WUNRN
Kachin Women's Association -
Burma/Myanmar - Thailand http://www.kachinwomen.org/ - The number of Kachin people
coming to Thailand is growing year on year and the social and economic problems
in the Kachin community have also increased accordingly. Recognizing the urgent
need for women to organize themselves to help solve these problems both in
Kachin State and in Thailand, five far-sighted women formed the Kachin Women's
Association Thailand (KWAT) in Chiang Mai on the 9th September 1999.
Kachin
Women's Association Thailand (KWAT) is a non profit-making organisation working
on behalf of Kachin women. We have a vision of a Kachin State where all forms
of discrimination are eliminated; where all women are empowered to participate
in decision making at a local, national and international level; and where all
Kachin children have the opportunity to fulfill their potential.
Video Interview with Internally
Displaced & Abused Woman on the
China-Burma Border in Kachin State
on 23 June 2011
__________________________________________________________________
Burma/Myanmar
- Aid Urgently Needed for Refugees Fleeing
Escalated
Fighting and "Orders to Rape" in Kachin State
Over 16,000
refugees fleeing escalating fighting and systematic sexual violence
in Kachin State and sheltering in makeshift camps along the China-Burma border
are urgently in need of aid, according to the Kachin Women's Association
Thailand (KWAT).
Since the Burma Army launched
attacks on the Kachin Independence Army (KIA)
on June 9, 2011. breaking
the 17-year ceasefire, fighting has spread to ten
townships in Kachin State and
northern Shan State, with systematic torture,
killing, and rape by Burmese troops.
KWAT has so far documented the rape of 32 women and girls in eight townships
during the offensive, thirteen of whom were killed. One young girl was raped
and
killed in front of her parents.
Refugees
describe soldiers declaring they have "orders to rape women".
Villagers suspected of supporting the KIA have been tortured severely. Two
community leaders had their ears cut off. Another four men were put in sacks,
beaten and then drowned in the Shweli River.
Denied refuge in China, terrified villagers are sheltering in camps set up in
areas under the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) liberated areas inside
Burma. Those unable to come to the border have fled to towns deeper inside
Kachin State.
"Our Kachin refugees are trapped. They have no exit," said KWAT
spokesperson Shirley Seng.
"Local
Kachin networks and churches have been helping but it is not enough.
International aid is urgently needed."
KWAT is concerned not only for the immediate food and medical needs of the
refugees, but for their long-term survival, as they have been forced to abandon
their rice fields.
"A humanitarian crisis is looming in Kachin State," said
Shirley Seng. "We need
concerted international pressure, particularly from China, to force the regime
to implement a nationwide ceasefire before it is too late."
For detailed updated lists of cases of sexual violence, torture and killing,
please see www.kachinwomen.org
Contact persons: Shirley Seng + 66 86- 9238- 854
Moon Nay Li + 66 85- 6251- 912
Email: kwat@loxinfo.co.th
/kwat.coordinator@gmail.com