Supplies in Myanmar refugee camp dangerously low as rainy season approaches
| Publisher | Radio Free Asia |
| Publication Date | 17 March 2015 |
| Cite as | Radio Free Asia, Supplies in Myanmar refugee camp dangerously low as rainy season approaches, 17 March 2015, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/552e198115.html [accessed 1 June 2023] |
| Disclaimer | This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. |
2015-03-17
Myanmar army soldiers detain ethnic Kokang civilians returning home from a refugee camp on the border with China's Yunnan province, March 11, 2015. (Photo courtesy of a Kokang volunteer)
A camp in Myanmar providing assistance to hundreds of refugees displaced by fighting between rebels and government troops in the country's Shan state is running low on supplies and may be shuttered due to the approaching rainy season, a Chinese aid worker said Tuesday.
A volunteer surnamed Li, who is assisting people fleeing clashes in Shan's Kokang self-administered zone, said wet weather had already hampered vehicle movement in the area, cutting off access to the Maidihe refugee camp that straddles the border with China's Yunnan province.
"Our supplies can only last for 20 days – if the fighting is continuing at that point it will be very difficult to deal with the refugee problem," he told RFA's Mandarin Service.
"The rainy season is coming and if it gets bad we will have to move from our current location. At that point, we will have to abandon all of the stoves we built."
Li said refugee shelters set up by Chinese aid workers are able to accommodate "several thousand" displaced, but that the refugees were not accustomed to life in the camp and "hundreds of people are crossing the border everyday" on either side.
He said elderly and young refugees living in China frequently cross into Myanmar to get food at Maidihe and then return across the border, making it difficult to manage the camp.
"The refugee camps [on both sides] have enough food, but it is hard to manage and to decide how much to cook because of the daily difference in the number of people," he added.
Li said a large camp in China, called Dayingpan, currently houses more than 3,000 refugees, while around 1,800 are located at Maidihe.
Ongoing fighting
Meanwhile, he said, combat in Kokang continued Tuesday between the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) rebel forces and government troops, and that "nothing is getting better."
"We can see Chinese helicopter gunships patrolling all day," he added, referring to a buildup of Chinese military forces along the border in response to a Myanmar airstrikes in recent weeks that have strayed into Yunnan province.
Another resident of Kokang, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told RFA Tuesday that he had "heard the sound of gun battles over the past two days, but I don't know the number of casualties."
"No refugees have been killed" to his knowledge, he added.
The resident said exploded shells recently discovered in China had been identified as being fired by the Myanmar Air Force, and that Beijing had bolstered its forces in the area to protect its side of the border.
"The shells have been identified as the Myanmar air force shells – Myanmar aircraft dropped bombs and they strayed into China's territories," he said.
"Now, China has dispatched fighters to conduct 'exercises' meant to deter Myanmar aircraft from crossing the border."
Recent bombings
On March 14, Myanmar warplanes dropped bombs on a sugarcane field in Yunnan's border city of Lincang, killing four farmers, in the second case last week of spillover from the Kokang conflict.
The bombing also injured nine people and prompted China's Air Force to launch fighter jet sorties along the China-Myanmar border areas to "track, monitor, warn and chase away" Myanmar warplanes, according to Chinese state media, which said Beijing had lodged a diplomatic protest with Naypyidaw.
Earlier last week, Beijing had called on the Myanmar government to investigate an incident in which four bombs exploded in villages on China's side of the border on March 8, causing damage to some houses.
Fighting began on Feb. 9 in Laukkai between Myanmar government troops and Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) rebel forces.
The MNDAA under ethnic Chinese commander Peng Jiasheng is trying to retake the Kokang self-administered zone, which it had controlled until 2009, forcing an estimated 100,000 refugees away from the conflict zone and across the border into China.
Reported by Qiao Long for RFA's Mandarin Service. Translated by Ping Chen. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
Link to original story on RFA website
