* In the 18 months spanning July 2008-December 2009, SPDC military operations displaced at least 118,800 (43,800 refugees and 75,000 internally displaced persons) people in Eastern Burma alone. * Of this figure, at least 16,800 were victims of crimes against humanity and war crimes as defined under international law. * Much of the displacement was the result of the junta's program to secure military and political control over ethnic areas in the lead-up to the SPDC's planned elections this year. * Displacement is expected to increase as the regime intensifies pressure on ethnic groups resisting the elections that are predicated on a constitution designed to legitimize the military regime's political and economic subjugation of ethnic nationalities. * At the start of 2010, SPDC Army crimes against humanity and war crimes in Eastern Burma pushed 2,000 Karen into the jungles.