4 THE NATION WEEKEND Saturday-Sunday, June 1-2, 2019 INSIGHT Kachin by DIM LIGHT PHOTOS BY CARLETON COLE Shan Un La Hkum joined the Kachin Independence Army La Hkawng, who teaches Chinese, is to push back Myanmar’s abuse-prone military. concerned about the influence of Kachin’s giant neighbour.

SQUEEZED BETWEEN MYANMAR’S INVASIVE ARMY AND A HARDENING CHINESE BORDER, FREEDOM FIGHTERS PUSH FOR RIGHTS PROMISED LONG AGO

CARLETON COLE Lulu Maran, state, operates the Cheyju restaurant SPECIAL TO THE NATION WEEKEND Mary Tawm helps an IDP filled and resort. It sells products made by provide Kachin with dreams the IDPs she teaches, among them MYANMAR’S northernmost Kachin victims of war with deferred. schoolbags, pillowcases, purses, dress- state features impassable, impossibly survival skills, es and sarongs. beautiful Himalayan topography necessities and Cheju translates as “Grace” or along its border with Tibet, the once- inspiration through “Thanks” in Jinghpaw. The young IDPs sovereign nation annexed by China. the People’s Light, a learn to take food orders in English On the southeastern frontier lies local civic group. and can prepare a few foreign dishes, Yunnan, never in question as a Chinese including a smooth espresso. province. Lately, the Kachin ethnic “One of our students recently minority is feeling even more hemmed returned from training in Yangon with in. a renowned Italian barista,” says Tawm, A source with the Kachin who is also co-founder and executive Independence Organisation (KIO) director of WPN, or Wunpawng says China has recently stepped up Ninghtoi (the People’s Light). patrols and has destroyed bridges “We provide alternative opportu- spanning the river that marks the bor- nities for IDP children who drop out der with Yunnan. of school and need practical job skills. The effect has been to seal off many We believe it’s our role to show people informal passes that serve as essential the light in the dark.” lifelines between the populations, and WPN was one of a handful of groups increasing isolation for the section of including the Catholic and Baptist the state controlled by the KIO, a move churches and local NGOs represented that serves the dark intentions of the on a strategy team providing human- army of Myanmar. itarian assistance to people affected by Taking rough roads and fording the armed conflict in Kachin and north- river in mid-April with a few Free and cultural and religious tra- ern Shan that helped produce the Burma Rangers – an advocacy group ditions. But if we have no “Hidden War” report. working to expose army abuses and army when threatened, we Covering lesser-known aspects of provide humanitarian assistance to have no means of defending what has been called the world’s displaced persons – it becomes clear ourselves. Our homeland and longest civil war, the report says the that the passage remains possible only would be at the mercy of the “intensive war” was now directed for those willing and able to persevere. aggressors.” against IDPs in Kachin and northern Promised “full autonomy” 72 years His mother died when he Shan. ago under the Panglong Agreement was six. His father served the “This is taking place by the impov- championed by Burmese hero Aung KIA for 17 years. La Hkum erishment imposed on them, through San shortly after colonial Britain left joined the militia in 2011. “My Children play in the the reduced food supply and basic serv- the country, the Kachin have been father shared countless sto- late afternoon in ices.” In KIO-controlled areas, “rice, fighting the army since June 9, 2011, ries of the frontline. My deep- the Pa Kahatawng edible oil, salt and beans are not per- after the breakdown of a 17-year cease- est desire in joining the army IDP Camp mitted to enter through China, which fire. was to help my brothers and alongside the is causing food shortages”, it says. KIA squads, bulldozers and trucks loaded with Chinese border. The election of Aung San’s daugh- sisters. sugarcane headed for China ply the road in and Tawm is leery of both the govern- ter, Nobel Peace laureate Aung San “If you speak Jinghpaw, the out of Mai Ja Yang. ment’s true intentions – including the Suu Kyi, did nothing to curb army Kachin language, when you most recent ceasefire unilaterally aggression against ethnic minorities enter a shop in a government- Catholics, and so are some members been a lot of loss of energy in Burma imposed by Yangon – and of the ever- who form more than 30 per cent of controlled area, you may be asked we can from the fruit trees or what’s of the Burmese military who she has due to the scheming for dams. The increasing Chinese influence, which Myanmar’s population. The Rohingya, ‘What’s your religion?’ or ‘Where are growing wild in the abandoned fields,” befriended.” Burmese and especially the Chinese she calls largely exploitative and over- Shan, Karen, Karenni and Kachin you from?’ When they find out you’re says Lulu. “My youngest sister has no Across the road from the camp are pressuring people in Kachin to ly reliant on monoculture, particular- often find their ways of life and cultural Kachin, you might be told to leave, that memory of the life we once lived.” stands a church, newly built by a accept the dam at Myitsone, but ly sugarcane and bananas. freedom under threat and their per- your presence is not desirable. There In “The Hidden War”, a report on Chinese Catholic pastor for the IDPs. Kachin don’t want one so big.” “The central government exhibits a sonal safety imperilled. is a lack of respect for Kachin even in the findings of a study funded by This is where the Maran family wor- La Hkawang says illicit logging and lack of respect for the minority cul- Education is the chief focus in the their own homeland.” humanitarian groups and the ships. mining and corruption are depriving tures,” she says. “Burma isn’t a func- KIO-administered border town of Mai La Hkum, a Baptist, misses the fes- European Union, among others, the Lulu says finding jobs on the the state of its riches and ordinary peo- tional federation. We