Shan Human Rights Foundation – Killings, beheading and disappearance of villagers instill fear of return among Kokang refugees

The Shan Human Rights Foundation (SHRF) released a report today, 11 May that documents the results of interviews held with Kokang villagers taking refuge in neighboring China.

The Shan Human Rights Foundation report that the refugees “remain fearful of return, due to killing, beheading and disappearance of villagers caught returning home.”

The Shan Human Rights Foundation said that there are “tens of thousands of refugees sheltering along the length of the China-Kokang border, in formal camps set up by the Chinese authorities, as well as in unofficial makeshift camps.”

The refugees that Shan Human Rights Foundation interviewed were from the “15,000 refugees staying along a 10-km section of the border directly north of Laogai (Burma).

The SHRF said the villagers had fled from their “mountain villages where fighting continues between the Burma Army and the Kokang resistance army, the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA).”

The Shan Human Rights Foundation report said that “thousands of these refugees had since mid-February been staying in a large camp straddling the border at Maitihe, but on April 15, government authorities from Laogai arrived at the camp and told the IDPs on the Kokang side of the border that they were not allowed to stay there.”

The Shan Human Rights Foundation said the displaced people “were ordered to return to IDP shelters set up in schools in Laogai and Konkyan, and were threatened that if they did not return within three days, they would be assumed to be MNDAA supporters, and would be killed.”

The Shan Human Rights Foundation explained that the internally displaced people “were too afraid to return, and most moved to other nearby refugee settlements in China.”

Shan Human Rights Foundation said that in the following days “the Burma Army launched a large-scale offensive against the MNDAA at Nan Tien Men Mountain, using heavy artillery.”

SHRF said that shelling by the Burma Army that landed on the “Chinese side of the border caused over 700 refugees sheltering at Chin Cai Go (the border crossing directly north of Nan Tien Men) to evacuate deeper into China.”

The Shan Human Rights Foundation said that the constant shelling in the “Nan Tien Men area since early May continues to instill fear in refugees. Most are too afraid to even cross back and make brief visits to their homes, due to cases of killing and disappearance of villagers returning across the border. Refugees said that most villages in their area are now completely deserted.”

The Shan Human Rights Foundation said that it documented and took the testimonies from refugees of “civilian deaths or disappearances in their villages since conflict broke out in the Kokang area on February 9, 2015.”

The Shan Human Rights Foundation said that it is “unsafe for these refugees to return home while fighting continues and the Burma Army continues to commit abuses against civilians with impunity.”