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Kachin conflict intertwined with Chinese interests

Irrawaddy - June 25, 2011

Htet Aung – Due to the reemergence of armed conflict between government troops and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) in Burma's northern Kachin State, the region has once again become unstable after an era of relative calm during the 17-year-long ceasefire between the opposing armies.

With respect to the number of casualties, the intensity of the battles could be called low. But with respect to their current and potential future impact on the region, the armed conflicts are huge. Already, more than 10,000 local residents have sought refuge near the China-Burma border area; a hydro-power dam project on the Taping River has been shut down, resulting in 215 Chinese engineers and workers fleeing back to China; and border trade has slowed, affecting the local economy.

If the war spreads into other parts of Kachin State, even more Chinese companies involved in natural resource extraction will have to leave their multimillion dollar investments unprotected on the battlefield. In addition, the unknown numbers of Chinese workers who have migrated to Kachin State, and are occupying jobs that could have been taken up by local residents, will have to flee as their countrymen in the north recently did.

Unlike the pre-ceasefire armed conflicts in Kachin State, in which the government's one military ambition was to occupy the territory controlled by ethnic armed groups in order to spread the military regime's authority in the border region, the current conflicts are intertwined with the protection of China's economic interests in the area.

Kachin State is rich in natural resources, particularly water resources, and China has invested in at least nine major hydro-power projects, including one of the two dams on the Taping River in the conflict area. Most of the jobs on these projects are being given to Chinese workers, and most of the combined 12,000 megawatts of electricity that Earthright International estimates will be generated by the dams will be exported to China.

In addition, projects such as the Myitsone Dam, currently being constructed on the Irrawaddy Confluence, carry with them enormous environmental concerns and will displace thousands of local residents.

In March, the KIA sent a letter to Chinese President Hu Jintao requesting a halt in the construction of the Myitsone dam, which is being financed by China Power Investment Co. Ltd. In the letter, the KIA said that if the dam construction continues, a civil war could be resumed.

Unsurprisingly, and in line with the past practice of the former military regime, Burma's new government has blamed the KIA for all the recent armed clashes and accused the ethnic armed group of attempting to destroy Chinese interests in their area.

"[The] KIA based in Kachin State is committing deterrence to development projects of Kachin State, disturbing the tasks and posing threats to Chinese staff who are working at hydropower projects," reported the state-run New Light of Myanmar on June 18.

"As [the] KIA members disturbed and threatened Chinese experts and employees assigned to the project, [the Burmese] authorities warned them not to cause hindrances to the project," the newspaper said.

Lahpai Nawdin, the editor of the Thailand-based Kachin News Group, said that it was predictable that China's increased investments and the expansion of the dam projects within and close to the KIA-controlled area would trigger renewed conflict between the KIA and the Burmese army.

One question being debated is whether Burma's President Thein Sein and his new government solicited and received China's support to eliminate the KIA.

After the ceasefire agreement between the KIA and the former Burmese military junta was put into effect in the early 1990s, the KIA leaders made efforts to build up urban areas like Laiza and Maijayang with their own resources, and to facilitate the growth of the border economy, said Aung Thu Nyein, a PhD candidate at the National Institute of Development Administration in Thailand and a senior researcher at the Bahu Development Research Institute based in Thailand.

He said the KIA leaders were proud of their accomplishments, and expected that the Burmese government would give them proper credit and respect for these efforts. But now, everything is back to square one after the government once again labeled the KIA an "insurgent group," which tarnished their image.

KIA spokesperson Colonel James Lum Dau agreed, telling The Irrawaddy that: "The characteristic of an insurgent group is to kill people, rob their property, burn down their houses and destroy everything. We don't do these things; they are not our policy."

Asked whether China's growing business ties with the Naypyidaw government and their investments in Kachin State could be a threat to the KIA, James Lum Dau said that Chinese leaders know clearly what happened in Kachin State, and based on the recent conflicts, they know the importance of including all the stakeholders, including the KIA, in attempts to bring peace to the state.

With the armed conflict in Kachin State serving as a case study for how much progress the new government has made towards democracy and reconciliation as compared to the previous military junta, it seems that Burma has at best gone nowhere, and at worst gone backwards.

The leadership of President Thein Sein, who pledged to "give top priority to national unity" during his inaugural speech to the new Parliament, can be justly called into question. And apparently the new Kachin State Parliament and regional government, headed by a chief minister, has absolutely no role or voice in tackling instability in their state.

Aung Thu Nyein said that if the new government does not change its mindset, more problems will lie ahead in Burma's ethnic states. He said that if the new government is not willing give both opportunity and the authority to the leaders of ethnic states in order to provide them with a sense of ownership in developing their own areas of administration, the country's prospects as a whole have a dim future.

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