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Govt, KHCC Meet in Naypyidaw to Discuss IDP Return

The Kachin Humanitarian Concern Committee (KHCC) submitted the Kachin Independence Organization’s (KIO) strategic plan for Kachin internally displaced persons’ (IDPs) return home to the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement in Naypyidaw last week.

The IDPs in question are among the 100,000 people displaced by clashes between the Burma Army and the Kachin Independence Army since 2011.

“They accepted it,” KHCC spokesperson Father Naw Aye Naw Latt told KNG of the social welfare ministry upon receiving the KIO report on July 10. “They will report it to the NRPC [National Reconciliation and Peace Center]. They said they will reply to us later.”

This meeting was the third between the government and the KHCC.

The KHCC said that they discussed humanitarian issues, landmine removal, rehabilitation for those addicted to drugs, and the need to return with “safety and dignity.”

The government’s peace negotiation body, the NRPC, will reportedly need to discuss further security issues with the KIO, according to the KHCC.

The government formed a working committee on IDP return with the Ministry of Social Welfare and Kachin religious organizations in 2018.

The KHCC sent 10 displaced Kachin families from Shwe Nyaung Pin IDP camp in Kachin State’s Waingmaw Township to their respective villages on July 4.

The KHCC announced in June plans to resettle hundreds of IDPs in Putao Township, because they were unable to return to their original villages.

Three thousand people from ten villages were selected for a resettlement program in December, with the move scheduled at that time to take place before April.

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