Six years after the 17-year ceasefire broke between the Myanmar Army and the Kachin Independence Organization/Army (KIO/A), one of the country’s largest ethnic armed groups, fighting continues to rage throughout northern Myanmar.2 In the areas of Kachin and northern Shan States that border China, new surges in fighting are often coupled with crimes under international law and other serious violations and abuses of human rights—in particular against civilians from ethnic minorities. More than 98,000 civilians are displaced, a crisis that the Myanmar government has exacerbated by restricting humanitarian access to specific areas, particularly those controlled by ethnic armed groups.

This report examines international human rights and humanitarian law violations committed since mid-2016 by parties to the ongoing internal armed conflicts in Kachin and northern Shan States. In August 2016, the Myanmar Armed Forces launched an offensive against a string of KIA mountain posts, leading to renewed civilian displacement amidst some of the heaviest fighting in years in Kachin State. Several months later, the Northern Alliance, consisting of four ethnic armed groups, attacked Myanmar Army and police outposts in northern Shan State, spurring a heavy-handed response by the Army. As fighting escalated in advance of peace talks in late May 2017, civilians often suffered most.

Download full report in English HERE.

အစီရင္ခံစာ ျမန္မာဘာသာကုိ ဤေနရာတြင္ ရယူႏုိင္သည္။

For more you can also view: “Myanmar’s Borderlands on Fire“