KATMANDU, Nepal — The authorities in southwestern China are forcibly evicting thousands of encamped ethnic Kachin refugees who fled a renewed civil war in neighboring Myanmar, pushing them back into the conflict zone in Kachin State in northern Myanmar, according to foreign human rights researchers, political analysts and two people in Kachin State.
The forced repatriation appears to be happening in large waves this week. The refugees fled to China after a 17-year cease-fire agreement between the Kachin Independence Army and Myanmar’s government broke down in June 2011. The civil war with the Kachin is one of many occurring in Myanmar, formerly Burma, and the renewal of the Kachin conflict has cast doubts on the sincerity or ability of President Thein Sein to carry out deep political reforms.
A researcher for Human Rights Watch said the repatriations appeared to have begun en masse on Tuesday. He estimated that 1,000 refugees had returned to Kachin State and that an additional 4,000 were projected to return by the end of the week.
In June, Human Rights Watch reported that 7,000 to 10,000 Kachin refugees were in China and subjected to squalid conditions and harsh treatment by officials. It also said there had been some instances of forced repatriation by Chinese officials, though apparently not as systematic or widespread as now.
“All the refugees in China now are being pushed back,” said a resident of Laiza, the capital of the rebel-held part of Kachin State. “Many of them are back already.” On Wednesday, he added, Chinese border guards expelled a group of refugees from an area called Nong Tau and destroyed refugee huts even before the refugees had left the site.
Ryan Roco, a human rights researcher who has documented the plight of the war’s displaced, said he had learned that at least 4,200 Kachin were being forced out of six camps in Yunnan Province, China, and back into Myanmar. He said the process, begun last week, appeared to have intensified since Tuesday. A further 700 were living with family or friends in Yunnan after being forced from the camps, he said.
