Armed conflict in Burma - Impact on village life, including health and education

Only a selection. Most of the human rights violations against non-Burman ethnic groups are conducted by the military in the general context of the civil war. See also entries under "Ethnic Discrimination", in the Human Rights Section and under "Internal Displacement".
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Description: "Foundation of Fear. Since 1992, the Karen Human Rights Group has been documenting villagers? voices on the human rights situation in southeast Myanmar. 25 years on, KHRG presents this extensive review, an analysis of villagers? current concerns seen in the light of 25 years of testimonies on human rights and abuse. By revisiting these testimonies we can understand ongoing obstacles to peace, security and freedom for local community members in southeast Myanmar, and prevent human rights abuses from being forgotten, silenced and, crucially, from continuing and being repeated..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)
2017-10-00
Date of entry/update: 2017-12-16
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English, Burmese (မြန်မာဘာသာ), Karen
Format : pdf
Size: 4.77 MB
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Description: "...The Shan Herald Agency for News (SHAN) is a private, nonprofit, multi-media organization which was established in Shan State in 1991. Our mission is to create a more informed and consequently a more empowered community by filling the information void and shedding light on the current situation in Burma, especially Shan State. As a media organization, we strive to provide credible news that is professionally produced with high-quality standards of journalism in multi-ethnic languages and which reflects the views of ethnic people, thus creating a better understanding among all the people of our nation....."
Creator/author: S.H.A.N.
Source/publisher: S.H.A.N website
00-00-00
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-11
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
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Description: "...The Shan resistance was born on May 21, 1958. On April 25, 1960 the Shan State Independence Army (SSIA) was formed in Loi La, Mong Yawn, Kengtung state with Hkun Maha as chairman and Sao Hso Hkarn as secretary general. On April 24, 1964 Shan resistance forces formed the Shan State Army (SSA) with Sao Nang Hearn Kham (Mahadevi of Yawnghwe) as chairman. In 1971, the Shan State Progress Party (SSPP) was established and its first congress was held on August 16, 1971. The SSPP signed a ceasefi re agreement with Myanmar government in 1989. Burma army gave a pressure on the SSPP to transform into BGF in 2010. The SSPP/SSA brigade 3 and 7 transformed into BGF in the following year but brigade 1 led by Col. Pang Fa (now Lt. Gen) rejuvenated the SSPP/SSA and have kept the ceasefire agreement even though the Shan army has been some clashes with Burma army...."
Creator/author: SSPP
Source/publisher: ssppssa.org
00-00-00
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-11
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Description: "...Tai Freedom website is from Information Department of Restoration Council of the Shan State and Shan State Army. Our website is publishing general news from Shan State, RCSS/SSA statement and activities. Especially news about human right abuse from any arms groups in Shan State..."
Creator/author: Tai Freedom
Source/publisher: Tai Freedom website
00-00-00
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-11
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
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Individual Documents

Description: "EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Myanmar’s current political and economic environment presents major challenges for local businesses, particularly those in need of lending. Reduced GDP growth, rising inflation, and currency fluctuations have made operating a business more difficult throughout the country. Microenterprises and households that have been traditionally under-served by conventional financial institutions will today face even greater difficulty accessing the resources they need to survive or grow. At the same time, ongoing armed conflict and the lingering economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have made it harder for microfinance institutions to serve businesses and households. Throughout Myanmar, these complex and interlinked factors continue to impact borrowers and their businesses in different ways. This study aimed to better understand the experiences and challenges of borrowers and their businesses or livelihood activity by surveying 2372 Vision Fund Myanmar clients about their borrowing activity, business performance, and outlook. The study included separate analyses of farmers and non-farmers as well as borrowers in areas with varying degrees of conflict-exposure. Key findings of the study include the following: One-third of MFI clients had borrowed from multiple sources. Farmers were more likely than non-farmers to have debt from multiple sources. Forty-three percent of farmers took on multiple loans compared to 29% of non-farmers. Non-farmers were more likely than farmers to take on informal debt. Among MFI clients with multiple loans, 62% percent of non-farmers borrowed from informal lenders compared to just 40% of farmers. Informal borrowing was more common in high-conflict townships than elsewhere. Among borrowers who took on additional debt, 62% of borrowers in high-conflict townships looked to informal lenders, compared to just 50% of borrowers in other townships. Borrowers with informal debt were threetimes as likely as others to fall behind on debt payments. Although only 16% of borrowers had informal debt, these borrowers were much more likely to fall behind on payments. Borrowers in areas with more conflict-exposure were 80% more likely to fall behind on interest payments. Twenty-four percent of borrowers in high-conflict townships had pastdue principle compared to 16% of borrowers elsewhere. Borrowers in areas with more conflict-exposure were less likely to have savings. Borrowers in high-conflict townships were less likely to use mobile apps to hold savings. Eighty-percent of businesses said their business was profitable, but profits were slim. Among businesses that were profitable, 92% said profits were “small” and just 8% said profits were “large.” Non-farmers reported thinner profit margins than farmers. Many businesses still hoped to expand, and few expected to have to close their business in the near future.Just 2% of borrowers planned to discontinue or reduce the size of their business in the next two years; by contrast, half of all businesses hoped to expand their business. Borrowers in areas with more conflict-exposure were 40% less likely to expand their business. Just 31% of borrowers in high-conflict townships said they planned to expand their business in the next two years, compared to 51% of borrowers elsewhere. Three-quarters of borrowers said supply and demand were major challenges for their business. Challenges related to supply and demand were more than twice as common as challenges related to cash, credit, labor recruitment, transportation, or security. Farmers and non-farmers adapted differently to the challenges they faced. Farmers more often adapted to challenges by reducing input costs, while non-farmers more often adapted by reducing the price of their goods or services. Challenges related to security and transportation were far more common in areas with more conflict-exposure. In high-conflict townships 39-47% of borrowers with business challenges said this included security and transportation problems, compared to just 10-14% of borrowers elsewhere. The above findings point to several possible recommendations for lenders, development partners, and humanitarian organizations: Borrowers in areas with more conflict-exposure likely require additional support and services. More borrowers in areas with high conflict-exposure struggle with debt repayment and business operations. Although these businesses may be harder-to-reach, their needs are often greater. Borrowers in these areas may require more resources to achieve similar outcomes to those elsewhere. Borrowers in areas with more conflict-exposure require lending and savings solutions tailored to their unique circumstances. Conflict-affected businesses face different challenges and exhibit different business and financial behavior, suggesting the need for uniquely-tailored solutions. A one-size-fits-all approach to lending and/or aid may not have the same impact on borrowers in different areas. Alternatives to mobile-based financial solutions may be necesary. Fewer businesses in areas with more conflict-exposure used mobile platforms for saving. Although the reasons for this were unclear, it may suggest the need for a variety of savings solutions in order to service businesses and households in different settings. Non-farmers and borrowers in areas with more conflict-exposure may need more avenues to access formal lending. The prevalence of informal borrowing in high-conflict areas and among non-farmers suggests that barriers to formal lending for these groups may need special attention. Loans intended specifically for business growth may be effective if well-targeted. While businesses in the most conflict-affected areas may be unlikely to plan for expansion, many other businesses with conflict-exposure may nonetheless seek to grow and therefore benefit from such loans. In-kind support to farmers in the form of agricultural inputs may help them address the financial challenges they face. Farmers reported adapting to challenges by reducing inputs, which hurts yields in the long-run. Lending to these businesses may be most effective if paired with additional aid which targets such adaptation measures..."
Source/publisher: Myanmar Information Management Unit (Myanmar) via "Reliefweb" (New York)
2023-12-04
Date of entry/update: 2023-12-04
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Size: 5.36 MB
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Description: "1. Introduction “If they shoot anyone they see [on sight] like this, all villagers will be gone.” Testimony of Saw N---, a 51-year-old villager from O--- village, Kaw Nweh village tract, Kaw T’Ree Township, Dooplaya District.[1] Since the 2021 coup[2], the human rights and security situation in locally-defined Karen State[3] has worsened, with reports of violations committed by the State Administration Council (SAC)[4] increasing in the region, including air strikes, indiscriminate shelling, burning of civilian properties, arbitrary arrests, torture and deprivation of humanitarian aid. Killing cases are also regularly reported to KHRG across all seven districts in its operation area, with at least 45 cases of killings reported between January 2022 and April 2023. Of these, 22 took place in the past few months, between October 2022 and April 2023. The actual number of killing incidents is likely much higher than this. This briefing paper took as its subject of analysis 14 cases of killings of civilians by armed groups across Karen State, committed between October 2022 and April 2023, underlining their deep impact on the communities regarding villagers' safety and livelihood. Of the cases analysed for this briefing paper, 11 incidents were perpetrated by the SAC and its allied forces, and three were committed by local resistance armed groups. This paper provides a contextual and historical overview of the unsafe situation in Southeast Burma. It then shows evidence and patterns of killing incidents faced by villagers, in particular when encountering soldiers while travelling. It concludes with a security and legal analysis of the situation in the region, and ends with a set of policy recommendations for stakeholders. 2. Contextual overview: Decades of abuses, renewed since 2021 The 2021 coup, staged by the State Administration Council (SAC), provoked a storm of pro-democracy protests throughout the country in opposition to the regime, known locally as the Spring Revolution, and escalated the civil war between the military and local ethnic armed organisations throughout Burma. Early peaceful pro-democracy protests and the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM)[5] began in the cities, especially in Yangon, with the goal to restore the civilian government. The military responded violently to the peaceful protests: at least 3,520 civilians who joined the pro-democracy movement have been killed by the military junta since the coup, with the exact number likely to be much higher, according to Assistance Association of Political Prisoners (AAPP).[6] Many people supporting anti-coup efforts in Burma, especially CDM and National League for Democracy (NLD)[7] members, have fled to territories under the control of ethnic armed groups like Karen State,[8] after the Karen National Union (KNU)[9] released, in the early days after the coup, their position rejecting the military junta and providing help and protection for all civilians who sought safety.[10] Human rights violations in Southeast Burma, however, did not start with the 2021 coup. They are closely linked with military policies adopted by the Burma Army as early as the 1960s, and with the impunity enjoyed by their military leaders for past violations. One of those policies, the “four cuts” strategy, aimed to target civilians and sever alleged ties between ethnic armed groups and local communities, by cutting off their access to food, funds, intelligence, and recruits. Shoot-on-sight policies were also adopted by the military in ethnic states. Such policies led to countless human rights violations over the past 70 years, causing widespread fear among the civilian population. In 1994, Naw P---, a 27-year-old female villager from Hpa-an District, told KHRG: “Now I’m still afraid. I never want to see SLORC[11] [Burma Army] soldiers again. If I hear of them, I'll run away. If we don't run, they shoot us, and if we run, they also shoot at us. The soldiers said: ‘Don't run away’ but then they shot at us, so we must run to escape.”[12] In such an atmosphere of terror and hostility, where any contact with Burma Army soldiers was potentially fatal, civilians lived in constant fear for their lives. 30 years later, and in particular after the coup, soldiers continue to shoot at villagers following the same patterns as in the past, leading to a resurgence of killing cases. 3. Factual summary: Deliberate killings of civilians This chapter presents incidents of killings of civilians by the SAC from October 2022 to April 2023, documented by KHRG in its operational area. Three patterns can be identified in the incidents: KHRG data shows that Burma Army soldiers killed villagers by (1) shooting them on sight; (2) chasing the villagers that were fleeing these encounters and murdering them; or by (3) halting civilians they encountered, before arresting, torturing and killing them. Local resistance armed groups have also committed killings of civilians, reportedly. A. “Shoot on sight” policy Since the 2021 coup, villagers in Southeast Burma risk being targeted by SAC soldiers whenever they move. Out of the 14 incidents documented between October 2022 and April 2023 analysed for this report, six incidents involved male villagers who were shot on sight, and killed, as they were on their way to support their families’ livelihood. One incident of shooting-on-sight took place in Doo Tha Htoo District, one in Taw Oo District, one in Kler Lwee Htoo District, one in Mu Traw District, and two incidents took place in Dooplaya District. For instance, on March 24th 2023, during a patrolling mission, ten SAC Infantry Battalion (IB)[13] #8 soldiers from Bilin Town, led by Lance Sergeant Moe Zaw, kept guard for their troop’s security beside a road in Q--- village, Daw Ya village tract, Tha Htoo Township, Doo Tha Htoo District. At about 11:30 am, two villagers, aged 18, were travelling by foot to work on construction in the village, when they encountered the SAC troops patrolling. When the SAC soldiers from IB #8 saw the villagers, they shot and killed both of them on the road.[14] On December 31st 2022, at around 7 am, the Northern Thandaung Aye Chan Yay Armed Group[15] attacked the SAC Light Infantry Battalion (LIB)[16] #413 at Hton Bo Gyi army camp, located near A--- village, Baw Saw Law area, Daw Hpa Hkoh Township, Taw Oo District. An hour after the fighting, at around 8:30 am, Saw Aung Thu Ya Than, a local villager from Leik Tho Town, unaware of the clash, was travelling to Toungoo Town with his motorbike to buy food for his family to celebrate New Year's Day [under the Gregorian calendar]. Before he crossed an SAC checkpoint, the SAC soldiers posted there hid nearby. As witnessed by local villagers, when the villager had already passed the checkpoint, the SAC soldiers fatally shot him in the back. The victim’s family did not receive any compensation for this arbitrary killing. Instead, the SAC forced them to pay a fee to retrieve the villager’s body and his motorbike.[17] In Dooplaya District, one incident took place on April 3rd 2023, at 10:00 am, when SAC soldiers temporarily based in the monastery in Cb--- village, Aww Hpa Kyi village tract, Kaw T’Ree Township, shot and killed a villager beside the monastery, as he was on his way to Kawkareik Town.[18] Another incident took place on April 24th 2023, at 11:00 pm, on Kyainseikyi Town Road, Kyainseikyi Township, when the SAC IB #32 shot and killed a 28-year-old Muslim villager named K---. The villager was living in the Noh Poe refugee camp, located in Thailand’s Tak province, but had left the camp at 8:00 pm to go to Kyainseikyi Town for a visit.[19] On the morning of October 22nd 2022, after a fight broke out with the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA)[20] at R--- place, S--- village, T’Hkaw Pwa village tract, Moo Township, Kler Lwee Htoo District, a woman was shot and killed by an SAC battalion [unknown number]. The villager had been sick and was unable to flee fast enough, so the soldiers reached her. After killing her, the SAC soldiers also looted her money and jewellery.[21] In Mu Traw District, on February 7th 2023, at 4:30 pm, SAC soldiers from IB #349, based at Hpah Ghaw Loh army camp, Saw Muh Plaw village tract, Lu Thaw Township, shot at Saw W--- and Saw H---, from Y--- village, Saw Muh Plaw village tract. The two villagers were on their way back home after hunting in the forest at A--- [place] to feed their families. Two bullets hit 28-year-old Saw W--- and penetrated his head, killing him on the spot. Saw H--- fled the shooting by crawling silently among the bushes, before running away. He was fired at by the SAC soldiers again, but was able to escape. Villagers went to the incident place the next day and brought back Saw W---’s corpse to their hiding site in E--- area. Saw H--- recalled: “When I heard the sound of gunfire, he [the victim] fell down next to me. He laid on my chest and [was] bleeding. I looked at him, he was not breathing. I crawled among the dense bushes and the SAC soldiers chased me from behind. I could not run as the bushes were so dense. I got [out] from the bushes slowly […]. Then, the SAC soldiers stopped firing. Then, the SAC soldiers fired a few more [rounds]. After that, I went down to the stream and went up to the mountain.”[22] The cases mentioned above show the SAC's practice of shooting villagers on sight. Since the coup, the SAC is by default hostile to anyone they encounter travelling in Southeast Burma, and hence villagers face serious risks to their lives. When villagers face SAC soldiers on the road, fleeing and running away often appears to be their only option, even though SAC soldiers do not hesitate to shoot fugitives. B. Shooting of fugitives As illustrated above, SAC soldiers often kill villagers whenever they see them. Many villagers, therefore, choose to flee as fast as they can whenever they see the SAC, fearing arrest, detention, torture, disappearance and killing. Although posing a risk to their lives, this strategy sometimes allows villagers to escape. For this reason, many villagers reported that they flee when they see SAC soldiers. For instance, on January 13th 2023, the SAC based in Wa Ma village marched to Wah Ma Hkee village, Wah Ma village tract, Noh T’Kaw Township, Dooplaya District. The soldiers broke villagers’ doors, entered their houses, searched their properties and looted the villagers’ chickens. On the same day, fighting broke out between the SAC and the KNLA in T--- village, Wah Ma village tract. After the fighting, two villagers encountered the SAC, who ordered them to stop on the road. As the villagers did not stop, the SAC shot and arrested them. Villagers assumed that the two villagers were tortured and killed.[23] In another case, on March 12th 2023, the SAC Light Infantry Division (LID)[24] #77, IB #598 and #589 combined forces marched to four village tracts in Hsaw Htee Township, Kler Lwee Htoo District, in the KNU-controlled territory. On March 13th 2023, at around 10 am, the SAC troops entered Bb--- village, where they encountered three local villagers driving on a motorbike on the road. The villagers were coming from an internally displaced persons (IDPs) site to check their homes and to get some food for the KNLA. When they saw the SAC, the villagers stopped the motorbike immediately and ran, while the SAC soldiers shot at them. One of the villagers, Saw V---, was hit and the other two escaped. According to the two survivors, Saw V--- did not die on the spot when hit, as they heard him cry for help. However, the two villagers were too afraid to return and help him due to the SAC troops’ presence. The SAC troops camped in Bb--- village for two days. On March 15th 2023, villagers retrieved the corpse of Saw V---, and saw wounds on his back and injuries in his head and brain. His clothes had also been changed to a KNLA soldier uniform that was too small for him. The local authorities and villagers assumed that after he got wounded on his back, the SAC shot and killed him, and then changed his clothes. Due to this incident, Saw V---’s family members and other Bb--- villagers had to flee outside of the village. A local villager explained to KHRG that, the “SAC did it [change clothes to a KNLA uniform] in order to claim that this villager was a KNLA soldier, and they could get credit for killing one KNLA soldier and report it to their upper leader. The SAC did it to claim he [Saw V---] is [a soldier] from the KNLA, and not a villager.” [25] In Mergui-Tavoy District, on October 17th 2022, a 40-year-old villager named U X---, from Z--- village, Ler K’ Saw Township, was shot and killed by the SAC as he was travelling with his son to buy a generator in Bokepyin Town, to support his family’s livelihood. The SAC soldiers who guarded the road ordered them to stop, but they were scared of the SAC, so they ran away. The SAC soldiers then shot at them. His son survived, but since he got hit in his back and elbow, he had to get medical treatment. All these incidents show the constant feeling of fear prevalent among villagers in Karen State, caused by increased and indiscriminate SAC attacks. Any encounter with SAC soldiers can be fatal, so villagers run away when they meet SAC soldiers on the road. High militarisation and harmful military policies abovementioned, such as the four cuts, might encourage SAC soldiers to open fire on fleeing villagers, with no regard for human life. Many times, villagers are just shot on sight by SAC for no apparent reason. C. Torture and killing after arrest The villagers know from decades of experience that meeting with the SAC often leads to arrests, torture, detention, and death. For instance, on October 15th 2022, fighting broke out between about 200 SAC soldiers and KNLA Battalion #3, Company #1, as the SAC entered Pyin Ka Do Kon village tract, Kyeh Htoh Township, Doo Tha Htoo District. On October 21st, a combination of several SAC troops of about 100 soldiers entered I--- village, Pyin Ka Do Kon village tract and looted villagers’ properties, and burned nine villagers’ houses, including U J---’s house. Before the SAC troops arrived, all I--- villagers fled, but U J--- decided to return to the village to look after his house and other properties, after taking his children to a safe place. He encountered these SAC troops just before he arrived in his village. The SAC arrested him, tortured him and then killed him next to his house. After the SAC left I--- village, the village head returned to the village through the forest to look for U J---. The village head saw the corpse of U J--- near his house. His head had been blown apart, which villagers assumed was done by a gunshot.