It’s a great pity that the impressive civilianization of the military regime in Burma/Myanmar and the reforms the now-civilian government of President Thein Sein are being dimmed by the decision to use air power against the Kachin rebels.

The Kachins are a group of six ethnic groups who largely inhabit the Kachin Hills in northern Burma’s Kachin State and neighboring areas of China and India. Most the Kachin people are Christians. A big minority are Buddhist, like the majority of the Burmese people. Some Kachins are still animists, their ancestors’ religion.

That brief description should make us Filipinos, and for that matter most Southeast Asians, feel a sense of affinity with the Kachins. For we Malay Christians, who call ourselves Filipinos, also had animist ancestors. In fact, some of our fellow Malay-Indonesian Filipinos in northern Luzon and in Mindanao (who are referred to as Lumads) are still animist, though like the Kachins they are a dwindling sector of the population.

Why did the military leaders of Myanmar decide to use the most destructive weapons—air power—against the Kachin rebels?

No control over the generals?
Their action seems to suggest that President Thein Sein no longer can impose obedience on Burma’s generals. For from all of his public pronouncements Myanmar’s leader has a mind to win the rebels to the government side through mild and peaceful means.

The funny thing is that as a result of the air attacks on the Kachin rebels Beijing and Washington are now both castigating President Thien Sein’s government.

They are angry with Napyidaw (that’s the name of the new Myanmar capital, which is some 320 kilometers away from the previous capital Yangon or Rangoon, that Rudyard Kipling knew) for different reasons.

The United States is chiding the Burmese government’s heavy hand against the Kachins for human rights reasons. Also, one can imagine the pressure that American congressmen and senators are now getting from both Catholic and Protestant groups to do something to stop the Burmese air force from destroying the homes and churches of the Kachins.

China’s motive for complaining is different. China would in fact love to see Washington and Napyidaw quarrel over the military’s treatment of the mainly Christian Kachins.

China wants that because it finds the growing friendly and collaborative ties between the Americans and the Burmese threatening to Beijing’s interests.

Still, Beijing had to lodge a diplomatic protest because three bombs fell on Chinese territory during the Burmese airforce’s attacks on the Kachins.

Said the Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman: “The Chinese side has launched representations with the Myanmar side requiring them to take effective and immediate measures to avoid the repetition of similar incidents.”

The bombs landed just inside China last Sunday evening. There were no casualties, she told reporters at a regular media briefing.

Fighting between the Myanmar military and the Kachin Independence Army in the far north of Myanmar/Burma has worsened in recent days as government forces battled to regain one of their bases that the rebels had taken over.

Tens of thousands of people have been displaced in Kachin state since June 2011, when a 17-year ceasefire between the government and the Kachin Independence Army, the armed wing of the Kachin Independence Organization, broke down.

The Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman refused to be drawn into commenting on whether China would mediate between the two sides in an effort to end a conflict, which has overshadowed wider political reforms in the country.

“The issue concerning northern Myanmar is Myanmar’s internal affair and we hope that the Myanmar government can appropriately deal with the issue through peaceful negotiation,” she said.

USA has to sympathize with the Kachins    
The US has to sympathize with the Kachin rebels who rebels are calling for greater political rights and an end to human rights abuses by the Burmese army.

Clashes in Kachin, along with communal unrest in western Rakhine state, have cast a shadow over Myanmar’s widely praised emergence from decades of army rule.

US President Barack Obama went to Yangon in a historic visit last year, with Washington keen to expand its influence in a country where China has had almost unchallenged dominance.

News that reach the West about abuses by the military and policies of the Myanmar government will turn Christian groups against the Obama administration’s policy to be closer to Burma.

One piece of bad news was sent to us by a Christian group. It says that that the Myanmar Department of Energy is forcing a Roman Catholic Church to move its cemetery which is beside a road in Kawa Hka, Myitkyina, in Kachin State. The government needs the land so it can set up an electrical transmission facility where the cemetery is.

The church does not have legal titles to the land. It received a notice in June last year to remove the cemetery that was built in the ’60s. The government has offered no compensation for taking over the cemetery.

The Catholic Church is trying to raise the necessary funds to purchase new land to in order to move the cemetery.

“The government told us we need to move but they didn’t provide replacement land. We thought they would give us at least between 20 to 30 acres so we can move the burial plots,” said Father Hkun Awng.

Kachin singers and actors, Kai Dim, Zau Ding, Zau Doi Hkawng, Zau Mun Awng, Mun Pan, Lahpai La Ja, Kumhtung Seng Ra organized a fundraising concert on July 9 to raise money to buy new land for the church cemetery.