ICC Note:

Since 2011 Myanmar has waged a military campaign against the 1.7 million Kachin people, nearly 99 percent of which call themselves Christians. Over the past five years up to 120,000 Kachin have been forced from their homes into refugee camps. These people live in poor conditions, have no work, and face food shortages and malnutrition. Meanwhile, education for their children is suffering and there is no hope for returning to their homes. Archbishop Paul Zinghtung said that the Kachin people “have little hope for peace,” and that they “live in fear.” Many of the Kachin people want greater autonomy from the Myanmar government. In 2011, and 17-year ceasefire between the government and the Kachin ended. Human rights activists have charged the army with extensive human rights violations against the Kachin including rape and executions.

10/24/2016 Myanmar (Catholic Register) – The retired archbishop of Mandalay, Myanmar, said the Kachin people are “very fearful” and have “little hope of peace” any time soon. Archbishop Paul Zinghtung Grawng warned that peace remains out of reach for the people of Myanmar’s resource-rich Kachin state due to an ongoing military campaign waged against the people since 2011, when a 17-year cease-fire between the Myanmar’s military and the Kachin Independence Army ended.

The majority of the 1.7 million Kachin people are Christian, mainly Catholic or Baptist. They have endured discrimination and persecution at the hands of Myanmar’s authorities for decades, over their ethnicity and their faith.

The violence and insecurity of the past five years forced up to 120,000 Kachin from their homes into camps, which are often run by church groups.

Speaking to Catholic News Service in Ireland, Archbishop Grawng said the Kachin who are now in such camps “have no work and no security or permit to go back to their villages.”

“Some of parishes have no villagers left, they are all in the camps for five years. There is no privacy. It creates all sorts of problems. There is a hopelessness. And the children’s education is suffering,” he said.

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