[26] In Taw Oo District, two villagers from L--- village, Per Htee area, Htaw Ta Htoo Township, were going to look for turmeric in another village on April 7th 2023. The two villagers encountered SAC LID #22 soldiers on the way, who arrested them for unknown reasons. When local villagers learned that the two villagers had disappeared, they searched for them and found their corpses on April 16th 2023. Villagers reported that the two victims were not wearing military uniforms when they left the village, but when they saw their corpses, one of them was in a soldier uniform, and their hands were tied behind their backs with nylon. [27] D. Killings by local armed resistance group The 2021 coup resulted in increased militarisation in Southeast Burma, including the appearance of new armed groups, which has created a more unsafe environment for villagers. Villagers do not only have to be constantly afraid of being killed by SAC troops, but also of being killed by local armed groups that operate in the communities if suspected of being spies. For instance, on February 2nd 2023, the local People Defence Force (PDF)[28] troops came to M--- village, M’No Ro area, Ler K’Hsaw Township, Mergui-Tavoy District and arrested three villagers including the M--- village administrator, and took the three villagers with them, accusing them of being SAC spies. They released the two villagers, but not the village administrator. The M--- village administrator was U F---, a 70-year-old elder. The PDF troops killed him while detained. Villagers found his corpse on the morning of February 5th 2023.[29] Although less common than SAC attacks, killings of civilians by local armed groups constitute human rights violations, are illegal under the law of armed conflict, and worsen the security context of villagers in Karen State. 4. Analysis: Impacts on villagers’ lives and violations of international law and standards In a context where villagers are facing violent attacks from SAC soldiers, every encounter with them could be fatal. Killings in Southeast Burma usually follow a pattern: during or following military activities, the SAC soldiers come across villagers in nearby areas and kill them. For this reason, villagers try to avoid meeting with SAC soldiers but, in many instances, villagers cannot avoid these encounters because they are caught by surprise by the arrival of the soldiers near their village, or because they meet them on the road. The SAC then arrests, detains, tortures, disappears and kills villagers. If villagers flee to avoid such deadly encounters, they are usually shot at. This Burma Army practice of attacking civilians in Karen State is not something new. As explained above, it is linked to harmful ideologies prevailing through the Burma Army, picturing villagers as potential enemies due, in part, to perceived links or alignment with resistance groups. These ideologies fuel the Burma Army’s "four cuts" strategy and shoot-on-sight policies, still enforced in Karen State today. Decades of such human rights violations have generated widespread terror and traumatised communities. This context of fear, increased militarisation, and constant suspicion generates tension in the region, also tied to cases of local armed resistance groups killing civilians suspected to be SAC informants. The SAC practice of killing civilians on sight impacts villagers’ security and lives. Cultivating and working in a field, travelling to town to buy items, or any other ordinary activities of villagers’ daily lives becomes a dangerous exercise; any road can become a trap, and even remaining in their village can be deadly. This creates a deep fear for villagers in Southeast Burma, specifically towards the SAC. This fear makes it harder for them to go and work on their farmlands to secure their livelihood, particularly while the SAC is present in the area, or after a member of the community has been killed. If villagers are not able to work on their farmlands, go to the market to sell and buy essential products, or commute to their place of work and earn money, their livelihoods are also threatened. The SAC often targets male villagers: of all incidents analysed for this report, all but one of the killings reported to KHRG concerned male villagers. Therefore, the families of victims are also deeply impacted by fear and livelihood insecurity after the death of the main breadwinner. Faced with these human rights violations, villagers utilise avoidance strategies, which have been used for decades in Southeast Burma. The SAC is continually arresting, torturing and killing civilians in rural communities, so villagers evade these abuses by fleeing right after they receive information about SAC presence in or near their communities, and by running for their lives when they see SAC troops on the way. As mentioned above, they do so at great risk to their lives. The killings of civilians violate international law. The ‘right to life’ is one of the most fundamental of all human rights, found in the third article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), and essential to accomplish ‘human dignity’, set out in the very first article of the Declaration. All authorities have a duty to respect it, protect it, and fulfil it. Life is not protected only in times of peace, but also in times of war, since murder is prohibited according to the 89th rule of customary International Humanitarian Law (IHL). The targeting of civilians is also forbidden by the very first customary rule of IHL, while acts of violence made to terrorise the civilian population are prohibited by its second rule. The SAC is moreover trying to conceal that it kills civilians, by disguising the bodies with military uniforms or by disappearing the victims. The way in which the SAC kills civilians is against the 87th rule of customary IHL, which requires treating people humanly. The grave breach of such fundamental prohibitions constitutes war crimes and, if committed as part of a widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population, the act of murder is also a crime against humanity. Furthermore, the consequences that killings and the climate of fear have on the livelihood of villagers are compromising numerous other rights, such as the right to food, the right to security of person, or the right to an adequate standard of living. Torture is also prohibited in all the bodies of international law, to the point that it constitutes an ius cogens rule, which applies at all times and in all situations. As evidenced by the incidents being continuously documented by KHRG, the security and human rights situation in Southeast Burma has continued to worsen since the 2021 coup. In particular, a constantly high number of cases of killings of villagers have been reported to KHRG throughout 2022 and 2023. Urgent action needs to be taken in order to immediately protect civilians in Burma, as the SAC systematically targets and kills civilians, in blatant disregard for human life and international laws and standards. Moreover, the longer time the SAC enjoys impunity for their attacks, the more the situation in Karen State will worsen, leading to further violations, terror and insecurity. In turn, this will mean heavier, deeper impacts for communities and further help needed to accomplish peace, welfare and justice for ethnic villagers in rural Burma. 5. Recommendations For international stakeholders, NGOs, and regional and foreign governments: Acknowledge the grave crimes committed by the military junta and refrain from supporting it or granting it legitimacy, including by signing agreements with it, presenting it with credentials, and inviting its leaders to international forums and functions. Support local civil society, community-based organisations (CSO/CBOs) and ethnic service providers that prioritise human rights, including by working with them to develop support systems for victims of violations, including for the relatives of villagers killed, arrested and tortured by SAC soldiers and other local armed groups. Support efforts to hold the Burma military accountable for its vast array of crimes in impartial and independent courts, including the International Criminal Court (ICC), International Court of Justice (ICJ), and national courts in countries with universal jurisdiction laws. Broaden the scope of accountability of international investigations to include crimes committed against Karen peoples, not yet covered by current proceedings. Support coordinated and targeted sanctions against junta officials suspected of being responsible for carrying out international crimes and other serious violations of international law. For armed groups: Give orders to the soldiers to end their attacks on civilians and abide by human rights and international humanitarian law, and make sure that those orders are respected at all times. Respect the exercise of the right to life, including by ending the arresting, torturing, and killing of civilians and by protecting their livelihood. Footnotes: [1] Unpublished raw data from March 20th 2023. [2] On February 1st 2021, the Burma Army deposed the democratically elected government led by the National League for Democracy (NLD), transferred power to Min Aung Hlaing, the Commander in-Chief of Myanmar’s Armed Forces, and invalidated the NLD’s landslide victory in the November 2020 General Election. [3] Karen State, or Kaw Thoo Lei, as defined by the Karen National Union (KNU), covers Kayin State, Tanintharyi Region and parts of Mon State and Bago Region. The KNU uses different boundaries and location names for the areas under its control, dividing Karen State into seven districts. Karen State, located in Southeast Burma, is primarily inhabited by ethnic Karen people. Most of the Karen population resides in the largely rural areas of Southeast Burma, living alongside other ethnic groups, including Bamar, Shan, Mon and Pa’Oh. [4] The State Administration Council (SAC) is the executive governing body created in the aftermath of the February 1st 2021 military coup. It was established by Senior General Min Aung Hlaing on February 2nd 2021, and is composed of eight military officers and eight civilians. The chairperson serves as the de facto head of government of Burma/Myanmar and leads the Military Cabinet of Myanmar, the executive branch of the government. Min Aung Hlaing assumed the role of SAC chairperson following the coup. [5] On February 2nd 2021, healthcare workers at state-run hospitals and medical facilities across Myanmar spearheaded what is being referred to as a Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) consisting of labour strikes in protest against the February 1st 2021 military coup. The movement quickly spread to include civil servants from all sectors of the government who are walking off their jobs as a way of non-recognition and non-participation in the military regime. Because of the popularity of the movement, and its seminal role in wider protests across the country, some people have begun using it as a catch-all phrase to include other protest forms like boycotts and pot-banging. On February 2nd 2021, healthcare workers across Myanmar spearheaded a Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) and initiated labour strikes to protest against the February 1st 2021 military coup. The movement quickly spread to other branches of public service, eventually turning into to a nationwide, large-scale civil disobedience campaign. [6] See: aappb.org/?lang=en [7] The National League for Democracy (NLD) is the political party that governed Burma/Myanmar from 2016 to January 2021. Led by Aung San Suu Kyi, the NLD won landslide victories in the 2015 and 2020 General Elections. The NLD government was deposed by the Burma Army in the February 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, after which elected President Win Myint and State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi were detained, along with ministers, their deputies and members of Parliament. [8] KHRG, “Military Atrocities and Civilian Resilience: Testimonies of injustice, insecurity and violence in Southeast Myanmar during the 2021 coup”, November 2021. [9] The Karen National Union is the main Karen group opposing the government. [10] Burma News International, “KNU Offer Anti-Coup Protestors' its Protection”, February 2021. [11] The State Law and Order Restoration Council, which replaced the Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP) following the September 18th 1988 coup d’état by then General Saw Maung (later Senior General). The SLORC was officially dissolved in 1997 by Senior General Than Shwe and was replaced by the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC). [12] KHRG, “SLORC Shootings & Arrests of Refugees”, January 1995. [13] An Infantry Battalion (IB) of the Burma Army comprises 500 soldiers. However, most Infantry Battalions in the Tatmadaw are under-strength with less than 200 soldiers. Yet up-to-date information regarding the size of battalions is hard to come by, particularly following the signing of the National Ceasefire Agreement (NCA). They are primarily used for garrison duty but are sometimes used in offensive operations. [14] Unpublished raw data from March 31st 2023. [15] Aye Chan Yay A’pweh, which translates as ‘Peace Group’, is a (former) government-sponsored militia first formed in 1998, led by U Ko Gyi. It is sometimes referred to as the Northern Thandaung Aye Chan Yay A’Pweh. It has operated mainly out of a base in the upper region of the Kyaung Haung area in Daw Hpa Hkoh Township, Taw Oo District near the Karenni State border, but there are also small camps in Daw Hpa Hkoh Township, Taw Oo District. The group previously made a peace agreement with the Tatmadaw in 1998, but since the 2021 military coup, it has engaged in armed conflict with the military junta. [16] A Tatmadaw Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) comprises 500 soldiers. However, most Light Infantry Battalions in the Tatmadaw are under-strength with less than 200 soldiers. Yet up-to-date information regarding the size of battalions is hard to come by, particularly following the signing of the NCA. LIBs are primarily used for offensive operations, but they are sometimes used for garrison duties. [17] KHRG, “Taw Oo District Incident Report: A villager died after he was shot by SAC troops in Daw Hpa Hkoh Township, December 2022”, January 2023. [18] Unpublished raw data from April 6th 2023. [19] Unpublished raw data from April 24th 2023. [20] The Karen National Liberation Army is the armed wing of the Karen National Union. [21] Unpublished raw data from October 2022. [22] KHRG, “Mu Traw District Incident Report: A villager was fatally shot by SAC soldiers while hunting in the forest, February 2023”, April 2023. [23] Unpublished raw data from January 25th 2023. [24] A Light Infantry Division (LID) of the Tatmadaw is commanded by a brigadier general, and consists of ten light infantry battalions specially trained in counter-insurgency, jungle warfare, search and destroy operations against ethnic insurgents . They were first incorporated into the Tatmadaw in 1966. LIDs are organised under three Tactical Operations Commands, commanded by a colonel, three battalions each and one reserve, one field artillery battalion, one armoured squadron and other support units. Each division is directly under the command of the Chief of Staff (Army). [25] Unpublished raw data from March 29th 2023. [26] Unpublished raw data from January 12th 20023. [27] Unpublished raw data from April 28th 2023. [28] The People’s Defence Force (PDF) is an armed resistance established independently as local civilian militias operating across the country. Following the February 1st 2021 military coup and the ongoing brutal violence enacted by the junta, the majority of these groups began working with the National Unity Government (NUG), a body claiming to be the legitimate government of Burma/Myanmar, which then formalized the PDF on May 5th 2021 as a precursor to a federal army..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group
2023-06-08
Date of entry/update: 2023-06-08
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "မှတ်ချက်။ ။ မြေပြင်သတင်းတာဝန်ခံများနှင့်သတင်းဌာနများမှ ဖော်ပြလာသော အချက်အလက်များအပေါ် အခြေခံပြုစုထားသည်။..."
Source/publisher: Ministry of Defence - National Unity Government of Myanmar
2022-03-02
Date of entry/update: 2022-03-02
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Sub-title: Junta soldiers’ scorched-earth operations force villagers to flee to the jungle.
Description: "Myanmar junta troops have laid waste to more than 60 civilian homes and a church in months of scorched-earth operations in Chin state, a western region where fighting between the junta and ethnic armed organizations has raged on since the Feb. 1 coup, RFA statistics showed. The military rampaged through Chin’s Thantlang township, on Sept. 18, destroying 19 houses. Between Oct. 13 and Oct. 25, junta soldiers torched 42 houses and one church in nearby Falam township, in parts of Talang Ron and Tal villages, and the entire village of Rialti. Witnesses said they saw the military not only burning homes, but also looting them and killing farm animals. About 900 residents from seven villages fled to the deep forest to escape the onslaught. “It costs more than 10 million kyat (U.S. $5,572) to build a house. We put everything, all our savings, in building a house according to our Chin traditions, so it will be very difficult to rebuild when we are fleeing war, have no money, and not enough food to eat,” a resident who fled Tal village told RFA’s Myanmar Service. “Now we have no house in the village because of the fire. Do we have to just live in our forest hut? I don’t know what to do anymore. Everyone is in tears,” the Tal villager said. Though the military has denied carrying out the arson attacks, sources told RFA that the junta soldiers were the only possible culprit. “They were the only ones in our village as everyone had already fled. If they didn’t burn the houses, who did?” a resident of Talang Rong village, who declined to be named for security reasons, told RFA’s Myanmar Service. “It is unforgivable that they set fire to the village and stayed in our houses and ate our food… They did whatever they wanted. They killed our animals for the sake of killing them. There are so many cases like that,” the Talang Rong resident said. The October arson attacks happened just after major military reinforcements to the region on Oct. 9, as soldiers opened fire on every village along the Kalemyo-Falam-Hakha road, a highway that connects that part of Chin state with the southern part of the Sagaing region. Both Chin and Sagaing have been hotbeds of armed resistance by local militias against the troops that overthrew Myanmar’s elected government nine months ago. RFA attempted to contact military spokesperson Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun for commen,t but calls went unanswered. On Oct. 14 he denied to RFA that the military burnt the 12 houses and church in Rialti village. The military in Chin state has violated international law, Salai Za Op Lin, executive director the India-based Chin Human Rights Organization (CHRO), told RFA. “Almost the entire town of Thantlang was burned to the ground,” said Salai Za Op Lin. “We are carefully recording and documenting what is going on. We will keep this information and will one day publish it,” he said. According to CHRO statistics, about 30,000 people have fled across the Myanmar-India border to India’s Mizoram state. Another 30,000 people are displaced within Chin state. CHRO said about 30,000 people have fled to Mizoram, India, due to the ongoing fighting in Chin State, and another 30,000 people have been displaced in Chin State. Since August, military troops set fire to 300 homes in the state, the CHRO said. Myanmar’s military has been conducting combat operations against armed ethnic groups in areas close to its border for decades. Many of the groups who signed cease-fire agreements with the democratically elected government declared those agreements invalid after the coup. As of Thursday, the junta has killed 1219 people since the Feb. 1 coup, according to the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)..."
Source/publisher: "RFA" (USA)
2021-10-28
Date of entry/update: 2021-10-29
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Sub-title: About 100 people staying at a monastery need masks, hand sanitizer and medicine
Description: "Dozens of elderly people who are staying in temporary shelters at monasteries in southern Shan State after fighting between two local armed groups broke out in early June are at risk of a Covid-19 outbreak, two aid workers have said. The displaced people were among about 900 who fled from the Mong Khun village tract for safety in Wan Hway Long village when the armed wings of the Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS) and the Shan State Progressive Party (SSPP) began fighting. The clashes have now stopped and the younger adult villagers have returned home, but about 100 elderly people and young children stayed behind because it would be difficult for them to flee again if there was more fighting. Those left behind need personal protective equipment including masks and hand sanitizer to prevent an outbreak of the virus, said an aid worker on condition of anonymity. “We need to do awareness raising about Covid-19 prevention and we need medicines and protective equipment,” the aid worker said. “There will be a huge problem if there is an outbreak at such a place because the camps have many elderly people.” Some of the displaced people aged between 60 and 70 have survived strokes, the aid worker added. Twelve people tested positive for Covid-19 this month in the town of Mong Kung, about 20 miles from the monasteries, and individual donors from the town have been barred from entering the shelters, according to another aid worker. The junta’s ministry of health said there were 537 positive cases and 12 fatalities in Shan State on Thursday, but the official tally is widely distrusted and locals estimate that the actual number is much higher. The RCSS and SSPP are fighting because of a territorial dispute over the Loi Hun mountain range in Mong Kung Township. While the clashes have stopped in southern Shan State, the two groups fought near Nawng An village in Hsipaw Township in the north on Thursday. The SSPP says it plans to inoculate 500,000 people against Covid-19 in its territory using vaccines from China..."
Source/publisher: "Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
2021-07-24
Date of entry/update: 2021-07-24
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Sub-title: The deaths included 19 military troops, two militiamen, and two civilians, sources said.
