wollen viele Absolventen von Colleges und Sekundarschulen das KTC besuchen.? Zahlreiche Kurse werden englisch unterrichtet; im abgeschotteten Land sehen Eltern hier offensichtlich ein Sprungbrett für die Laufbahn ihrer Sprösslinge;
Verfolgung von Christen, Kachin
Interview with the president of the baptist Kachin Theological College; Christian students;
Persecution of Christians
Source/publisher:
Livenet
Date of publication:
2007-02-26
Date of entry/update:
2007-08-18
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
German, Deutsch
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Description:
Kachin State?s growing ethnic and environmental troubles...
"In recent years, many political analysts in Burma and abroad have predicted growing strife in the country?s troubled ethnic regions, warning that ceasefire agreements with the ruling junta would not guarantee lasting peace. The current instability in Burma?s Kachin State bears these warnings out..."
Khun Sam
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy" Vol. 13, No. 11
Date of publication:
2005-11-00
Date of entry/update:
2006-05-01
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Ceasefire and ex-ceasefire Groups, Kachin (economic, social, cultural, political), Armed conflict in Kachin State - ceasefires and ceasefire talks
Language:
English
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Description:
Ancient myths lie at the heart of manau festivities...
"It?s a scene out of the distant past—two columns of dancers loop, coil and weave a sinuous route around a ceremonial arch spanning a circular arena enclosed by a split bamboo fence. The arch is topped by a line of 10 tall boards colorfully decorated with linked linear maze patterns. A crossbeam, decorated with depictions of various birds and other animals, carries the carved head of a hornbill bird at one end and its tail at the other. The structure is called a manau—and that?s also the name of the ritual dance ceremony, performed by the Kachin people of Burma.
In early December it was also being performed in the northern Thai village of Baan Mai Samaki, home to some 500 Kachin refugees who work on land managed by the Thai King?s Highland Development Project. This is the second manau to be celebrated at Baan Mai Samaki—the first was in 2003—and it was expected to draw Kachin exiles from as far away as China and India..."
Geoffrey Walton
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy" Vol. 13, No. 12
Date of publication:
2005-12-00
Date of entry/update:
2006-05-01
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
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Description:
Bleak future for students and teachers in Burma?s northernmost state...
"Mai Mai gave up on education after her first year as an English major at Myitkyina University and has no plans to revive her academic career. ?I don?t want to continue university,? she says. ?It?s worthless.? Instead, she spends her time trying to earn money to support her family—something that has occupied her since childhood, when she routinely skipped class to work at nearby jade and gold mines..."
Khun Sam
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy" Vol. 13, No. 8
Date of publication:
2005-08-00
Date of entry/update:
2006-04-30
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
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Description:
"An alarming trend is developing in ethnic Kachin communities of Burma. Growing poverty, caused by failed state policies, is driving increasing numbers of young people to migrate in search of work. As a result, young women and girls are disappearing without trace, being sold as wives in China, and tricked into the Chinese and Burmese sex industries. Local Kachin researchers conducted interviews in Burma from May-August 2004 in order to document this trend.
"Driven Away: Trafficking of Kachin women on the China-Burma border", produced by the Kachin Women's Association Thailand (KWAT), is based on 63 verified and suspected trafficking cases that occurred primarily during 2000-2004. The cases involve 85 women and girls, mostly between the ages of 14 and 20. Testimony comes primarily from women and girls who escaped after being trafficked, as well as relatives, persons who helped escapees, and others.
About two-thirds of the women trafficked were from the townships of Myitkyina and Bhamo in Kachin State. About one third were from villages in northern Shan State. In 36 of the cases, women were specifically offered safe work opportunities and followed recruiters to border towns. Many were seeking part-time work to make enough money for school fees during the annual three-month school holiday. Others simply needed to support their families. Those not offered work were taken while looking for work, tricked, or outright abducted.
Women taken to China were most often passed on to traffickers at the border to be transported farther by car, bus and/or train for journeys of up to one week in length. Traffickers used deceit, threats, and drugs to confuse and control women en route..."
