UN Launches Relief Aid in Kachin State Conflict Zones

The UN began initial efforts on Tuesday to provide aid for refugees in the armed conflict areas of Kachin State in northern Burma, where sporadic fighting continues despite Burmese President Thein Sein’s reported instruction to government troops that they should hold fire except in self-defense.
On Monday evening, a small UN team arrived in Laiza, a town on the China-Burma border where the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) has its military headquarters. They brought with them six truckloads of essential household materials. 
This is the first time that the Burmese government has allowed a UN organization access to KIA-controlled areas since armed conflict between government troops and the KIA broke out June, with clashes consistently recurring since that time.
The over 34,000 war refugees who sought shelter in Laiza have previously received no international or Burmese government aid during the over six months of fighting, forcing them to survive on handouts from local Kachin aid groups and the KIA.
The UN team includes staff from the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the UN Organization for Humanitarian Assistance, whose task is to launch an initial relief effort and perform an assessment of the situation.
“As part of the UN team, UNICEF provided 300 family kits, which contain essential household items to cover the basic domestic (cooking, personal hygiene) and shelter needs (blankets and cloths) for as many families,” said Zafrin Chowdury, the spokesperson for UNICEF in Rangoon.
“It is UNICEF and the UN's hope that more convoys with UN supplies will be allowed to reach all those displaced and in need,” he added.
An estimated 40,000 locals have been displaced in the war-torn areas of Kachin State, but until Tuesday the Burmese government authorities had only allowed the UN World Food Program to distribute food to the nearly 6,000 refugees in the government-controlled areas of Kachin State.
The KIA and local aid groups have welcomed the relief efforts by the UN and independent NGOs for the refugees, as many refugees are suffering from malnutrition and are in need of medical care, said La Rip, an official representing the local Kachin Development Group.
Tomas Ojea Quintana, the UN special human rights rapporteur for Burma who had called for UN access to the conflict zones of Kachin State, also welcomed the news that relief efforts would be allowed and repeated the urgent need for Burmese civilian authorities to have the power to control the military when dealing with ethnic minority groups.
Fighting in the region continues despite reports that Thein Sein, an ex-army general, issued a written statement signed on Dec. 10 ordering Burmese army chief Gen. Min Aung Hlaing to halt military operations against the KIA except for self-defense purposes.
The statement has not yet been publicly announced, but its existence was revealed to local journalists on Monday by the Kachin State chief minister at a fund-raising ceremony for Kachin war refugees.
There does not appear to be any current prospect of a formal ceasefire agreement between the KIA and the government troops because the KIA's political wing, the Kachin Independence Organization, has explicitly said that it is seeking a political dialogue with the goal of autonomy and will not accept Burma’s current parliamentary system dominated by former military generals under the military-drafted 2008 Constitution, which they say includes only minimal rights for ethnic minorities.
The issue of autonomy has not been an integral part of recent ceasefire agreements between the government and ethnic Shan and Wa armed groups, but the Burmese officials have said that the ethnic groups can work to achieve such an outcome by joining the Parliament and pushing for changes in the Constitution. 
“We are not informed of the reported order by President Thein Sein to the army to hold attacks against us, but nonetheless the fighting will go on because the government army has already occupied a number of our military bases in its recent offensives and because we are yet to hold a true political dialogue with the government,” said KIO/KIA spokesperson La Nan, adding that the Burmese army reinforced its troops in Myitkyina and Bhamo townships of Kachin State on Monday.