Description: "At least 19 troops loyal to Myanmar’s junta and two members of a militia formed to protect residents from the military were killed during a firefight in Saigaing region’s war-torn Kalay township, sources said Friday, as fighting drove some 3,000 civilians to flee for safety in the nearby mountains. Fighting broke out between the military and members of the Kalay People’s Defense Force (PDF) around 2:00 p.m. on Thursday as junta soldiers began a raid on the villages of Doe Nwe and Ashaysee, around 30 miles south of downtown Kalay, a member of the PDF told RFA’s Myanmar Service, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. “The battle went on for six hours … and only ended after 8:00 p.m.,” the source said in recounting the fighting that killed the 19 people. “Additionally, two [civilian] men from Tin Thar [village] who were on their way to Doe Nwe village on a motorcycle were killed when soldiers fired at them. Myint Thein and Tun Naung actually were ordinary villagers and not our fighters,” the militiaman said. After a relatively quiet night, fighting resumed early on Friday morning, the PDF member said. “They have been firing at us with heavy weapons since about 5:00 a.m. We are also hitting them back with Tumee [traditional flintlock] rifles and handmade rockets. They have not been able to get out of the village since yesterday. Our PDF teams have surrounded the village and attacked them. There are only injuries on our side. No deaths. Hold on, a rocket is coming our way. I'll call you back in a moment. " PDF members later told RFA that two of their group had been killed and claimed that the military was “using drones” to track down their fighters. Residents of the area confirmed to RFA that they had heard the sound of “hundreds of shells” beginning at 5:00 a.m. on Friday and said more than 3,000 people from nine of the surrounding villages had fled into the mountains beginning the previous night, when junta troops began conducting surprise checks and arrests. “They were checking the cellphones of anyone they encountered, so we decided to leave,” said one villager, who declined to be named. “Along the way, we saw many people from other villages fleeing the area too. There are four villages near Ashaysee village. A lot of men are among those who fled.” A resident of Doe Nwe village said the region is currently dealing with an outbreak of COVID-19 infections and that many of those who fled lack access to medicine. A Tin Thar villager told RFA that nearly everyone from the surrounding area had left. “We are worried [the military] might set fire to the houses,” the villager said. “Only some elderly and some family members of COVID-19 patients are left behind. Everyone believes the army will launch an all-out offensive against us. I’m in the forest myself now.” Attempts by RFA to contact junta Deputy Information Minister Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun about the fighting in Kalay went unanswered Friday. There have been at least seven clashes between the PDF and the military in Kalay since the junta ousted Myanmar’s democratically elected government on Feb. 1, the last of which was on June 27. Junta troops remain stationed in the villages of Kyaukphu and Ashaysee and the Kalay PDF has warned residents to exercise caution.....Military murders: Myanmar’s military says its takeover was warranted because former State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) won a landslide victory in November 2020 general elections as the result of voter fraud. The junta has provided no evidence to back up its claims and violently responded to widespread protests, killing 912 people and arresting 5,277, according to the Bangkok-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP). Amid nationwide turmoil, the military has stepped up offensives in remote parts of the country of 54 million that have led to fierce battles with several local militias. According to the United Nations and aid groups, conflict in Myanmar’s remote border regions has displaced an estimated 230,000 residents since the junta coup. They join more than 500,000 refugees from decades of conflict between the military and ethnic armies who were already counted as internally displaced persons (IDPs) at the end of 2020, according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center, a Norwegian NGO. Reports of the clashes in Kalay came as sources told RFA that at least 23 villagers in Sagaing’s neighboring Kani township have been murdered by the military in the past 16 days, including 16 villagers who were discovered with their hands bound behind their backs and appeared to have been shot from behind, execution-style. A resident named Tittar told RDA that junta troops entered the villages of Yin and Kone Thar on July 9 and 10 so that they could surveil Kani township from afar. “When they were about to enter the villages, they started firing with heavy weapons. Four houses in our village were destroyed by the shelling. One house was set on fire. All the villagers fled in fear into the jungle as the army arrived. Some took their elderly on carts, motorcycles and tractors, he said. “The soldiers followed into the forests and hunted the refugees down. Those who were found were tied with ropes and some were cut down with machetes. We also found trails of some who were tied to ropes and dragged away. The bodies were no longer recognizable as they were all bruised and mutilated.” Tittar said people were killed and left in the forest, still bound, while others were “tied to small tree trunks and dragged along” to their deaths. “Some of the bodies were piled up. All of them were simple farmers. None of them were PDF members,” he said, adding that several were people who couldn’t leave their elderly parents. There were those who couldn't leave behind their parents who couldn’t run. Some were people who were asked by their parents to stay with them. People who were murdered ranged from a 63-year-old to a 21-year-old ... Some were tied and dragged. All of their clothes had been torn off and some of them no longer had pants on.” In addition to the killings, residents said, junta troops destroyed more than 60 motorbikes, and burned down food storage containers and crops. Another villager named Moe Thee said the men were shot dead by soldiers from behind. “They didn’t kill them immediately after the arrests, the victims were tortured and killed,” he said. “It looks like these people had their hands tied behind them and told to run and then shot from behind, like in the movies. It was totally inhumane.” Other deaths included four villagers killed on July 1 whose bodies were discovered “in close proximity, with their heads blown off,” a resident said. “They must have been shot at close range. The tops of the heads were gone. Only the mouth remained,” the resident said. “We couldn’t collect the bodies and had to set them on fire.” The military has yet to comment on the allegations.....Children at risk: Also on Friday, the United Nations’ Child Rights Committee (CRC) issued a statement noting that since the coup, about 75 children had been killed, while around another 1,000 were arbitrarily detained and countless others deprived of essential medical care and education. The group warned that children’s rights are facing an onslaught that “risks leaving an entire generation damaged,” the agency said. “Children are exposed to indiscriminate violence, random shootings and arbitrary arrests every day. They have guns pointed at them and see the same happen to their parents and siblings,” said Mikiko Otani, chair of the CRC. The CRC said it is “profoundly concerned” at the major disruption of essential medical care and school education in the entire country, as well as access to safe drinking water and food for children in rural areas. According to UNICEF, the U.N. children’s agency, a million children in Myanmar are missing key vaccinations. More than 40,000 children are no longer getting treatment for severe acute malnutrition. “As a result of the military coup and conflicts, children’s right to life, survival and development have been repeatedly violated,” said Otani. “If this crisis continues, an entire generation of children is at risk of suffering profound physical, psychological, emotional, educational and economic consequences, depriving them of a healthy and productive future.” The CRC called for immediate action to resolve Myanmar’s political crisis and called on the country’s leadership to safeguard and promote children’s rights to the utmost degree..."
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Source/publisher: "RFA" (USA)
2021-07-16
Date of entry/update: 2021-07-16
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Sub-title: The location of the most recent fighting is just a few miles from makeshift camps where displaced locals have been sheltering
Description: "A member of the local resistance force in southern Chin State’s Mindat Township was killed during clashes with the junta’s armed forces on Tuesday. The military fired artillery shells during the fighting, which took place near the villages of Hpayar Sakhan and Shet, 16km from Mindat town, a member of the anti-coup Mindat People’s Administration Team said. “Fighting broke out in two locations. They fired heavy artillery. One of our members was killed in the fighting this morning,” he told Myanmar Now by telephone on Tuesday. “Today we could not hear the sound of their airplanes, but heavy artillery is still being fired as I am speaking to you now,” he added Eighteen-year-old Salai Ling Yaw Um was the resistance member killed during the clash. The source in Mindat added that others were injured, but the exact number of people wounded had not been confirmed. The military council imposed martial law in Mindat in mid-May. Intense fighting has broken out with local anti-coup fighters, forcing residents to flee to the town for safety, and into the nearby jungle, where they set up makeshift camps. The camps are just a few miles from the area where the fighting took place on Tuesday. With the junta’s forces recently stationed near the camps, the displaced locals have been forced to flee again, with only children and the elderly remaining, a representative from the Lu Saw internally displaced persons (IDPs) camp told Myanmar Now. “Everyone had to run to different locations. As the troops approached the camp, IDPs had to run again. Some IDPs left the camp. But we don’t know where they went,” the camp representative said. “Some ran towards the jungle. Only the people who did not know where to run remained in the camp.” At the time of reporting, more than 8,300 IDPs from Mindat had taken refuge in 18 IDP camps. The junta blocked all routes through which food could be transported to the locations where displaced persons were staying. Camp officials have said that food, clean water and medicine are urgently needed. Clashes erupted in Mindat in late April after a crowd gathered to demand the release of several detained protesters and a member of the regime’s forces reportedly shot at a demonstrator. Local resistance fighters have since killed dozens of soldiers in ambushes. They retreated from the town on Saturday after the military sent in helicopters full of reinforcement troops. On May 13, the junta declared martial law in Mindat and intensified its attacks on the town with long range artillery, machine guns, and shoulder-held rocket launchers. Soldiers also arrested local residents and forced them to act as human shields. By contrast, the resistance fighters are armed with traditional Tumi hunting rifles, double-barreled guns, and home-made explosive devices. After three days of clashes between the Myanmar military and local resistance fighters in Mindat, the military took control of the town, also deploying helicopters full of reinforcement troops. Since then, the majority of Mindat residents have fled to the jungles or to the homes of relatives in nearby towns and villages. During fighting from May 13 to June 6, some 21 members of the civilian resistance were killed, according to the Mindat People’s Administration Team..."
Source/publisher: "Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
2021-06-09
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-10
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Topic: Education, Food and Nutrition, Health, Protection and Human Rights, Shelter and Non-Food Items, Water Sanitation Hygiene
Topic: Education, Food and Nutrition, Health, Protection and Human Rights, Shelter and Non-Food Items, Water Sanitation Hygiene
Description: "Since the military takeover on 1 February, insecurity and clashes continue to be reported across much of the country with arrest, detention and use of excessive force against protestors by police and security forces. Disruptions to banking services, healthcare, communications, and supply chains ensue, while tensions and confrontations in the north and southeast intensify between Tatmadaw and ethnic armed organizations. UNHCR and partners continue providing critical life-saving humanitarian assistance, while following the development of the situation closely to better understand the full potential impact on people of concern, including IDPs and stateless populations. Early warning systems, initiated by UNHCR and partners, continue to be employed to detect changes on the ground which could impact on operations and people of concern with the view to inform timely mitigating measures and responses. At the same time, in this rapidly evolving context, the ongoing COVID-19 health crisis continues to pose additional potential challenges to already strained or disrupted health services. While integrating COVID-19 prevention and response into regular programming, UNHCR will continue to monitor the impact on populations of concern given the heightened risks they may face with critical protection service and assistance increasingly restricted.....NUMBERS AT A GLANCE: 600,000 Estimated stateless Rohingya in Rakhine State, of which some 144,000 are living in 21 displacement camps as well as among the host community since 2012 285,000 Internally displaced persons (IDPs) living in Rakhine, Chin, Kachin, northern Shan, Kayin states, and Bago (east) region, including some 93,100* in 201 sites displaced due to the AAMAF conflict, and at least 58,600 due to the resumption and intensification of clashes between the Tatmadaw and ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) in the north-and south-east Townships across Rakhine, Chin, Kachin and northern Shan states, and the south-east where UNHCR has consulted with communities through the Early Warning Systems 46,746 Displaced and affected people in Myanmar supported with basic non-food items and shelter material by UNHCR and partners in 2021 Financial requirements in 2021 (as of 04 May 2021) Financial requirements in 2020 (as of 05 January 2021) USD 52.7 million (14% funded).....KEY HIGHLIGHTS | March - April 2021: Kachin & northern Shan The resumption and intensification of armed clashes in the Kachin and northern Shan states between the Tatmadaw and ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) since March have resulted in the displacement of over 18,000** individuals by 10 May, 14,300 of whom remain in displacement. In March and April, UNHCR and partners continued to provide support to persons with specific needs (PSNs), including persons with disabilities, elderly, single/female headed households, and those with serious medical conditions, through provision of emergency cash assistance benefitting 207 PSNs and their families. The support is aimed at addressing their most pressing needs such as medical expenses while reducing the risk of resorting to negative coping mechanisms such as borrowing money or taking on debt, or reducing expenditure on key items including water, food, education and healthcare. UNHCR continues to provide targeted non-food items (NFI) to meet the needs of displaced persons. In March and April, UNHCR distributed NFI items including blankets, mosquito nets, plastic mats, kitchen sets, tarpaulins, solar lights, soap, and jerry cans to 1,034 families (4,354 individuals) in Kachin and northern Shan states. In March, UNHCR and partners, completed a community-based project in Mogaung Township, Kachin State. A communal hall was completed with the involvement of the community and will benefit 450 individuals. Since the beginning of the year, UNHCR and partners have completed several projects benefitting over 4,000 individuals. Examples of projects, which are aimed at improving conditions in communities and strengthening social cohesion, include the construction and renovation of schools, road construction, and the construction of gravity flow water systems.....Rakhine & southern Chin: As of April 2021, there are over 93,100 persons displaced across 201 sites and in host communities in Rakhine and southern Chin states in connection with the AAMAF conflict. Support to displacement sites and IDP camps continue despite limitations imposed by the current political and COVID-19 context. In March and April, UNHCR contributed 10,560 CGI sheets and 811kg of nails for shelter reconstruction through combined efforts of Shelter Cluster partners and UNHCR direct implementation in central Rakhine, and 1,351 families (6,755 individuals) in 31 displacement sites received shelter material to prevent damage during the rainy season in April. In addition, 48 families (240 individuals) received tarpaulins and rope as well as portable solar lamps. Based on assessments carried out in northern Rakhine townships to identify persons with specific needs in both villages and displacement sites, including persons with disabilities, elderly, and single/female headed households,1,218 households (6,090 individuals) received NFI support, items included kitchen sets, mosquito nets, sleeping mats, jerry cans, blankets, tarpaulins. Field activities within the framework of creating conditions for sustainable solutions for displaced persons from Rakhine State remain ongoing. During the reporting period, a number of community-based projects have been progressing; two community water pond rehabilitation projects are near completion, as is the drilling of a borehole, while another borehole is in the early stages of work. The installation of 59 solar streetlights has been completed in three villages, and a road project and water pond project have been initiated in two village tracts. In another location, a project to improve village paths and access roads in two villages is more than halfway complete.....South-east: Sustained armed clashes in the southeast region of Myanmar between the Tatmadaw and ethnic armed organizations (EAOs), including the use of airstrikes, have led to the displacement of an estimated 44,300 people, 5,000 of whom have crossed the border into Thailand and have subsequently returned to Myanmar and remain displaced internally. The current political situation continues to result in the suspension of many activities in the southeast, both of UNHCR’s and partners’, aside from a few including those carried out by UNHCR through direct implementation. On 27 April, UNHCR distributed non-food items (NFIs) to new IDPs who fled from airstrikes in Hpa-Pun Township, benefitting 46 families (191 individuals). In coordination with the Myanmar Red Cross Society (MRCS), UNHCR facilitated two first aid and trauma trainings targeting 35 members of the community and civil society organizations (CSOs) in Loikaw Township, Kayah State. Given the positive feedback received, two more similar trainings will be organized for May targeting 60 individuals. In March and April, the implementation of community-based projects in Kayin State progressed with an aim of improving infrastructure and supporting peaceful coexistence among communities. Several projects are in various stages of completion, including solar streetlight installation and the construction of a primary school, which are nearing completion, and the construction of a health centre including staff housing and the construction of a study hall are nearly half complete..."
Source/publisher: UN High Commissioner for Refugees (Geneva) via Reliefweb (New York)
2021-04-30
Date of entry/update: 2021-05-15
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Sub-title: Children in Myanmar urgently need support now
Description: "The crisis following the military takeover on 1 February this year is having a catastrophic toll on the physical and mental wellbeing of children in Myanmar. Children are being killed, wounded, detained and exposed to tear gas and stun grenades and are witnessing terrifying scenes of violence. In some areas, thousands of people have been displaced, cutting children off from their relatives, friends, communities and their traditional means of support. Even before the current crisis, children in Myanmar were experiencing huge challenges due to the devastating impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and conflict in several parts of the country. Over one million people, including an estimated 450,000 children, were already affected by Myanmar’s conflict and vulnerable to gender-based violence, exploitation, abuse, detention, family separation, displacement and trafficking,[1] and about 34 per cent of the country’s 17 million children lived below the poverty line. In addition, almost 33 per cent of the population living just above the poverty line were in a state of extreme vulnerability and are now at great risk of falling back into poverty due to economic disruptions resulting from the current crisis[2]......A generation in peril: The compounding impacts of the current crisis threaten the lives and wellbeing of millions of children, putting an entire generation in peril. The ongoing loss of access to key services, combined with economic contraction, will push many more into poverty, potentially creating an entire generation of children and young people who will suffer profound physical, psychological, educational and economic impacts from this crisis and be denied a healthy, prosperous future. Hard-won gains in the area of child rights are now being wiped out, threatening children’s lives, wellbeing and prosperity. This represents a serious failure by duty bearers to protect, promote and fulfil the rights of children, as required by the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), to which Myanmar is a State Party, and the Myanmar Child Rights Law, issued in 2019.....UNICEF’s response: UNICEF is committed to children in Myanmar, to upholding children’s rights and to providing the services critical for children’s survival and wellbeing. UNICEF is adapting the way it works and taking advantage of its extensive and diverse network of partners, including national and international non-governmental organizations, civil society organizations and private sector partners, striving to ensure continuity of access to critical services at scale. Drawing on its 70 years of experience in Myanmar, delivering for children including in times of conflict and crisis, UNICEF is able to continue to reach children in need even in the most challenging situations. UNICEF brings strong capacity to mobilize and deliver at scale, coordinating the efforts of multiple partners to achieve coherent approaches that span across the country. In addition to its coordinating role, UNICEF brings strong capacities in direct implementation of programming and efficient and cost-effective procurement and transport of commodities and supply. As always, UNICEF’s focus is particularly on reaching the most vulnerable children including the poorest children, children with disabilities, children living in camps for displaced people, migrant and refugee children and those in hard-to-reach areas, now including areas of key cities, including Yangon and Mandalay, which are under martial law.....Keeping children safe: Before the current crisis, it was already a major challenge to keep children safe from violence, abuse and exploitation in Myanmar. Between January and September 2020, 49 children were killed and 134 maimed as a direct result of conflict. During the current crisis, many more children have been killed, seriously injured, arbitrarily detained without access to legal counsel or forced to flee their houses and communities. On top of the loss of innocent lives, the daily exposure to scenes of horrific violence will have long-lasting impacts on children’s mental and emotional well-being.....How UNICEF is responding: Working with legal aid providers, UNICEF supports children and young people’s access to justice across the country. UNICEF has supported children and young people in contact with the law to access quality legal aid, including legal advice, legal consultation, and legal representation. Since February 1, UNICEF has supported 62 children and 176 young people to access quality legal aid. Working with partners, UNICEF is establishing a nationwide toll-free justice hotline, expanding on already existing helpline numbers operated by several partners to ensure children and young people have timely access to quality legal advice. We are also producing informational materials for children and young people to know about their rights when dealing with the law enforcement and how to access free legal assistance in both English and Myanmar languages. Materials are being disseminated widely in collaboration with Child Protection Working Group (CPWG) members. UNICEF is working with national organizations to support a nationwide mental health and psychosocial support helpline, ensuring children are able to access counselling and mental health support in several local languages. UNICEF also support referrals of child survivors of abuse and violence to mental health experts for individual counselling and therapy sessions. UNICEF is currently working on setting up psychosocial peer-support groups for adolescents and young people. UNICEF is supporting efforts to monitor and report grave child rights violations and reporting these violations to United Nations and other bodies that pursue justice.....Keeping children out of extreme poverty: A UNICEF study carried out before the military takeover estimated that COVID-19 could push a further one third of children into poverty on top of the almost one third of children already living in poor households. The current crisis has the potential to force millions more children into poverty, denying them the ability to access basic services, depriving them of opportunities to fulfil their potential, and putting them at even greater risk of abuse and exploitation.....How UNICEF is responding: UNICEF has established mechanisms to monitor how the current crisis is impacting children, particularly children in families which have lost their income, whose caregivers are detained and those who are unable to access learning or healthcare. Data and evidence generated through this monitoring work will inform UNICEF’s efforts to protect children from the worst impacts of poverty. UNICEF is coordinating with relevant partners to design, establish and roll out a national child cash grant scheme, through which families with children between the ages of 2-5 and children aged under 5 with disabilities will receive unconditional cash grants, which can be used to supplement family incomes and pay for access to key services. UNICEF is working with Common Health, a private company, to roll out mobile-based health micro-insurance, ensuring that all children in Myanmar under the age of 6 have are covered by health insurance and are able to access health care.....Keeping children learning: COVID-19 had already disrupted the learning of almost 12 million children and young people. With the ongoing closure of schools due to COVID-19 preventive measures, children are still being denied access to learning, destroying their aspirations and hopes for a better future. Many will never be able to catch up or get another chance.....How UNICEF is responding: UNICEF is working with national and international NGOs to scale up home-based learning using high quality educational materials. We are supporting young children’s readiness for learning and language development by training civil society organization partners, including ethnic language teachers, and developing and printing storybooks in ethnic languages. UNICEF is working with national and international NGOs to provide alternative learning opportunities for primary and middle-school-age children. Support includes providing learning materials and assisting children with learning and language development, while also offering mental health and psychosocial support. We are working with national and international NGOs to deliver non-formal education for children who were out of the formal education system even prior to the COVID pandemic.....Keeping children healthy: Since the military takeover, health workers have experienced threats, intimidation and violence, putting them in danger and further increasing their reluctance to provide services. With health services seriously disrupted, children are missing out: almost 1 million children are missing out on routine immunization; almost 5 million children are missing out on vitamin A supplementation, putting them at risk of infections and blindness. There is a risk that the spread of COVID-19 will accelerate. In addition, access to water, sanitation and hygiene services are facing disruptions due to limited availability of supplies, disruption of transportation and banking channels. Across the country, more than three million children lack access to a safe water supply at home, threatening a large-scale outbreak of diarrhoea which could be fatal, particularly for children under the age of 5.....How UNICEF is responding: UNICEF is working with partners to support emergency care through supply of first aid kits and essential medicines for children most in need of medical care While routine immunization has been suspended in the largest part of the country, in Non-Government Controlled areas UNICEF is working with partners to carry out routine vaccinations to prevent vaccine-preventable disease outbreaks, such as measles, diphtheria and polio. We are developing smartphone apps to train health workers on provision of trauma and emergency care for women and children. UNICEF is providing pregnant women, new mothers, newborns, children and adolescents with healthcare services and procuring essential medicines and supplies to save lives and treat diseases. We are working with partners and the private sector to coordinate and explore options for delivery of clean drinking water to vulnerable households in urban areas. We are also coordinating with communities in Shan and Magway to deliver supplies for community managed water supply.....Keeping children nourished: Before the current crisis, many children in Myanmar were already experiencing malnutrition, with almost 30 per cent pre-school children experiencing stunting (being too short for their age), 7 percent of pre-school children (In Rakhine 14 percent) experiencing wasting (being seriously low for their height) and 57 percent pregnant women experiencing anaemia. Loss of access to water, sanitation and hygiene services, which can lead to diarrhoeal disease, will further exacerbate the situation. The situation is particularly severe for young children under the age of 2, who are at risk of death or irreversible physical and cognitive delays if they suffer undernutrition for an extended period. The impacts – for the children, their families, communities and the country as a whole – may be devastating.....How UNICEF is responding: In Kachin, Rakhine and northern Shan states, UNICEF is working with partners to screen and treat children with severe acute malnutrition. We are providing lifesaving micro-nutrient supplements to children and pregnant women. UNICEF is working with local NGOs to provide mothers advice on infant and young child feeding. In all these efforts, UNICEF and its partners are determined not to let down the children of Myanmar at this critical time, when their lives, wellbeing and future are at stake..."
