Ethnic Groups in Myanmar Want Peace but Gird for a Fight

[Coventina]

Source: New York Times

LAIZA, MYANMAR — The Kachin tribesmen who inhabit the hills along Myanmar’s border with China have a reputation as stealthy jungle warriors, famous for repelling Japanese attacks in the Second World War with booby traps and instilling terror by slicing off ears to tally their kills.

Now, as they have many times in their war-scarred history, the Kachin are hoping for peace but are prepared for battle with Myanmar’s central government.

“Whether or not there will be war again, we have to be ready,” Maj. Zauja Nhkri, the head of an officer’s training school that is part of the Kachin Independence Army, which has around 4,000 men under arms.

(snip)

As Myanmar’s military government prepares to adopt a new and disputed Constitution next year, a fragile patchwork of cease-fire agreements between the central government and more than a dozen armed ethnic groups is fraying.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/11/world/asia/11iht-myanmar.html?hp

[bertman]

1. I'm rooting for the little guys in this one. I've had enough of central governments taking

over every fucking thing and then screwing over the indigenous tribes who were doing just fine without being subjugated.