Internal displacement/forced migration of Karen villagers

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Description: 4 issues a year on landmines, forced relocation, Burma army attacks, IDP health, education and many other issues affecting Internally Displaced Karen People.
Source/publisher: Committee for Internally Displaced Karen People (CIDKP)
Date of entry/update: 2009-03-31
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English
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Description: "This Short Update describes events that occurred in Kaw T’Ree (Kawkareik) Township, Dooplaya District, in November 2023. On November 2nd 2023, combined troops of Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) and Kaw Thoo Lei Army (KTLA) attacked State Administration Council (SAC) Infantry Battalion (IB) #32 army camp near A--- village, Maw Hkee village tract, Kaw T’Ree Township, by drone, and fighting broke out. Following this, SAC troops heavily shelled into A--- village and surrounding villagers’ plantations during the whole day. In fear, villagers from A--- village fled to B--- area, an internally displaced people (IDP) site. Moreover, the SAC shelling into A--- village created fear for villagers in neighbouring villages to live and work in their village.[1] SAC shelling after fighting in Kaw T’Ree Township On November 2nd 2023, in the morning, at 7:20 am, Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA)[2] Battalion #201, combined with Kaw Thoo Lei Army (KTLA)[3] troops, dropped three shells by drone into State Administration Council (SAC)[4] Infantry Battalion (IB)[5] #32 army camp near A--- village, Maw Hkee village tract[6], Kaw T’Ree Township, Dooplaya District. SAC IB#32 Battalion Commender's name is Kyaw Zin Oo. Following the shelling, fighting broke out, and stopped at 10:40 am. Though the fighting stopped, the SAC soldiers shelled [rounds of] 120mm, 81mm, and 60mm mortar shells and [fired rounds from an] RPG7 [rocket-propelled grenade launcher] into A--- village and nearby plantations for the whole remaining day. As a result, some shells landed on corn fields and pea plantations, creating fear for villagers to go and harvest rice and peas from the plantations, though it was time to harvest crops. [Due to the shelling, several buildings such as a church, a school and a house were damaged, but no villagers were injured.] As reported by a local villager to KHRG, villagers from A--- village did not dare to live in their village, so they sought shelter in B--- area [an IDP site located at the Thai-Burma border]. Villagers from [nearby villages such as] C--- village and D--- village, in Maw Hkee village tract, were also living in fear. As a result of this incident, villagers feel that they must be wary when moving around their villages, working in plantations, or going to school, for example. They also feel trapped because of this fear of moving around. Further background reading on the situation of indiscriminate shelling and displacement in Southeast Burma can be found in the following KHRG reports: “Dooplaya District Situation Update: Indiscriminate shelling of villages causing displacement and livelihood difficulties (March to May 2023)”, January 2024. “Dooplaya District Short Update: Killing, house burning, shelling, and displacement, from January to February 2023”, December 2023. “Dooplaya District Incident Report: A villager was killed by SAC shelling in Noh T’Kaw (Kyainseikgyi) Township, June 2023”, December 2023. “Dooplaya District Incident Report: Threat, forced labour, indiscriminate shelling and looting in Kaw T’Ree Township, March 15th 2023”, June 2023. “Dooplaya District Short Update: Indiscriminate shelling and a landmine explosion in Noh T’Kaw Township, June to September 2022”, April 2023. Footnotes: [1] The present document is based on information received in November 2023. It was provided by a community member in Dooplaya District who has been trained by KHRG to monitor human rights conditions on the ground. The names of the victims, their photos and the exact locations are censored for security reasons. The parts in square brackets are explanations added by KHRG. [2] The Karen National Liberation Army is the armed (KNLA) wing of the Karen National Union (KNU). [3] The Kaw Thoo Lei Army (KTLA) was founded on July 17th 2022 by Brigadier-General Nerdah Bo Mya. Nerdah Bo Mya, former Commander-In-Chief of the Karen National Defence Organisation (KNDO), was dismissed by the KNU in 2022. KTLA operates in two districts in Southeast Burma, in KNU-controlled areas, namely Mergui-Tavoy and Dooplaya districts. In Dooplaya District, they operate in alliance with resistance armed groups. KTLA battalions in Mergui-Tavoy District are in conflict with both SAC and KNLA troops. [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 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] An Infantry Battalion (IB) comprises 500 soldiers. However, most Infantry Battalions in the Tatmadaw are understrength 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 Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA). They are primarily used for garrison duty but are sometimes used in offensive operations. [6] A village tract is an administrative unit of between five and 20 villages in a local area, often centred on a large village..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group
2024-02-26
Date of entry/update: 2024-02-26
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "This Situation Update describes events that occurred in Bilin Township, Doo Tha Htoo (Thaton) District during the period between July 2021 and September 2022. The State Administration Council (SAC) increased operations, including regular troop rotations and transportation of rations between Meh Pray Hkee and Na Kyi army camps. SAC soldiers also entered villages and committed looting and deliberate shelling, causing displacement, and arrested at least 45 villagers to use them as human shields, forced labour and navigators. At least two elder villagers died due to shock. Several incidents of landmine explosions were also reported.[1] Background information: After the State Administration Council (SAC)[2] seized power in Burma in February 2021, military activities have been increasing both in rural and urban areas throughout Burma. The SAC, in cooperation with the Border Guard Force (BGF)[3], is mainly reinforcing its troops and army camps, and conducting regular military patrol and movements between camps in ethnic states. Meanwhile, ethnic armed groups (EAGs) are also defending their territory and administration, so the increase in SAC’s activities and intrusion into the EAGs-controlled territories results in armed conflict, dramatically impacting local civilians. This Situation Update is based on a document written by a local villager, and further KHRG documentation conducted in Bilin Township, Doo Tha Htoo District, recording human rights violations committed by SAC troops operating between the Meh Pray Hkee army camp, Meh Pray Hkee village tract, and Na Kyi army camp, Na Kyi village tract, in Bilin Township from July 2021 to September 2022. Military activities between Meh Pray Hkee and Na Kyi army camps Na Kyi army camp base is located in Na Kyi village, Na Kyi village tract, Bilin Township. Since the coup, the SAC military with some BGF soldiers patrolled between the Na Kyi and Meh Pray Hkee army camps, and used the paved road for military purposes. Whenever SAC troops patrolled, between one to seven BGF soldiers would accompany them, as the SAC did not feel safe to travel between the army camps. [The BGF soldiers] helped with [communication in] the local language and [shared knowledge on] the situation in the area. In the first four or five months [after the coup], the local Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA)[4] did not ambush them [SAC soldiers], only warned them [to not enter the areas under Karen National Union (KNU)[5] control]. But around July 2021, during the rainy and flooding period, the tension between the SAC and the local KNLA combined with People’s Defence Force (PDF)[6] forces came to a head. The SAC also set up a new temporary army camp to carry out their military operations close to H--- village, Aee Soo Hkee village tract, Bilin Township, and armed clashes constantly happened afterwards. The consequences of the skirmishes and the new temporary army camp being set up are that villagers had to displace themselves. Indiscriminate shelling caused damages [on civilian property], injuries, and the deaths of villagers and their livestock. Soldiers conducted looting [of villagers’ property], and arrested local villagers to use them as human shields and navigators. This occurred alongside landmine incidents and livelihood challenges [faced by villagers]. Villagers used as human shields, forced labour, navigators and porters [While the SAC conducted military activities between Na Kyi and Meh Pray Hkee army camps,] whenever SAC troops were patrolling, or attacked by local KNLA soldiers, they arrested any villagers they encountered on the way and in the villages to use them as human shields, while claiming to use them as navigators. As explained by a villager, the arrest of local villagers was not [to use them] as navigators, because the [BGF and SAC] soldiers knew the area well. Instead, whenever SAC troops travelled, they would usually arrest any villagers they would find to follow them as human shields. For instance, during the rainy season of 2021, the SAC from Na Kyi army camp arrested two villagers from H--- village, Aee Sooh Hkee village tract, at their houses, [and ordered the villagers] to follow them as human shields to Meh Pray Hkee army camp.