Source/publisher: UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) (Myanmar)
2021-04-20
Date of entry/update: 2021-05-11
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Description: "As of 8 May, (776) people are now confirmed killed by this junta coup. AAPP compiled and documented (2) fallen heroes today. These (2) fallen heroes from Kani Township in Sagaing Region and Pauk Township in Magway Region were killed the previous day and documented today. This is the number verified by AAPP, the actual number of fatalities is likely much higher. We will continue adding as and when. As of May 8, a total of (3813) people are currently under detention; of them (84) are sentenced. 1518 have been issued arrest warrants; of them 20 were sentenced to death and 14 to three years imprisonment with hard labour, who are evading arrest. We are verifying the recently released detainees and continuing to document. Today across Burma people continue to protest the dictatorship in various ways. Yesterday afternoon, in Kani Township in Sagaing Region, a villager from Kinsanpya Village was shot to death in the forest by terrorists and his family was not able to take his dead body back. Juna forces pointed a gun at a man who went to take the body and slapped him in the face. The junta’s unprovoked shootings and oppressive actions are becoming more violent. They commit crimes affecting the mental and physical security of civilians. They are openly looting civilians’ property as they wish. Yesterday, in Padauk Pin village, Kanbalu Township, Sagaing Region, some protesters were searched and around 15 houses destroyed. The terrorists stole their money, gold and mobile phones. As of May 8, around 80 Padauk Pin villagers were forced to flee to the forest because the military camped in their village. As long as the dictatorship is in power, the lives of the civilians will continue to be in danger. We can only build a peaceful society if we overthrow the dictatorship. Employees involved in the civil disobedience movement (CDM) are also being persecuted. In recent days, the Ministry of Education made a series of announcements that teachers and staff were fired from the education sector. 465 teachers from Yadanabon University in Mandalay, 392 teachers and office staff from Mandalay University, 85 teachers from Mandalay Distance Education, 94 teachers from Mandalay University of Foreign Studies and 94 teachers and office staff from Yangon Distance Education were temporarily suspended. Fighting has intensified in Kachin State, with reports of a jet attack by the junta using chemical weapons in contravention of international prohibition. The news spread on social media, the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) is still investigating, it has not yet been confirmed. The use of chemical bombs is a war crime and a serious human rights violation. Ethnic people have been killed and seriously wounded in various attacks by the junta group. Not only this, but they are also being forced to leave their homes, yet these gross violations are only the junta trying to gain an advantage in conflict to maintain the power. AAPP will continue to keep you informed of verified daily arrests, charges, sentences and fatalities in relation to the attempted coup, and update our lists to the details of these alleged offences. If you receive any information about detentions of, or charges against CSO leaders, activists, journalists, CDM workers, other civilians and fallen heroes in relation to the military and police crackdown on dissent. Please submit to the following addresses..."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)
2021-05-08
Date of entry/update: 2021-05-09
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf pdf pdf
Size: 1015.31 KB 3.43 MB 912.1 KB
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Description: "Burma military airstrikes continue, and schools and homes are being destroyed as Burma soldiers shoot villagers in northern Karen State, with over 25,000 people in hiding. One villager, Saw Paw Chit, 40 yrs, was shot to death on 29 April by Burma Army soldiers from Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) 407, Military Operations Command (MOC) 8, commanded by Maung Kyaw Sein Lin, in Ku Chi Village, south of Papun. Deadly airstrikes using rockets, bombs and strafing cannon began in Karen State on 27 March 2021 and continued to 1 April and then started again on 27 April to now, 3 May 2021. We walked to the hiding places of the villagers who fled the first strike and met Naw Mu Wah Paw carrying her son in the jungle. He had been wounded by shrapnel to his face and neck on 27 March as he sat on his father’s lap when the first rockets and bombs came. His father was killed and his mother carried him to our medics, who treated him and removed most of the shrapnel. His mother told the story: “The airstrikes came in at night. There were rockets and bombs. I was outside the house and my son was sitting on my husband’s lap inside the house. There was a huge explosion and I ran to the house as bombs fell. My husband was covered in blood and staggered down the stairs holding our son. He handed our son to me and then fell down and died. Now I am hiding in the jungle here with his father, mother and sister. I miss my husband so much and the airstrikes keep coming to now,” said Naw Mu Wah Paw. We prayed with her husband’s parents as his sister wept silently under a tarp. Map includes some Burma Army airstrikes, artillery strikes and troop movements from 27 March to 3 May..."
Source/publisher: Free Burma Rangers
2021-05-03
Date of entry/update: 2021-05-06
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Description: "New fighting between the Restoration Council of Shan State/Shan State Army (RCSS/SSA) and Burma Army broke out in Shan State at a time when both groups are trying cooperate during the COVID-19 pandemic. RCSS/SSA clashed with Tatmadaw LIB-326 this Wednesday at 5 p.m. in Hsipaw Township. An anonymous RCSS/SSA source told SHAN that two lieutenants and two regular soldiers of the Burma Army were killed during the fighting. Lt-Col Sao Oum Khur, RCSS/SSA spokesperson, told SHAN the clash may have started because of a misunderstanding. He says the Burma Army reported it would travel from Pankok and Pankham villages. RCSS/SSA told them to take the main vehicle road and not the jungle route. “We told them not to take the jungle road because they might encounter a column of our soldiers. But I think they took the jungle road anyway and then clashed with our troops,” says Sao Oum Khur. Last week, Tatmadaw’s Eastern Military Command provided Shan soldiers with personal protective equipment and the armed groups discussed how to avoid fighting during the COVID-19 pandemic. A few weeks earlier, Tatmadaw attacked RCSS/SSA in Ponpakyin sub-township, located in eastern Shan State. Lt-Col Sao Oum Khur says he didn’t think the recent fighting was intentional. “Perhaps their soldiers weren’t following in line with our recent agreement. Or maybe their superior officers didn’t even know about the clash,” he says. The RCSS will negotiate with the regional Burma Army commander and other high-ranking Tatmadaw officials through its liaison office. The ethnic armed group will also bring up the incident during the next meeting of the Joint Ceasefire Monitoring Committee. “If we can’t solve it at the ground level, it can turn into a big problem. Therefore, it’s important that we negotiate with the Tatmadaw to avoid a crisis.” Lt-Col Sao Oum Khur says..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Shan Herald Agency for News" (Myanmar)
2020-06-12
Date of entry/update: 2020-06-14
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Description: "...Myanmar, once mysterious to the world after its decades’ long isolation, is marked by diversity and multiple ethnicities, languages and religions. It has been affected by decades of an authoritarian regime and different interconnected layers of conflict, ranging from national-level ethnic political conflicts and the pro-democracy struggle to broader social-level land conflicts and conflicts at the household level, such as domestic violence. In Myanmar, as in other countries, conflict and violence affect men, women, boys, girls and those with diverse gender identities differently. There is increasing awareness that gender is important in understanding conflict and accumulating evidence that links inclusion to the sustainability of peace. A growing number of programmes are dedicated to addressing this. However, the ‘other side of gender’, that is, the experiences of men and boys, is less well understood. Expectations of masculinity are an often overlooked (or over-simplified) driver of conflict and peacebuilding, but can also, if sometimes counter-intuitively, lead to increased vulnerability for men and boys, especially related to violence..."
Creator/author:
2018-11-00
Date of entry/update: 2020-05-16
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : PDF
Size: 1.38 MB
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Description: "Soldiers were guarding the border in Sangkhla Buri district on Friday to prevent any incursion into Thailand but allowing migrant workers to enter, as Myanmar troops and Mon fighters settled into an uneasy truce. Units from the Surasi Task Force were posted to the frontier around Three Pagodas pass after Myanmar government forces and Mon soldiers clashed close to the border on Wednesday. The border pass remained closed to Thai travellers, and local shops and tourist stalls were shut. Tourists were advised to stay away to facilitate security operations. Soldiers allowed Myanmar nationals to cross the border for work through a single channel, but the regular passage for border trade and vehicles on Soi Kaset 1 remained closed. Troops also sealed the border opposite the Mon villages of Ban Bor Yeepun and Ban Rai Oi in Myanmar..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Bangkok Post" (Thailand)
2019-11-29
Date of entry/update: 2019-11-29
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Description: "တကီၢ်ခါ တၢ်သူၣ်ထီၣ် ထံလီၢ်ကီၢ်ပူၤ တၢ်မုာ်တၢ်ခုၣ်တၢ်အိၣ်သးတဖၣ်၊ တၢ်ကတိၤ တၢ်မုာ်တၢ်ခုၣ်အပူၤ တၢ်ဂ့ၢ်တၢ်ကျိၤ လၢတၢ်အအိၣ်ကတာ်ထီအသးတဖၣ်ဒ်အမ့ၢ် တဘၣ်ထုးဖးသးဘၣ်တၢ်ဂ့ၢ်ဒီး တၢ်စံၣ်ညီၣ်ပၢလီၤသးခွဲးယာ်တၢ်ဂ့ၢ်တဖၣ်ဒီး တၢ်ကပာ်က့ၤ သုးမုၢ်ဒိၣ်ထဲတခါဧိၤတၢ်ဂ့ၢ်တဖၣ်အံၤ ခ့ၣ်အဲးစံၣ်=ကညီတၢ်ကစီၣ်ထံၣ်လိာ်သံကွၢ်သံဒိး၀ဲ ခ့ၣ်အဲၣ်ယူၣ် အနဲၣ်ရွဲၣ်ခိၣ်ကျၢၢ် ပဒိၣ်စီၤတၤဒိၣ်မူ ဒ်အံၤန့ၣ်လီၤႉ..."
Source/publisher: KIC (Karen Information Center)
2018-11-18
Date of entry/update: 2019-03-28
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: Sgaw Karen
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Description: ''ဟတ်ကြီးရေကာတာစီမံကိန်းနယ်မြေအား ထိန်းချုပ်နိုင်ရန်အတွက် ငြိမ်းချမ်းရေးဖေါ်ဆောင်မှုများလုပ်ဆောင်နေစဉ် မြန်မာစစ်တပ်နှင့် ၎င်း၏နယ်ခြားစောင့်တပ် တို့မှ ကရင်ပြည်နယ်အတွင်း ထိုးစစ်များဆင်ကာ နယ်မြေစိုးမိုးမှုရယူရန်ကြိုးစားကြပြီး တိုက်ပွဲများကြောင့် ဒေသခံပြည်သူလူထုထောင်နှင့်ချီကာ အိုးအိမ်စွန့်ခွာ ထွက်ပြေးထိမ်းရှောင်ရသည်။ ဤစာတမ်းတိုလေးကို ဒေါင်းလုပ်ကာ အချက်အလက်အပြည့်အစုံကို ဖတ်ရှုနိုင်ပါသည်...'' "While the Burmese government and Karen leaders are holding historic peace talks in Naypyidaw, the Burma Army and its Border Guard Force (BGF) wages war in Karen State to expand its control over Karen territories, in order to push for an environmentally and socially destructive hydropower project on the Salween River – the Hatgyi Dam. For detail, please read the briefer..."
Creator/author: KESAN
Source/publisher: Karen Environmental and Social Action Network (KESAN)
2018-11-15
Date of entry/update: 2019-02-18
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: Sgaw Karen, Burmese ျမန္မာဘာသာ, English
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Description: "ခ့ၣ်အဲၣ်ယူၣ်ကညီဒီကလုာ်စၢဖှိၣ်ကရၢ၊ ဒူပျာ်ယာ်ကီၢ်ရ့ၣ်၊ ၀ီၢ်ရီကီၢ်ဆၣ် အစုဒုၣ်တီၤ ကညီဒီကလုာ်တၢ်ထူၣ်ဖျဲးသုးမုၢ်ဒိၣ်KNLA သုးရ့ၣ်(၁၆)အၦၤဒီး ကညီပၢၤကီၢ်သုးတဖၣ် ဖဲလါယနူၤအါရံၤ(၁၈)သီအနံၤန့ၣ် လဲၤဖီၣ်န့ၢ်၀ဲ ၦၤစိာ်ဆါမၤကၤကသံၣ်မူၤဘှီးဖိအဂၤ ဖဲ ဘရီၣ်သ၀ီ၊ ယ့ကီၢ်ဆၣ်၊ လမၢၢ်ကီၢ်ဆၣ်နီၤဖးကရူၢ်၊ တလၢၤကီၢ်စဲၣ်အပူၤအံၤန့ၣ် ကညီကီၢ်စဲၣ်၊ ကီၢ်ဆၢဘံၣ်ဘၢဂ့ၢ်၀ီကိတိာ်တခီ ဃ့ထီၣ်၀ဲလၢကဟ့ၣ်လီၤက့ၤဆူအ၀ဲသ့ၣ်အအိၣ်န့ၣ်လီၤႉ...""
Creator/author: စီၤမၠးအူသၣ်
Source/publisher: KIC (Karen Information Center)
2019-01-23
Date of entry/update: 2019-02-18
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: Sgaw Karen
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Description: "On December 18th, the indigenous Karen communities of Mutraw District officially declare the establishment of the Salween Peace Park. This declaration is to fulfill the collective vision for a grassroots pathway to peace and self-determination, and their responsibility to transfer our ancestral domain to the new generation with abundant forest and clean water. Almost 1000 people, comprising representatives from our communities in Mutraw District, the KNU, Karen CBOs, ethnic representatives from across Burma/ Myanmar and journalists- both domestic and from abroad, joined the event..."
Creator/author: KESAN
Source/publisher: Karen Environmental and Social Action Network (KESAN)
2019-01-09
Date of entry/update: 2019-01-28
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: Sgaw Karen, Burmese and English sub-titles
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Description: ''While much of Myanmar’s population continues to benefit from the ongoing process of political and economic reforms, there are close to one million people who remain in need of emergency assistance and protection as a result of ongoing crises in Rakhine, Kachin and Shan. In addition, despite significant progress and investments in disaster risk reduction, millions of people in different parts of Myanmar face the ever-present risk of natural disasters in one of Asia’s most disaster-prone countries. The aim of the 2019 Humanitarian Response Plan is to assist the Government in ensuring that these emergency needs are met and that, as the political transition in the country continues, not one single man, woman or child is left behind. The response plan sets out the framework within which the United Nations and its partners will respond to the humanitarian assistance and protection needs of crisis-affected people in Myanmar. The plan has been jointly developed by members of the Humanitarian Country Team in Myanmar, in consultation with a wide range of stakeholders including Government counterparts, local civil society, representatives of affected communities including the Rohingya, development actors, donors and others. The Humanitarian Country Team recognizes that humanitarian action is one critical component of a broader, long term engagement that is needed to address the wide range of humanitarian, development, human rights and peace-building challenges in Myanmar in a holistic fashion. To this end, the 2019 Humanitarian Response Plan is aligned with other key documents and strategies that aim to enhance coherence and complementarity across these sectors, such as the Final Report and Recommendations of the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State (August 2017) and the Strategic Framework for International Engagement in Rakhine (April 2018)...''
