The United Nation's Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos used her recent visit to Burma this week to publicly urge the Burma's government to allow the UN to resume aid shipments to Kachin civilians displaced from the ongoing fighting.
“The UN has not been allowed access to provide badly needed assistance to some 39,000 people in areas outside the Government’s control since July 2012. Local partners are providing food and other assistance but their stocks are depleted and with the winter months approaching getting more supplies in is critical,” said Amos in a statement released by her office.
“We hope the Government will give us permission to travel to these areas and provide the aid that is so desperately needed,” Amos said.
The deteriorating humanitarian situation for internally displaced people in Kachin and parts of western Shan state has been caused by 18 months of heavy fighting between Burma's army and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) - the second strongest armed ethnic group in the country.
From April to early July, convoys jointly organized by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), the UN World Food Program (WFP), the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian affairs (UNOCHA) and the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) were able to make regular visits to some camps around Mai Ja Yang - the second largest town under Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) control. But these convoys were suspended in July after the government refused to allow the UN into areas controlled by the KIO.
Neither the UN or the government have provided an explanation why the aid missions were stopped but the timing auspiciously coincides with several UN aid workers who were arrested in Arakan state in June. Three of the four UN workers were eventually released after receiving a presidential pardon in August. But one local staff person remains in prison, as do four other staff from unnamed international NGOs, also arrested in Arakan state around the same time.
It’s unclear whether Amos's public appeal will gain any traction allowing the UN to resume aid shipments. A small UN team was able to bring basic supplies to some of the refugee camps near Laiza last year. At the time the UN promised to return. Now nearly one year later, things have deteriorated. One thing is for sure, as winter sets in the colder temperatures will make life in the camps for the estimated 100,000 displaced persons even more unbearable.