[7] These villagers were Saw[8] E--- and Saw F---. On the way to Meh Pray Hkee army camp, one of the SAC soldiers who was walking in front of Saw F--- stepped on a landmine. A piece of shrapnel from the landmine explosion hit Saw F---’s eye and burst his eye. That SAC soldier lost one foot. After the incident, an SAC soldier injected Saw F--- with an unknown medicine, and Saw F--- then had to follow the SAC soldiers until they arrived at the Meh Pray Hkee army camp, at night. When they arrived at the Meh Pray Hkee army camp, the SAC troops released the two arrested villagers and gave Saw F--- only 100,000 kyat [48 USD][9] to treat his injured eye. Saw F--- went to several clinics in Bilin Township and SAC-controlled territory in Na Kyi Town. As the medical treatment fee in Town was too expensive, the villager went to the G--- clinic, under the KNU, and was able to access free medical treatment. He took a very long time to recover and suffered pain throughout the recovery process. Saw F--- became blind in one eye. On May 2nd or 3rd 2022 [exact date unknown], at 3pm, SAC Light Infantry Battalion (LIB)[10] #403 troops, under Military Operation Commander (MOC)[11] #8, combined with Light Infantry Division (LID)[12] #44 and BGF Battalion #1011, from Meh Pray Hkee village (Meh Pray Hkee army camp), returned to Na Kyi army camp. On the way, before they arrived at J--- village, Aee Sooh Hkee village tract, Bilin Township, two of their soldiers stepped on a landmine. When they were about to arrive at J--- village, they arrested two villagers [from an unknown village] they encountered on the way and tied the two villagers to follow them. Then the SAC troops entered J--- village and looted the stock and belongings from one of the shops owned by a villager. They also entered villagers’ houses and looted their belongings, including chickens and phones. The SAC soldiers were looking for male villagers to arrest as human shields, but they only saw one villager, Saw I---, from J--- village, because most of the men had fled before the SAC entered the village, fearing arrest. Saw I--- could not flee before the SAC arrived in the village, so the SAC shouted at him, violently slapped his face and ordered him to follow the troops as a human shield, from J--- village to T’Ray Loo Hkoh hill. They then released him. On May 5th 2022, the local KNLA attacked BGF troops combined with SAC troops under LID #44 that were travelling from Meh Pray Hkee army camp to Na Kyi army camp, while the soldiers were on the road beside H--- village, Aee Sooh Hkee village tract, Bilin Township. After the fighting, at about 3:20pm, the SAC/BGF soldiers entered H--- village and ordered all villagers to gather at a particular place, and they then arrested seven male villagers to follow them as human shields. The seven H--- villagers were Saw K---, Saw L---, Saw M---, Saw N---, Saw O---, Saw P--- and Saw Q---. One of the BGF soldiers, who patrolled with the SAC, slapped Saw L---’s face two times because he could not reply to the questions immediately as he was scared. This BGF soldier is from La Nay village [in Hpa-an District]. The seven male villagers who could not flee before the SAC arrived at the village were arrested as human shields by the SAC/BGF. They were released after arriving at Na Kyi army camp. On June 17th 2022, another SAC troop from the Meh Pray Hkee army camp returned to Na Kyi army camp. When they arrived at J--- village, Aee Sooh Hkee village tract, Bilin Township, they entered the village and arrested nine male J--- villagers they saw in the village. All the other male villagers had already fled to another place before the SAC arrived. The nine villagers were Saw R--- (age 55), Saw S--- (age 48), Saw T--- (age 45), Saw U--- (age 19), Saw V--- (age 20), Saw W--- (age 27), Saw X--- (age 24), Saw Y--- (age 36) and Saw Z--- (age 66). They ordered the nine villagers to follow them to Na Kyi army camp as human shields. As villagers were used as shields, the local KNLA did not attack the SAC going back to their base in Na Kyi Army camp. On June 18th 2022, the SAC released the nine villagers when they arrived at the Na Kyi army camp. Due to the practice of the SAC of arresting villagers in the community, whenever villagers received information about SAC troops patrolling and passing [through nearby] villages, men who live in the villages close to the vehicle road between Na Kyi and Meh Pray Hkee army camps would flee from their villages to avoid being arrested by the SAC and used as human shields. [This time], the male villagers returned home only a couple of days after the SAC passed their villages. However, on June 20th 2022, the SAC encountered four of the J--- villagers in a farm tent, as they were fleeing from the SAC, and arrested them. The four villagers were Saw A--- (age 62), Saw B--- (age 53), Saw C--- (age 22) and Saw D--- (age 25). The SAC also confiscated one machete, valued at around 10,000 kyat [4.76 USD], and one watch, valued at around 12,000 kyat [5.71 USD]. On July 14th 2022, the SAC troops LIB #402 from Noh Hpa Htaw army camp and LIB #403 entered H--- village, Aee Sooh Hkee village tract, Bilin Township and ordered all men and women in the village to stay in the area surrounding them in the village, as human shields. As explained by a local villager named Saw Zz---: “Then they released all the women during night time and ordered the male villagers to sleep [in this place] one night. I also was in this incident [used as a human shield]. The next day, they came to my house and set up their base as an army camp for several months [until September 2022].” Setting of a new temporary camp in Aee Sooh Hkee village tract [As explained previously], in July 2022, the SAC LIB #403 and LIB #402 troops entered H--- village, Aee Sooh Hkee village tract, Bilin Township and slept [there] one night. The troops included about 40 soldiers. The next morning, some of them went to Meh Pray Hkee army camp, but the LIB #402 troops remained in the village. The SAC LIB #402 troops, set up their temporary army base at a place outside of the H--- village, where there are six villagers’ houses, situated close to the main paved road between Na Kyi army camp and J--- village, Aee Sooh Hkee village tract, Bilin Township. According to a local villager, the SAC soldiers used two of the six villagers’ houses, including their farm tents and gardens, for their army base. There, they had a good water supply from the stream, and safety provided by the mountains surrounding the area, which hindered any attack. The SAC settled there for their security and for troop reinforcement, ration and ammunition transportation between Na Kyi and Meh Pay Hkee army camps, so that KNLA soldiers could not easily ambush them. During night-time, SAC soldiers took security [rounds] separately, in different places surrounding their camp. The SAC also set up a checkpoint on the road and conducted troop rotation based on their schedule, and sometimes as a monthly troop exchange. The SAC Artillery Unit #402 had been based in this temporary camp for five days before SAC LIB #405 exchanged places with them. The SAC LIB #405 was then based in the temporary base for about one month and five days. Then the SAC LIB #404 exchanged places with the SAC LIB #405 [again], and they stayed in this army base for over a month before exchanging with SAC LIB #403. The SAC also dug communication channels in the villagers’ gardens. Due to the SAC setting up the camp in the villager’s houses, all villagers from the six houses moved to other places for safety. After the villagers left, the local KNLA ambushed the SAC many times, to force the SAC to withdraw from the villagers’ houses. As a result of several skirmishes between the SAC and the local KNLA, both armed groups planted landmines, so villagers felt even less safe to return to their houses. Moreover, the SAC looked for the houses of KNLA soldiers’ families, and asked villagers to tell them where they were, but villagers could not provide such information. Saw Zz---, a