Hkawng Seng Pan, deputy coordinator for the Kachin Women's Association of Thailand (KWAT), appeared before a US congressional hearing today in Washington to testify about the impact on civilians caught up in an increasingly bloody war in Kachin state. The Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission (TLHRC) that investigates international human rights abuses held a hearing to examine recent events in Burma.
Hkawng Seng Pan’s appearance at the hearing coincided with a new KWAT report that detailed widespread civilian casualties caused by the Burma army's offensive in Kachin state. The report entitled ‘State Terror in the Kachin Hills’ documents the army’s widespread murdering of women and children during the last 5 months of heavy military offensives conducted against the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO).
According to the report, the Burma army has repeatedly targeted civilian areas with heavy shelling and gunfire causing numerous deaths and widespread displacement of civilians. The abuses listed in the report also include the torching of refugee camps that sheltered more than 300 people on the Burma-China border last November near Kyukok (Pangsai) in Shan state.
The report states that the humanitarian situation in Kachin and parts of northeastern Shan states remains extremely dire. Over 364 villages have been partially or completely abandoned and over 100,000 people internally displaced. Furthermore government restrictions have allowed little or no humanitarian aid to reach more than 66,000 refugees languishing in territories controlled by the KIO.
KWAT demanded that the international community respond to what it called “crimes against humanity” by putting more pressure on the Burma government and the army. These calls come as most western nations have completely lifted economic and political sanctions against the central government following a series of political reforms that have yet to materialize in Kachin state.
“Without international pressure, Burma’s government will continue using force to crush ethnic dissent. Even while the government is talking peace, they are launching war,” said KWAT coordinator Moon Nay Li in a statement that accompanied the report.
Also appearing at the hearing were several other Burma experts. These included: Tom Malinowski; Washington Director, Human Rights Watch, Jennifer Quigley; Executive Director, U.S. Campaign for Burma and Tom Andrews; President of United to End Genocide. Two US government officials, Michael Posner, Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor and Patrick Murphy, Acting Special Representative and Policy Coordinator for Burma, also testified before the committee.
