Canada - Joint Statement - Kachin

Burmese Canadian Network

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Report by : Burmese Canadian Network ( ကေနဒါ ျမန္မာ ကြန္ယက္ ) 缅甸加拿大网络

To : Government of Myanmar and Burma’s Army ( Myanmar’s Tatmadaw )

Naypyidaw, Myanmar

Cc : Canada Government

China Government

Date : January 12, 2013

Dear Government of Myanmar,

We, the Burmese Canadian Network and Ethnic Nationalities Organizations in Canada, are writing to ask for your help in seeking to demand an end of the ongoing and escalating civil war in Kachin State. Furthermore, we seek your intervention in promoting the ethnic equal rights of the Kachin people as a matter of the highest priority.

We urge you to help find the long term solution by formally engaging in political peace talks for both sides of the conflicts. We recognize and value the changes within Burma as positive movements during this transition term towards democracy. But we also would like to appreciate your commitment to the process of the popular peace movement in exploring the needs of ethnic nationalities in Myanmar.

The goal of long term peace in Myanmar can only be achieved by stopping the war and granting ethnic equal rights according to Panglong Agreement of 1947, as our independence father, General Aung San, had promised to the ethnic groups of Burma. Peace talks between the Burmese Government’s Union Peace Implementation Committee and Kachin Independence Organization’s Central Peace Negotiating Group have been ongoing for several times now, and the Union Peace Implementation Committee has agreed to have future political solution at their last peace meeting in Ruili, China, on Oct 30^th2012.

It is very important that the Peace talks process is accomplished by both parties; and the more offensive attacks, air force attacks and using more ground troops with tanks, warplanes, chemical weapons in Kachin state these days would certainly delay the peace talk process. These attacks on the people must be halted immediately.

Our thoughts are with the Kachin people including the Kachin IDPs and other victims of human rights violations during the civil war. We feel immense sadness on hearing of human rights abuses, intensified airstrikes including dropping the bombs, and firing from machine guns from the air, increasing the ground troops near Kachin IDP camps. Moreover, Kachincivilians are now living in fear of bombing, longing to have their safe return home, and facing an unknown future that is fraught with danger. The offensive attacks in Kachin State can only create the future destruction of ethnic union.

Therefore, we urge the government of Myanmar to take effective actions on Ethnic Kachin issues for achieving the following goals:

1. The immediate withdrawal of all Burmese troops including Airstrikes, all ground troops with tanks, and using chemical weapons in Kachin State.

2. An end to the civil war and proceed with the genuine peace talks withKachin Independence Organization ( KIO ) to promote the equality and respect for human rights that would lead to successful federalism.

3. Ceasing of human rights violations: torturing civilians, pottering, raping, human shield, burning civilians' properties, and killing innocent civilians.

4. To provide immediate and direct humanitarian assistance to over 100,000 IDPs in Kachin State.

5. To stop blocking the humanitarian aid access to the refugees inKachin State from the international community and UNHCR and other agencies.

6. To call for an inclusive peace dialogue with UNFC and all other stake holders to achieve the political solution for a long lasting peace in Burma.

In conclusion, we urge the government of Myanmar to support a great cause in ceasing civil war, and granting ethnic equal rights, and in ending the humanitarian crisis in Kachin State.

We have delivered a petition with many signatures asking government of Myanmar to help.

Together with unity and solidarity, we can make a difference.

The undersigned groups; 以下10个团体：ကေနဒါ နိုင္င ငံ အတြင္း ရွိ သေဘာတူ လက္မွတ္ ေရးထိုး ႀကေသာ အဖြဲ ့မ်ား..

( 1 ) Burma Ethnic Nationalities Network ( Canada ) B.E.N.N 缅甸少数族裔网路（加拿大）

( 2 ) Kachin Canadian Association ( KCA ) 加拿大克钦联谊会

( 3 ) International Burmese Monks Organization ( Canada ) I.B.M.O 旅加国际缅甸僧伽团体

( 4 ) Burmese Student Democratic Organization ( Canada ) B.S.D.O 旅加缅甸民主学生会

( 5 ) All Burma Muslim Union ( Canada ) A.B.M.U 缅甸全国穆斯林联合会

( 6 ) Canadian Campaigns for Free Burma ( CC4FB ) 加拿大解放缅甸运动

( 7 ) Burma Watch International (Edmonton) 国际缅甸守望台

( 8 ) United Democratic Youth League (Canada Branch) U.D.Y.L 民主团结青年联盟加拿大分会 ဒီမိုကရက္တစ္လူငယ္ညီညြတ္ေရး အဖြဲ ့ခ်ဳပ္

( 9 ) Burmese Muslim Association ( B.M.A ) 旅加缅甸穆斯林会

(10)Burmese Canadian Network ( B.C.N ) 缅甸加拿大网络 ကေနဒါ ျမန္မာ ကြန္ယက္