The Problem of Unemployment

Civil war and displacement creates unemployment in Kachin, impacting GDP growth. According to the Asian Development Bank, Burma has one of the fastest GDP growth rates in the world at 7.7 percent, but its unemployment rate is still high at 4.02 percent. By comparison, Cambodia’s unemployment rate is 0.3 percent, Thailand’s 0.9 percent, Laos’ 1.3 percent, and Vietnam’s 3.7 percent.

Farm workers, fishermen, and hunters quit their jobs for fear of conflict when traveling in the region. They often become porters to support troops instead. Residents increasingly turn to opium poppy cultivation and drug dealing as a quick way to make money. Instability and unemployment has led to a low standard of living and an increase in violent crime.

A 2015 report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime reported Kachin State is one of the largest poppy growing areas in the region with 2,000 hectares under cultivation. Unsurprisingly, in some villages, an estimated 20 percent of households deal drugs. High unemployment and opium cultivation breeds drug addiction, particularly among youth. The cycle of unemployment, drug dealing, addiction, and crime will not only impact Kachin, but the country’s society at large.

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Loss of Trade

Kachin’s major trading partner is China’s Yunnan province, and a major trade route, passing through KIA headquarters in Laiza, has been shut down by conflict. It is the same story for the Lweje trade route. The Kanpaiti trade route was opened as a replacement, but the road is not as good and is longer. It is fair to say that war in Kachin has negatively affected cross-border trade between China and Kachin, and therefore Burma.

The railway between Kachin and Mandalay via Sagaing has been affected by clashes along its course, disrupting domestic trade and pushing up the price of daily commodities which are imported by train to Kachin State. Trade between state capital Myitkyina and the far north’s Putao has also been halted by fighting. In 2012, an acute rice shortage was only alleviated when the government delivered sacks of rice to hungry villagers. Prices in Putao are often double, if not triple, those in the capital.

It’s not just trade of day-to-day necessities that has been disrupted by war—the trade of natural resources including gold, amber, and jadeite have also been affected, naturally affecting the state’s GDP.

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Brain Drain

The civil war has driven people in Burma to seek better opportunities abroad. According to the International Organization for Migration, 4.25 million out of Burma’s 51.9 million population are now living abroad. Regionally, Burma has grown to be the largest migration source country in the Greater Mekong sub-region. Among them, 70 percent of migrants living abroad are based in Thailand, followed by Malaysia (15 percent), China (4.6 percent), Singapore (3.9 percent) and the USA (1.9 percent).

Although there is no specific data on a “brain drain” of workers from Kachin State, an estimated one person in ten is now working in a foreign country—China, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, and others. Most initially work in Malaysia and Thailand before seeking asylum in third countries such as Australia, the US, and Europe. This loss of labor undermines productivity in Kachin and the country.

Forlorn Hope

Despite the six-year anniversary of the civil war, the mounting number of IDPs maintain a forlorn hope for resettlement. The miserable IDP camps face increasing cuts to aid. According to Human Rights Watch, the Burma Army has blocked World Food Program aid since mid-2016 for fear that it could be used to supply KIA troops. Food rations for able-bodied men in IDP camps were cut in March 2017, according to camp organizers.

Burma Army Commander-in-Chief Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing upset many Kachin last month when he accused “insurgents” of using IDPs as human shields in a conversation with International Committee for the Red Cross President Peter Maurer.

State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi—who initially fostered hopes of peace from voters including ethnic minorities—gave IDPs little hope of resettlement when she visited Kachin camps in March this year. “We can close these IDP camps and people can live in their homes only if we attain peace,” she said. Gaining peace seems a long way off for IDPs and their dream to return home remains blurry—they have no alternative but to wait.

Now is not time for Burma’s government to increase military spending, but rather to provide aid to IDPs, curtail unemployment, and rebuild communities in Kachin State and elsewhere. The Burma Army and ethnic armed groups should not argue over secession from the Union—as they did at the recent peace conference—but rather seek solutions to end conflict and build lasting peace in the region.

The international community, particularly China, must help Burma to end its civil war not just in the interest of border stability, but for the livelihoods of those displaced by conflict. China should not be shy in stepping in to solve the conflict—getting fully involved in order to achieve peace is preferable to being overly cautious and muddling through. Without attempts to broker peace, IDPs will be waiting beyond the seventh anniversary of civil war before they can return home. No one wants that.   Joe Kumbun is the pseudonym of a Kachin State-based analyst.