Source/publisher: Reliefweb
2018-12-19
Date of entry/update: 2019-01-27
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 1.82 MB
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Description: "Over the last seven months, fighting has intensified between the Myanmar Army and ethnic armed groups in Kachin and northern Shan States, areas with long-running conflicts as ethnic minorities have sought greater autonomy and respect for their rights. This report documents war crimes and other human rights violations by the Myanmar Army, including extrajudicial executions, torture, forced labour, and indiscriminate shelling. Most victims are civilians from ethnic minorities in the region, continuing a legacy of abuse that has rarely led to accountability for the soldiers or commanders responsible.".....TOPICS: Myanmar... Asia and The Pacific... Armed Conflict... Armed Groups... Child Soldiers... Impunity... Disappearances... Unlawful Killings... Internally Displaced People... Torture and other ill-treatment... Racial Discrimination... War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity... Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
Source/publisher: Amnesty International (ASA 16/6429/2017)
2017-06-14
Date of entry/update: 2017-06-15
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English (full report); Burmese & Chinese - executive summary
Format : pdf pdf pdf
Size: 1.8 MB 395.37 KB 707.27 KB
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Description: "This Field Report describes events which occurred in Dooplaya District, southeast Burma/Myanmar, between January and December 2015. It includes information submitted by KHRG community members on a range of human rights violations and other issues important to the local community including ceasefire concerns, the military situation, rape, violent abuse and killing cases, development projects, land confiscation, health and education, natural resource extraction and land mines. The military situation in Dooplaya District is ongoing following the preliminary ceasefire. Based on one report, military target practice conducted by Tatmadaw in Win Yin (Win Yay) Township affected local civilian?s rubber plantations, as well as their livelihoods. Over one thousand villagers from five different villages in Kawkareik Township fled their homes and sought shelter at monasteries because of the outbreak of fighting on the Asian Highway between DKBA and Tatmadaw. Local schools in these villages were consequently affected, and were forced to close temporarily due to fears for the safety of the students. Four sensitive incidents such as rape, violent threats, violent abuse and killing occurred in Kawkariek and Kyainseikgyi townships, committed by ethnic armed groups and neighbouring villagers. Two women were raped, one of whom became pregnant, and the other woman was physically harmed as a consequence of the rape. One villager was arrested and violently abused by a Karen ethnic armed group and one villager was killed by neighbouring villagers who accused him of practicing black magic. Regarding development projects, Burma/Myanmar government, private companies, and wealthy individuals implemented infrastructure, particularly roads and bridges, in Win Yin, Kyainseikgyi, Kyonedoe and Kawkareik townships. A regional project for the Asian Highway was implemented in Kawkareik Township in 2014 and completed in 2015. It crossed through 17 villages and destroyed villagers? plantations, paddy fields, shops and houses along the route. Only a few local residents were consulted by project developers in advance; the remaining residents were neither consulted nor compensated for the destruction and loss of their land."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)
2016-10-07
Date of entry/update: 2017-03-20
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "Naw G--- describes events occurring in Kawkareik Township, Dooplaya District. In August 2016, four villagers were injured by shrapnel during the fighting between Border Guard Force (BGF) and the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army (DKBA) splinter group Na Ma Kya in D--- village. One teenager was blinded by the shrapnel, her mother was injured by shrapnel below her armpit and her father?s nape of his head was also injured by shrapnel. One pregnant woman from D--- village was also injured by shrapnel."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)
2016-12-14
Date of entry/update: 2017-03-20
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "his Interview with Saw A--- describes events occurring in Kawkareik Township, Dooplaya District, prior to and including August 2015, including armed group activities, taxation and a rape case. Democratic Karen Benevolent Army (DKBA) collect yearly taxes from villagers such as farm, hill farm, chainsaw, lumber saw and wild yam business tax. Local villagers mentioned that the DKBA tax villagers based on the Karen National Union (KNU) taxation system which they have also been paying. A DKBA soldier named Nya Kheh, under Company Commander Hsah Noo has been logging trees on a B--- villager?s land without paying compensation. He also threatened villagers not to complain about what he does, by saying he would cut more trees if the villagers do so. A woman named Naw C--- was raped by a DKBA soldier named Hpah Ta Roh in July 2015 in Kawkareik Township. After she was raped she was threatened by Hpah Ta Roh not to report the rape to the village head or anyone else therefore the case had not been resolved at the time of the interview."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)
2017-02-08
Date of entry/update: 2017-03-20
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: " This Situation Update describes events occurring in Kyonedoe Township, Dooplaya District during the period between April and July 2016, including education, healthcare, the situation for civilians, Burma/Myanmar government military (Tatmadaw) activity, Border Guard Force (BGF), Democratic Karen Benevolent Army (DKBA), Karen Peace Council (KPC) and Karen National Union (KNU) activities. In Kyonedoe Township, Dooplaya District, there were a number of problems affecting civilians, including low incomes for rubber plantation workers, forced labour, taxation and land destruction. Some of the local students in Kyonedoe Township had to stop studying after they finished primary school in their villages, because their parents could not support them if they went to study at the Burma/Myanmar government?s middle school. The Burma/Myanmar government has opened a clinic for the villagers but it lacks supplies and local villagers continue to use traditional medicine. Tatmadaw activity has decreased in Kyonedoe Township. The BGF, DKBA and KPC are all still active in the Township, while the KNU is working to make villagers aware of the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) and drug policies."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)
2017-02-03
Date of entry/update: 2017-03-20
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "This Situation Update describes events occurring in Win Yay Township, Dooplaya District during the period between June and July 2015, including the relationship between Tatmadaw and civilians, the relationship between Karen National Liberation Army and civilians, education, healthcare, community situation, the relationship between Tatmadaw and Karen National Liberation Army and civilians? business situation. Some local Karen villagers in Win Yay Township, Dooplaya District have lack of trust in KNLA because they feel that KNLA has not protected civilians since the preliminary ceasefire. According to some local villagers in Dawei Pauk village tract, Win Yay Township, some Burma/Myanmar government school teachers do not treat the students well if they cannot follow the lessons. Moreover, some children were told by their teachers not to go to the church on Sunday. There is limited improvement for local women In Win Yay Township, Dooplaya District because their limited education means that they were not chosen to be leaders. Most Karen people in Win Yay Township, Dooplaya District earn their living from cultivation, but after the [preliminary] ceasefire, many farms and gardens close to the Asian Highway road were damaged, causing a serious problem for farmers? livelihoods."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)
2017-03-15
Date of entry/update: 2017-03-20
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "This Field Report includes information submitted by KHRG community members describing events occurring in Hpapun District between January and December 2015. The report describes human rights violations, including theft, looting, killing, violent abuses, a landmine incident, forced labour, land confiscation, forced relocation, explicit threats and forced recruitment. The report also documents issues important to the local communities, such as access to education and healthcare."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)
2016-12-19
Date of entry/update: 2017-03-20
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: " This Situation Update describes events occurring in Dwe Lo Township, Hpapun District during the period between August and September 2016, including education, military activity, and illegal logging. There are two types of schools in Dwe Lo Township; the Burma/Myanmar government schools and the Karen National Union (KNU) schools. The Border Guard Force (BGF) now patrols the Taw Tho Lo Tatmadaw Army Camp; however, four Tatmadaw soldiers also operate with the BGF. Commander of BGF Company #3, Bo Maung So, illegally logged teak trees near Ff--- village. He took the teak logs to K?Ter Tee by truck on October 23rd 2016, at around 08:00 AM."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)
2017-02-28
Date of entry/update: 2017-03-20
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "This Interview with Ma N--- describes arbitrary arrest and torture occurring in Thaton Township, Thaton District, during the period between June and July 2013. She described how her husband was arbitrarily arrested and tortured by the Myanmar police in June 2013. Her husband finally said that he was involved in a bus robbery, although he asserts that was not involved. He confessed to the crime after torture by the Myanmar police. The robbery that Myanmar police suspected Ma N---?s husband was suspected of was the Yar Zar Min bus robbery that happened in Mon State, Thaton Township, Thaton District on June 8th 2013 when a bus was intercepted by robbers whilst heading from Kyaik Kha Mi to Yangon."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)
2017-02-02
Date of entry/update: 2017-03-20
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "The following photographs are part of a larger human rights report. Please follow the link for the full report:"
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)
2017-01-20
Date of entry/update: 2017-03-20
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "Shan Lay is a friendly, compassionate and dedicated young man from the Shan State who has sacrificed everything to fight for the freedom of his people. Growing up in the Shan State with a Karen mother, young Shan Lay was always interested in learning more about his Karen roots. But his mother didn?t speak the language and all he was taught at school was that ?Karen were rebels?. Somewhere deep inside, Shan Lay felt that there was more to the story. He witnessed firsthand the brutality of the government forces: Two of Shan Lay?s family members perished in the 8888 uprising, and when Shan Lay was a teenager, the Burmese military confiscated their family farm. Among other villagers, Shan Lay and his three childhood friends were forced out of their homes and left with nothing. A few years later, Shan Lay and his friends became freedom fighters on the Thailand-Burma border. Today, Shan Lay is the only one of them still alive. Despite the heartache, Shan Lay vows to never give up. Not until the country is free."
Source/publisher: Burma Link
Date of entry/update: 2016-03-21
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "Naw Woo doesn?t know her age exactly but she thinks that she is about 40 years old. She grew up in a small village in the Karen State, helping her parents make a living with hill-side plantations. Conditions were harsh and sometimes the villagers had little more to eat than rice with salt. Other times they had to substitute rice for bamboo shoot or anything else they could find in the jungle. The villagers also regularly fled from Burmese soldiers who came to their village with no warning, demanding porters and torturing and beating anyone who got caught running away from them. Naw Woo and other villagers lived in a constant state of fear, and many villagers lost their lives amidst fighting between Burmese and Karen soldiers. Eventually, Burmese soldiers burnt their whole village to the ground. This is her story of survival and hope."
Source/publisher: Burma Link
Date of entry/update: 2016-03-21
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "Khaing Hla Pyaint is an incredibly determined young Arakanese man who decided that whatever it takes, he will work for his country and help his people. On a long journey from Arakan State near Bangladeshi border to the Thai border town of Mae Sot, Khaing Hla Pyaint experienced deportation, imprisonment, and torture, until he could finally reach his goal and become a soldier in the jungles of Karen State. Despite the hardship, Khaing Hla Pyaint has never regretted the choices he has made. Why was he so determined to work for his country? How did his childhood experiences and further education make him realise he wants to help his people? Read the second part of the unbelievable story of this young dedicated soldier and learn how he feels about the root causes of the conflict, and how he thinks the international community and donors can promote change instead of funding more arms and training for the Burma Army."...See the Alternate link for part 2.
Source/publisher: Burma Link
2013-12-09
Date of entry/update: 2016-03-21
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "hapwon is a leader of the Naga. He joined the nationalist movement in 1975 and is now the Joint Secretary of Naga National Council. He is a leader who is still miraculously alive after all his colleagues have been wiped out by Indian and Burmese forces as well as Naga socialists. For decades, numerous groups have tried to assassinate Shapwon in this present day head hunt. His love for his people has caused him great suffering, but there is no other way this brave leader could have chosen to live. This is part 1 of Shapwon?s story ? Nothing short of a Hollywood thriller."...See the Alternate link for part 2.
Source/publisher: Burma Link
Date of entry/update: 2016-03-19
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "?We had never heard about human rights in the village,” Lway Chee Sangar tells me at the Palaung Women?s Organization (PWO) office in Mae Sot, Thailand. Sangar is 23 years old. The ethnic nationality group to which she belongs, called the Palaung or Ta?ang, has been caught in an armed struggle for self-determination against the brutal Burmese regime for the better part of the past five decades. Sangar began working with the PWO about three years ago when her parents, desperate to give her an opportunity to improve her life, sent her from their tiny, remote village in the northern Shan State of Burma to the PWO?s former training center in China. It took her a combined six months of training at the PWO to begin to grasp the idea that all humans have rights. Sangar?s story is speckled with brushes with conflict, starting from her birth. She was born on the run, when her parents had to flee their village due to an outbreak of fighting nearby. Today, the Ta?ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), the armed wing of the Palaung State Liberation Front, is fighting off Burmese offensives and combatting opium cultivation in Palaung areas, according to their statement. Civilians are often caught in the cross-fire. Burmese forces have been known to use brutal tactics against civilians in conflict areas, including deadly forced portering and forced labor, torture, killing, and extortion of money, supplies, and drugs."
Source/publisher: Burma Link
Date of entry/update: 2016-03-18
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "The northern Shan state, home to a majority of the Ta?ang people (referred to as ?Palaung? by others), is among the least accessible areas in Burma. These areas host some of the bloodiest conflict, the most poppy cultivation, extremely high rates of opium addiction, and crippling poverty. The Palaung Women?s Organization (PWO) has developed an impressive range of programs to empower Palaung women and support and advocate for their communities in the war-torn, drug-ravaged areas in northern Burma?all while combatting gender-discrimination and an epidemic of domestic violence. Three Palaung women, De De, Lway Yu Ni, and Lway Chee Sangar, each from a different Palaung village, sat down with us to speak about their lives, their struggles, and the work of the PWO."...See the Alternate link for part 2.
Source/publisher: Burma Link
Date of entry/update: 2016-03-18
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "The Ta?ang, also known as Palaung, are one of Burma?s myriad ethnic groups who have been fighting for basic human rights and autonomy for decades. Despite the international enthusiasm over Burma?s reform process, the reality in Burma?s ethnic borderlands remains dire, and the Burmese military continues its brutal offensive against ethnic civilians. Tar Aik Bong joined the Ta?ang struggle in 1987, and is now the Chairperson of the Palaung State Liberation Front (PSLF), the Head of military commission of the Ta?ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), as well as a member of the United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC) council and Foreign Affairs Department. The PSLF/TNLA is one of the few prominent ethnic armed groups yet to sign a ceasefire with the Burmese government. The following is Tar Aik Bong?s message to the international community."
Source/publisher: Burma Link
Date of entry/update: 2016-03-18
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "John Bosco is like any 23-year-old who dreams of good education and a career, and who likes to read, use the internet, and play football. Unlike many young people, however, John?s life is confined within the fences of Ban Mai Nai Soi refugee camp in Thailand. John is ethnic Karenni and comes from a big family in a rural village with no access to electricity or water. Although John grew up under militarization and afraid of ?the sounds of guns shooting and bombs exploding,” his main priority was education. John?s family wanted him to have a better life and a future, and they sent him to the Ban Mai Nai Soi refugee camp in 2009. He hasn?t been able to see his family since. In the camp, John says that restrictions on movement and travel are increasing hand in hand with decreasing aid. Like so many others, John is now trapped in one of the most isolated refugee camps in Thailand, which remains out of the electricity grid and is surrounded by landmines. John still considers himself lucky; he doesn?t have to worry about repatriation as much as the many others who have no family in Burma and no place to go."
Source/publisher: Burma Link
2015-03-24
Date of entry/update: 2016-03-17
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: This Situation Update describes events occurring in Lu Thaw Township, Hpapun District, during the period between March and May 2014, including Tatmadaw activities, landmines, and the situation regarding civilian livelihoods, health care and education.
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)
2014-11-28
Date of entry/update: 2014-11-29
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 186.94 KB
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Description: "State of the World?s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2013" presents a global picture of the health inequalities experienced by minorities and indigenous communities. The report finds that minorities and indigenous peoples suffer more ill-health and receive poorer quality of care. - See more at: http://www.minorityrights.org/12071/state-of-the-worlds-minorities/state-of-the-worlds-minorities-and-indigenous-peoples-2013.html#sthash.4jaxgXrf.dpuf
Source/publisher: Minority Rights Group (MRG)
2013-09-24
Date of entry/update: 2013-10-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 153.11 KB
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Description: This report includes a situation update submitted to KHRG in September 2012 by a community member describing events occurring in Dooplaya District, during September 2012. Specifically detailed is the situation and location of armed groups (Tatmadaw, DKBA and BGF); the villagers? situation and opinions of the KNLA; and development projects in the area. This report also contains information about Tatmadaw practices such as the killing of villager?s livestock without permission or compensation; forcing villagers to be guides; and use of villagers? tractors; villagers were however, given payment for this. The report also describes villagers? difficulties associated with the payment of government-required motorbike licenses, as well as difficulties regarding the education system. The lack of healthcare in local villages is described, as well as the ailments that villagers suffer from. Further, this report includes information about antimony mining projects in the area carried out by companies such as San Mya Yadana Company and Thu Wana Myay Zi Lwar That Tuh Too Paw Yay owned by Hkin Zaw. Antimony mining is reported to have been going on for four years and the presence of mining companies is reported to have led to food price increases in the area. The community member describes how large mining companies have contributed water pipes and money to a village school. The biggest mining project in the region led by Hkin Maung is discussed and it is reported that mining companies working in the area have permission from the KNU and pay taxes to the KNU. This report and others, was published in March 2013 in Appendix 1: Raw Data Testimony of KHRG?s thematic report: Losing Ground: Land Conflicts and collective action in eastern Myanmar.
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)
2013-06-07
Date of entry/update: 2013-07-27
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 134.63 KB
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Description: "This report includes a situation update submitted to KHRG in December 2012 by a community member describing events occurring in Dooplaya District, between July and November 2012. The report describes problems relating to land confiscation and contains updated information regarding the sale of forest reserve for rubber plantations involving the BGF, with individuals who profited from the sale listed. Villagers in the area rely heavily upon the forest reserve for their livelihoods and are faced with a shortage of land for their animals to graze upon; further, villagers cows have been killed if they have continued to let them graze in the area. The community member explains that although fighting has ceased since the ceasefire agreement, otherwise the situation is the same; taxation demands and loss of livelihoods has resulted in villagers being forced to take odd jobs for daily wages, while some have left for foreign countries in search of work. Villagers have some access to healthcare and education supported by the Government, the KNU and local organizations..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)
2013-06-11
Date of entry/update: 2013-07-27
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 61.48 KB
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Description: "This report information was submitted to KHRG in November 2012 by a community member describing events occurring in Pa?an District, during October 2012. On October 14th, a 21-year-old M--- villager, named Naw W---, was killed after being raped by a 23-year-old man from P--- village, Saw N---. Saw N--- reportedly used amphetamines that were manufactured and distributed by Border Guard Battalion #1016. According to villagers in T?Nay Hsah Township, the drug has caused problems for local communities, which are looking for ways to control use and distribution."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)
2012-12-11
Date of entry/update: 2012-12-23
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 38.03 KB
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Description: "This report contains the full transcript of an interview conducted during September 2011 in Lu Pleh Township, Pa?an District by a community member trained by KHRG to monitor human rights conditions. The community member interviewed Saw Bw---, a 25-year-old logger from Eg--- village, who described events that occurred while he was carrying out logging work between the villages of A--- and S---. He provides information on military activity in the area, specifically about shifting relations between armed groups, with Border Guard and DKBA troops ceasing to cooperate, and a heightened Tatmadaw presence in the area. Saw Bw--- also explained the disruptive impact of fighting between Border Guard and armed groups in the area on A--- villagers, who are described as fleeing to avoid conflict, as well as providing information on one instance in which A--- villagers were ordered to relocate by the commander of Border Guard Battalion #1017, but instead chose strategic displacement into hiding. He mentions the difficulties that he had in logging following the Border Guard?s increased presence in the area. Saw Bw--- also described the presence of landmines in the area around A--- and how his employer paid approximately US $1222.49 to DKBA troops to have them removed. This incident concerning landmines is also described in a thematic report published by KHRG on May 21st, 2012, Uncertain Ground: Landmines in eastern Burma."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)
2012-06-13
Date of entry/update: 2012-07-13
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 163.9 KB
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Description: "This report includes two situation updates written by villagers describing events in Thaton District during the period between May 13th 2010 and January 31st 2011. The villagers writing the updates chose to focus on issues including: updates on recent military activity, specifically the rebuilding of Tatmadaw camps, and the following human rights abuses: demands for forced labour, including the provision of building materials; and movement restrictions, including road closure and requirements for travel permission documents. In these situation updates, villagers also express serious concerns regarding food security due to abnormal weather in 2010; rising food prices; the unavailability of health care; and the cost and quality of children?s education."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)
2011-05-18
Date of entry/update: 2012-02-29
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "Villagers in Te Naw Th?Ri Township, Tenasserim Division face human rights abuses and threats to their livelihoods, attendant to increasing militarization of the area following widespread forced relocation campaigns in the late 1990s. Efforts to support and strengthen Tatmadaw presence throughout Te Naw Th?Ri have resulted in practices that facilitate control over the civilian population and extract material and labour resources while at the same time preventing non-state armed groups from operating or extracting resources of their own. Villagers who seek to evade military control and associated human rights abuses, meanwhile, report Tatmadaw attacks on civilians and civilian livelihoods in upland hiding areas. This report draws primarily on information received between September 2009 and November 2010 from Te Naw Th?Ri Township, Tenasserim Division."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)
2011-03-22
Date of entry/update: 2012-02-26
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "This report includes translated copies of 207 order documents issued by military and civilian officials of Burma?s central government, as well as non-state armed groups now formally subordinate to the state army as ?Border Guard? battalions, to village heads in eastern Burma between March 2008 and July 2011. Of these documents, at least 176 were issued from January 2010 onwards. These documents serve as primary evidence of ongoing exploitative local governance in rural Burma. This report thus supports the continuing testimonies of villagers regarding the regular demands for labour, money, food and other supplies to which their communities are subject by local civilian and military authorities. The order documents collected here include demands for attendance at meetings; the provision of money and food; the production and delivery of thatch, bamboo and other materials; forced recruitment into armed ceasefire groups; forced labour as messengers and porters for the military; forced labour on bridge construction and repair; the provision of information on individuals, households and non-state armed groups; and the imposition of movement restrictions. In almost all cases, demands were uncompensated and backed by implicit or explicit threats of violence or other punishments for non-compliance. Almost all demands articulated in the orders presented in this report involved some element of forced labour in their implementation."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)
2011-10-05
Date of entry/update: 2012-01-31
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "This report presents primary evidence of attacks on education and health in eastern Burma collected by KHRG during the period February 2010 to May 2011. Section I of this report details KHRG research methodology; Section II analyses general trends in armed conflict and details a loose typology of attacks identified during the reporting period. Section III applies this typology to 16 particularly illustrative incidents, and analyses them in light of relevant international humanitarian law and UN Security Council resolutions 1612, 1882 and 1998. These incidents were selected from a database detailing 59 attacks on civilians documented by KHRG between February 2010 and May 2011."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)
2011-12-06
Date of entry/update: 2012-01-19
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: CONTENTS: OVERVIEW; DISPLACEMENT CONTINUES IN CONTEXT OF ARMED CONFLICTS; CAUSES, BACKGROUND AND PATTERNS OF MOVEMENT; OVERVIEW OF THE CAUSES OF DISPLACEMENT IN MYANMAR; BACKGROUND TO CONFLICT AND INTERNAL DISPLACEMENT IN MYANMAR; CURRENT SITUATION OF CEASEFIRES AND BORDER GUARD FORCE ISSUE; POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS; RECENT FIGHTING; IDP POPULATION FIGURES; NUMBERS OF IDPS; PHYSICAL SECURITY AND INTEGRITY; LANDMINES; BASIC NECESSITIES OF LIFE; FOOD AND WATER; HEALTH, NUTRITION AND SANITATION; PROPERTY, LIVELIHOODS, EDUCATION AND OTHER ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS; LIVELIHOODS; EDUCATION; NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE; NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE AND HUMANITARIAN ACCESS ; LIST OF SOURCES USED
Source/publisher: Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC)
2011-07-19
Date of entry/update: 2011-09-09
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 119.72 KB
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Description: "In November 2010 the first national elections since 1990 were held in Myanmar. While the party set up by the previous government and the armed forces retain most legislative and executive power, the elections may nevertheless have opened up a window of opportunity for greater civilian governance and power-sharing. At the same time, recent fighting between opposition non-state armed groups (NSAGs) and government forces in Kayin/Karen, Kachin, and Shan States, which displaced many within eastern Myanmar and into Thailand and China, is a sign that ethnic tensions remain serious and peace elusive. Since April 2009, armed conflict between the armed forces and NSAGs has intensified, as several NSAGs that had concluded a ceasefire with the government in the 1990s refused to obey government orders to transform into army-led border guard forces. Displacement in the context of armed conflict is not systematically monitored by any independent organisation inside the country. Most available information on displacement comes from organisations based on the Thai side of the Thailand-Myanmar border. Limited access to affected areas and lack of independent monitoring make it virtually impossible to verify their reports of the numbers and situations of internally displaced people (IDPs). Although the conflicts in other areas of Myanmar have probably also led to displacement, the only region for which estimates have been available was the southeast, where more than 400,000 people were believed to be living in internal displacement in 2010. More than 70,000 among them were estimated to be newly displaced. People displaced due to conflict in Myanmar lack access to food, clean water, health care, education and livelihoods. Their security is threatened by ongoing fighting, including where conflict parties reportedly target civilians directly. Although the limited access of humanitarians to most conflict-affected areas has hampered the provision of assistance and protection, the Government of Myanmar took a positive step in 2010 by concluding an agreement with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for the provision of assistance to conflict-affected communities."
