Exiled Kachin Accuse Regime of Taking Over Their Culture

Kachin leaders in exile accuse Burma’s military regime of taking over not only Kachin politics but such special traditions as Thursday’s Kachin State Day observances.

Uma Tu, spokesman of the Kachin National Organization in exile, told reporters at the ceremony in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand, that, by organizing the traditional Kachin Manua festival, the regime appeared to be trying to send out the message that the Kachin people and other ethnic groups are happy under military rule.

[Photo: The Irrawaddy]

The Kachin ethnic movement within Burma, the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), signed a ceasefire agreement with the military government, in February 1994. The KIO was founded in February, 1994, and is based at Laiza, on the China-Burma border.

Uma Tu claimed the Kachin people were prevented from even studying their own history. Young people, denied political involvement, were at risk from reliance on drugs.

More than 100,000 Kachin people under the age of 40 died from drug abuse or AIDS between 1997 and 2007, according to Kachin research results.