Just a few hundred miles north of the former capital Rangoon, however, a very different story is unfolding. Since last June, bloody fighting has raged between government troops and ethnic Kachin rebels occupying a swathe of territory along the Chinese border. The clashes shattered a 17-year-old ceasefire that had preserved a fragile peace between the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), which has been fighting for autonomy since the 1960s, and the Burmese military. The violence is a stark reminder of the limits to Thein Sein’s reforms—and a warning against undue optimism about Burma’s progress.
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