Kachin plight revels Burma's patchy progress

"Welcome to our new Kachin townships," the camp administrator said sarcastically as he guided us down the muddy path leading to one of the dozens of refugee camps scattered through Kachin, the thin sliver of land which forms Burma's northernmost region. 

 

Twelve-year-old Myitung Brang Shawng found his mother shot and dumped in a cesspit

 Makeshift shelters constructed from canvas and bamboo are now home for thousands of internally displaced people.
The United Nations refugee agency say there are more than 50,000 displaced people here, the Kachin put the figure much higher.
It is hard to check the number because most international aid agencies and journalists are not allowed into the area, which is part of Burma, but held by the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), one of several militias aligned with Burma's ethnic minority groups, who have for decades opposed the central government.

 'Killed with spear'
The stories we heard from the refugees in Kachin tell a very different story.

 

Lahpai Zau Bawk cried as he told us the story of how he lost his wife. The Burmese army attacked their village and they all ran, he explained, but his wife, Suu Lam, had just given birth and she could not keep up, getting separated from the group as they hid in the jungle.
"The next day I went back to look for her and found that they'd killed her with a spear, entering through her ribcage on the left and all the way through to her arm on the right," he said. "I found the baby, barely alive, lying next to her mother. I grabbed her and ran."

 Truce collapse

The atrocities the refugees described, and many more, all took place during the last nine months, well after Burma's new leaders began their charm offensive on the international community. 

A 17-year truce between the Burmese army and KIA collapsed last year after the KIA refused to become state border guards.