Burmese Army Attacks Own Refugee Camps

Carrie Dedrick | Updated: May 14, 2014

Burmese Army Attacks Own Refugee Camps

Violence has broken out in Burmese refugee camps reports Mission Network News. The country’s own military is behind the attacks.

About 2 million people have been displaced in Burma due to 30 years of ongoing violence. 250,000 of those live as refugees in camps that were supposed to be a place of protection.

The Burmese army primarily attacks those in the Karen, Kachin and Shan states.

Dyann Romeijn, spokesman for Vision Beyond Borders said, “ While there’s been 500,000 killed, it hasn’t been overnight. It’s been a slower type of genocide, so it doesn’t garner the media attention that the rest of the genocides tend to gather.”

Many Burmese people are trapped in the camps because China will not let them in to flee from the violence.

“In Karen state, they’re able to go into Thailand which has been a safe haven for them, and Thailand has allowed them to stay there in these refugee camps. But China is blocking a lot of the refugees from, Kachin state as they try to come across the border,” Romeijn said.

The attacks are not religiously based, though the Kachin state is largely made up of Christians.

 

Publication date: May 14, 2014



Burmese Army Attacks Own Refugee Camps