It has now been over three years since the tatmadaw, or Burmese army, started a mass forcible relocation program of hundreds of thousands of Shan civilians. In March 1996 the army began to relocate over 300,000 members of the Shan ethnic minority in central Shan State in an effort to break up any links between civilians and members of the Shan State Army - South (SSA), an ethnic minority armed opposition group. After villagers were relocated, they were forbidden from returning to their homes and farms to work in their fields and collect belongings -- those who disobeyed were frequently shot on sight by Burmese troops. In addition relocated Shan civilians were used as a pool of labourers to do work without pay and against their will. Keywords: Ethnic groups, forced labour, indiscriminate killing, refugees, displaced people, military, farmers, extrajudicial execution. ... ADDITIONAL KEYWORDS: forced resettlement, forced relocation, forced movement, forced displacement, forced migration, forced to move, displaced