To help cut the winter cold, the Rangoon- based Free Funeral Service Society (FFSS) has sent blankets and coats to war refugees in Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin State. The aid will be dispatched to refugees camps in Myitkyina and Waimaw.
Temperatures have dropped below four degrees Centigrade in the area. Residents in Maijayang said it recently had a snowfall and heavy winds.
“We cannot go to the border. If we went, we could encounter problems. We can’t go beyond a limited area. If we went beyond that area, we might be charged with political acts,” Kyaw Thu said. In Maijayang, an area controlled by the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), an estimated 800 people suffer from lung ailments, refugee sources said. Thousands of refugees are living in six camps in Maijayang on the Sino-Burmese border. Mai Ja, a member of the Thailand-based Kachin Women’s Association – Thailand (KWAT), told Mizzima: “Most of them suffer from coughs. They sleep on mats on cement floors. They’re cold, especially children and the elderly.”
Recent clashes between government troops and the KIO have increased the number of war refugees, which now number more than 40,000 across Kachin State, according to estimates by the KIO relief committee.
Mai Ja said, “We want the government to stop hindering aid workers. The government should help people not make trouble for them.”