villager living in one of the houses outside of H--- village, said: “I continued to live in my house with them [SAC soldiers] for about one month [for a couple of weeks]. I was fearful, and they [SAC] were always asking me for information on [KNLA] soldiers’ houses and relatives in the village. The [KNLA] soldiers also [advised] me to move because it was inconvenient [for KNLA to attack SAC] when I stayed with them [SAC soldiers]. Therefore, I did not feel safe living in my house anymore, so I left my house when I could find a way to get out with my family, and go live in H--- village, at my mother’s place. Since then, I have not returned to my house.” As of September 28th 2022, the SAC troops were still based in this [temporary] camp, as reported by a local villager to KHRG. The KNLA also ambushed them [SAC soldiers] several times, and so he [the local villager] does not feel safe to check his house anymore. He was unsure about whether the fighting had hit [destroyed] his house. SAC soldiers using human shields to move between army camps [Between June 18th and June 30th 2022, the SAC conducted military operations between Na Kyi and Lay Kay army camps and the surrounding villages. During these operations,] they arrested 24 villagers in total [from different villages] to follow them as human shields, and forced them to work by clearing vegetation on the way for the SAC, and by carrying ammunition, food and materials they looted from villages on the way. The SAC soldiers were accompanied around the forest from J--- village, Aee Sooh Hkee village tract, to the Lay Kay army camp by villagers, to avoid being attacked by the local KNLA. A. SAC use of villagers as human shields from Na Kyi army camp to Lay Kay army camp* On June 18th 2022, more SAC troops such as LIB #207 from Thein Za Ya Base, Kyeh Htoh Township, LIB #102 from Thaton army base, Tha Htoo Township and Infantry Battalion (IB)[13] #2 from Kyaikto base, Kyeh Htoh Township which are under control of SAC LID #44, left Na Kyi army camp. They entered and patrolled in KNU-controlled territory in Bilin Township, [with the intent] to go [all the way] to Lay Kay army camp for troop reinforcement. Villagers did not feel safe staying in the village. Villagers were also worried that major fighting was to happen in their village. Therefore, all 1,189 J--- villagers fled to the forest and to different villages nearby for their safety. On June 19th 2022, these three SAC troops from Na Kyi army camp arrived at Aee Sooh Hkee village tract and entered J--- village. On June 20th 2022, they looted villagers’ belongings and food, and they also arrested four villagers [who had returned to the village to check their houses and livestock, where the SAC found them] to serve as porters, navigators and human shields. These four villagers were Saw A---, Saw B---, Saw C--- and Saw D---, [previously mentioned]. On June 22nd 2022, the SAC [arrested] three PDF members and a villager from Ab--- village, named Saw Ai---, who was a driver for them, on Ac--- road, Ta Au Hkee village tract.[14] They tortured the three detained PDF members. According to one of the villagers who witnessed the incident, Naw[15] Ad---, from Ae--- village, Khaw Hpoe Pleh village tract, Bilin Township: “Because they were tortured, they had bruises all over their body. They were tied with nylon rope around the neck, the armpits and the hands. We did not dare to look at that because it was so terrible. They were full of bruises. The SAC killed them when they left the [Ae---] village [on June 29th].” On June 22nd 2022, these three SAC troops [LIB #207, LIB #102 and IB #2] arrived at Af--- village, Ta Au Hkee village tract. They arrested two civilians from Af--- village, Ta Au Hkee village tract: Saw Ag--- and another villager [unknown name]. On the evening of June 24th 2022, the SAC troops [together with the arrested villagers and PDF members] reached Ah--- village, Kyon Wine village tract. The Ab--- villager named Saw Ai---, who got arrested [on June 22nd on Ae--- Road, while driving the car], escaped when they were in Ah--- village. The SAC arrested two more villagers in Ah--- village, Saw Aj--- and Saw Ak---, and two other civilians, Saw Al--- and his friend, from Am--- village, Hpa-an Township, who were visiting Ah--- village. On June 25th 2022, the SAC troops [and the detained villagers and PDF members] arrived at An--- village, P’Ya Raw (Myit Kyo) village tract, Bilin Township, and arrested another three An--- villagers. The three villagers were Saw Ao---, Saw Ap--- and Saw Aq---. One of the villagers was under 18 years old. The SAC released them and the four J--- villagers on the same day when they arrived at Lay Kay camp. They did not release the three PDF members and the Ah---, Af--, and Am--- villagers. B. From Lay Kay army camp to K’Ma Moe \[Kamamaung\] Town* After the SAC military troops arrived at Lay Kay army camp, they stayed in the camp for two nights and kept the Ah---, Af--- and Am--- villagers detained in the Lay Kay army camp. Then, on June 27th 2022, the SAC went back to [their destination in] K’Ma Moe Town, Dwe Lo Township, Mu Traw District, and they ordered the still detained villagers [and PDF members] to follow them. They passed through Ar--- village, and released the Ah--- and Am--- villagers. On the same day of June 27th 2022, the SAC troops arrived Ae--- village, stayed in Ae--- village for two nights and looted villagers’ properties. They also arrested three Ae--- villagers, Saw Au---, Saw Av---, and Saw Aw---, and two [other] villagers, Saw Ax---and Saw Ay---, who were guests from Az--- village, Dwe Lo Township, Mu Traw District, to follow them to Ar--- village and then to Hkaw Taw Town, Dwe Lo Township. One of the victims from Ae--- village, named Saw Aw---, said: *“I was arrested when I was going to my paddy farm to stop cows [from] eating my paddy plants. […] We did not do anything, but they told us: ‘Don’t run! As we are soldiers, if you run, we will shoot you’.” * Saw Aw---, from Ae--- village, also testified about walking [amongst] the SAC as a human shield and carrying heavy loads for the SAC on foot for the whole day: “They asked us to carry loads for them. […] The weight was above 20 visses [30 kilograms]. […] It was heavy and we had to carry it with all the energy [villagers’ had]. […] We saw mortars [inside the loads villagers carried]. [...] They did not allow us [villagers] to walk in a group, so we had to walk separately from each other, and walk between them [SAC soldiers]. […] We did not have to ask for rice because the [soldiers] looted food from villagers [everywhere they went] and did not pay for food, so they had plenty of food for all of us. […] We slept in villagers’ houses so we received blankets. […] We mainly worried that fighting could happen. […] They arrested us to walk among them so it means they did it to protect themselves [from KNLA/KNDO[16] attacks] because if the fighting happened, we [villagers] would be shot as well.” Saw Aw--- continued: “It [the trip] took one day [just between two villages] because they did not travel straight on the road toward [another village]. They travelled in the bushes [so it took more time]. We walked the whole day, we did not stop walking to take a rest on the way.” One of the victims’ family members, Naw Ad--- from Ae--- village said: “When I saw that the SAC [LID #44] commander arrested my son, I climbed down to the ground [from my house]. My son also called me and I ran to him right away. Some rumour had spread that my son was being tortured by the SAC soldiers. However, it was good that I could get to him earlier. Since I talked to the SAC soldiers, they did not torture my son. Otherwise, my son would have been tortured to death. […] The SAC habit is like that [committing arrest, torture and killing of villagers]. They arrested anyone that they saw, not only my son. They arrested and questioned my son: they asked him to show them the place. So I told the SAC soldiers: ‘don’t ask my son about that. He doesn’t know anything. If you want to know something, just ask me’.” After the SAC troops left Ae--- village, they killed the three PDF members. On June 29th 2022, the SAC troops crossed Baw Naw river, between Ae--- and Moo Day villages, with a bamboo raft during the monsoon flooding, and some of their guns sank into the river. However, they continued their trip until they arrived at Ar--- village, P’Yah Raw village tract. The next morning, on June 30th 2022, the SAC returned to Baw Naw river and forced villagers, including two teenagers from Ae--- village, to search for the guns in the river for them, during major flooding. The villagers were able to find the weapons for the SAC. Then, they [SAC] headed toward Aad--- village, Kaw Heh village tract. As per usual, they looted villagers’ chicken and food, and they also arrested five Aad--- villagers on July 1st 2022 to