Source/publisher: Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC)
2011-07-19
Date of entry/update: 2011-09-09
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 244 KB
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Description: Executive Summary: "This report reveals that the health of populations in conflict-affected areas of eastern Burma, particularly women and children, is amongst the worst in the world, a result of official disinvestment in health, protracted conflict and the abuse of civilians..."Diagnosis: Critical" demonstrates that a vast area of eastern Burma remains in a chronic health emergency, a continuing legacy of longstanding official disinvestment in health, coupled with protracted civil war and the abuse of civilians. This has left ethnic rural populations in the east with 41.2% of children under five acutely malnourished. 60.0% of deaths in children under the age of 5 are from preventable and treatable diseases, including acute respiratory infection, malaria, and diarrhea. These losses of life would be even greater if it were not for local community-based health organizations, which provide the only available preventive and curative care in these conflict-affected areas. The report summarizes the results of a large scale population-based health and human rights survey which covered 21 townships and 5,754 households in conflict-affected zones of eastern Burma. The survey was jointly conducted by the Burma Medical Association, National Health and Education Committee, Back Pack Health Worker Team and ethnic health organizations serving the Karen, Karenni, Mon, Shan, and Palaung communities. These areas have been burdened by decades of civil conflict and attendant human rights abuses against the indigenous populations. Eastern Burma demographics are characterized by high birth rates, high death rates and the significant absence of men under the age of 45, patterns more comparable to recent war zones such as Sierra Leone than to Burma?s national demographics. Health indicators for these communities, particularly for women and children, are worse than Burma?s official national figures, which are already amongst the worst in the world. Child mortality rates are nearly twice as high in eastern Burma and the maternal mortality ratio is triple the official national figure. While violence is endemic in these conflict zones, direct losses of life from violence account for only 2.3% of deaths. The indirect health impacts of the conflict are much graver, with preventable losses of life accounting for 59.1% of all deaths and malaria alone accounting for 24.7%. At the time of the survey, one in 14 women was infected with Pf malaria, amongst the highest rates of infection in the world. This reality casts serious doubts over official claims of progress towards reaching the country?s Millennium Development Goals related to the health of women, children, and infectious diseases, particularly malaria. The survey findings also reveal widespread human rights abuses against ethnic civilians. Among surveyed households, 30.6% had experienced human rights violations in the prior year, including forced labor, forced displacement, and the destruction and seizure of food. The frequency and pattern with which these abuses occur against indigenous peoples provide further evidence of the need for a Commission of Inquiry into Crimes against Humanity. The upcoming election will do little to alleviate the situation, as the military forces responsible for these abuses will continue to operate outside civilian control according to the new constitution. The findings also indicate that these abuses are linked to adverse population-level health outcomes, particularly for the most vulnerable members of the community—mothers and children. Survey results reveal that members of households who suffer from human rights violations have worse health outcomes, as summarized in the table above. Children in households that were internally displaced in the prior year were 3.3 times more likely to suffer from moderate or severe acute malnutrition. The odds of dying before age one was increased 2.5 times among infants from households in which at least one person was forced to provide labor. The ongoing widespread human rights abuses committed against ethnic civilians and the blockade of international humanitarian access to rural conflict-affected areas of eastern Burma by the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), mean that premature death and disability, particularly as a result of treatable and preventable diseases like malaria, diarrhea, and respiratory infections, will continue. This will not only further devastate the health of communities of eastern Burma but also poses a direct health security threat to Burma?s neighbors, especially Thailand, where the highest rates of malaria occur on the Burma border. Multi-drug resistant malaria, extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis and other infectious diseases are growing concerns. The spread of malaria resistant to artemisinin, the most important anti-malarial drug, would be a regional and global disaster. In the absence of state-supported health infrastructure, local community-based organizations are working to improve access to health services in their own communities. These programs currently have a target population of over 376,000 people in eastern Burma and in 2009 treated nearly 40,000 cases of malaria and have vastly increased access to key maternal and child health interventions. However, they continue to be constrained by a lack of resources and ongoing human rights abuses by the Burmese military regime against civilians. In order to fully address the urgent health needs of eastern Burma, the underlying abuses fueling the health crisis need to end."
Source/publisher: The Burma Medical Association, National Health and Education Committee, Back Pack Health Worker Team
2010-10-19
Date of entry/update: 2011-09-05
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: Burmese, English, Thai
Format : pdf
Size: 5.32 MB
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Description: Abstract: "While international humanitarian access in Burma has opened up over the past decade and a half, the ongoing debate regarding the appropriate relationship between politics and humanitarian assistance remains unresolved. This debate has become especially limiting in regards to protection measures for internally displaced persons (IDPs) which are increasingly seen to fall within the mandate of humanitarian agencies. Conventional IDP protection frameworks are biased towards a top-down model of politicallyaverse intervention which marginalises local initiatives to resist abuse and hinders local control over protection efforts. Yet such local resistance strategies remain the most effective IDP protection measures currently employed in Karen State and other parts of rural Burma. Addressing the protection needs and underlying humanitarian concerns of displaced and potentially displaced people is thus inseparable from engagement with the ?everyday politics? of rural villagers. This article seeks to challenge conventional notions of IDP protection that prioritise a form of state-centric ?neutrality? and marginalise the ?everyday politics? through which local villagers continue to resist abuse and claim their rights..."..... ISSN: 1868-4882 (online), ISSN: 1868-1034 (print)
Creator/author: Stephen Hull
Source/publisher: Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs, 28, 2, 7-21.
2009-00-00
Date of entry/update: 2011-08-21
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "Civilians in Dooplaya District continue to be impacted by conflict between the Tatmadaw and armed Karen groups, who have increased fighting in the area since November 7th 2010. Villagers in the Palu area have left on multiple occasions in the last six days, and continue to report that they are struggling to complete harvests and protect homes from looting while also fearing conflict and conflict related abuses. KHRG continues to document movement restrictions and arbitrary arrests, including the arrest and detention of six more villagers over the last three days."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG #2010-B15)
2010-11-30
Date of entry/update: 2010-11-30
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 23.15 KB
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Description: Villagers in eastern Dooplaya District continue to fear for their safety amid ongoing conflict between Tatmadaw and Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) forces in and around their villages. Temporary displacement remains a preferred strategy for many civilians seeking protection from conflict and instability. The ability of villagers to access protection in Thailand, however, has been inconsistent, limiting the options available to civilians who feel that they cannot safely remain in their villages. Incidents reported by residents of Tatmadaw-controlled Waw Lay village, meanwhile, indicate that villagers and Tatmadaw forces continue to distrust each other, and that this mutual suspicion, and abuses that result from it, is a major protection concern for civilians in Waw Lay.
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG #2010-B13)
2010-11-25
Date of entry/update: 2010-11-25
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 227.54 KB
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Description: In February 1999 Amnesty International delegates interviewed dozens of Karen refugees in Thailand who had fled mostly from Papun, Hpa?an, and Nyaunglebin Districts in the Kayin State in late 1998 and early 1999. They cited several reasons for leaving their homes. Some had previously been forced out of their villages by the tatmadaw, or Myanmar army, and had been hiding in the forest. Conditions there were poor, as it was almost impossible for them to farm. They also feared being shot on sight by the military because they occupied "black areas", where the insurgents were allegedly active. Many others fled directly from their home villages in the face of village burnings, constant demands for forced labour, looting of food and supplies, and extrajudicial killings at the hands of the military. All of these people were farmers who typically grew small plots of rice on a semi-subsistence level.
Source/publisher: Amnesty International (ASA 16/12/99)
1999-06-00
Date of entry/update: 2010-11-25
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: This report focuses . . . human rights violations against members of ethnic minority groups. These abuses, including extrajudicial executions; ill-treatment in the context of forced portering and labour; and intimidation during forcible relocations occur both in the context of counter-insurgency operations, and in areas where cease-fires hold. The State Law and Order Restoration Council SLORC, Myanmar?s military government) continues to commit human rights violations in ethnic minority areas with complete impunity. This high level of human rights violations and the attendant political instability in Myanmar pose a major regional security issue for the country?s new ASEAN partners. One dimension of this is the unprecedented numbers of refugees from Myanmar now in Thailand: a conservative estimate of some 200,000 refugees live in Thai cities and in camps along the Thai-Myanmar border. All of the refugees whom Amnesty International recently interviewed, and whose testimonies form the basis of this report, said that they had fled because they could no longer survive under the harsh forced labour and relocation practices of the SLORC. ... ADDITIONAL KEYWORDS: forced resettlement, forced relocation, forced movement, forced displacement, forced migration, forced to move, displaced
Source/publisher: Amnesty International (ASA 16/20/97)
1997-07-22
Date of entry/update: 2010-11-24
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English and French
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Description: This field report documents recent human rights abuses committed by SPDC soldiers against Karen villagers in Toungoo District. Villagers in SPDC-controlled areas continue to face heavy forced labour demands that severely constrain their livelihoods; some have had their livelihoods directly targeted in the form of attacks on their cardamom fields. In certain cases individuals have also been subjected to arbitrary detention and physical abuse by SPDC soldiers, typically on suspicion of having had contact with the KNU/KNLA after being caught in violation of stringent movement restrictions. Villagers living in or travelling to areas beyond SPDC control, meanwhile, continue to have their physical security threatened by SPDC patrols that practice a shoot-on-sight policy in such areas. This report covers incidents between January and April 2010.
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG #2010-F4)
2010-05-13
Date of entry/update: 2010-10-10
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English, Karen
Format : pdf
Size: 493.43 KB
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Description: "On April 21st 2010 DKBA soldiers from Battalion #7 of Brigade #999 crossed into Thailand and burned three huts in the Thai village of Hsoe Hta in Tha Song Yang District, Tak Province. The raid was ordered by Batallion #7 Column Commander Bpweh Kih, who believed that the villagers had been in contact with the KNLA and were withholding information about four DKBA soldiers who had recently deserted from a DKBA camp at Bpaw Bpah Hta, Pa?an District. The incident falls into a broader recent pattern of cross-border violence and killings by the DKBA, often against suspected KNLA supporters; it also gives substance to statements made by deserters during interviews with KHRG that indicate they would be summarily executed if recaptured by the DKBA..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG #2010-B7)
2010-04-30
Date of entry/update: 2010-10-10
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English, Karen
Format : pdf
Size: 342.77 KB
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Description: DKBA soldiers in Dta Greh Township, Pa?an District, have burnt the small village of Gk?Law Lu and forced its residents to relocate. This incident is the second time Gk?Law Lu has been burnt and relocated by DKBA soldiers: the village was first burnt and residents forcibly relocated in October 2008. Relocated families, meanwhile, may face serious threats to their livelihoods if potential DKBA travel restrictions and risks from landmines limit access to farm fields in their home village.
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG #2010-B9)
2010-06-04
Date of entry/update: 2010-10-10
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English, Karen
Format : pdf
Size: 302.09 KB
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Description: "This report documents the human rights situation in communities along the Bilin to Papun Road and along the Bilin River in western Dweh Loh Township, Papun District. SPDC forces remain active in these areas, but DKBA soldiers from Battalions #333 and #999 have increased their presence; local villagers have reported that they continue to face abuses by both actors, but KHRG has received a greater number of reports of DKBA abuses, especially regarding exploitative demands, movement restrictions and the use of landmines in civilian areas. This report is the first of four reports detailing the situation in southern Papun that will be released in August 2010. Incidents documented in this report occurred between November 2009 and March 2010...Since late 2009, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) has strengthened its presence in southwestern Dweh Loh Township, Papun District, increasing troop levels and camps, commencing gold mining operations on the Bilin River, and enforcing movement restrictions on the civilian population. Residents of the village tracts near the Bilin River and along the Bilin to Papun road, which follows the eastern bank of the Bilin River north through the centre of Dweh Loh Township (see map), have told KHRG field researchers that they have faced heavy demands for forced labour to support the increased DKBA presence, detracting from the time they can spend on livelihoods activities. Communities with a DKBA camp nearby have had livelihoods further curtailed, as DKBA soldiers have enforced strict curfews and other movement restrictions that have prevented villagers from spending sufficient time in their fields. Units from the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) Army, meanwhile, remain deployed in southwestern Papun, and villagers living near active SPDC Army camps report that they continue to face exploitative demands and irregular violent abuses from SPDC troops. According to KHRG?s most recent information, as of March 2010 DKBA soldiers from Battalions #333 and #999 were occupying more than 28 camps in Wa Muh, Meh Choh, Ma Lay Ler, and Meh Way village tracts in western Dweh Loh Township; SPDC soldiers from Infantry Battalion (IB) #96 and Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) #704, under Military Operations Command (MOC) #4 Tactical Operations Command (TOC) #1,1 were also active in the same area. While there does not appear to have been a formal transfer of authority from SPDC to DKBA Battalions in these areas, reports from local villagers suggest that they now face greater exploitative demands and human rights threats from increased DKBA military control in southwestern Papun District. Troops from Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) 5th Brigade are also active in southwestern Papun, chiefly placing landmines and making sporadic ?guerrilla? style attacks on the SPDC and DKBA.2
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG #2010-F5)
2010-08-18
Date of entry/update: 2010-10-10
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: This report presents information on the human rights situation in village tracts in central Papun District located near the northern section of the Ka Ma Maung to Papun Road, south of Papun Town in Bu Tho Township. Communities must confront regular threats to their livelihoods and physical security stemming from the strong SPDC and DKBA presence in, and control of the area, as these military units support themselves by extracting significant material and labour resources from the local civilian population. Villagers have reported movement restrictions and various exploitative abuses, including arbitrary taxation, forced portering, forced labour fabricating and delivering materials to military units, forced mine clearance and forced recruitment for military service. Some communities have also reported threats or acts of violent abuse, typically in the context of enforcing forced labour orders or where villagers have been accused of contacting or assisting KNLA forces operating in the area. This is the second of four reports detailing the situation in Papun District?s southern townships that will be released in August 2010. Incidents documented in this report occurred between April 2009 and February 2010.
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG #2010-C1)
2010-08-23
Date of entry/update: 2010-10-06
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: This report details a sequence of events in one village in central Papun District in late 2009. The report illustrates how the community responded to exploitative and violent human rights abuses by SPDC Army units deployed near its village in order to avoid or reduce the harmful impact on livelihoods and physical security. It also provides a detailed example of the way local responses are often developed and employed cooperatively, thus affording protection to entire communities. This report draws extensively on interviews with residents of Pi--- village, Dweh Loh Township, who described their experiences to KHRG field researchers, supplemented by illustrations based on these accounts by a Karen artist. This is the third of four field reports documenting the situation in Papun District?s southern townships that will be released in August 2010. The incidents and responses documented below occurred in November 2009.
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG #2010-F7)
2010-08-27
Date of entry/update: 2010-10-06
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "The SPDC Army continues to attack civilians and civilian livelihoods nearly two years after the end of the 2005-2008 SPDC Offensive in northern Karen State. In response, civilians have developed and employed various self-protection strategies that have enabled tens of thousands of villagers to survive with dignity and remain close to their homes despite the humanitarian consequences of SPDC Army practices. These protection strategies, however, have become strained, even insufficient, as humanitarian conditions worsen under sustained pressure from the SPDC Army, prompting some individual villagers and entire communities to re-assess local priorities and concerns, and respond with alternative strategies - including uses of weapons or landmines. While this complicates discussions of legal and humanitarian protections for at-risk civilians, uses of weapons by civilians occur amidst increasing constraints on alternative self-protection measures. External actors wishing to promote human rights in conflict areas of eastern Burma should therefore seek a detailed understanding of local priorities and dynamics of abuse, and use this understanding to inform activities that broaden civilians? range of feasible options for self-protection, including beyond uses of arms..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG #2010-04)
2010-08-31
Date of entry/update: 2010-10-06
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 1.21 MB
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Description: This report presents information on the human rights situation in village tracts along the southern end of the Ka Ma Maung to Papun road in southern Dweh Loh and Bu Tho townships. SPDC and DKBA units maintain control over strategic points in lowland areas of this part of southern Papun, including relocation sites and vehicle roads, and support their presence by levying a range of exploitative demands on the local civilian population. SPDC and DKBA forces also continue to conduct offensive military operations in upland areas of southern Papun; for villagers living beyond permanent military control, these activities entail exploitative abuses, movement restrictions and, in some cases, violence including military attacks. Communities in both lowland and upland areas employ a variety of strategies to protect themselves and their livelihoods from SPDC and DKBA abuses and the effects of abuse. Strategies documented in this report include negotiation; paying fines in lieu of compliance with demands; discreet semi- or false compliance, or overt non-compliance or refusal to meet demands; strategic displacement to areas beyond consolidated SPDC or DKBA control; and actively monitoring local security conditions to inform decisions about further self-protection responses. This is the last of four reports detailing the situation in Papun District?s southern townships that have been released in August 2010. Incidents described below occurred between September 2009 and April 2010.
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG #2010-F8)
2010-08-30
Date of entry/update: 2010-10-06
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "Eighteen years of KHRG field research indicates that regular extractive abuses by the SPDC Army and NSAGs threaten local livelihoods and are a fundamental human rights concern for villagers throughout eastern Burma. These abuses appear to be the product of the established SPDC Army and NSAG practice of supporting military units via extraction of significant material and labour resources from the local civilian population, enforced by implicit or explicit threats of violence. These findings were recently affirmed by ND-Burma, which last week released a report documenting the prevalence and impact of arbitrary taxation for communities across Burma. This commentary is designed to support ND-Burma?s report, by offering additional recommendations based upon evidence that civilians have developed and employed a range of strategies for protecting themselves from extractive abuse or its consequences. These responses vary between contexts, and have been formulated based on first-hand awareness of the local dynamics of abuse and potential space for safe response. Seeking to understand, and then support, these local protection efforts should be the starting point for any external actors interested in improving human rights conditions in eastern Burma in both the short and long term."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG #2010-C1)
2010-09-06
Date of entry/update: 2010-09-08
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: The last two years have seen a profound deterioration in the human rights situation throughout the central Shan State in Myanmar. Hundreds of Shan civilians caught in the midst of counter-insurgency activities have been killed or tortured by the Burmese army. These abuses, occurring in a country which is closed to independent monitors, are largely unknown to the outside world. Denial of access for human rights monitors and journalists means that the full scale of the tragedy can not be accurately calculated. Therefore the information presented below represents only a part of the story.
