Amid an ongoing civil war in northern Burma, some are on a different “front lines,” of sorts — facing legal consequences for protesting the conflict, or otherwise working to bring an end to the fighting.

Two Kachin youth activists facing criminal defamation charges after staging a protest calling for the evacuation to safety of civilians displaced by conflict in Kachin State will appeal to the regional court, seeking to have those charges dropped.

The Kachin State government intends to begin the process of rescuing hundreds of civilians trapped in Injangyang Township by broader regional conflict, with the Burmese military blockading the road linking it to adjacent Myitkyina Township to the west.

“Unlike the TNLA, we were not involved in the assault,” the KIA spokesman said. “The accusation by the Burmese army is simply not true.”

Criticism has emerged over remarks by Kachin State’s social affairs minister after he said the state government did not know the location of many people displaced by recent conflict, professing ignorance amid reports of hundreds trapped in the jungles surrounding Tanai Township’s Awng Lawt village.

Villagers displaced by conflict in Kachin State’s Hpakant Township have been ordered by the Burmese military to evacuate their makeshift camps and find lodgings with friends or relatives.