follow them. Two of the arrested villagers were under 18 and one of the two was a student. The arrested Ae---, Aad---, Az--- and Af--- villagers were released when [on an unknown date] they reached near Hkaw Taw Poo Town, Meh Kyee hill, Dwe Lo Township, Mu Traw District. One of the victims said: “Other porters received about 5,000 kyat [2,38 USD] each. As I did not follow them until the end of the trip, I did not receive any kyat [compensation], but I even wanted to pay them to be released.” This villager was released in Aad--- village, Kaw Heh village tract, Bilin Township as he is older [an elder; facing difficulties to travel long distances]. The SAC soldiers let him stay there. Due to past [history of] violence [committed by the Burma Army in Southeast Burma], human rights violations are the main root cause of villagers’ trauma. Since the coup, villagers face major security concerns of being tortured and killed by the SAC, especially when they or any of their family members are arrested by the SAC. Many of the victims’ parents worried due to their personal past experiences, and some of them even died from trauma [became sick or died due to shock]. The family member of one of the arrested villagers in Ae--- village, Naw Ad---, reported to KHRG: “One of the arrested [Az----] villagers’ father was sick at that time. When he heard that his son was arrested by the SAC, he was afraid his son would be killed or tortured. Since he was already sick, he got higher blood pressure and died. He was in my village. Those arrested [Az---] villagers from Hpapun Town were also coming here [Ae--- village] to send the sick mother to the hospital [but they were arrested in Ae--- village]. The mother also died on the same day as the other victim’s father [after her children were arrested by the LID #44].” Since January 2023, the SAC and BGF troops have not patrolled by foot in the area, and they have been using aircraft for transporting rations and for troop rotation, so there have not been such incidents for about three months [as reported by local villagers to KHRG on March 15th 2023]. Shelling committed by SAC soldiers Whenever the SAC troops travelled between Na Kyi and Meh Pray Hkee army camps, they shelled mortars to clear the way [of KNLA soldiers] before they arrived to another place, as well as when they received information about potential KNLA activities from their intelligence agents. From July 2021 until September 2022, SAC troops, especially from the Na Kyi army camp, conducted regular indiscriminate shelling in the area in the direction of Meh Pray Hkee army camp. These incidents happened about every day, so villagers could not count how many times [they happened, or give] the date of the incident. Every time the SAC shelled mortars near or in the community, villagers were deeply concerned for the security of their lives, livestock and properties. Many of the mortars shelled by the SAC exploded, but some remained unexploded. Both exploded and unexploded mortars can cause life risks and danger to the local community, so civilians are now living in an unsafe community [area]. Due to the large number of shelling incidents committed by the SAC, a local villager recounted [to a KHRG field staff] some higher-risk shelling incidents, as follows: Around November 2021, SAC soldiers shelled mortars that landed in H--- village, because they received information that KNLA soldiers had entered the village. No villagers were killed or injured, but one house was damaged by shrapnel and all villagers were in fear. On February 24th 2022, from 9:17am and 10:55am, SAC soldiers under LIB #404, from Meh Pray Hkee army camp, were bringing their soldiers in need of medical care to Na Kyi army camp. Before they arrived at J--- village, they shelled about five mortars in J--- village. As a consequence, shrapnel damaged one villagers’ house and all villagers fled in fear and hid in the bunkers under their houses. On April 4th 2022, at 9:10am, SAC soldiers from Na Kyi army camp shelled 120mm mortars that landed in Aee Sooh Hkee village tract, Bilin Township. One mortar round landed in Aaj--- place name, one round landed in Aak--- village and one round in Aal--- village. The SAC usually conducts indiscriminate shelling near and in communities. Local villagers were not given prior warning, and did not know why they [SAC] conducted the shelling. On April 12th 2022, SAC soldiers shelled two mortar rounds that landed in the jungle outside of Aal--- village. One of these rounds landed on Aam--- hill and the other landed in the valley. On April 18th 2022, LID #22 [mainly based in Hpa-an District] came to Thaton District and combined with [Infantry] Battalion #24 left Na Kyi army camp and entered Na Kyi village. On April 19th 2022, these SAC troops and Infantry Battalion (IB) #96, under LID #44, and LIB #404, under MOC #8, came back [from an unknown place] to Aan--- Pagoda place, Aee Sooh Hkee village tract. On April 19th 2022, the local KNLA ambushed them once as they [SAC] passed through Thaw Kheh Hta valley. Then, on April 20th 2022, at about 9:20am, the local KNLA ambushed them [SAC] again at Aan--- pagoda [place]. The SAC then shelled nine rounds of mortar; three of them exploded, but six of them did not explode [and remained as unexploded ordnances (UXOs)]. Two of the mortars landed on Aam--- [place] and exploded. Three other shells landed at Aaj--- [place]: one exploded and two remained unexploded. On May 2nd 2022 at about 10am, the SAC from Na Kyi army camp shelled mortars on the See Hpoe Poo farm, injuring a villager’s buffalo [bull] and a bull. On May 5th 2022, SAC troops under LID #44 were travelling from Meh Pray Hkee army camp when the local KNLA attacked them beside H--- village, as the SAC troops were about to arrive at H--- village. As a consequence, three buffalo and one goat died. During the fighting, SAC LID #44 shelled about five mortar rounds in H--- village which damaged one house owned by a local villager called Saw Za---. His house and household materials were damaged, including five dishes, one big plastic cup, the wooden floor, the roof and a ladder. After the shelling, the SAC entered H--- village and confiscated a villager’s hen, which [had an estimated cost of] about 15,000 kyat [7.14 USD] and was about 2.30 viss [3.7 kg]. [The SAC also conducted shelling during the operations and movements previously mentioned in this document.] On June 19th 2022, SAC troops LIB #207 from Thein Za Ya Base, Kyeh Htoh Township and LIB #102, from Thaton army base, Tha Htoo Township and IB #2, from Kyaikto base, Kyeh Htoh Township under LID #44 [commandment], entered [the KNU-controlled area] and planned to go to Lay Kay army camp. The SAC soldiers took Thaton Road, that passes through J--- village. On June 20th 2022, when the SAC troops arrived at Toe Thay Ba bridge, near J--- village, at about 2pm, they were attacked by the local KNLA. The SAC shelled mortars that landed in J--- village, so the village’s wood bridge was destroyed. On June 22nd 2022, at about 4:10pm, the SAC LIB #404 combined with LID #44, temporarily based on Si Kon Taung hill, located close to Aaz--- village, Meh Pray Hkee village tract, Bilin Township, fired one round of 60mm mortar at Aaz--- village. The shelling severely injured two Aaz--- villagers: Naw Aay--- (a 17-year-old) and Saw Aax--- (a 20-year-old). Both injured villagers received medical treatment at the local clinic in Aaw--- village, Ma Lay Ler village tract, Dwe Lo Township, Mu Traw District. On July 2nd 2022, at 6:30pm, the SAC LIB #404 combined with LID #44 in Na Kyi army camp shelled mortars at different places outside of Meh Pray Hkee village as well as other places near the army camp. This incident did not cause any destruction or injury, but it made civilians feel unsafe. On August 8th 2022, at about 7pm, the SAC from Na Kyi army camp shelled mortars close to a former KNLA checkpoint in Aal--- [place], close to the village. On August 9th 2022, at about 8:80pm, SAC soldiers in Na Kyi army camp shelled mortars again in Aee Sooh Hkee village tract area. On August 11th 2022, at about 11:15am, SAC LIB #403 combined with LID #44 [commandment] from Meh Pray Hkee army camp returned to the Na Kyi army camp. Before they arrived in J--- village, fighting broke out with the local KNLA on the [main] road in Aee Sooh Hkee village tract area and the fighting took place until 1:30pm. On August 12th 2022, from 3pm to 3:15pm, the local [KNLA troops] attacked them [SAC soldiers] again when they arrived at Na Kyi bridge. During the fighting, the SAC indiscriminately shelled mortars towards the Aal--- village area, Aee Sooh Hkee village tract, Bilin Township. On September 26th 2022, the SAC from Na Kyi army camp shelled four mortars to Aee Sooh Hkee village tract. One mortar landed at the former KNLA checkpoint, in Aal--- [place], close to villages and three rounds