While the West is lauding Burma for its reforms, the so-called democratic reforms are little more than a smokescreen behind which the country's war against the Christian Kachin people continues unabated, according to ASSIST News Service. Burma's regime is intent on advancing its interests as the country's geo-strategic value has risen in line with China's economic and military ascendancy. Some analysts speculate that China might be behind Burma's intent to ethnically cleanse Kachin State of its 90-percent-Christian population, and it has been reported that China is blocking the delivery of food, emergency shelter and medical aid for the 30,000 displaced Kachin residents. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has downplayed the situation, but the U.N. Special Rapporteur on human rights in Burma reports that more than 15,000 displaced Kachin are confined to a remote mountainous area on the Chinese border in "perilous" conditions. Meanwhile, Burma's Buddhist-supremacist regime continues to impose severe restrictions on Christianity in many towns in Kachin State, cracking down on the freedoms to hold Bible studies and prayer, as well as burning churches and killing, enslaving and brutalizing Christians.
