On 26th September 2012, twenty-three organisations representing the diaspora Kachin community worldwide, sent an open letter to you requesting that you engage more fully with the situation in the Kachin region, even requesting that you visit IDP areas. We outlined the situation as we see it, and warned of the confusion and distrust that is being created by your failure to comment in depth on these matters.

We contact you again now to repeat our request that you clarify your position or at least elaborate upon your understanding of recent events so that we can develop constructive dialogue on these matters with you. Although we the undersigned make this request to you, it is an expectation that many Kachin people have of you and you would be very badly advised if you thought that our request can be dismissed on purely political grounds.

All Kachin people are waiting for your detailed comments on these matters; we are merely better able to articulate our request directly to you than are the many poor, unfortunate people who find themselves spending Independence Day in the confines of a refugee camp. Your failure even to respond to our recent entreaty does little to reassure Kachin people in general that their future will be in any way brighter if a new generation of Burmese politicians cannot deal head on with the difficult matters facing them in the ethnic majority areas any more than could their forebears.

Respectfully, we eagerly anticipate your considered response to this and our previous letter rather than your silence.

1. Gumsan Nsang (USA) +1 443 415 8683
2. Naw San (Thailand) +66 (0) 848119594
3. Moon Nay Li (Thailand) +66 (0) 856251912
4. Hkanhpa Tu Sadan (UK), +44 (0) 7538 258961