Armed conflict in Shan State - the human rights situation

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Websites/Multiple Documents

Description: Contains the Shan Human Rights Foundation Monthly newsletters from 1998
Source/publisher: Shan Human Rights Foundation (SHRF)
Date of entry/update: 2009-12-07
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English
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Description: "SWAN is a founding member of the Women's League of Burma (WLB), an umbrella women's organization comprising eleven women's groups from Burma. SWAN, through its affiliation with other women's organizations, establishes common platforms to promote the role of women from Burma in the struggle for democracy and human rights in their country. SWAN's objectives: * Promoting women's rights and the rights of children; * Opposing exploitation of and violence against women and children; * Working together for peace and freedom in our society; * Empowering women for a better life; * Raising awareness to preserve natural resources and the environment. Background of SWAN SWAN was set up on 28 March 1999 by a group of Shan women active in Thailand and along the Thai- Burma border seeking to address the needs of Shan women. In fact, before the formation of SWAN, Shan women in various locations had already been active in a number of projects to assist women. Even though informal networks were in place, it was felt that more could be achieved, in addressing both practical and strategic needs of Shan women, if a more concrete network among the various women could be formed. This Shan women's network would also be able to coordinate with other women's organizations from Burma, as well as GOs and NGOs working with women locally, nationally and internationally. General Background The Shan State is over 64,000 square kilometers in size and forms the eastern part of the Union of Burma bordering China, Laos and Thailand. The people of the Shan State, like in other areas of Burma, suffer from abuse inflicted by the Burmese military regime, which according to Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch Asia is amongst the worst in the world. The abuse inflicted on the Shan people by the Burmese military has forced many people to flee for their lives to Thailand. The Thai government, however, does not recognize the Shan people as refugees and unlike the Karen and Karenni refugees, has not allowed them to set up refugees camps along the Thai-Burmese border. Consequently the Shans are forced to enter Thailand illegally, which leaves them extremely vulnerable to exploitation and abuse. Despite this, Shan people are still coming to take refuge in Thailand. The estimated number of Shans working illegally in Thailand is at least 300,000. Among them are many girls and young women who have been trafficked into Thai brothels, where they face a wide range of abuse including sexual and other physical violence, debt bondage, exposure to HIV/AIDS, forced labor without payment and illegal confinement..." Reports, programmes etc.
Source/publisher: Shan Women's Action Network (SWAN)
Date of entry/update: 2003-03-31
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English
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Description: Link to "Discrimination Against the Shan" in the OBL Human Rights section
Source/publisher: Online Burma/Myanmar Library
Date of entry/update: 2012-06-20
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English
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Individual Documents

Description: "Hundreds of villagers remain displaced after heavy fighting between the Burma Army (Tatmadaw) and the Restoration Council of Shan State/Shan State Army (RCSS/SSA) broke out their homes in southern Shan State. More than 260 internally displaced persons (IDPs) sought refuge in Kehsi township in southern Shan State during clashes that have lasted for three days. Sai Sang Mueng, a state level MP for Kehsi constituency-1, told SHAN that 107 IDPs are sheltering in a monastery in Phet Nam village, located in Wanchin village-tract, in Kehsi township. The rest are staying with their relatives in the township. Local MPs and the general administration development officer are providing food rations for the IDPs. “Currently, there aren’t any problems but if the situation continues it may get more difficult (to provide aid.) I think the IDPs will return to their home when the clashes end,” Sai Sang Mueng said. The Tatmadaw fought with the RCSS/SSA on Loi Tom mountain between Kehsi and Mong Kung township in southern Shan State. Nearly 500 IDPs driven from their homes from previous fighting returned to their homes on March 1..."
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Source/publisher: "Shan Herald Agency for News" (Myanmar)
2020-03-04
Date of entry/update: 2020-03-06
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "Life is going from bad to worse for about 6,000 Shan villagers stuck in six camps for the displaced close to the Thai-Myanmar border. First, food aid was cut by international donors about 18 months ago, and recently Myanmar troops fired artillery shells near their camps, while drones have flown over their homes and citizens have been prevented from growing rice on nearby land. A new report, unveiled in Bangkok last Thursday (see video below), describes intimidation and other measures that are making life hellish for impoverished citizens stuck near the border of southern Shan state and northern Thailand. Displaced people in the camps were part of a mass exodus in the mid-to-late 90s when up to 300,000 people fled brutal massacres and forced eviction from their original villages in central Shan state, some of which were earmarked for the huge Tasang dam on the Salween River – a 7,000 megawatt project backed by Chinese and Thai utilities now known as the Mong Ton Dam. Most of those people were allowed to cross the border into Thailand and work in the north on orange plantations in Fang district and construction sites in Chiang Mai. But the security situation has become increasingly precarious for displaced villagers in the small camps along the border – Loi Kaw Wan, Loi Sarm Sip, Loi Lam, Loi Tai Leng and Kong Moong Murng, as well as Koung Jor near Wiang Haeng in northern Chiang Mai province. All of these sites had food support cut by international donors in late 2017. The Shan Human Rights Group (SHRG) says the Myanmar Army, or Tatmadaw, has been reinforcing positions around five Shan IDP camps, while building new roads and sending out drones to monitor the displaced Shan, despite a ceasefire deal agreed to by the Shan State Army. It said that in February six 120-mm shells were fired at two IDP locations. “Terrified IDPs have been preparing bunkers and carrying out evacuation drills in preparation for further attacks,” the group said..."
Creator/author: JIM POLLARD
Source/publisher: Asia Times
2019-05-26
Date of entry/update: 2019-05-27
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: ''According to a Kachin Independence Army (KIA) report, the Burma Army captured, tortured, raped, and killed six Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) female medics on July 11 after the Burma Army ambushed vehicles carrying the medics. The Burma Army also killed one TNLA soldier in the onset of the attack, and another TNLA soldier and two civilians fled the Burma Army assault against the two timber trucks that transported the group. Burma Army Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) 301 under Light Infantry Division (LID) 88 ambushed the vehicles as they traveled from Magwe Baw Bum to Oi Law Village in Namkham Township. The medics were captured around 1330 on the 11th, and their bodies were discovered near a pipeline outside of Oi Law Village on July 14 with severe wounds to two of the medics’ heads, multiple cut wounds on their bodies and signs of mutilation and rape...''
1970-01-01
Date of entry/update: 2018-12-14
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "From July 23 to August 9, 2018, Burma Army troops from five battalions ? LIB 115, 501, 504, 505, 506 -- carried out a ?clearance operation” in villages north of the Upper Yeywa dam site in Kyaukme, northern Shan State. They forced 21 villagers to be porters and guides for up to five days, beating and kicking them for not understanding Burmese. They were only released after intervention from a Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD) MP from Kyaukme. The Burma Army troops also shot indiscriminately into a village, where they detained over 50 elderly, women and children in a buffalo stall for three nights. Local villagers are strongly opposed to the Upper Yeywa dam, which is being built on the Namtu/Myitnge river. On August 11, 2018, eleven SNLD MPs visited impacted communities and called for a halt to the dam, invested in by Swiss, German, Japanese and Chinese companies..."
Source/publisher: Shan Human Rights Foundation
2018-09-07
Date of entry/update: 2018-10-24
Grouping: Individual Documents
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