Source/publisher:
Kachin Women's Association, Thailand (KWAT)
Date of publication:
2005-05-15
Date of entry/update:
2005-05-17
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Trafficking: Burma-specific material, Articles, reports and sites relating to women of Burma, Discrimination/violence against women: reports of violations in Kachin State, Kachin (economic, social, cultural, political)
Language:
English
Format :
pdf
Size:
2.18 MB
Local URL:
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Description:
Contents:-ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS;
MAP;
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY;
INTRODUCTION & METHODOLOGY;;
BACKGROUND;
UNEARTHING BURMA;
ENVIRONMENT AND MINING LAWS;
THE LAND OF THE KACHIN;
GEOGRAPHY & BIODIVERSITY;
HISTORY;
GOLD IN THE KACHIN HILLS;
CONCESSION POLICY;
ROLE OF THE KIO;
FOREIGN INVESTORS;
CHINA;
GOING FOR KACHIN GOLD: MINING TECHNIQUES;
PLACER MINING;
PANNING;
BUCKET DREDGES;
SUCTION DREDGES;
HYDRAULIC MINING;
GOLD ORE;
OPEN-CAST MINES;
SHAFT MINES;
CHEMICALS IN THE MINING PROCESS;
DANGER: MERCURY;
ALTERNATIVES TO MERCURY;
CYANIDE LEACHING;
CASE STUDIES OF MINING AREAS IN KACHIN STATE;
HUKAWNG;
MALI HKA;
N?MAI HKA;
HPAKANT;
GOLD AND THE ENVIRONMENT3;
AFTER THE GOLD RUSH: TAILINGS AND ACID MINE DRAINAGE;
LAND REHABILITATION;
THE RIVER ECOSYSTEM;
GOLD AND ITS SOCIAL IMPACT;
SEEKING WORK, SEEKING GOLD;
ENDANGERING MINERS;
MINING AND HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS;
RECOMMENDATIONS... APPENDICES: IVANHOE MINES LTD.; EXAMPLES OF MERCURY AND METHYLMERCURY POISONING; CASES OF CYANIDE POLLUTION; AGREEMENT BETWEEN MYITKYINA TPDC AND NORTHERN STAR MINERALS TRADING AND PRODUCTION CO.
Source/publisher:
Images Asia Environment Desk, Pan Kachin Development Society
Date of publication:
2004-11-00
Date of entry/update:
2004-12-21
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Kachin (economic, social, cultural, political), Pollution (various sources), Gold mining and trade
Language:
English
Format :
pdf pdf
Size:
3.38 MB 3.3 MB
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Description:
"First an attempted coup then an assassination—the details are sketchy and conspiracy theories abound. It?s clear that all is not well within the Kachin Independence Organization..."
Naw Seng
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy" Vol. 12, No. 4, April 2004
Date of publication:
2004-04-00
Date of entry/update:
2004-07-22
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
more
Description:
"The Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) was the first ceasefire group to welcome the Burmese government?s plans to reconvene the National Convention. The Irrawaddy interviewed KIO Chairman Tu Jai, 73, by email, about recent political developments in Rangoon and Kachin State. The organization signed a ceasefire with Rangoon in February 1994 and Tu Jai has been chairman since 2001..."
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy" Vol. 11, No. 8
Date of publication:
2003-10-00
Date of entry/update:
2003-12-06
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
more
Description:
Interviews with Refugees from Burma on Guam, including recent interviews with Chin and Kachin refugees.
"During the past year, nearly a thousand refugees from Burma have arrived on the island of Guam,
a United States territory in the Pacific Ocean. They are seeking asylum in the US, having fled
extraordinary levels of persecution in their homeland. Most are from northern Burma, especially
the Chin State...
This report consists of interviews with a small cross section of the Guam asylum seekers. It is to
some extent representative of their demographics, in terms of ethnicity and gender. The
interviewees have given us a great bounty of significant new information and details about recent
conditions in Burma...
Numerous topics are covered in these 17 interviews. There is front-line information about the
AIDS epidemic which is making its grim progress into the remote mountains of Burma, and the
efforts to evade the regime?s denial about it..."
Edith Mirante
Source/publisher:
Project Maje
Date of publication:
2001-03-00
Date of entry/update:
2003-06-03
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Chin (Zo)- economic, social, cultural, political, Kachin (economic, social, cultural, political), Discrimination against the Kachin, Discrimination against the Chin (Zo) -- websites and reports
Language:
English
more
Description:
"Interviews in the Kachin State, Northern Burma". "The eleven interviews in this report were conducted in a large village in the Kachin State (northern Burma) just across a river boundary from China. The village has been rapidly expanding in population since the 1980s, with a constant influx of internal refugees who flee here to avoid a series of campaigns by Burmese government troops...Some of the interviewees could see nothing but darkness in the future; others expressed a remarkably buoyant optimism....While frustrated by isolation and poverty, the people there have a great faith in themselves and each other, and seem to feel that whatever work they are doing, it will be productive in the end. They are exraordinarily willing to take political risks..."
Source/publisher:
Project Maje
Date of publication:
1991-09-00
Date of entry/update:
2003-06-03
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
more
Description:
"Women of the Kachin Liberated Area". "12 women, all living in or near the headquarters of the Kachin Independence Organization, were asked essentially the same set of questions. Topics covered included politics, culture, health, violence, and religion. The picture that emerges from their answers is one of strong, independent women, functioning confidently amid considerable hardship..." "The women -- doctors, soldiers, shopkeepers -- reveal many aspects of their lives. They tell how they survive, their perceptions of women's role and political power, and their hopes for the future..."
Source/publisher:
Project Maje
Date of publication:
1995-03-00
Date of entry/update:
2003-06-03
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Kachin (economic, social, cultural, political), Articles, reports and sites relating to women of Burma
Language:
English
more