HPG Working Paper Protecting civilians in the Kachin borderlands, Myanmar Key threats and local responses Ashley South December 2018 About the authors Ashley South is an independent author, researcher and consultant, working mostly on Myanmar/Burma and Mindanao. He is also a Research Fellow at Chiang Mai University in Thailand. Acknowledgements This research is part of a larger HPG project on 'Cross-border networks and protection in conflict: values, systems and implications’. Thanks to Sumlut Gun Maw, Gawlu La Awng and Tu Ja from the Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO) for authorising and helping to arrange parts of the research, and also to the KIO’s IDP and Refugee Relief Committee (IRRC). Thanks to Daw Seng Raw and members of the Joint Strategy Team (JST) for much good advice, including valuable comments on an earlier draft. Many thanks to Brian McCartan for providing a concise review of the available data and literature on displacement and protection issues in Kachin areas. Thanks for reviewing the text in various stages of readiness to Martin Smith, Carine Jaquet, Tania Cheung, Charles Petrie, Richard Horsey, Gerard McCarthy, Adrian Morrice, Nick Crawford and Sam Shugart, and also to Larissa Fast and Victoria Metcalfe-Hough from the Overseas Development Institute (ODI). Finally, thanks to Michael Wood for editing, and to Catherine Langdon and other ODI colleagues for their administrative support throughout the project. Humanitarian Policy Group Overseas Development Institute 203 Blackfriars Road London SE1 8NJ United Kingdom Tel. +44 (0) 20 7922 0300 Fax. +44 (0) 20 7922 0399 Email:
[email protected] Website: www.odi.org/hpg © Overseas Development Institute, 2018 Readers are encouraged to quote or reproduce materials from this publication but, as copyright holders, ODI requests due acknowledgement and a copy of the publication.