Battleland Diary, May 11-18

A Kachin Independence Army rebel stands guard near the Mung Lai river, close to the KIA headquarters outside Laiza, a KIA-controlled stronghold in Myanmar's northern Kachin state on the border with China, May 12, 2012. Ethnic rebels from the Kachin Independence Army have battled the Myanmar army for a year in a conflict that has displaced around 50,000 civilians and cast a shadow over government reforms.