February 14 | 
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Church walks with the displaced people of Burma
Bishops and laity call for and end to warfare, Aid to the Church in need reports
The Catholic Church in Burma (Myanmar) has called for an end to the fierce warfare in Kachin State, which has dramatically escalated over the last year.
In a message written on behalf of the whole Church in the country, Bishop Francis Daw Tang of Myitkyina Diocese said they were ‘concerned deeply about the violent conflict in Kachin area.’
The message, received by Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need late last week, went on to say the Church ‘walks with our displaced people, watch their life being destroyed by war, their families fragmented by depressing life in the displaced camps.’
“We are deeply concerned about the escalation of war in the recent weeks,” the bishop said. “The use of heavy weaponry, aerial bombing, increasing lack of clarity about conflict zones and civilian areas, unequal warfare waged during [the] holydays of our faith, unacceptable conflict practice that force thousands to be displaced, exposing children and women to life threatening sickness in the acute winter.”
An ACN project partner in the region described seeing the condition of ethnic Kachin people in several internal displacement camps in the northern Burmese state.
“Conditions are very bad with overcrowding and poor hygiene and many child deaths,” the charity reported. “It is ethnic cleansing.”
More than 40,000 people have sought refuge in the region’s camps in the region since fighting started in June 2011.
Despite the Church’s plea for peace, and recent talks with government representatives in Ruili, a town on the border with China, clashes between the rebel Kachin Independence Army and Burmese military have continued.
Pic: Fighters in Kachin State
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