By Joe Kumbun 8 June 2017

MAE SOT, Thailand — When entering the landfill on the outskirts of Mae Sot on Thailand’s border with Burma, flies buzz chaotically around the waste, which ranges from metal devices to worn out clothes to rotten food, the pile standing taller than a grown man.
“We consume wasted food if it is good enough. We cook it, if needed. We make our living by collecting wasted and recyclable materials and selling them,” explained Ma San Aye, a 45 year-old Burmese woman originally from Kyaukki Township in Pegu Division who has made her home at the garbage dump for more than 15 years along with her children and grandchildren.
“We can survive on 20 baht (US$0.58) a day here,” she said, sipping her tea as flies attempt to land on the cup’s rim.

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The garbage piles stand like a small hill in an area called Mae Pa—it is where all of the waste from Mae Sot town is thrown.
“Of course it is bad for our health. Before, I had no diseases. Now, I have back pain and chest pain. It is smelly, but we have adapted to it. Before, I would vomit and I couldn’t eat for five days. But it is okay now,” said Ma San Aye said.
She said she makes around 2,000 baht (US$58) a month selling materials she finds at the dump.
Those who reside near the waste site live in makeshift tents, where they eat and sleep. Some sort through the trash during the daytime, and others do so at night.

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“We can’t survive if we are afraid of bad, dirty and smelly waste. It is like our kitchen—we eat here and live here,” said Ko Than Oo, 49, while collecting recyclable materials around the landfill.
Sweat fell on his face and his clothes were soaked with perspiration.
“I know the smell is not good for our health. I get severe headaches and dizziness. Sometimes, I have heavy coughing,” he said.

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Ko Than Oo has lived near the garbage pile with his blind and aging mother for 12 years. Despite the reforms underway in Burma, he said he has no plan to go back to his homeland, as he does not have a job there. He makes about 150 baht (US$4.34) a day by collecting and selling recyclable materials. This, he said, is enough to feed himself and his mother.
Several other people, including women and children, are also busy, collecting rubbish in the heat. There are more than 100 households living at the garbage pile, and, according to residents, some have been living here for up to 20 years.

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U Moe Joe, chairman of Joint Action Committee for Burma Affairs in Mae Sot, has been supporting Burmese workers in the area for 14 years. He told The Irrawaddy that there are 300 Burmese people currently living in and around Mae Sot’s landfill; they came to Thailand hoping to escape poverty and unemployment in their hometowns.
“They depend on the garbage. They make their living by collecting waste,” he said.
Although Mae Sot is experiencing economic growth, many of the benefits do not reach the Burmese migrant workers who live and work there, U Moe Joe explained, saying that instead, those who work in factories, construction, and in waste collection are frequently “left behind.”

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The garbage collector Ko Than Oo said that migrants like himself are excluded from experiencing development in Mae Sot, adding, “It has nothing to do with us.”
For Ma San Aye, her relationship with the waste site has become a way of life, and a resource on which she depends in order to make a living.
“For us it is like a pile of gold and money. We rely on this garbage,” she says, smoking a cheroot in her tent while her grandchildren play nearby.

By Saw Yan Naing 2 May 2017 – Photo: Saw Yan Naing / The Irrawaddy

More than 20,000 people from northern Shan State have flooded into border camps in neighboring China, seeking refuge from bitter fighting between ethnic groups and security forces, China said on Thursday.
Thousands of people have crossed China’s border in recent months to escape the conflict, which threatens Burma leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s top goal of reaching peace with minorities.
This week, about 30 people were killed in an attack by ethnic Chinese insurgents in Laukkai, a town 800 kilometers (500 miles) northeast of Burma’s commercial hub Rangoon.