just want respect Ja Yang, a name that translates as tivities of his youth in mainly Christian main reasons IDPs long to return Chinese side would be difficult since ple struggle to make ends meet. and fair treatment. Many of the Kachin “Beautiful, Bountiful Fields”. It’s full of Kachin. “In my hometown we held big home are listed. no one in the family speaks Chinese. He has friends looking for the right and Shan IDPs have been here since learning institutions and offers job manao dances for Christmas, New “The lack of livelihood opportuni- “For now I will work in the sugar- connections to land jobs in Yunnan or 2011. The youth have lost out a lot on training for war victims. The language, Year’s and other big celebrations. The ties, the camps’ undignified living con- cane fields when we need extra money. even in far-off Shanghai. They might formal educational since then. history and culture of the Kachin flour- government always wants Kachin to ditions, the experience of being belit- I need to help my parents – they gave get hired in construction or restau- “The IDPs are effectively trapped. ish in ways not allowed elsewhere in perform our traditional dances to give tled in the camp, and fear of losing so much to all their children.” rants or on banana plantations. “Many Most of them really want to get back the state where the central government the appearance that we’re happy, but their houses and land in their home vil- Kachin are willing to try their luck in to their homes. But without genuine has control. we dance on our own terms.” lages,” says the report issued this year. The Teacher China. There is opportunity there and peace, the situation will remain tense.” “The majority of IDPs are not confi- higher salaries if you can make your She’s glad to be living in the Kachin- The Soldier The IDP dent about recovering their rights or La Hkawang, an ethnic Kachin who way to Shanghai. But there are risks in controlled region, where she can speak being able to express their identity, teaches Chinese at Mai Ja Yang’s PKDS getting involved with unscrupulous Jinghpaw freely and worship more A Kachin Independence Army Lulu Maran, 19, whose first name political thoughts or participate in School, sums up Kachin-Chinese agents.” freely. “We are approaching the eighth (KIA) patrol riding in the back of a means “second sister”, explains how social life.” interactions in this hard-to-reach cor- The recent Human Rights Watch anniversary of the resumption of war pickup passes a lorry rumbling in the she and her family have reluctantly Most of their former houses were ner of Myanmar. “It’s an economic rela- report “Give Us a Baby and We’ll Let on June 9, a day that has become opposite direction loaded with fresh- begun to accept the changes in their destroyed, their land is overgrown and tionship.” You Go” says China’s skewed gender another important day on the Kachin cut sugarcane for markets in Yunnan. lives. Since last visited by The Nation their livestock is lost or stolen. While grateful for the steady work demographic – 100 women to every 117 calendar, and on which we will say The cane has been harvested by three years ago, her elder sister has In an initiative begun a couple of he has as a teacher and proprietor of a men – is associated with the “30 mil- many prayers.” Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), married and moved out of the IDP years ago, the government annual gives small computer shop, he is concerned lion to 40 million ‘missing women’ … Parts of Kachin state seem blan- as designated by the United Nations. camp and Lulu has assumed her pigs to about five families in the camp about China’s growing influence in who should be alive today”. keted in perpetual Christmas. It’s not There are about 3,000 of them living duties. to raise and sell for extra money. But Kachin. They are not, it said, “due to factors uncommon to see Mai Ja Yang store- in the Pa Kahatawng IDP Camp along- Six of the seven siblings and their there are about 60 families in the camp, “I have a lot of Chinese friends,” says including a preference for boys that fronts and homes decorated with side more than 120,000 other people parents remain, still recalling their Lulu says, so the official “largesse” is La Hkawang, who migrated here from leads to sex selective abortion, infan- Santas and snowmen. whose homes the army has destroyed lives as farmers in Sin Lum, the village stretched thin. Muse in northern Shan State, “and yet ticide, abandonment of babies … Some Dawn unveils a desolate, snowy since .2011. from which the army drove them in “There are eight of us living under we do not really connect. They value families are willing to buy a trafficked landscape around Hkakabo Razi and At the KIA base, a soldier proclaims, 2011. Kachin is home to abundant tim- the same roof,” she says. “I’d like to business. Kachin and Shan have more bride from Myanmar and traffickers Gamlang Razi, the highest peaks in “I stand with my people.” Unlike ber, rare-earth minerals and the work in a hospital to make money – of an interest in their traditional cul- are eagerly cashing in.” Southeast Asia, at the gateway to the recruits from IDP backgrounds, Shan world’s largest jade deposits, most of even in the Burmese-controlled area tures.” roof the world. Looming over a war Un La Hkum left his native Momauk it tapped for the insatiable Chinese if necessary, although it’s a lot more In 2010 he worked for a Chinese The Humanitarian largely ignored by the outside world, township, in a government-controlled market. tense there. But my sister says she has firm seeking approval for the contro- they stand witness to the sacrifices of area, fully intending to enlist. “My mother and I visit now and met some good people and made a few versial Myitsone Dam – unsuccessful- A few days before Easter, Mary a people fervently hoping for new signs “We Kachin have our own language then, but just long enough to take what close Burmese friends. We are ly, as it turned out in 2017. “There has Tawm, a Kachin from northern Shan of light.