Nearly the entire population of the Htoi Ra Yang village, 30 miles from the Sinbo logging fields in Kachin State, northern Burma has been afflicted by malaria and cholera, a source said.

Villagers suffering from the diseases are now under medical care of the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) and the UK based Health Unlimited (HU).

The village is under the joint control of the Burmese military government and the KIO and it has a little over 200 villagers.

"The diseases in the village are a fall out of mosquitoes breeding in dirty water. In the monsoons most villagers suffer from cholera," said a health worker from HU who recently returned from Htoi Ra Yang village.

The HU has opened an office in Kunming in China's Yunnan province and is providing medical care along the Sino-Burma border. HU also has a branch office in the KIO controlled area, Laiza and Mai Ja Yang and is treating people in places which the Burmese regime neglects. The HU provides medical care free of cost.

According to a health worker, the KIO has taken care of the travel documents to facilitate the medical care programme, whereas the Burmese authorities do not given permission to travel if one does not have the national identity card.

HU is treating malaria patients in Laiza and Mai Ja Yang since last week and distributing medicines, said a resident in Laiza and Mai Ja Yang.