An estimated 75,000 people have been displaced by the fighting that ignited in June last year between the Burmese government and the Kachin Independence Organization/Army.
Escalating conflict over water According to Ms. Van Gerpen, the fighting was ignited by a dispute over water sources.
UN officials have warned that the crisis is at a high risk of becoming a genocide, as the political crisis has ignited fighting between Christian and Muslim communities.
The last set of rallies ignited fighting in the slums between ethnic groups loyal to the opposition and those loyal to the president.
That, in turn, ignited fighting between government forces and troops loyal to Maj. Gen. Ali Mohsin al-Ahmar, who defected and whose forces have been protecting the protesters for months.
The attack ignited fighting between government forces and the troops loyal to General Ahmar in what has become the new front line of the battle, the Haeel neighborhood, near Kentucky Square.
Diplomats said they feared that the attacks might ignite fighting beyond the borders of Kosovo and could lead to a low-intensity war that could drag on for years.
But unexpectedly stiff resistance, plus a violent backlash in several other provinces as well as Baghdad, raised suspicions that the Iraqi military could not finish what it had started - and that inter-Shia fighting could ignite a nationwide conflagration.
The government has also disavowed the cross-border raid by Hezbollah that ignited the fighting.
Inspired, they say, by the largely Sunni uprising in Syria, the group has refused to leave the square, even after clashes with security forces last week ignited days of fighting between Sunnis and minority Alawites in Tripoli.
-- California's state budget costs for fighting two deadly wildfires that ignited less than two weeks ago have already topped $118 million.
