IDPs at E Htu Hta camp are calling for the withdrawal of Burmese military forces from the area, as well as a campaign to clear landmines.

“Insurgents have opened their own so-called IDP camps, where they use the local people as human shields,” said Min Aung Hlaing.

During a brief trip to conflict-wracked Kachin State on Tuesday, State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi visited displacement camps and, in a lighter moment, posed for photos with a pair of nonagenarians who similarly smiled for the camera with Suu Kyi’s father more than a half-century ago.

Some 420 men, women and children are camped in the town of Sechaung, while another 62 ethnic Khami people shelter in a monastery.

State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi has acknowledged, albeit somewhat obliquely, the deteriorating security environment in Kachin State, with the office of Burma’s de facto leader donating 300 million kyats ($222,000) to those displaced by conflict.

Many of the IDPs yesterday attempted to flee across the Chinese border to seek sanctuary but were turned back by the Chinese authorities.