Hpapun Incident Report: Land confiscation by armed actors impede refugee return in Bu Tho Township, February 2018

Description: 

This incident happened on 7 February 2018 in K---Village, Ka Ma Maung Town, Hpapun district [K---Village, Htee Tha Daw Hta village tract, Bu Tho Township, Hpapun district]. ''In 2013, a KNU/KNLA-Peace Council[2] soldier, Saw Nyun Htun, confiscated 4.68 acres of land belonging to a local villager who had fled to Thailand. When the villager returned to his home in 2018, he reported the land confiscation to the Karen National Union. When he found out about this, Saw Nyun Htun threatened him. Saw Y--- lived in K---Village, but his family fled to Thailand when the conflict in the area escalated after the creation of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (“DKBA”)[3] in 1994. They registered as refugees in Mae La Ma Luang camp in Thailand. The DKBA took advantage of this situation to confiscate all their lands. Both the DKBA and the KNU/KNLA-PC confiscated land belonging to families that had fled the violence in the area. After the signing of the preliminary ceasefire between the KNU and the Myanmar government in 2012 and the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement in 2015, the situation in Karen State became more stable. Saw Y--- decided to return to his village after more than 20 years of living in a refugee camp. He is now 47 years old and has seven children. All of them have returned with him...''

Creator/author: 

Source/publisher: 

Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)

Date of Publication: 

2018-12-21

Date of entry: 

2019-01-24

Grouping: 

  • Individual Documents

Category: 

Geographic coverage: 

    • Karen State

Countries: 

Myanmar

Language: 

English

Local URL: 

Format: 

pdf

Size: 

515.88 KB

Resource Type: 

text

Text quality: 

    • Good