landed near J--- village. Two rounds exploded, but one round remained unexploded. Looting incidents committed by the SAC Looting committed by Burma Army soldiers against villagers in rural Southeast Burma has been one of the [most] common practices documented by KHRG since the 2021 coup. After the SAC seized power, SAC troops under the LID #44 have regularly conducted property destruction of villagers and looting from villagers in Bilin Township, Doo Tha Htoo District. On June 17th 2022, the SAC troops from IB #96, under the Southeast Command Headquarters, and [LID] #44, coming from Hpapun Road, entered H--- village, Aee Sooh Hkee village tract, in Bilin Township. They broke into villagers’ houses and looted villagers’ properties, including two hot water storage bottles and seven pots. They also destroyed villagers’ properties, including six betel nut trees, 35 Hpway trees, and four Bambutan [baby] trees, and destroyed five sarongs [skirts], three shirts, five blankets, two dining tables and two plastic food covers [to protect food from flies]. All these looted and destroyed properties [had an estimated] cost [of around] 646,500 kyat [308 USD]. [As part of the SAC movements described above,] on June 18th 2022, soldiers from the SAC LIB #207, LIB #102, and IB #2, under the control of SAC LID #44, left Na Kyi army camp and patrolled in KNU-controlled territory in Bilin Township to go to Lay Kay army camp. The three troops combined comprised around 300 soldiers joining the patrolling trip. On June 20th 2022, the local KNLA attacked these three combined SAC troops on the main road before they arrived at J--- village, Aee Sooh Hkee village tract. After the fighting, the SAC troops stayed in J--- village and looted villagers’ belongings and food. The properties looted from the villagers include three machetes, one torchlight, 19 chickens, one rooster, five pots, two pans, one Vivo smartphone, one longyi, one pack of coffee mix, 1.5 kilograms of onions, one pack of monosodium glutamate [a flavour enhancer], three spoons, four Karen shirts, two t-shirts, 16 eggs, one power bank, and some other clothing. All of this [had an estimated] cost [of about] 290,000 kyat [138.16 USD] in total. On June 22nd, 23rd and 24th 2022, when these three SAC troops arrived at Af--- village, Ta Au Hkee village tract, they ransacked Af--- villagers’ houses and looted villagers’ food and belongings, including money and gold. On the evening of June 24th, 2022, when the SAC troops reached Ah--- village, Kyon Wine village tract, and on the 24th and 25th [of June], they repeated the same pattern, as they ransacked houses and looted villagers’ food and belongings, including money and gold. After the SAC military troops arrived at the Lay Kay army camp, they stayed in the camp for two nights and then they returned to Na Kyi army camp. Then on June 27th 2022, the SAC returned to K’Ma Moe Town and arrived to Ae--- village on June 29th 2022. They established a base in Ae--- village for two nights. When they were in the village, as per their habit, they ransacked houses and shops and looted villagers’ belongings, including food and anything they wanted from villagers. These SAC troops were based in Ae--- village for two nights, so the soldiers committed looting and confiscated villagers’ food, livestock and properties as much as they wanted all day and night. One of the victims, Naw Ad---, who did not flee as the SAC entered the village said: “They [SAC] stole and looted [all] the villages they crossed. […] ** It was the SAC LID #44. […] They ate a lot of my chicken. […] I also heard the sound of looting in the shop and I pointed [at] it with my big flashlight. Then I saw them running away, falling and slipping down. Then I shouted, ‘Hey, don’t loot other people’s property! Put it back [to its place] put it back!’ But they did not put it back. […] They entered people’s houses and looted property inside the houses and shops. [What] they looted included my tobacco box and betel nut box. I didn’t think they would eat it. I just placed it at the top of my bed. They slept in my bed and took it away. They also took two visses of garlic [3 kg] and around 1 viss of chili [1.5 kg]. I asked it back [saying] ‘Give my garlic and chilli back’ the whole night; they heard it full in their ears [asked relentlessly]. Then they returned me a few of the remaining garlic and chilli in the morning. I took back as much as was left over. When they killed my chicken, I cursed them [saying] that their children will also be calling for them [when they are killed]. However, I didn’t really mean it.” On June 30th 2022, the SAC reached Aad--- village, Kaw Heh village tract. They also committed the same violations of ransacking houses and looting villagers’ belongings and food, and arresting villagers. They then went to K’Ma Moe Town. Further background reading on the situation on human rights issues in Doo Tha Htoo District, Southeast Burma can be found in the following KHRG reports: “Doo Tha Htoo District Incident Report: SAC air strikes killed a villager and damaged civilian property in Hpa-an Township (March 2023)**”, December 2023 “Doo Tha Htoo District Incident Report: A DKBA operation commander tortured three villagers in Hpa-an Township (August 2023)**”, December 2023 “Striking Fear: Impacts of State Administration Council (SAC) shelling on villagers’ lives in Southeast Burma (January to October 2023)**”, December 2023 Footnotes: [1] The present document is based on information received between July 2021 and September 2022. It was provided by a community member in Doo Tha Htoo District who has been trained by KHRG to monitor human rights conditions on the ground. The names of the victims, their photos and the exact locations are censored for security reasons. The parts in square brackets are explanations added by KHRG. [2] 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. [3] Border Guard Force (BGF) battalions of the Tatmadaw were established in 2010, and they are composed mostly of soldiers from former non-state armed groups, such as older constellations of the DKBA, which have formalised ceasefire agreements with the Burma/Myanmar government and agreed to transform into battalions within the Tatmadaw. [4] The Karen National Liberation Army is the armed wing of the Karen National Union. [5] The Karen National Union (KNU) is the main Karen political organisation. It was established in 1947 and has been in conflict with the Burma government since 1949. The KNU wields power across large areas of Southeast Burma and has been calling for the creation of a democratic federal system since 1976. Although it signed the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement in 2015, relations with the government remain tense. [6] 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. [7] KHRG: “Doo Tha Htoo District Short Update: Killing, torture and use of human shields and navigators by the SAC and BGF in Bilin Township, May to June 2022”, August 2022 [8] Saw is a S’gaw Karen male honorific title used before a person’s name. [9] All conversion estimates for Kyat in this report are based on the official market rate as of July 26th 2023 at 1 USD = 2,098.95 MMK, conversion rate available at https://www.xe.com/currencyconverter/ . [10] A Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) comprises 500 soldiers. However, most Light Infantry Battalions in the Burma military 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 2015 Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA). LIBs are primarily used for offensive operations, but they are sometimes used for garrison duties. [11] Military Operations Command (MOC) is comprised of ten battalions for offensive operations. Most MOCs have three Tactical Operations Commands (TOCs) made up of three battalions each. [12] 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). [13] An Infantry Battalion (IB) 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 NCA. They are primarily used for garrison duty but are sometimes used in offensive operations. [14] KHRG, “Doo Tha Htoo District Situation Update: Killings, landmine injuries, and insecurity in Bilin Township, January to June 2022”, July 2023 [15] Naw is a S’gaw Karen female honorific title used before a person’s name. [16] The Karen National Defence Organisation (KNDO) was formed in 1947 by the Karen National Union and is the precursor to the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA). Today the KNDO refers to a militia force of local volunteers trained and equipped by the KNLA and incorporated into its battalion and command structure; its members wear uniforms and typically commit to two-year terms of service..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group
2024-01-12
Date of entry/update: 2024-01-18
