Internal displacement/forced migration of Karen villagers
Individual Documents
Description:
"The region commonly known as Pa?an District forms a large triangular area in central Karen State, bounded in the west and north by the Salween River and the town of Pa?an (capital of Karen State), in the east by the Moei River where it forms the border with Thailand, and in the south by the motor road from Myawaddy (at the Thai border) westward to Kawkareik and Kyone Doh. Pa?an District is also known as the Karen National Liberation Army?s (KNLA?s) 7th Brigade area. The western parts of Pa?an District and the principal towns have been controlled by the SLORC/SPDC military junta for 10 years or longer, while the eastern strip adjacent to the Thai border has come largely under their control over the past 3 years. The easternmost strip of Pa?an District near the Moei River is separated from the rest of the district by the main ridge of the steep Dawna Mountains ..."
Source/publisher:
Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)
Date of publication:
1998-09-19
Date of entry/update:
2003-06-03
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
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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)
Date of publication:
2001-10-22
Date of entry/update:
2003-06-03
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Discrimination against the Karen, Armed conflict in Burma - Impact on village life, including health and education, Internal displacement/forced migration of Karen villagers, Forced relocation of Karen
Language:
English
more
Description:
"Nyaunglebin District. Feb 93. Karen men, women: Forced relocation to undrained land; Only Karen villages made to move; SLORC?s control of rice to control the population; forced labour (incl. portering). Description of the difficult economic conditions. Extortion; ransoming; looting. Translation of an official SLORC Relocation Order; economic oppression..."
_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
Date of publication:
1993-06-10
Date of entry/update:
2003-06-03
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Discrimination against the Karen, Forced relocation of Karen, Internal displacement/forced migration of Karen villagers
Language:
English
more
Description:
"SLORC has seriously stepped up its campaign to clear the entire rural population out of Papun District and make the entire area a free-fire zone. Since December 1995, orders have been issued to every rural village under SLORC control from Kyauk Nyat in the north to Ka Dtaing Dtee in the south, from the Salween River (the Thai border) in the east to at least 10 km. west of Papun - an area 50-60 km. north to south and 30 km. east to west. This area is rugged hills dotted with small villages, averaging 10-50 households (population 50-300) per village. Estimates are that 100 or more villages may be affected. Every village has been ordered to move either to SLORC Army camps surrounding Papun, such as Papun, Kaw Boke, Par Haik, or Ka Hee Kyo (all along the Papun - Kyauk Nyat road route) or to DKBA headquarters far to the south at Khaw Taw (Myaing Gyi Ngu) in Pa?an District. The orders have all been issued by SLORC. Generally a SLORC column enters the village with only a few DKBA soldiers accompanying them, and the SLORC officer issues the order. Villagers confirm that DKBA never operates in the area by themselves anymore - DKBA soldiers only appear in small groups as part of SLORC columns. SLORC units involved in the operation include Light Infantry Battalions (LIB) 340, 341, 434, and Infantry Battalion (IB) 5..."
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 #96-11)
Date of publication:
1996-03-04
Date of entry/update:
2003-06-03
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Discrimination against the Karen, Forced relocation of Karen, Internal displacement/forced migration of Karen villagers
Language:
English
Format :
html
Size:
28.88 KB
Local URL:
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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)
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
Date of publication:
1998-04-00
Date of entry/update:
2003-06-03
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Internal displacement/forced migration of Karen villagers, Armed conflict in Burma - Impact on village life, including health and education, Discrimination against the Karen, Forced relocation of Karen
Language:
English
Format :
pdf
Size:
569.98 KB
Local URL:
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Description:
Forced Relocations, Killings and the Systematic Starvation of Villagers in Dooplaya District
Source/publisher:
Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG (#2000-02A)
Date of publication:
2000-03-31
Date of entry/update:
2003-06-03
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Discrimination against the Karen, Forced relocation of Karen, Internal displacement/forced migration of Karen villagers
Language:
English
more
Description:
The worsening situation of the internally displaced in all northern Karen districts, forced labour and convict porters, rice quotas, the desperate situation of rank-and-file SPDC soldiers, forced repatriation of refugees in Thailand, and the SPDC?s persistence in denying that there is any problem whatsoever.
Source/publisher:
Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)
Date of publication:
2000-10-17
Date of entry/update:
2003-06-03
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Various rights: reports of violations against several ethnic groups, Forced relocation of Karen, Internal displacement/forced migration of Karen villagers
Language:
English
more
Description:
Nyaunglebin (known in Karen as Kler Lwe Htoo) District is a northern Karen region straddling the border of northern Karen State and Pegu Division. It contains the northern reaches of the Bilin (Bu Loh Kloh) River northwest of Papun, and stretches westward as far as the Sittaung (Sittang) River in the area 60 to 150 kilometres north of Pegu (named Bago by the SPDC). The District has 3 townships: Ler Doh (Kyauk Kyi in Burmese), Hsaw Tee (Shwegyin), and Mone. The eastern two-thirds of the district is covered by forested hills dotted with small Karen villages, and the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) operates extensively in this region. The western part of the district is in the plains of the Sittaung river basin; here there are larger villages of mixed Karen and Burman population, and this area is under strong SPDC control. For several years now SLORC/SPDC forces have tried to destroy Karen resistance in the eastern hills, largely by forcing villagers to move and wiping out their ability to produce food. Many villages in the parts of these eastern hills bordering PapunDistrict have been destroyed since 1997 as part of the SPDC campaign to wipe out Karen villages in northern Papun and eastern Nyaunglebin Districts (see "Wholesale Destruction", KHRG, April 1998). According to reports by KHRG monitors in the region and interviews with internally displaced villagers and new refugees, the situation continues to worsen for villagers in eastern and western Nyaunglebin, particularly with the recent creation of SPDC ?Dam Byan Byaut Kya? death squads.
