During the first half of 1996, the tatmadaw, or Myanmar armed forces, began a massive relocation program of civilians as part of its counter-insurgency strategy in the Kayah (Karenni) State, eastern Myanmar. 20,000- 30,000 members of the Karenni ethnic minority were forced from their home villages into designated sites, where there was inadequate food, water, medical care, and sanitation facilities necessary for survival. In the last three years hundreds of people have reportedly died of treatable diseases, thousands have fled to Thailand, and still others have chosen to hide in the forest in an attempt to live outside of military control. During February 1999 Amnesty International interviewed dozens of those Karenni civilians who had escaped to Thailand in late 1998 and early 1999. They reported recent widespread incidents of forced labour and portering, arbitrary arrests and torture, and extrajudicial killings by the military, which occurred in the context of the internal displacement of civilians in the Kayah State. Keywords: ethnic groups, indiscriminate killing, forced labour, torture, ill treatment, military, displaced people, refugees, extradudicical execution, farmers. Interviews with Karenni refugees. ... ADDITIONAL KEYWORDS: forced resettlement, forced relocation, forced movement, forced displacement, forced migration, forced to move, displaced