The fighting began in my village on 9 June 2011. Over 15% of my Kachin people have been displaced since, Myself & my neighbors from Nansan Yang are among them. I have seen many houses which were set on fire and some which were completely burned to the ground.
These are family heirlooms, they should be given to a daughter on her wedding day. In my state, Kachin State a total of 367 villages have been abandoned, not only mine.
Our (Kachin) government schools are now invisible unless you know where to look for them.
My family and our neighbors just left behind our family photos, bibles, national ID cards and many heirlooms
At night time a large number of wild animals come to our village to eat from our fruit trees that we no longer harvest. We take what we can but risk landmines & meeting the Burmese soldiers.
Many houses were left unlocked & open, in hope looters at least won't break the doors & windows when they take things.
Houses which had tin roofs are mostly still standing but my neighbors who had only thatched roofs, their homes have completely disappeared.
We must walk very carefully inside the school as even young children can fall right through the rotten floor boards.
272 religious buildings have been destroyed, including churches & temples according to the Kachin Baptist Convention (KBC).
Before we had to go to the deep forest to hunt, now we hunt inside our village.
Just the husks & skat are left in our village rice storehouse. Was all eaten by rats, without people to upkeep it or pets to keep them away.
It's now easier to catch wild deer than cattle at my old home..
We hunted with muskets, can kill wild deer & forest pigs with a single shot. The cattle are now ferrell, even we can shoot them, but they run away before we can reload our muskets
Many jobless people all over Burma moved north and took up small gold mining after the Burmese military coup. There are many conflicts, political instability and chaos in Burma and people are using it to illegally exploit gold and other resources in Kachin state.
In these gold mines, the use of mercury to collect the gold is common.The toxicity of this product can lead to severe skin conditions. But mercury can also attack the nervous system and exposure can result in life-long disability.
Most of the people from my village now live in IDP camps.
My villagers climbing the tallest mountain near our village to pray for an end to the conflict. .
During a pause in the fighting, our pastor returned with many villagers and we prayed for peace and to be able to return to our homes.
The night before ascending the mountain to pray for peace, the villagers would spend one night in the "wrecked" village, gathering around a wood fire, in reminiscence of happier times. They would do the Tanka, a kind of mini Manau, singing, playing music and dancing in circle all night long.
landmines in my villages, exposed by the monsoon rains
A neighbor who fought in the war, returns home to start his new life.
UXO in my village
My village was not rich, but we had abundant rice, fish, vegetables, meat & fruit. We had wood to build & cook, We had schools & churches, We had clean streams to swim. We had everything we needed.
