at War

KIA troops who pass through the checkpoint.

For Kachin women who encounter the Myanmar Army, the outcome can be much worse.

In October 2011, Sumlut Roi Ja was arrested by government soldiers while farming near her village at Hkai Bang, close to the China border. Last spotted through binoculars by the KIA and family members inside a Myanmar Army camp soon after the abduction, she is now presumed dead.

Other women are victims of sexual violence. In May last year, a 48-year-old Kachin woman was gang raped inside a church by government soldiers near the fighting flashpoint around the town of Pangwa, also near the China border.

And this December, two women were injured—one severely—by Myanmar Army shelling near the strategically important region of Lajayang.

Caring for the wounded is a job for Mwi Hpu Lubu, a 20-year-old student nurse at Laiza’s hospital.

“I have treated several people injured by shooting and bombing, people blown up by mines, soldiers all covered in blood,” she says.

Also at the hospital, 28-year-old cradling her day-old baby. she says, looking down at the infant. Kaw Mai has spent more than sacrifices: She

Kaw Mai looks tired but happy while cradling her day-old baby.

“We don’t have a name for her yet,” she says, looking down at the infant.

Kaw Mai has spent more than 18 months in Wai Chyai camp for internally displaced persons, after fleeing a Myanmar Army advance on her home village, Mai Sat Pa.

It will be tough to nurse a baby back at the camp, she says, after she leaves the hospital in four to five days. “Life has to go on as best we can,” she says with a shrug.

But for some women, personal lives are secondary to the Kachin cause.

“I want to spend at least three more years with the KIA before I try to get married,” says soldier Seng Mai.

As for Lu Tawng, there are other sacrifices: She misses her family.

“In the six years since I joined the KIA, I have never gone back home once,” she says, smiling.

During my most recent visit to Myanmar in November, I finally had an opportunity to do something I had tried and failed to do during my four previous trips last year: meet the man who once inspired fear in both ordinary people and members of the former junta alike.

I met U Khin Nyunt at a religious ceremony, of all places. The encounter was arranged through a mutual