Kachin Women Urged Withdrawal of Burma Army from Ethnic States
May 20, 2005

The Kachin Post

A Thailand-based Kachin women’s rights group has demanded the withdrawal of the Burmese Army from the ethnic states of Burma citing that their repressive military rule has contributed to the trafficking of many young ethnic women into commercial sex work by fostering extreme poverty and high unemployment.

The Kachin Women’s Association Thailand, KWAT, launched a report Driven Away: Trafficking of Kachin Women on the China-Burma Border on Tuesday, revealing 63 verified and suspected trafficking cases which involve 85 girls and women from the Kachin and Northern Shan states, who traffickers had promised better jobs. Most of the girls are between 14 to 20 years of age.

“Most of the cases cited extreme poverty and lack of employment opportunities in home areas as the main reason for migration,” said the report.

According to the report, Kachin women are trafficked to towns in China ranging from those near the China border as well as to other towns in Yunnan province and even as far away as near China’s border with North Korea. Some of the women reported being forced to marry Chinese men or work in brothels. Other domestically-trafficked women work at massage parlors and karaoke bars in the mining and logging areas in Kachin and Shan States as well as in the capital Rangoon.

The report also blames that Burma’s military government’s inept policies of neglecting social services in favor of support for the military as contributing to the extreme poverty in Burma, which forces many youths to leave their communities to find employment.

“It is impossible to address the country’s trafficking problem without challenging military government policies,” said KWAT’s coordinator Sheli Seng. “It is important that Burma needs political reform to solve the trafficking problem.”

KWAT urges the country’s military government to immediately call for a nationwide cease-fire, the withdrawal of the Burmese military from ethnic areas and initiation of meaningful tripartite dialogue with opposition and ethnic nationalities. It also demands that the Chinese government and international community pressure Burmese junta to initiate genuine political reform.

The Kachin Women’s Association Thailand was founded in Chiang Mai, Thailand on December 9, 1999. KWAT is a member of the Thailand-based Women’s League of Burma, WLB.