Source/publisher:
Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG Information Update)
Date of publication:
1999-02-15
Date of entry/update:
2003-06-03
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
more
Description:
An American dentist travels deep into the world of Burma?s Internally Displaced Persons, and discovers a people driven by fear into an uncertain future. Armed with a Colt .45, American dentist Shannon Allison is on a dangerous mission of mercy: to bring emergency medical assistance to Internally Displaced Persons inside Burma. Veteran photojournalist Thierry Falise reports from Burma?s war-torn jungles on efforts to assist these victims of endemic conflict.
Thierry Falise
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy", Vol 9. No. 5
Date of publication:
2001-06-00
Date of entry/update:
2003-06-03
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Forced relocation of Karen, Internal displacement/forced migration of Karen villagers, International non-governmental organisations (INGOs) present in Burma
Language:
English
more
Description:
Food shortages, disease, killings and life on the run.Based on new interviews and reports from KHRG field researchers, this update summarises the increasingly desperate situation for villagers in these two districts. In the hills, the people of several hundred villages are still in hiding, their villages destroyed by SPDC troops. Their survival situation is now desperate as 40 SPDC Battalions continue to systematically destroy their rice supplies and crops and landmine their fields, and shoot them on sight. In the villages under SPDC control, people suffer under an impossible burden of many kinds of forced labour and extortion.
Source/publisher:
Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG (Information Update #2001-U3)
Date of publication:
2001-04-09
Date of entry/update:
2003-06-03
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Discrimination against the Karen, Racial or ethnic discrimination in Burma: reports of violations against several groups, Forced relocation of Karen, Internal displacement/forced migration of Karen villagers, Various rights: reports of violations against several ethnic groups
Language:
English
more
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)
Date of publication:
2000-10-15
Date of entry/update:
2003-06-03
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Armed conflict in Burma - Impact on village life, including health and education, Various rights: reports of violations against several ethnic groups, Right to food: reports of violations in Burma, Forced relocation of Karen, Non-ILO Reports on forced labour, including forced portering, in Burma and the region, Internal displacement/forced migration of Karen villagers, Tourism in Burma - critical, Destruction/theft of crops and food stores, killing/theft of livestock
Language:
English
more
Description:
Pa?an, Dooplaya, Toungoo, Papun, & Thaton Districts. Over 250 orders dating from mid-1999 through late September 2000, the vast majority of them from the latter half of that period. Includes restrictions on the movement of villagers, forced relocation, demands for forced labour, extortion of money, food, and materials, threats to villagers and other demands, as well as documents related to rice quotas which farmers are forced to give, education and health. Also contains one order #174 which directly shows the role of a Dutch timber importing company in causing the SPDC to threaten all non-government controlled timber traders. ... ADDITIONAL KEYWORDS: forced resettlement, forced relocation, forced movement, forced displacement, forced migration, forced to move, displaced
Source/publisher:
Karen Human Rights Group Orders Reports (KHRG #2000-04)
Date of publication:
2000-10-12
Date of entry/update:
2003-06-03
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Various rights: reports of violations against several ethnic groups, Forced relocation of Karen, Internal displacement/forced migration of Karen villagers
Language:
English
more
Description:
"This report consists of an Introduction and Executive Summary, followed by a detailed analysis of the situation supported by quotes from interviews and excerpts from SPDC order documents sent to villages in the region. As mentioned above, an Annex to this report containing the full text of the remaining interviews can be seen by following the link from the table of contents or from KHRG upon approved request..."
Forced Relocations, Killings and the Systematic Starvation of Villagers in Dooplaya District
Source/publisher:
Karen Human Rights Group Regional & Thematic Reports (KHRG #2000-02)
Date of publication:
2000-03-31
Date of entry/update:
2003-06-03
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Discrimination against the Karen, Forced relocation of Karen, Internal displacement/forced migration of Karen villagers, Food Security and human rights in Burma, Food Security and displacement in Burma, Food Security and militarisation in Burma
Language:
English
more
Description:
"SLORC?s campaign of forced relocations and forced-labour road building in the Palauk-Palaw, Mergui and Tenasserim regions, which began in September 1996, is now being accelerated ... Almost every village between the Tavoy-Mergui-Kawthaung car road in the west and the Tenasserim River in the east, from Palauk in the north to Tenasserim town in the south has been ordered to move one or more times between September 1996 and January 1997..."
ADDITIONAL KEYWORDS: forced resettlement, forced relocation, forced movement, forced displacement, forced migration, forced to move, displaced
Source/publisher:
Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)
Date of publication:
1997-02-09
Date of entry/update:
2003-06-03
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Forced relocation of Karen, Non-ILO Reports on forced labour, including forced portering, in Burma and the region, Internal displacement/forced migration of Karen villagers
Language:
English
Format :
html
Size:
10.18 KB
Local URL:
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