UN delivers aid to Kachin refugees

A United Nations convoy has been granted permission to deliver aid to thousands of Kachin refugees in northern Myanmar for the first time in a year, UN officials said Friday. A 10-truck convoy left Wednesday for Maija Yang town, on the Myanmar-Chinese border, to deliver food, household kits and medicines to thousands of ethnic Kachin displaced by a government offensive in their territory that has lasted two years. "The cross-line convoy represents a positive step forward by the government to help all people in need across Kachin State," dpa quoted UN Humanitarian Coordinator as saying. Myanmar has blocked all international aid to Kachin refugees not living in government-controlled camps for the past year. Fighting between the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), a rebel group, and the Myanmar army began in mid-2011. The fighting has displaced about 100,000 Kachin, of whom some 60,000 are living in camps outside government control.