US warns of action against Burma's ethnic violence, Kachin rebels call for US involvement in peacetalks

The US assistant secretary of state for east-Asia warned that the US was prepared to take action against Burma should they continue to block international NGO’s from working in the Rhakine state, reports The Guardian today.

Speaking after a two week visit to Burma, Daniel Russell said,

“The fact that we have a stake in the success of the government and the reform efforts doesn’t mean that we pull punches. The crux of my message was: the whole world is watching.”

Meanwhile the last remaining rebel group based in the Rhakine region , the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), called on the US to take a leading role in peace-talks to secure fundamental rights that guaranteed a future for minorities.

The deputy commander in chief of the KIA, Gun Maw, told Reuters that he had expressed his views to US officials during their visit to Burma.

“We would like to have the US present at the peace process as witness, so this agreement will become strong. At present, p we are still asking the US to be involved. Whether they will be we don’t know yet,” said Gun Maw.

The Kachin rebels are set to hold another round of talks with the Burmese government next month, in attempts to end over 3 years of fighting.

Add new comment

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web page addresses and email addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Global and entity tokens are replaced with their values. Browse available tokens.

Restricted HTML

  • You can align images (data-align="center"), but also videos, blockquotes, and so on.
  • You can caption images (data-caption="Text"), but also videos, blockquotes, and so on.
  • Global and entity tokens are replaced with their values. Browse available tokens.
  • You can embed media items (using the <drupal-media> tag).

We need your support

Sri Lanka is one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist. Tamil journalists are particularly at threat, with at least 41 media workers known to have been killed by the Sri Lankan state or its paramilitaries during and after the armed conflict.

Despite the risks, our team on the ground remain committed to providing detailed and accurate reporting of developments in the Tamil homeland, across the island and around the world, as well as providing expert analysis and insight from the Tamil point of view

We need your support in keeping our journalism going. Support our work today.

link button