Source/publisher: Amnesty International (ASA 16/05/98)
1998-04-15
Date of entry/update: 2010-07-26
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: Myanmar?s ethnic minorities, comprising one third of the population, continue to suffer disproportionately from a wide variety of human rights violations compared to the majority Burman people. This is particularly true of minorities living in areas where ethnically-based armed opposition groups are fighting against the tatmadaw, or Myanmar army. These groups live primarily in the Tanintharyi Division and in the Shan, Mon, Kayah and Kayin States in the east of the country. The army maintains an increasingly large presence in these areas, particularly in the so-called "black" or "grey" zones where armed opposition groups are active. As troops move through the countryside they pass through farming villages searching for insurgents and seeking intelligence about their movements from the farmers. While on patrol troops steal villagers? livestock, rice, money, and personal possessions, seize them for forced labour duty, and sometimes torture or even kill them for imputed links with the armed opposition.These human rights violations have been occurring for decades, and in spite of some recent positive developments in Myanmar, continue to be perpetrated by the tatmadaw." KEYWORDS: ETHNIC GROUPS / DISPLACED PEOPLE / ARMED CONFLICT / EXTRAJUDICIAL EXECUTION / FORCED LABOUR / TORTURE/ILL-TREATMENT / HARASSMENT / FARMERS / RACIAL DISCRIMINATION / REFUGEES / NON-GOVERNMENTAL ENTITIES / MILITARY
Source/publisher: Amnesty International
2001-06-13
Date of entry/update: 2010-07-26
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "...The technical mine information below was obtained from KNLA sources and was current as of early 1994, though it is apparently still current. The notes regarding effect on civilians are mainly from KHRG observations. Abbreviations: SLORC = State Law & Order Restoration Council, the junta ruling Burma; KNLA = Karen National Liberation Army, the Karen resistance force; DKBA = Democratic Kayin Buddhist Army, a Karen faction allied with SLORC..." "...The most common landmine used is the American M-76, of which the Burmese now manufacture their own copies. Almost all of these found used to be American-made, but now more are the Burmese copies. They are the "classic" landmine design, made of heavy-duty metal, cylindrical, about 2" diameter and 4-5" high, with a screw-in top the diameter of a pencil which extends a couple of inches above the body of the mine - this screw-in top is surmounted by a plunger the size of a pencil eraser which is what sets off the mine. The safety pin goes through the plunger, and can be used to rig a tripwire. However, most common use is to bury the mine with only the plunger above ground, generally hidden by leaf litter. The body of the mine is Army green, stencilled with yellow lettering: for example "LTM-76 A.P. MINE / DI-LOT 48/84" (copied off a recovered SLORC mine). "A.P." means Anti-Personnel. This mine is designed to kill or maim people. The person who steps on it is almost certainly killed, and anyone in a 5-metre radius is wounded..." These informal notes were prepared in response for specific requests for information on landmine use. They are not intended to present a complete picture of landmine use.
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG Articles & Papers)
1996-03-31
Date of entry/update: 2009-11-26
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "While attention has been focused on the SPDC?s violent attacks against villages in northern Karen State, the regime has been implementing a much more systematic campaign of repression in southern Karen State. The SPDC militarily occupied this region nine years ago, and has since been creating its model of society ? through extending roads and military control to every corner of the region, establishing and training local controlling authorities, forcing villagers to join SPDC organisations, forced registration of all people and resources, forced double-cropping and other agricultural programmes without the required support, movement restrictions and crippling taxation on trade and mobility, and land reallocation to those complicit with the regime. All of these are part of the process of setting up local control mechanisms to implement the SPDC?s hierarchical vision of society, in which the main purpose of the civilian population is to serve the military and support those in power. In return, local people get nothing except additional work, and violent punishment including torture and killings whenever they are perceived to be uncooperative or disrespectful. Little or nothing is provided for their education or health, while their crops and possessions are systematically looted to keep them poor. Drawing on the SPDC?s own order documents and over a hundred interviews with villagers in the region, this report finds that people in Dooplaya feel worse off than ever before, and that their suffering is not caused by conflict or lack of foreign aid, but by SPDC repression..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG #2006-04)
2006-09-07
Date of entry/update: 2006-10-06
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "...SPDC troops in northern Papun district continue to escalate their attacks, shooting villagers, burning villages and destroying ricefields. Undefended villages in far northern Papun district are now being shelled with powerful 120mm mortars. Three battalions from Toungoo district have rounded up hundreds of villagers as porters and are detaining their families in schools in case they?re needed; this column is now heading south with its porters, apparently intending to trap displaced villagers in a pincer between themselves and the troops coming north from Papun district. A similar trapping movement is being performed along the Bilin river, as 8 battalions come from two directions to wipe out every village in their path. Up to 4,000 villagers in Papun district?s far north have been displaced in the past week, and 1,500 to 2,000 more along the Bilin River..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG #2006-B7)
2006-06-07
Date of entry/update: 2006-06-08
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: " This report examines the situation faced by Karen villagers in Thaton District (known as Doo Tha Htoo in Karen). The district lies in what is officially the northern part of Mon State and also encompasses part of Karen State to the west of the Salween River . Successive Burmese regimes have had strong control over the parts of the district to the west of the Rangoon-Martaban road for many years. They were also able to gain ?defacto? control over the eastern part of the district following the fall of the former Karen National Union (KNU) stronghold at Manerplaw in 1995. The Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) is also strong in the district, particularly in the eastern stretches of Pa?an township. Although diminished in recent years, the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), the armed wing of the KNU, is still quite active in the district. The villagers in the district have had to contend with all three of these armed groups. The State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) and DKBA demand forced labour, taxes, and extortion money from the villagers while also severely restricting their movements. While the demands for some forms of forced labour such as portering have declined over the past few years, the villagers continue to be regularly called upon by both the SPDC and the DKBA to expand the ever-increasing network of roads throughout the district, as well to fulfil the frequent orders to supply staggering quantities of building materials. A number of new SPDC and DKBA controlled commercial ventures have also appeared in the district in recent years, to which the villagers are also forced to ?contribute? their labour. In 2000, the SPDC confiscated 5,000 acres of land for use as an immense sugarcane plantation, while more recently in late 2004, the SPDC again confiscated another 5,000 acres of the villagers? farmland, all of which is to become a huge rubber plantation, co-owed and operated by Rangoon-based company Max Myanmar. In addition, the villagers are punished for any perceived support for the KNLA or KNU. All such systems of control greatly impoverish the villagers, to the extent that now many of them struggle just to survive. Most villagers have few options but to try to live as best they can. SPDC control of the district is too tight for the villagers to live in hiding in the forest and Thailand is too far for most villagers to flee to. The villagers are forced to answer the demands of the SPDC and DKBA, of which there are many, while trying to avoid punishment for any supposed support of the resistance. They have to balance this with trying to find enough time to work in their fields and find enough food to feed their families. This report provides a detailed analysis of the human rights situation in Thaton District from 2000 to the present. It is based on 216 interviews conducted by KHRG researchers with people in SPDC-controlled villages, in hill villages, in hiding in the forest and with those who have fled to Thailand to become refugees. These interviews are supplemented by SPDC and DKBA order documents selected from the hundreds we have obtained from the area, along with field reports, maps, and photographs taken by KHRG field researchers. All of the interviews were conducted between November 1999 and November 2004. A number of field reports dated up until June 2005 have also been included. The report begins with an Introduction and Executive Summary. The detailed analysis that follows has been broken down into ten main sections. The villagers tell most of the story in the main sections through direct quotes taken from recorded interviews. The full text of the interviews and the field reports upon which this report is based are available from KHRG upon approved request."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)
2006-01-17
Date of entry/update: 2006-01-28
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "Between October 2004 and January 2005 SPDC troops launched forays into the hills of Nyaunglebin District in an attempt to flush villagers down into the plains and a life under SPDC control. Viciously timed to coincide with the rice harvest, the campaign focused on burning crops and landmining the fields to starve out the villagers. Most people fled into the forest, where they now face food shortages and uncertainty about this year?s planting and the security of their villages. Meanwhile in the plains, the SPDC is using people in relocation sites and villages they control as forced labour to strengthen the network of roads and Army camps - the main tools of military control over the civilian population - while Army officers plunder people?s belongings for personal gain. In both hills and plains, increased militarisation is bringing on food shortages and poverty..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG #2005-F4)
2005-05-04
Date of entry/update: 2005-05-23
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "Fifty-five years of civil war have decimated Burma?s Karen State, forcing thousands of civilians to flee their homes. Most would like to return—by their own will when the fighting stops. By Emma Larkin/Mae Sot, Thailand When Eh Mo Thaw was 16 years old, a Burmese battalion marched into his village in Karen State and burned down all the houses. Eh Mo Thaw and his family were herded into a relocation camp where they had to work for the Burma Army, digging ponds and growing rice to feed the Burmese troops. They had no time to grow food for themselves and many were not able to survive. Villagers caught foraging for vegetables outside the camp perimeter were shot on sight. "Many people died," says Eh Mo Thaw. "I also thought I would die." Eh Mo Thaw managed to escape from the camp with his family. For 20 years, he hid in the jungle, moving from place to place whenever Burmese troops drew near. Eventually he found himself on the Thai border and, when Burmese forces stormed the area, he had no choice but to cross the border into Thailand and enter a refugee camp..."
Creator/author: Emma Larkin
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" Vol 12, No. 2
2004-02-00
Date of entry/update: 2004-06-09
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "... villagers are being denied the very basic right to an adequate means of survival. This change in direction shows the Burmese military are now being somewhat savvy about how they deny people this right. Human rights abuses can give very real, very immediate and very factual evidence of the abuse through documentation. The impact of economic extortion on the other hand may not be fully realized until well into the future. But what an impact it will have. The employment of this type of tactic has the potential to cause permanent and long-lasting damage to the future of health, education, economic prosperity, social and civil structures and political stability. It will erode the already basic infrastructure and threaten internal security. These are things that will be more difficult to measure, both in its? impact and its retribution of the perpetrator..."
Creator/author: R Sharples
Source/publisher: "Burma Issues"
2003-09-00
Date of entry/update: 2003-12-28
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "This report presents the direct translations of 783 order documents and letters, selected from a total of 1,007 such documents. The orders dictate demands for forced labour, money, food and materials, place restrictions on movements and activities of villagers, and make threats to arrest village elders or destroy villages of those who fail to obey. Over 650 of those selected were sent by military units and local authorities of Burma?s ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) junta to village elders in Toungoo, Papun, Nyaunglebin, Thaton, Pa?an and Dooplaya Districts, which together cover most of Karen State and part of eastern Pegu Division and Mon State (see Map 1 showing Burma or Map 2 showing Karen State). The remainder were sent by the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) or the Karen Peace Army (KPA), groups allied with the SPDC. All but a few of the orders were issued between January 2002 and February 2003..." Papun, Pa?an, Thaton, Nyaunglebin, Toungoo, & Dooplaya Districts General Forced Labour (Orders #1-150); Forced Labour Supplying Materials (#150-191); Set to a Village I: Village A, Papun District (#192-200); Set to a Village II: Village B, Papun District (#201-226); Set to a Village III: Village C, Thaton District (#227-241); Set to a Village IV: Village D, Dooplaya District (#242-251); Extortion of Money, Food, and Materials (#252-335); Crop Quotas (#336-346); Restrictions on Movement and Activity (#347-354); Demands for Intelligence (#355-426); Education, Health (#427-442); Education (#427-439); Health (#440-442); Summons to ‘Meetings? (#443-652); DKBA & KPA Letters (#653-783); DKBA Recruitment (#653); DKBA General Forced Labour (#654-685); DKBA Demands for Materials and Money (#686-719); DKBA Restrictions (#720-727); DKBA Meetings (#728-771); KPA Letters (#772-783); Appendix A: The Village Act and the Towns Act; Appendix B: SPDC Orders ‘Banning? Forced Labour.
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group ( KHRG #2003-01)
2003-08-22
Date of entry/update: 2003-11-17
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: TABLE OF CONTENTS:- 1. Food Security from a Rights-based Perspective; 2. Local Observations from the States and Divisions of Eastern Burma:- 2.1 Tenasserim Division (Committee for Internally Displaced Karen Persons); 2.2 Mon State (Mon Relief and Development Committee); 2.3 Karen State (Karen Human Rights Group) 2.4 Eastern Pegu Division (Karen Office of Relief and Development); 2.5 Karenni State (Karenni Social Welfare Committee); 2.6 Shan State (Shan Human Rights Foundation)... 3. Local Observations of Issues Related to Food Security:- 3.1 Crop Destruction as a Weapon of War (Committee for Internally Displaced Karen Persons); 3.2 Border Areas Development (Karen Environmental & Social Action Network); 3.3 Agricultural Management(Burma Issues); 3.4 Land Management (Independent Mon News Agency) 3.5 Nutritional Impact of Internal Displacement (Backpack Health Workers Team); 3.6 Gender-based Perspectives (Karen Women?s Organisation)... 4. Field Surveys on Internal Displacement and Food Security... Appendix 1 : Burma?s International Obligations and Commitments... Appendix 2 : Burma?s National Legal Framework... Appendix 3 : Acronyms, Measurements and Currencies.... "...Linkages between militarisation and food scarcity in Burma were established by civilian testimonies from ten out of the fourteen states and divisions to a People?s Tribunal in the late 1990s. Since then the scale of internal displacement has dramatically increased, with the population in eastern Burma during 2002 having been estimated at 633,000 people, of whom approximately 268,000 were in hiding and the rest were interned in relocation sites. This report attempts to complement these earlier assessments by appraising the current relationship between food security and internal displacement in eastern Burma. It is hoped that these contributions will, amongst other impacts, assist the Asian Human Rights Commission?s Permanent People?s Tribunal to promote the right to food and rule of law in Burma... Personal observations and field surveys by community-based organisations in eastern Burma suggest that a vicious cycle linking the deprivation of food security with internal displacement has intensified. Compulsory paddy procurement, land confiscation, the Border Areas Development program and spiraling inflation have induced displacement of the rural poor away from state-controlled areas. In war zones, however, the state continues to destroy and confiscate food supplies in order to force displaced villagers back into state-controlled areas. An image emerges of a highly vulnerable and frequently displaced rural population, who remain extremely resilient in order to survive based on their local knowledge and social networks. Findings from the observations and field surveys include the following:..."
Source/publisher: Burmese Border Consortium
2003-10-00
Date of entry/update: 2003-11-07
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: KHRG Information Update #2003-U1 June 16, 2003 "The situation faced by the villagers of Toungoo District (see Map 1) is worsening as more and more parts of the District are being brought under the control of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) through the increased militarisation of the region. At any one time there are no fewer than a dozen battalions active in the area. Widespread forced labour and extortion continue unabated as in previous years, with all battalions in the District being party to such practices. The imposition of constant forced labour and the extortion of money and food are among the military?s primary occupations in the area. The strategy of the military is not one of open confrontation with the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) ? the armed wing of the Karen National Union (KNU) - but of targeting the civilian population as a means of cutting all lines of support and supply for the resistance movement. There has not been a major offensive in the District since the SPDC launched Operation Aung Tha Pyay in 1995-96; however since that time the Army has been restricting, harassing, and forcibly relocating hill villages to the point where people can no longer live in them. Many of the battalions launch sweeps through the hills in search of villagers hiding there in an effort to drive them out of the hills and into the areas controlled by the SPDC. Fortunately, the areas into which many of them have fled are both rugged and remote, making it difficult for the Army to find them. For those who are discovered, once relocated, they are then exploited as a ready source for portering and other forced labour..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)
2003-06-16
Date of entry/update: 2003-07-01
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "This report covers 4 of the main attacks on Karen refugee camps in Thailand which occurred in January 1997: the burning and destruction of Huay Kaloke and Huay Bone refugee camps on the night of 28 January, the armed attack on Beh Klaw refugee camp on the morning of 29 January, and the shelling of Sho Kloh refugee camp on 4 January. These attacks left several people dead and about 10,000 refugees homeless and completely destitute. Even now, Huay Kaloke and Huay Bone remain nothing but open plains of dust and ash under the hot sun. No one feels safe to remain in these places, but the Thai authorities are forcing them to.Huay Bone?s over 3,000 refugees have either fled to Beh Klaw or have been forced to move to Huay Kaloke, and the Thai authorities still have a plan to move Sho Kloh?s over 6,000 refugees to Beh Klaw, which is unsafe and already overcrowded with over 25,000 people. Refugees in other camps are also living in fear; Maw Ker refugee camp 50 km. south of Mae Sot has been constantly threatened with destruction, as has Mae Khong Kha refugee camp much further north in Mae Sariang district. People in these camps often end up spending their nights in the forests or countryside surrounding their camps, not daring to sleep in their homes at night..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group Regional & Thematic Reports (KHRG #97-05)
1997-03-18
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: Mission Internationale d?Enquête Fédération Internationale des Ligues des Droits de l'Homme... L?Arakan: A. Présentation de l?Arakan; B. Historique de la présence musulmane en Arakan; C. Organisation administrative, forces répressives et résistance armée. .. Le retour forcé et la réinstallation des Rohingyas - hypocrisie et contraintes: A. Les conditions du retour du Bangadesh après l?exode de 1991-92; B. Réinstallation et réintégration. Répression, discrimination et exclusion en Arakan: A. La spécificité de la répression à l?égard des Rohingyas; B. Les Arakanais : une exploitation sans issue. .. Nouvel Exode: A. Les années 1996 et 1997; B. L?exode actuel.
Source/publisher: Federation International des Droits de l'Homme
2000-04-00
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: Francais, French
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Description: International Mission of Inquiry by the International Federation of Human Rights Leagues. I. Arakan: A. Presentation of Arakan - A buffer State; B. Historical background of the Muslim presence in Arakan; C. Administration organisation, repressive forces and armed resistance... II. The forced return and the reinstallation of the Rohingyas: hypocrisy and constraints: A. The conditions of return from Bangladesh after the 1991-92 exodus; B. Resettlement and reintegration. .. III. Repression, discrimination and exclusion in Arakan: A. The specificity of the repression against the Rohingyas; B. The Arakanese: an exploitation with no way out. .. IV. A new exodus: A. The years 1996 and 1997; B. The current exodus.