China is providing humanitarian assistance while taking steps to ensure peace and tranquility in the border region, Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said.
He reiterated a call for all sides involved to “exercise restraint and immediately cease fire” to keep clashes from escalating.
“China supports Myanmar’s peace process and hopes all sides can use peaceful means to resolve their differences via dialogue and consultation,” Geng told a regular news briefing.
Stray shells and bullets had fallen into China territory, injuring one Chinese person living there and causing some other damage, he added, but did not elaborate.
The attack came after Daw Aung San Suu Kyi met a delegation of ethnic armed groups last week to convince them to take part in a major peace conference.
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi swept to power in 2015 on promises of national reconciliation and the meeting was aimed at giving fresh impetus to the stuttering peace process.
In this week’s attack, fighters of the predominantly ethnic Chinese Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) launched a pre-dawn raid on police, military and government sites in Laukkai, the capital of the northeastern Kokang region.
MNDAA is a part of the Northern Alliance coalition of rebel groups comprising one of Burma’s most powerful militias, the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), and two smaller groups caught in a standoff with the military since 2015 clashes in the region.
Many died and tens of thousands fled during that fighting, which also spilled into China and led to the death of five of its people, angering Beijing.

Burma – By Reuters 9 March 2017

Five police and five civilians were killed in an attack by members of the ethnic Kokang Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) in Laukkai—the administrative capital of the ethnic Kokang region of Shan State—according to a report issued from Burma’s State Counselor’s Office.
The State Counselor Office Information Committee reported that the MNDAA attacked a hotel in the town near the Chinese border early on Monday morning, burning four cars near the hotel site.

The MNDAA members reportedly were dressed in police uniforms and and first attacked a police station in the town.
“Five police, five civilians, were killed and four other police were taken hostage,” said a report from the information committee, which also stated that no Burma Army soldiers were injured in the attack, but they were able to seize some weapons.
“Other armed groups may even be involved in the attacks,” said the report.
Kokang rebels’ video footage states that they launched an attack on a hotel belonging to the governor of the town, who local sources say was once an MNDAA leader, but now supports the Burma Army.
Col Tar Phone Kyaw from the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) told The Irrawaddy that Arakan Army (AA) members may have joined the MNDAA in the attacks.
Fighting has been ongoing in other areas of northern Shan State, where the Northern Alliance—to which the MNDAA, AA, TNLA and the Kachin Independence Army belong—and the Burma Army have clashed. Burmese authorities have blocked roads leaving Laukkai.
Just 10 miles outside of Laukkai town, fighting has been ongoing, according to Col San Aung, from a splinter group of the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army (DKBA) which in January joined the Northern Alliance and is based in the Kokang area.

                                                                                         By Lawi Weng 6 March 2017

RANGOON — Civil society organizations, activists, students and tourists joined a demonstration on Saturday to demand an end to the fighting between the Burma Army and ethnic armed groups in the north and northeastern areas of the country.

In Rangoon, the Popular Movement for Peace was joined by more than 500 participants who marched across the city before ending in front of City Hall.

They shouted anti-war slogans while holding placards that said “Stop War.”

The same event was also held in Mon State’s capital Mawlamyein, and Bago, Pyay and Nattalin towns in Bago Division.

Demonstrators in Rangoon demanded four points including an end to the fighting, access to aid war victims, a reduction in military expenditure, and an army announcement of a nationwide ceasefire.

Until recently, Burma has seen fighting in Kachin and northeastern Shan states, where ethnic armed groups in the areas have long been fighting for equality, self determination and federalism while government troops claim they are fighting to protect regional stability.

MAUNGDAW, Arakan State.
One of the consequences of the Oct. 9 border outpost attacks in Arakan State’s Maungdaw Township has been renewed distrust between self-identifying Rohingya Muslims and Arakanese Buddhists, despite attempts to rebuild relations after deadly riots erupted in 2012.
According to the government, 10 border police were killed in the attacks, 7 soldiers died during subsequent “clearance operations,” some 70 “suspects” have been killed, and more than 300 people have been detained at various police stations in the township.

Article sur info-birmanieSome 1,200 displaced people from Dar Gyee Zar village—which was almost entirely razed—recently made temporary camps in Abujara and Wa Piek villages in Maungdaw. Sources say that more than half a dozen other villages were burned down in the northern part of the township.
Human Rights Watch said that on Nov. 13, it had identified 430 destroyed buildings in three villages in northern Maungdaw by analyzing high resolution satellite imagery recorded on Oct. 22, Nov. 3 and Nov. 10. On Nov. 21, the organization identified more than 800 more such destroyed buildings in five villages. The Burmese government rejected the report’s findings. Read More ….

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