In this March 17, 2018 photo, a Kachin Independence Army rebel watches no man's land, towards Myanmar army front line from a outpost in Hpalap mountain, controlled by Kachin rebels in northern Kachin state, Myanmar. While the world is focused on attacks on Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims, a civil war rages, pitting government forces against another of the country’s minorities, the Kachins, mostly Christian. It’s one of the longest-running wars on Earth, and it has intensified dramatically in recent months, with at least 10,000 people been displaced since January alone, according to the United Nations. Esther Htusan AP Photo
April 25, 2018 10:30 AM
Updated 10 hours 39 minutes ago
LAIZA, MYANMAR
On the front lines, the army is pounding rebels with airstrikes and artillery. In the displacement camps, terrified civilians are building bomb shelters of sandbags and stones. And everywhere in this troubled swath of Myanmar's north, there is a growing sense the conflict will only get worse.
While the world is focused on the plight of Myanmar's Rohingya Muslims, a civil war is raging here, pitting government forces against another of the country's minorities — the Kachins, mostly Christian. It's one of the longest-running wars on Earth, and it has intensified dramatically in recent months, with at least 10,000 people displaced since January alone, according to the United Nations.
The crisis, though, is also one of the world's most forgotten, overshadowed even in Myanmar by violence against Rohingya in the west, nearly 700,000 of whom have been driven into exile by the military. While the conflicts differ, they share a tragic theme, said Zau Raw, who heads a rebel committee overseeing humanitarian aid in the mountainous sliver of territory the militants control along the Chinese frontier.
Just like the Rohingya, the Kachin have begun to realize that "the army wants to wipe us out," he said. "This is a war to cleanse us."