Source/publisher: Federation International des Droits de l'Homme (FIDH)
2000-04-00
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: Click on the on the html link above to go to a neater, paginated table of contents or on the pdf links below to go straight to the document .... PDF File 1: Cover and Contents. PDF File 2: Boundaries; Climate; Physical Features; Population; Ethnic Groups in Karenni; Gender Roles in Karenni; Agriculture, Land Distribution and Patterns of Recourse; Resources; Water; Communication, Trade and Transport Conflict in Karenni; A History of Conflict; The Pre-Colonial Period; The Colonial Period; Independence in Burma and the Outbreak of Civil War in the Karenni States; State and Non-State Actors including Armed Groups and Political Parties; The Role of the Tatmadaw; The Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP); The Karenni National People?s Liberation Front (KNPLF); The Shan State Nationalities Liberation Organisation (SSNLO); The Kayan New Land Party (KNLP; The NDF and CPB Alliances and their Impact in Karenni; War in the Villages; The Formation of Splinter Groups in the 1990s; The Economics of War; The Relationship between Financing the War and Exploitation of Natural Resources; The Course of the War; Cease-fires.... PDF file 3: Conflict-Induced Displacements in Karenni -- Defining Population Movements; Conflict Induced Displacement; Displacement in 1996; Displacements by Township; Relocation Policy; Services in Relocation Sites; Smaller Relocation Sites and so-called ?Gathering Villages?; Displacement into Shan State; Displacement as a Passing Phenomenon; Displacement, Resettlement and Transition; Women outside Relocation Sites. Development Induced Displacement -- Displacements in Loikaw City; Confiscation of Land by the Tatmadaw; Displacement as a Result of Resource Scarcity; Food Scarcity; Water Shortages; Voluntary Migrations. Health and education needs and responses: Health Policy; Health Services; Health Status of the Population; Communicable Diseases; Nutrition; Reproductive and Women?s Health; Landmine Casualties; Iodine Deficiency and Goitre; Vitamin A Deficiency; Water and Sanitation; Responses to Health Needs; Education Policy; Educational Services and Coverage; Traditional Attitudes to Education; Educational Services in Karenni; Responses to Educational Needs; Responses from the Thai-Burma border; Responses by International Humanitarian Agencies from Inside Burma. Appendices: A Comparison of Populations in Relocation Sites in Karenni; Refugee Arrivals at the Thai Border; Displacements by Township; Examples of Population Movements.
Creator/author: Vicky Bamforth, Steven Lanjouw, Graham Mortimer
Source/publisher: Burma Ethnic Research Group (BERG)
2000-05-00
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : htm pdf pdf pdf
Size: 5.46 KB 472.28 KB 782.74 KB 1.32 MB
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Description: "This report is a detailed analysis of the current human rights situation in Nyaunglebin District (known in Karen as Kler Lweh Htoo), which straddles the border of northern Karen State and Pegu Division in Burma. Most of the villagers here are Karen, though there are also many Burmans living in the villages near the Sittaung River. Since late 1998 many Karens and Burmans have been fleeing their villages in the area because of human rights abuses by the State Peace & Development Council (SPDC) military junta which currently rules Burma, and this flight is still ongoing. Those from the hills which cover most of the District are fleeing because SPDC troops have been systematically destroying their villages, crops and food supplies and shooting villagers on sight, all in an effort to undermine the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) by driving the civilian population out of the region. At the same time, people in the plains near the Sittaung River are fleeing because of the ever-increasing burden of forced labour, cash extortion, and heavy crop quotas which are being levied against them even though their crops have failed for the past two years running. Many are also fleeing a frightening new phenomenon in the District: the Sa Thon Lon Guerrilla Retaliation units, which appeared in September 1998 and since then have been systematically executing everyone suspected of even the remotest contact with the opposition forces, even if that contact occurred years or decades ago. Their methods are brutal, their tactics are designed to induce fear, and they have executed anywhere from 50 to over 100 civilians in the District since September 1998..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group Regional & Thematic Reports(KHRG #99-04)
1999-05-24
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "In early 1997, the State Law & Order Restoration Council (SLORC) military junta ruling Burma mounted a major offensive against the Karen National Union (KNU) and succeeded in capturing and occupying most of the remainder of Dooplaya District in central Karen State. Since that time the SLORC has changed its name to the State Peace & Development Council (SPDC), but its occupation troops have continued to strengthen their control over the rural Karen villagers who live in the region. Almost all of the people in the region are Karen, though there are minorities of ethnic Mon, Thai, and Indian-Muslim people in parts of central and western Dooplaya. This report provides an update on the current situation for villagers in Dooplaya?s farming communities under the SPDC occupation. Some of the main issues covered are general human rights abuses against the villagers, which include arbitrary killings, torture, detention, rape, forced labour, forced relocations, looting and extortion; the special plight of the Dta La Ku, a Karen religious minority who have been targetted for persecution by armies on all sides of the conflict but who are almost completely ignored by the outside world; the effects on villagers of the changing military-political situation in the region, including the activities of the Karen Peace Army (KPA) and the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), rival armies both allied with the SPDC; and the effects of the ongoing struggle between the SPDC and the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), both of which are increasingly using landmines in the area. Differences and similarities are examined between the situation in Dooplaya?s central plain, the mountainous eastern ‘hump? which projects into Thailand, and the district?s far south..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group Regional & Thematic Reports (KHRG #98-09)
1998-11-23
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "This report describes the current situation for rural Karen villagers in Toungoo District (known in Karen as Taw Oo), which is the northernmost region of Karen State in Burma. The western part of the district forms part of the Sittaung River valley in Pegu (Bago) Division, and this region is strongly controlled by the State Peace & Development Council (SPDC) military junta which rules Burma. Further east, the District is made up of steep and forested hills penetrated by only one or two roads and dotted with small Karen villages; in this region the SPDC is struggling to strengthen its control in the face of armed resistance by the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA). (Click here to see map) In the strongly SPDC-controlled areas, the villagers suffer from constant demands for forced labour and money from all of the SPDC military units based there, and from the constant threat of punishments should their village fail to comply with any order of the military. In the eastern hills, many villages have been forcibly relocated and partly burned as part of the SPDC?s program of attempting to undermine the resistance by attacking the civilian villagers. Here people are suffering all forms of serious human rights abuses committed by SPDC troops, including random killings, burning of homes, the systematic destruction of crops and food supplies, forced labour, looting and extortion..." Increasing SPDC Military Repression in Toungoo District of Northern Karen State
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group Regional & Thematic Reports (KHRG #99-02)
1999-03-25
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : html
Size: 25.55 KB
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Description: "This report documents in detail the plight of villagers and the internally displaced in these two northern Karen regions. Since 1997 the SPDC has destroyed or relocated over 200 villages here, forcing tens of thousands of villagers to flee into hiding in the hills where they are now being hunted down and shot on sight by close to 50 SPDC Army battalions. The troops are now systematically destroying crops, food supplies and farmfields to flush the villagers out of the hills, making the situation increasingly desperate. Meanwhile, those living in the SPDC-controlled villages and relocation sites are fleeing to the hills to join the displaced because they can no longer bear the heavy burden of forced labour, extortion, restrictions on their movement and random torture and executions. KHRG?s most intensive research effort to date, this report draws on over 300 interviews with people in the villages and forests, thousands of photographs and hundreds of documents assembled by KHRG researchers in the past 2 years." ADDITIONAL KEYWORDS: forced resettlement, forced relocation, forced movement, forced displacement, forced migration, forced to move, displaced
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG #2001-03)
2001-10-22
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "Report of the Commission of Inquiry appointed under article 26 of the Constitution of the International Labour Organization to examine the observance by Myanmar of the Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29)"...Full Text (about 400 pages) The central ILO report on forced labour in Burma. Appendix III contains 246 interviews, largely with people from non-Burman ethnic groups - Chin, Rohingya, Arakanese, Karen, Karenni, Shan, Pa-O, Mon. The interviews cover forced labour, but also many other violations of human rights such as killings (executions), rape, torture, looting, forced relocation (forced displacement) violence against women, violence against children, looting. ADDITIONAL KEYWORDS: forced resettlement, forced relocation, forced movement, forced displacement, forced migration, forced to move, displaced
Source/publisher: International Labour Office
1998-07-02
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : htm doc
Size: 1.78 MB 2.15 MB
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Description: 1. The Karen and Kawthoolei: The Karen; Kawthoolei; The Kawthoolei districts || 2. Displacement and counter-insurgency in Burma: Population displacement in Burma; Protracted ethnic conflict in Burma; Counter-insurgency: the four-cuts || 3. The war in Kawthoolei: Seasonal offensives: the moving front line and refugee flows, 1974-92; Cease-fires (1992-94) and the renewal of offensives (1995-97) || 4. Internal displacement in Kawthoolei: Counter-insurgency and displacement in Kawthoolei; Displacement in Kawthoolei; The situation of IDPs in Kawthoolei districts; Extent of population displacement in Kawthoolei; Patterns of displacement; Factors preventing the IDPs returning home; Factors preventing the IDPs becoming refugees in Thailand; Vulnerability of IDPs; Note on forced relocations sites || 5.Assistance: International responses to IDPs; International responses to IDPs in Burma; Responses inside Burma; The response from the border area to Karen IDPs || 6.Protection: Refugees on the Thai-Burma border: international assistance with limited protection; The case of the repatriation of the Mon; The Karen: the problem of security; Assistance and protection: refugees and IDPs; The need for leverage; Transition from armed conflict || Appendix III: Interview at Mae La (This version lacks the maps and tables)
Creator/author: Brother Amoz, Steven Lanjouw, Saw Pay Leek, Dr. Em Marta, Graham Mortimer, Alan Smith, Saw David Taw, Pah Hsaw Thut, Saw Aung Win, Saw Kwe Htoo Win
Source/publisher: Burma Ethnic Research Group (BERG) and Friedrich Naumann Foundation
1998-04-00
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 569.98 KB
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Description: "The following accounts of life in SLORC?s Army were given by four deserters who fled to opposition-held territory or to Thailand, one fleeing in Tenasserim Division of southern Burma around New Year of 1996, the other three fleeing Pa?an District, much further north, in March 1996. As they fled two different battalions in two different areas, their treatment and experiences differ somewhat; however, for the most part their stories are similar and reflect the hardship and brutality of life as a rank and file soldier in the SLORC Army. In the interviews, the soldiers mention radio broadcasts on the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) and VOA (Voice of America). These two foreign Burmese-language shortwave services are almost the only source of objective news to people in Burma. Some other abbreviations used: MNLA = Mon National Liberation Army, which made a ceasefire deal with SLORC in June 1995; DKBA = Democratic Kayin Buddhist Army, a Karen faction created in December 1994 which is now allied with SLORC; KNU = Karen National Union, the main Karen opposition organization; IB = (SLORC) Infantry Battalion; LIB = (SLORC) Light Infantry Battalion..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group Regional & Thematic Reports (KHRG #96-19)
1996-05-18
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "The Karen State of Kawthoolei has been heavily dependent on teak extraction to fund the Karen National Union struggle against the Burmese military junta, the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC). Raymond Bryant explores the social and economic structure of Kawthoolei, and the way in which resource extraction was more than simply a source of revenue � it was also an integral part of the assertion of Karen sovereignty..."
Creator/author: Raymond Bryant
Source/publisher: "Watershed" Vol.3 No.1 July - October 1997
1997-10-00
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: Amnesty International is concerned that the Burmese army has arbitrarily detained, extrajudicially killed, tortured and ill-treated members of ethnic minorities in the Shan and Mon States and the Tanintharyi (Tenasserim) Division in eastern Myanmar. This report is drawn from January and February 1996 interviews with dozens of members of the Shan, Akha, Lahu, Karen, and Mon ethnic minorities in Thailand. Most of these refugees are farmers and villagers who said they had fled from their homes because their lives were made impossible by the security forces.
Source/publisher: Amnesty International (ASA 16/38/96)
1996-08-08
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English and French
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Description: "In the last eight years the Burmese army, known as the tatmadaw, has killed unarmed civilians as part of its counter-insurgency campaigns against the Karen National Union (KNU) in the Kayin (Karen) State, eastern Myanmar. Karen civilians who were fleeing from troops as they approached a village have been shot dead in what appears to be a de facto shoot-to-kill policy of anyone who runs from the tatmadaw. Others have been reportedly killed because the tatmadaw suspected these individuals of supporting the KNU in some way. The army has killed still other victims seemingly at random, in an apparent effort to terrorize villagers into severing their alleged connections with KNU soldiers. Amnesty International is gravely concerned by these killings; they are part of a long-standing pattern of extrajudicial executions by the tatmadaw of members of the Karen ethnic minority..." Keywords: extrajudicial killings, military, non-governmental entities, harassment, torture, ill-treatment, forced labour, wthnic groups, women, farmers, photographs.
Source/publisher: Amnesty International (ASA 16/10/96)
1996-04-00
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: Information on a new flow of refugees from northeastern Pa?an District into Thailand. The villagers say that they fled their village in mid-January 2001 because SPDC troops are using them as porters, forced labour on an access road, and Army camp labour in order to strengthen the regime?s control over this contested area. Worst of all, the villagers say they are being ordered to clear landmines in front of the SPDC Army?s road-building bulldozer, and to make way for new Army camps.
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG Information Update #2001-U1)
2001-02-20
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: KHRG Information Update
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)
1999-02-15
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: Roads, Relocations, and the Campaign for Control in Toungoo District. Based on interviews and field reports from KHRG field researchers in this northern Karen district, looks at the phenomenon of ?Peace Villages? under SPDC control and ?Hiding Villages? in the hills; while the ?Hiding Villages? are being systematically destroyed and their villagers hunted and captured, the ?Peace Villages? face so many demands for forced labour and extortion that many ofthem are fleeing to the hills. Looks at forced labour road construction and its relation to increasing SPDC militarisation of the area, and also at the new tourism development project at Than Daung Gyi which involves large-scale land confiscation and forced labour. Keywords: Karen; KNU; KNLA; SPDC deserters; Sa Thon Lon activities; human minesweepers; human shields; reprisals against villagers; abuse of village heads; SPDC army units; military situation; forced relocation; strategic hamletting; relocation sites; internal displacement; IDPs; cross-border assistance; forced labour; torture; killings; extortion, economic oppression; looting; pillaging; burning of villages; destruction of crops and food stocks; forced labour on road projects; road building; restrictions on movment; lack of education and health services; tourism project; confiscation of land and forced labour for tourism project;landmines; malnutrition; starvation; SPDC Orders. ... ADDITIONAL KEYWORDS: forced resettlement, forced relocation, forced movement, forced displacement, forced migration, forced to move, displaced
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group Regional & Thematic Reports (KHRG #2000-05)
2000-10-15
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "In the morning the celebration started at 8 a.m., and then at 8:45 a.m. the SLORC attacked. They attacked and destroyed all the things. It was #106 Battalion [LIB], deployed in Hla Mine, and #343 Battalion [LIB], deployed in Ye. They combined together to do this operation, about 240 soldiers altogether. They are under Southeast Command [commanded by Maj. Gen. Ket Sein]. We think they arrived outside the village in the early morning, before dawn. We think they left their battalion camps at night. They split into two groups: one group took their place on the hill beside the village, and one group raided the village. At that time we were in the field [the celebration was held in an open field just outside the village, where the villagers had erected a stage]. They just fired, and attacked the village without seeing any enemy there. And they ransacked every house, and they took everything. At the same time we were all running because we heard the shooting, and then the troops on the hill saw that all the people were jumping up and running away, and they shelled into the field, into the crowd. I think the shells were 60 mm. [small mortar], not as strong as 81 mm., because in my experience I have seen 81 and 120 mm., and they are very explosive, very strong. But these shells were not that strong, the vibrations were not as strong. We couldn?t count how many shells! For about one hour they fired, both with their small weapons and their artillery [mortars]..." _Attack on civilians, execution, kneecapping, shooting livestock, looting / destruction of property, porters, Ye-Tavoy railway labour, land confiscation / forced labour for military contracts with foreign companies.
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group Regional & Thematic Reports (KHRG #96-04)
1996-01-12
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : html
Size: 29.89 KB
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Description: "This report aims to provide an update on the situation in Tenasserim Division, Burma?s southernmost region. It is based primarily on interviews from Ler Mu Lah township in central Tenasserim Division, but also gives an overview of some background and developments in other parts of the Division. At the end of the report two maps are included: Map 1 showing the entire Division, and Map 2 showing the northern part of Tenasserim Division and the southern part of Karen State?s Dooplaya District. Many of the villages mentioned in the report and the interviews can be found on Map 1, while Map 2 includes some of the sites mentioned in relation to flows of refugees and their forced repatriation..." An update on the situation in central Tenasserim Division since the Burmese junta?s mass offensive to capture the area in 1997. Unable to gain complete control of the region because of the rugged jungle, harassment by resistance forces and the staunch non-cooperation of the villagers, the SPDC regime has gradually flooded the area with 36 Battalions which have forced many villages into relocation sites where the villagers are used as forced labour to push more military roads into remote areas. Thousands continue to hide in the forests despite being hunted and having their food supplies destroyed by SPDC patrols. They have little choice, though, because if they flee to the Thai border they encounter the Thai Army 9th Division, which continues to force refugees back into Burma at gunpoint." Additional keywords: Tanintharyi, Burman, Mon, Karen, Tayoyan, road building, free-fire zones, destruction of villages, resistance groups, extortions, internal displacement, refoulement, forced repatriation, killing, torture, shooting, restrictions on movement, beating to death, shortage of food, 9th Division (Thai Army). ADDITIONAL KEYWORDS: forced resettlement, forced relocation, forced movement, forced displacement, forced migration, forced to move.
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group Regional & Thematic Reports (KHRG #2001-04)
2001-12-21
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "The State Law & Order Restoration Council (SLORC) junta ruling Burma is now using mass forced relocations of entire geographic regions as a major element of military strategy. While this is not new to SLORC tactics, they have seldom or never done it to such an extent or so systematically before. The large-scale relocations began in Papun District of Karen State in December 1995 and January 1996, when up to 100 Karen villages were ordered to move within a week or be shot [see "Forced Relocation in Papun District", KHRG #96-11, 4/3/96]. These were all the villages in the region between Papun and the Salween River, an area about 50-60 km. north-south and 30 km. east-west. Most of them were ordered to move to sites beside military camps at Papun, Kaw Boke, Par Haik and Pa Hee Kyo, where SLORC was gathering people to do forced labour on the Papun-Bilin and Papun-Kyauk Nyat roads. However, the main reasons for the forced relocation were to cut off all possible support for Karen guerrilla columns in the area, most of which has only been SLORC-controlled since mid-1995, and to create a free-fire zone which would also block the flow of refugees from inside Karen State to the Thai border. Recently, though, SLORC troops in the area have limited their movements rather than combing the area, allowing some villagers to trickle back to their villages. This may be partly because of rainy season or because of the current SLORC-Karen National Union ceasefire talks, but it is probably largely because SLORC realised it could not control the result - people were fleeing into hiding in the jungle, some were fleeing to Thailand, but none were heading for the relocation camps..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)
1996-07-18
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: Information from KHRG researchers in Thaton District, which spans the border of northern Mon State and Karen State. SPDC troops already have a relatively strong hold on the area, but they have been intimidating and torturing villagers in an effort to wipe out any remaining support for the Karen resistance, and forcing villagers to join militia-like SPDC paramilitary groups.
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG Information Update #2001-U2)
2001-03-20
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "...Under military control, rural Burma?s subsistence farming village is losing its viability as the basic unit of society. Internally displaced people are usually thought to have fled military battles in and around their villages, but this paradigm doesn?t apply to Burma. In the thousands of interviews conducted by the Karen Human Rights Group with villagers who have fled their homes, approximately 95 percent say they have not fled military battles, but rather the systematic destruction of their ability to survive, caused by demands and retaliations inflicted on them by the SPDC military. Where there is fighting, it is fluid and sporadic, and most villagers can avoid it by hiding for short periods in the forest. Once the SPDC occupies the area around their village, however, the suffering is inescapable. Villages, rooted to the land, are defenseless and vulnerable, and villages can be burned -- destroying rural life in southeastern Burma. "
Creator/author: Kevin Heppner
Source/publisher: "Cultural Survival Quarterly" Issue 24.3
2000-10-31
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: This document presents the findings, conclusions and recommendations of the People's Tribunal on Food Scarcity and Militarization in Burma. The Tribunal?s work will appeal to all readers interested in human rights and social justice, as well as anyone with a particular interest in Burma. The Asian Human Rights Commission presents this report in order to stimulate discourse on human rights and democratization in Burma and around the world.
Source/publisher: People's Tribunal on Food Scarcity and Militarization in Burma
1999-10-00
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: an edited version of a report by the People?s Tribunal on Food Scarcity and Militarization in Burma, which was published by the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) in October 1999.
Creator/author: People
Source/publisher: "Burma Debate", Vol. VI, No. 3
1999-09-00
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more

Pages