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Description: "Background: An airstrike struck a displacement camp sheltering hundreds of people in Myanmar’s Kayah State yesterday reportedly killing at least three people, including two children. Fighting has intensified in southeastern Kayah and Kayin states since December. Some 162,000 people, including women and children, remain displaced in the two states after fleeing their homes since May 2021. More than 650 houses, monasteries, churches and schools have reportedly been burnt or destroyed in Kayah State alone. “We are deeply worried about the new wave of violence and fighting targeting civilians in southeast Myanmar. We condemn yesterday’s airstrike which affected hundreds of people. These were communities that had already been forced to flee their homes because of violence, and sheltered at the displacement site in search of protection and safety. This indiscriminate targeting and killing of civilians must end. “The fighting is causing death, more displacement and disrupting access to critical services and humanitarian aid. The de facto authorities are responsible under International Humanitarian Law to protect civilians, and we call on them to do their duty.”..."
Source/publisher: Norwegian Refugee Council
2022-01-18
Date of entry/update: 2022-01-18
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Description: "The Karen Peace Support Network (KPSN) is calling urgently for humanitarian aid and protection for over 10,000 villagers who have fled Burmese military attacks in the Lay Kay Kaw area of Dooplaya District, Karen State, half of whom have now crossed the Moei River into Thailand. The attacks began on December 15, 2021, a day after about 200 Burmese military troops raided the Karen National Union (KNU) controlled town of Lay Kay Kaw, south of Myawaddy, and arrested over 20 people, including a member of parliament and democracy activists who had taken refuge there since the February 1 military coup. When the Karen National Liberation Army, the armed wing of the KNU, tried to protect people from arrest and torture, the Burmese military fired more than 100 artillery shells indiscriminately into the town and surrounding villages, damaging buildings and causing local residents to flee in terror. Attacks are continuing to this day. Lay Kay Kaw was established as a “New Town” in 2014 under the ceasefire agreement between the KNU and the Burmese military, with financial support from Japan’s Nippon Foundation. Tensions between the KNU and the Burmese military have been mounting in the area since September 2021, when the Burmese military troops began conducting raids in Lay Kay Kaw searching for democracy activists. This is the first major Burmese military offensive in this area of Karen State, which is under the KNU’s 6th Brigade, since the 2012 ceasefire. So far, over 10,000 people from Lay Kay Kaw and eight nearby villages have fled their homes. After trying to seek shelter on the Karen side of the border, about 5,000 have been driven by escalating attacks to cross the Moei River to seek refuge in Thailand. The Burmese military has been bringing in troop reinforcements and armoured personnel carriers from adjoining regional commands, and fighter aircraft have been flying over the area, instilling fear that aerial bombing will soon begin. It appears the Burmese military is planning to escalate attacks further, threatening the lives of local villagers. KPSN therefore appeals urgently to the Thai government to give protection and shelter to these new refugees and allow humanitarian aid agencies to access and assist them. We also urge Thailand to allow aid to be delivered to internally displaced people (IDPs) sheltering on the Karen side of the border. KPSN strongly condemns this latest Burmese military aggression, in violation of their ceasefire pledges to the KNU and foreign peace donors. These donors should immediately cut funding for the failed ‘nationwide’ peace process and instead provide urgently needed humanitarian aid to displaced communities. Aid to IDPs should be provided cross-border through ethnic administrations and local community organisations, without informing or coordinating with the Burmese military which would jeopardize aid delivery. We call urgently for stronger international pressure on the Burmese military, including: 1. Imposition of a global arms embargo and sanctions on the supply of aviation fuel. 2. Targeted economic sanctions, including on gas revenue. 3. Deny legitimacy to the Burmese military and do not sign agreements with them for humanitarian and development aid. 4. Hold the military to account for their crimes, referring the situation to the International Criminal Court.....ကရင်ငြိမ်းချမ်းရေးအထောက်အကူပြုကွန်ယက်မှ ကရင်ပြည်နယ်ရှိ လေးကေကော်မြို့အား တပ်မတော်မှတိုက်ခိုက်မှုများ ကြောင့် ထွက်ပြေးတိမ်းရှောင်နေရသော ဒေသခံ ပြည်သူ ၁၀၀၀၀ ကျော်အတွက် အရေးပေါ်လူသားခြင်းစာနာမှု အကူအညီ နှင့် အကာအကွယ်များ ရရှိရန် တောင်းဆိုလိုက်သည်။ တိမ်းရှောင်နေရသော ရွာသားများ၏ ထက်ဝက်မှာ သောင်ရင်းမြစ်အား ဖြတ်ကူးပြီး ထိုင်းနိုင်ငံအတွင်းသို့ ရောက်ရှိနေပြီဖြစ်သည်။။ မြဝတီမြို့တောင်ဘက်တွင်ရှိသော ကရင်အမျိုးသားအစည်းအရုံး၏ အုပ်ချုပ်မှုအောက်ရှိ လေးကေကော်မြို့အား စစ်တပ်မှ အင်အား ၂၀၀ ခန့်ဖြင့်စီးနင်းဝင်ရောက်ခဲ့ပြီး စစ်ကောင်စီမှ အာဏာသိမ်းသည့် ၂၀၂၁ ဖေဖဝါရီလ ၁ ရက်နေ့ နောက်ပိုင်းတွင် လာရောက်ခိုလှုံလျက်ရှိသော လွှတ်တော်အမတ်များနှင့် ဒီမိုကရေစီအရေးတက်ကြွလှုပ်ရှားသူများ အပါအဝင် လူပေါင်း ၂၀ကျော်အားဖမ်းဆီးပြီး နောက်တစ်ရက်ဖြစ်သော ၂၀၂၁ ဒီဇင်ဘာလ ၁၅ ရက်နေ့တွင် တိုက်ပွဲစတင်ဖြစ်ပွားခဲ့သည်။ ပြည်သူများအပေါ် မတရားဖမ်းဆီးခြင်း နှင့် ညှင်းပမ်းနှိပ်စက်ခြင်းမှ အကာအကွယ်ပေးရန် ကရင်အမျိုးအသား အစည်းအရုံး၏ လက်နက်ကိုင်တပ်ဖြစ်သော ကရင်မျိုးသားလွတ်မြောက်ရေးတပ်မတော်မှ ကြိုးစားလျက်ရှိသော်လည်း စစ်တပ်မှ လက်နက်ကြီး ၁၀၀ ကျော်ခန့်အား မြို့ နှင့် ၎င်းပတ်ဝန်းကျင်ရှိ ကျေးရွာများ အတွင်းသို့ ရမ်းသမ်းပစ်ခတ်ခဲ့သောကြောင့် အဆောက်အဦးပျက်စီးဆုံးရှုံးမှုများနှင့် ဒေသခံများ စိုးရိမ်ထိတ်လန့်စွာ ထွက်ပြေးတိမ်းရှောင်နေရသည်။ တိုက်ပွဲများမှာလည်း ယနေ့တိုင် ဖြစ်ပွားလျက်ရှိသည်။ ကရင်အမျိုးသားအစည်းအရုံး နှင့် စစ်တပ်အကြား အပစ်အခတ်ရပ်စဲရေး သဘောတူညီမှုစာချုပ်အောက်တွင် ဂျပန်နိုင်ငံမှ နိပွန် ဖောင်ဒေးရှင်း၏ ငွေကြေးအထောက်အပံ့ဖြင့် လေးကော် မြို့သစ်အား ၂၀၁၄ ခုနှစ်တွင် စတင်တည်ထောင်ခဲ့သည်။ ဤဒေသအတွင်း စစ်တပ်မှာ လေးကေကော်မြို့အတွင်းသို့ ဝင်ရောက်ခဲ့ပြီး ဒီမိုအရေစီအရေးတက်ကြွလှုပ်ရှားသူများအား စီးနင်းရှာဖွေခဲ့သော စက်တင်ဘာလ ၂၁ ရက်နေ့ကတည်းကပင် ကေအဲန်ယူနှင့် စစ်တပ်အကြားတင်မာမှုများ မြင့်တက်နေခဲ့ပြီးဖြစ်သည်။ ၂၀၁၂ အပစ်အခတ်ရပ်စဲရေးနောက်ပိုင်း ကရင်ပြည်နယ် ကေအဲန်ယူ တပ်မဟာ ၆ နယ်မြေ အတွင်း စစ်တပ်၏ ပထမဆုံး ထိုးစစ်ဆင်မှုကြီးလည်းဖြစ်သည်။ လက်ရှိအချိန်တွင် လေးကော် နှင့် အနီးပတ်ဝင်ကျင်ရှိ ရွာပေါင်း ၈ ရွာမှ ရွာသားပေါင်း ၁၀၀၀၀ ကျော်မှာ စစ်ဘေးရှောင် နေရပြီဖြစ်သည်။ ကရင်ပြည်၏ နယ်စပ်အတွင်းပိုင်းတွင် ရွာသားပေါင်း ၅၀၀၀ ကျော်မှာ ပုန်းခိုနေရလျက်ရှိပြီး နောက်ထပ် ၅၀၀၀ ခန့်မှာ ထိုးစစ်ဆင်မှုများကြောင့် သောင်ရင်းမြစ်အား ဖြတ်သန်းပြီး ထိုင်းနိုင်ငံအတွင်းသို့ ဖြတ်ကျော် ခိုလှုံနေရပြီ ဖြစ်သည်။ စစ်တပ်မှ စစ်လက်နက်ကြီးများ နှင့် စစ်သားများကို အခြားသေား နီးစပ်ရာ စစ်တိုင်းများဖြင့် အားဖြည့်လာလျက်ရှိပြီး တိုက်လေယဉ်များမှာ ဒေသအတွင်း ပျံသန်းလျက်ရှိရာ ဗုံးကြဲခံရမည်ကိုလည်း စိုးရိမ်မှုမြင့်တက်နေလျက်ရှိသည်။ စစ်တပ်မှ ထပ်မံထိုးစစ်ဆင်မည့် အစီအစဉ်များ မြင်တွေ့နေရပြီး ဒေသခံရွာသားများ၏ အသက်အန္တရယ်မှာလည်း ခြိမ်းချောက် ခံနေလျက်ရှိသည်။ ထို့ကြောင့် ကရင်ငြိမ်းချမ်းရေးအထောက်အကူပြုကွန်ယက်မှ ထိုင်းနိုင်ငံအစိုးရအား ဒုက္ခသည်သစ်များ နှင့် ဒေသခံ ဒုက္ခသည်များအပေါ် ခိုလှုံခွင့် နှင့် လူသားချင်းစာနာမှုအကူအညီပေးနေသော အဖွဲ့အစည်းများမှ အကူညီများကို လိုအပ်သည့်နေရာသို့ ပေးနိုင်ရန်အတွက် အထောက်ကူပြုပေးပါရန် အရေးပေါ် တောင်းဆိုလိုက်ရပါသည်။ ထို့အတူ နယ်စပ် အခြားတဘက်ရှိ ကရင်ပြည်နယ်အတွင်းကျန်ရှိနေသော စစ်ဘေးရှောင်များထံသို့ အကူအများပို့ဆောင်ရာတွင် ခွင့်ပြုပေးရန် ထပ်မံ တောင်းဆိုလိုက်ပါသည်။ ကရင်ငြိမ်းချမ်းရေးအထောက်အကူပြုကွန်ယက်မှ ကေအဲန်ယူ နှင့် နိုင်ငံတကာ ငြိမ်းချမ်းရေး အလှုရှင်များ၏ တောင်းဆိုမှုများအပေါ် လစ်လှူရှုကာ အပစ်အခတ်ရပ်စဲရေးအားချိုးဖောက်ပြီး စစ်တပ်၏ ယခုအကြမ်းဖက် ထိုးစစ်ဆင်မှု အပေါ် ပြင်းပြင်းထန်ထန် ရှုံ့ချလိုက်သည်။ အဆိုပါ အလှုရှင်များမှ ကျိုးပျက်သွားပြီ ဖြစ်သော ငြိမ်းချမ်းရေးဖြစ်စဉ်အပေါ် ထောက်ပံ့မှုများအား ဖြတ်တောက်ပစ်ပြီး ၎င်းအစား စစ်ဘေးရှောင်နေရသောပြည်သူများအပေါ် လိုအပ်သည့် အရေးပေါ် လူသားချင်းစာနာမှု အထောက်အကူပေးရန်ဖြစ်သည်။ စစ်ဘေးရှောင်များအတွက် အကူအညီများအား နယ်စပ်ဖြတ် ကျော်ပြီး တိုင်းရင်းသားအုပ်ချုပ်ရေးတာဝန်ခံများ နှင့် ဒေသခံ အရပ်ဘက်အဖွဲ့အစည်းများ ထံသို့ အကူအညီများ ပို့ဆောင်ရာတွင် အန္တာရယ်ပေးလာနိုင်သည့် စစ်တပ်အား အကြောင်းကြားခြင်း (သို့) ပူးပေါင်းလုပ်ဆောင်ခြင်း မပြုလုပ်ပဲ ဆောင်ရွက်သင့်ကြောင်း ကြံပြုအတိုက်တွန်း လိုက်ပါသည်။ စစ်တပ်အပေါ် နိုင်ငံတကာမှ ပိုမိုပြင်ထန်သော ဖိအားများပေးရန် အရေးပေါ် တောင်ဆိုပြီး ပိတ်ဆို့မှုများ အလျှင်အမြန်လုပ်ဆောင်ရန် တောင်းဆိုရာတွင် ၁။ ကမ္ဘာလုံးဆိုင်ရာ လက်နက်တင်ပို့ရောင်းချမှုပိတ်ပင်ရန် နှင့် လေယဉ်ဆီတင်ပို့မှုများအပေါ် ပိတ်ဆို့ရန် ၂။ သဘာဝဓတ်ငေ့ွမှရရှိသော ဝင်ငွေများအပါအဝင် စီးပွားရေးဆိုင်ရာပိတ်ဆိုမှုများအပေါ် ဦးတည်လုပ်ဆောင်ရန် ၃။ စစ်တပ်၏ တရားဝင်မှုအား လက်မခံရန် နှင့် လူသားချင်းစာနာမှု နှင့် ဖွံ့ဖြိုးရေးအထောက်အကူပြု လုပ်ငန်းများအား ၎င်းတို့နှင့် သဘောတူ လက်မှတ်ထိုးခြင်းများ မပြုလုပ်ရန်။ ၄။ စစ်တပ်မှ ၄င်တို့ကျူးလွန်သော ရာဇဝတ်မှုများအပေါ် တာဝန်ခံနိုင်ရန်တွက် နိုင်ငံတကာ ရာဇဝတ်မှုခုံရုံးတွင် အခြေအနေများ တင်သွင်း လုပ်ဆောင်ရန်။..."
