• The instability in Kachin State that started in early June 2011 has resulted in the displacement of
populations, loss of livelihoods and damages to infrastructure...
• The recently-completed joint assessment in 39 locations in Kachin State reveals urgent needs in several
sectors, including food, education, shelter, health, NFIs and water and sanitation...
• Access and delivery of assistance remain challenging

This report includes a situation update submitted to KHRG in February 2012, by a villager describing events occurring in Toungoo District during the period between November 2011 and January 2012. It discusses augmented troop rotations, resupply operations and the sending of bulldozers to construct a new vehicle road between the 20-mile point on the Toungoo – Kler La road and Kler La. It also contains reports of forced labour, specifically the use of villagers to porter military equipment and supplies, to serve as set tha, and the clearing of vegetation by vehicle roads.

This report includes a situation update submitted to KHRG in November 2011 by a villager living in a hiding site in northern Lu Thaw Township, Papun District. The villager described an incident that occurred in October 2011 in which Tatmadaw soldiers fired six mortar shells into an area in which civilians are actively seeking to avoid attacks by Tatmadaw troops; no one was killed or injured during the attack.

KEY DEVELOPMENTS:

"While ceasefire negotiations are taking place in some ethnic areas, attacks continue in Kachin State, Northern Burma. The Burma Army is pressing its attacks in Kachin State with over 100 battalions deployed. There are over 50,000 Kachin people displaced, over 60 Kachin civilians killed and 100 Kachin soldiers killed. Burma Army casualties are unknown, but estimated at 1,000 wounded and killed. Along with the KIO, WPN, Partners and other organizations, the Kachin FBR teams are helping those in need

The Burma Army continues to attack people in three townships of Ba Maw District, Kachin State: Mun Si Township, Shwegu Township and Ba Maw Township. On 16 December 2011, Burma Army soldiers killed a woman from Prang Kawng Village. The woman, 30-year-old Lamung Kaw Seng, suffered from a mental disability. As Burma Army troops approached the village, all the villagers fled except for Lamung Kaw Seng. When the soldiers found her, they killed her and threw her into a toilet pit.

KEY DEVELOPMENTS:

* The Burma Army is currently attacking within six miles of Mai Ja Yang, a city in Kachin State that is a refuge for over 1,000 displaced people
* The Burma Army is firing an average of 100 mortar rounds per day into this area and is receiving reinforcements.
* Over 40,000 Kachin people now displaced by attacks and more are preparing to run

Moon Nay Li is the General Secretary of the Kachin Women’s Association Thailand (KWAT), an organisation which she joined in 2002 in order to work for her people and community. The KWAT was founded on September 9th 1999 in response to recognising the urgent need for women to organise themselves to help solve the growing social and economic problems in the Kachin State...The KWAT is very concerned that foreign aid and investment is serving to subsidise the government’s war machine.

By District, Camp; population figures by by age and gender

A top United Nations official has urged the Burmese government to allow access to Kachin internally displaced persons (IDPs) in rebel-controlled areas of northernmost Burma.

Baroness Valerie Amos, the UN under-secretary-general for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, told a press conference in Rangoon on Friday that conditions for displaced civilians remain dire and there was no reason to restrict access.

Villagers in Te Naw Th'Ri Township, Tenasserim Division face human rights abuses and threats to their livelihoods, attendant to increasing militarization of the area following widespread forced relocation campaigns in the late 1990s. Efforts to support and strengthen Tatmadaw presence throughout Te Naw Th'Ri have resulted in practices that facilitate control over the civilian population and extract material and labour resources while at the same time preventing non-state armed groups from operating or extracting resources of their own.

Over the last three weeks, fighting has broken out in Myanmar’s northeast between the military and several ethnic minority militias, including the ethnic Kokang Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army and, allegedly, the Kachin Independence Army (KIA). The KIA is one of the most powerful insurgent groups in Myanmar. At least 30,000 civilians have fled across the border into China, and the fighting has killed at least 130 people. The Myanmar military has attacked rebel groups with air strikes, and the fighting shows no sign of letting up.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: "Since June 2011, conflict between the Government of Myanmar and the Kachin Independence
Organisation (KIO) left a large number of people displaced across Myanmar’s Kachin and northern
Shan States. Although it is likely that many people were displaced before this date, it is estimated that
at least 95,000 have been displaced as of October 2015 as a result of this resurgence of conflict. Most of
the internally displaced persons (IDPs) are living with host families or in camps dispersed across the
area in 166 identified locations.