In a war that is becoming increasingly vengeful, there is concrete evidence for the first time that a belligerent Burmese Army is using an unidentified chemical weapon in the unabated offensive against Kachin rebels in northern Burma, according to victims.
For over a week, the unidentified chemical weapon has been in use in three war zones against the Kachin Independence Army (KIA). The areas under attack are along the Myitkyina-Manmaw (Bhamo) Road in Waingmaw Township, Christian Prayer Hill and Lung Zep Kawng in Ga Ra Yang village, and Shwe Nyaung Pyin village, said KIA soldiers, who have been attacked by the poisonous gas.
On Saturday 29 October, Burmese Army troops operating under orders from the Burmese government fired two mortar rounds of chemical weapons on the People’s Army fighters under the KIA in Prayer Hill, said civilian fighters.
La Gun, a civilian fighter and a victim of the chemical weapons attack, told Kachin News Group today, “Two rounds of chemical weapons were fired at us in Prayer Hill. There were seven of us present. Dark smoke billowed from the areas where the mortar shells landed.”
“When I breathed in the dark smoke, I felt extremely dizzy, found it hard to breathe, became thirsty, and felt like vomiting for hours,” he added. The same chemical weapon was used during the week-long fighting in Lung Zep Kawng last week, La Gun said.
Also on 29 October, the chemical weapon was launched by the Burmese Army in the Ntap Bum battle zone, near the KIA headquarters at Laiza. Several KIA soldiers felt dizzy, fell to the ground, and vomited for a long time, said eyewitnesses.
President Thein Sein, a former Burmese Army general, is responsible for the orders of a civilian government flouting the Geneva Protocol, which explicitly forbids the use of chemical and biological weapons in both civil and foreign conflict.
