A coalition of political parties in northern Myanmar’s Kachin state said on Wednesday that the national army’s offensives in Tanaing township and the Hukong Valley against the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) could harm the government’s efforts to end decades of ethnic separatist civil wars and forge peace, RFA reported on 21 June.
Government troops and the KIA began fighting in the Tanaing gold and amber mining region on June 16.
A statement issued by the Kachin Political Cooperation Committee (KPCC), which includes the Lhaovo National Unity and Development Party, Kachin Democratic Party, and Kachin State Democracy Party, also said that villagers had lost trust in the central government and the local ethnic majority because of land grabs that accompany the hostilities.