Source/publisher: Karen Peace Support Network
2021-12-23
Date of entry/update: 2021-12-23
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Description: "The illegitimate military junta’s troops raided Lay Kay Kaw in Karen State on December 14 and arrested between 30 to 60 people, including two members of Parliament, Mr. Wai Lin Aung and Dr. Pyae Phyo. Armed fighting between the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) and the junta’s troops erupted on Wednesday morning, December 15, 2021, at Lay Kay Kaw after the troops refused to leave the area. Fighting continued and erupted at Mae Toe Ta Lay, near Laykaykaw, on December 16. Due to the ongoing armed confrontation between the junta’s troops and alliance of KNLA troops, nearly 3000 civilians fled Lay Kay Kaw prompting refugee outflow to Thailand's border. As of today, reports indicate at least 2,503 people (804 men, 910 women, 348 boys, 441 girls) have crossed the border while many are still trapped inside the country. NUG’s contacts on the ground also confirmed mortars landed at Thailand’s side almost hit the locations of the refugees. Influx of refugees expected to increase as the escalation of violence continues. Lay Kay Kaw is a civilian area under the control of KNU/KNLA Brigade 6 near Myawaddy at the border of Myanmar and Thailand. It has been a safe zone for civilians fleeing the junta’s ongoing crimes and atrocities against the civilian population of Myanmar. The incident in Karen State in the last two days is another example of the junta’s continued disregard for Myanmar people's welfare and human rights. It has continued to terrorize civilian population across Myanmar since the illegal coup. This month, a junta’s truck blatantly rammed into civilians protesting in Yangon, killing at least four people while burning 11 civilians in Sagaing region to death. Similarly, civilians were also reportedly burned alive by the junta’s troops in first week of December in Chin State two while thousands remain displaced by the relentless arson and attacks by the junta. Since the coup, United Nations estimated roughly 15,000 people in Myanmar have fled to the Indian border to avoid the junta's persecution. As the humanitarian condition and security situation continue to deteriorate due to the illegal junta’s barbarism and self-serving goals, the National Unity Government (NUG) in Myanmar urgently call for the following: 1. We appeal urgently to the international community, especially the Thai government, UNHCR and INGOs to deliver an emergency humanitarian response to the IDPs and refugees. Provisions of food, clothing, medicine are urgently needed and can be delivered through local groups responding to the refugees. Furthermore; we urge the international community to call for de-escalation of violence strongly. 2. We also would like to request the government of India for continues humanitarian support and cross border access for Myanmar people seeking refuge at the border. It is unfortunate that the civilian population bears the burden the junta’s atrocities. The current incident in Karen State and the continues fighting in different part of Myanmar is reminder how the failed coup is directly and inevitably impacting our neighboring countries. The junta’s atrocities must end as soon as possible thus, we urge the international community to impose stronger pressure against the junta and help restore the civilian government. The military junta is a terrorist organization by national and international law’s definition, as indicated in the latest policy brief of the Special Advisory Council for Myanmar. Since the coup, the junta responded with violence, killing more than 1,000 civilians, arbitrarily detaining more than 8,000 people, looting and destroying civilian properties, and violating international human rights and humanitarian laws in its offensive operation against ethnic areas. Lastly, the National Unity Government and the people of Myanmar express deep appreciation to the Kingdom of Thailand for opening up the border and allowing the refugees to get to a safe zone. We express our sincere gratitude to the Thai officials and first responders on the ground for extending assistance to those who crossed the border. We also express our sincere appreciation to the government of India and officials of India’s Northeastern states for continues assistance to our people at the border..."
Source/publisher: Ministry of Foreign Affairs - Myanmar - NUG
2021-12-17
Date of entry/update: 2021-12-18
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "စစ်အာဏာသိမ်းအဖွဲ့၏ အကြမ်းဖက်လုပ်ရပ်များကြောင့် ဖြစ်ပွားလာရသည့် လက်နက်ကိုင်တိုက်ပွဲများကြောင့် နေရပ်စွန့်ခွာထွက်ပြေးတိမ်းရှောင်ရသည့် စစ်ဘေးရှောင်ပြည်သူများအား အရေးပေါ်လူသားချင်းစာနာထောက်ထားမှုအကူအညီများ ပေးအပ်ပါရန် မေတ္တာရပ်ခံချက် ၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ်၊ ဒီဇင်ဘာလ ၁၇ ရက် တရားမဝင် အကြမ်းဖက် စစ်အာဏာသိမ်းအဖွဲ့၏ တပ်များသည် ၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ်၊ ဒီဇင်ဘာလ ၁၄ ရက်နေ့တွင် ကရင် ပြည်နယ်ရှိ လေးကေကော်မြို့သစ်သို့ စီးနင်းဝင်ရောက်ခဲ့ကြပြီး ၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ်၊ ဒီဇင်ဘာလ ၁၅ ရက်နေ့တွင် လွှတ်တော်ကိုယ်စားလှယ် (၂) ဦးဖြစ်သော ဦးဝေလင်းအောင်နှင့် ဒေါက်တာ ဝေဖြိုးအပါအဝင် အပြစ်မဲ့ပြည်သူ စုစုပေါင်း (၃၀) မှ (၆၀) ဦးအား ဖမ်းဆီးခဲ့ပါသည်။ ၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ်၊ ဒီဇင်ဘာလ ၁၅ ရက်နေ့၊ ဗုဒ္ဓဟူးနေ့အတွင်း အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်အာဏာသိမ်းအဖွဲ့၏ တပ်များနှင့် ကရင်အမျိုးသားလွတ်မြောက်ရေးတပ်မတော် (KNLA) တို့အကြား တိုက်ပွဲများ ဖြစ်ပွားခဲ့ပါသည်။ ကရင်ပြည်နယ်၊ မြဝတီမြို့နယ်၊ လေးကေကော်မြို့သစ်အနီး မဲ့ထောသလေး တွင် အကြမ်းဖက် စစ်အာဏာသိမ်းအဖွဲ့၏ တပ်များနှင့် KNLA တို့ အကြား တိုက်ပွဲများ ဆက်လက်ဖြစ်ပွားခဲ့ပြီး တိုက်ပွဲရှောင် ပြည်သူစုစုပေါင်း (၃,၀၀၀) ဦးနီးပါးသည် ထိုင်း-မြန်မာ နယ်စပ်သို့ ထွက်ပြေးတိမ်းရှောင်ခဲ့ ရပါသည်။ ယနေ့အချိန်အထိ သတင်းဖော်ပြချက်များအရ အပြစ်မဲ့ပြည်သူစုစုပေါင်း ၂,၅၀၃ ဦး (ကျား ၈၀၄ ဦး၊ မ ၉၁၀ ဦး၊ ကလေး (ကျား) ၃၄၈ ဦး၊ ကလေး (မ) ၄၄၁ ဦး) တို့သည် နေရပ်စွန့်ခွာ၍ ထွက်ပြေးတိမ်းရှောင်နေရပြီး စစ်ပွဲများအကြားတွင် ပြည်သူအများအပြားသည် လက်ရှိတွင် ပိတ်မိနေသေးကြောင်း သိရှိရပါသည်။ အမျိုးသား ညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ (NUG) ၏ ဆက်သွယ်စုံစမ်းချက်အရ အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်အာဏာသိမ်းအဖွဲ့၏ တပ်များ ပစ်ခတ်မှုများကြောင့် ထိုင်းနိုင်ငံနယ်စပ်ရှိ စစ်ဘေးရှောင်ပြည်သူများနေထိုင်ရာ နေရာ များသို့ လက်နက်ကြီး ကျရောက်ခဲ့ကြောင်း သိရှိရပါသည်။ ယခုကဲ့သို့ အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်အာဏာ သိမ်းအဖွဲ့နှင့် စစ်ပွဲများ ဆက်လက်ဖြစ်ပွားနေမှုကြောင့် တိုက်ပွဲရှောင် ပြည်သူအရေအတွက် မှာလည်း ဆက်လက်တိုးပွားလာနိုင်ပါသည်။ ထိုင်း-မြန်မာနယ်စပ်ရှိ ကရင်ပြည်နယ်၊ မြဝတီမြို့နယ်၊ လေးကေ့ကော်မြို့သည် KNU/KNLA တပ်မဟာ (၆) လက်အောက်ရှိ ထိန်းချုပ် နယ်မြေတစ်ခုဖြစ်သည့်အပြင် အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်အာဏာသိမ်းအဖွဲ့ က ကျူးလွန်လျက်ရှိသည့် ပြစ်မှုများနှင့် ရက်စက်ကြမ်းကြုတ်မှုများကြောင့် ထွက်ပြေးတိမ်းရှောင်နေရသည့် ပြည်သူများ၏ ခိုလှုံရာ လုံခြုံမှုရှိသည့် မြို့တစ်မြို့လည်းဖြစ်ပါသည်။ ကရင်ပြည်နယ်၌ လွန်ခဲ့သည့် (၂) ရက်အတွင်း ဖြစ်ပွားခဲ့သည့် ဖြစ်ရပ်သည် အကြမ်းဖက်စစ် အာဏာသိမ်းအဖွဲ့၏ လူသားချင်းစာနာထောက်ထားမှု ကင်းမဲ့မှုများနှင့် လူ့အခွင့်အရေးချိုး ဖောက်နေမှုများကို တွေ့မြင်နေရခြင်းဖြစ်ပါသည်။ အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်အာဏာသိမ်းအဖွဲ့ အနေဖြင့် တရားမဝင်အာဏာသိမ်းပြီးနောက် နိုင်ငံတဝန်း အကြမ်းဖက်မှုများအား ဆက်တိုက်ကျူးလွန် လျက်ရှိပါသည်။ အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်အာဏာသိမ်းအဖွဲ့သည် ယခုလအတွင်း ရန်ကုန်မြို့အတွင်း ငြိမ်းချမ်းစွာ ဆန္ဒပြနေသည့် အပြစ်မဲ့ပြည်သူများကို ကားဖြင့် အကြမ်းဖက် ဝင်ရောက်တိုက်ကာ ဖြိုခွင်းခဲ့သောကြောင့် အနည်းဆုံး ပြည်သူ(၄)ဦး သေဆုံးခဲ့ရသည့်အပြင် စစ်ကိုင်းတိုင်းဒေသကြီး တွင်လည်း အပြစ်မဲ့ပြည်သူ(၁၁)ဦးအား အရှင်လတ်လတ် မီးရှို့သတ်ဖြတ်ခဲ့ပါသည်။ အလားတူ ဒီဇင်ဘာလ ပထမပတ်အတွင်း ချင်းပြည်နယ်တွင် အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်အာဏာသိမ်းအဖွဲ့၏ တပ်များက အပြစ်မဲ့ ပြည်သူ(၂)ဦးအား အရှင်လတ်လတ် မီးရှို့သတ်ဖြတ်ခဲ့ပြီး အပြစ်မဲ့ပြည်သူ ထောင်ချီမှာလည်း နေရပ်စွန့်ခွာ၍ ထွက်ပြေးတိမ်းရှောင်ခဲ့ရပါသည်။ ကမ္ဘာ့ကုလသမဂ္ဂ၏ ခန့်မှန်းတွက်ချက်မှုအရ တရားမဝင် အာဏာသိမ်းခဲ့သည့် အချိန်မှစ၍ အပြစ်မဲ့ပြည်သူ စုစုပေါင်း ၁၅,၀၀၀ ဦးခန့်မှာ အိန္ဒိယ နိုင်ငံနယ်စပ်သို့ ထွက်ပြေးတိမ်းရှောင်ခဲ့ရပါသည်။ အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်အာဏာသိမ်းအဖွဲ့ တပ်ဖွဲ့ဝင်များ၏ ကိုယ်ကျိုးရှာမှုများနှင့် ရက်စက်ကြမ်းကြုတ် မှုများကြောင့် လူသားချင်းစာနာထောက်ထားမှုအခြေအနေများနှင့် ပြည်သူများ၏ လုံခြုံရေး အခြေအနေများ ဆိုးရွားလာများမှုအရ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ (NUG) အနေဖြင့် အောက်ပါအတိုင်း တောင်းဆိုအပ်ပါသည်။ 1. မိမိတို့အနေဖြင့် နိုင်ငံတကာအသိုင်းအဝိုင်း အထူးသဖြင့် ထိုင်းနိုင်ငံအစိုးရ၊ ကုလသမဂ္ဂ ဒုက္ခသည်များဆိုင်ရာမဟာမင်းကြီးရုံး (UNHCR) နှင့် အခြား အစိုးရမဟုတ်သော အဖွဲ့အစည်း (NGO) များက စစ်ဘေးရှောင်ပြည်သူများအား လိုအပ်သည့် လူသားချင်း စာနာထောက်ထားမှုအကူအညီများ ပေးအပ်ရန် တောင်းဆိုအပ်ပါသည်။ အစားအသောက်၊ အဝတ်အထည်နှင့် ဆေးဝါးများ အရေးပေါ် လိုအပ်လျက်ရှိပြီး လိုအပ် သည်များကို ဒေသခံအဖွဲ့အစည်းများနှင့် ချိတ်ဆက်ကာ တိုက်ပွဲရှောင် ပြည်သူများထံ ပေးပို့နိုင်ပါသည်။ ထို့အပြင် နိုင်ငံတကာ အသိုင်းအဝိုင်းအနေဖြင့် အကြမ်းဖက်မှုများကို ပြင်းပြင်းထန်ထန် အရေးယူဆောင်ရွက်ပေးပါရန်လည်း တောင်းဆိုအပ်ပါသည်၊ 2. မိမိတို့အနေဖြင့် အိန္ဒိယနိုင်ငံအစိုးရအား လူသားချင်းစာနာထောက်ထားမှုအကူအညီ များကို ဆက်လက်ပေးအပ်ပေးပါရန်နှင့် ခိုလှုံခွင့်ရှာဖွေနေကြသည့် နယ်စပ်ရှိ တိုက်ပွဲ ရှောင်ပြည်သူများအား နယ်စပ်ဖြတ်ကျော်ဝင်ရောက်ခွင့်များပေးရန် တောင်းဆိုအပ် ပါသည်။ မြန်မာပြည်သူပြည်သားများသည် အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်အာဏာသိမ်းအဖွဲ့၏ ရက်စက်ကြမ်းကြုတ်မှု များကို ကြုံတွေ့ခံစားနေရသည်မှာ အလွန်ဝမ်းနည်းဖွယ်ကောင်းပါသည်။ လက်ရှိ ကရင် ပြည်နယ်အတွင်း ဖြစ်ပွားနေသည့် ဖြစ်ရပ်နှင့် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံအနှံ့အပြားတွင် ဆက်လက်ဖြစ်ပေါ် နေသော တိုက်ပွဲများကိုကြည့်ရှုခြင်းအားဖြင့် အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်အာဏာသိမ်းအဖွဲ့၏ ကျရှုံးသည့် တရားမဝင် အာဏာသိမ်းမှုသည် အိမ်နီးချင်းနိုင်ငံများသို့ မလွဲမသွေတိုက်ရိုက်သက်ရောက်မှု ရှိစေနိုင်ကြောင်းကိုလည်း သတိပေးနေခြင်း ဖြစ်သည်။ အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်အာဏာသိမ်းအဖွဲ့၏ ရက်စက်ကြမ်းကြုတ်မှုများအား တတ်နိုင်သမျှ အမြန်ဆုံး အဆုံးသတ်ရမည်ဖြစ်ပြီး အကြမ်းဖက် စစ်အာဏာသိမ်းအဖွဲ့အား ပြင်းထန်စွာ ဖိအားပေးရန်နှင့် အရပ်သားအစိုးရကို ပြန်လည် ထူထောင်နိုင်ရေးအတွက် ကူညီပေးပါရန် နိုင်ငံတကာအသိုင်းအဝိုင်းအား တောင်းဆိုအပ်ပါသည်။ အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်အာဏာသိမ်းအဖွဲ့သည် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံဆိုင်ရာ အထူးအကြံပေးကောင်စီ၏ နောက်ဆုံးထုတ် မူဝါဒရေးရာအကျဉ်းချုပ်တွင် ဖော်ပြထားသည့်အတိုင်း ပြည်တွင်းဉပဒေ၌ သာမက နိုင်ငံတကာဥပဒေ၏ အဓိပ္ပါယ်ဖွင့်ဆိုချက်အရ အကြမ်းဖက်အဖွဲ့အစည်းတစ်ရပ် ဖြစ်ပါသည်။ တရားမဝင် နိုင်ငံတော်အာဏာရယူပြီးချိန်မှစ၍ အကြမ်းဖက်အာဏာသိမ်းအဖွဲ့ သည် အပြစ်မဲ့ပြည်သူ ၁,၀၀၀ ကျော်အား သတ်ဖြတ်ခဲ့ခြင်း၊ အပြစ်မဲ့ပြည်သူ ၈,၀၀၀ ကျော်အား မတရားဖမ်းဆီးခဲ့ခြင်း၊ အပြစ်မဲ့ ပြည်သူများ၏ ပိုင်ဆိုင်မှုများကို လုယက်ဖျက်ဆီးခြင်း၊ နိုင်ငံတကာလူ့အခွင့်အရေးနှင့် လူသားချင်းစာနာထောက်ထားမှုဆိုင်ရာ ဥပဒေများအား ပြောင်ပြောင်တင်းတင်း ချိုးဖောက်ကာ တိုင်းရင်းသား ဒေသများ၌ အကြမ်းဖက် ထိုးစစ်ဆင် တိုက်ခိုက်ခဲ့ခြင်းတို့အား ဆက်တိုက် ကျူးလွန်လျက်ရှိပါသည်။ နိဂုံးချုပ်အနေဖြင့် အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ (NUG) နှင့် မြန်မာပြည်သူပြည်သူများသည် နယ်စပ်ကိုဖွင့်ပေးကာ ဒုက္ခသည်ပြည်သူများအား ဘေးအန္တရာယ်ကင်းဝေးပြီး လုံခြုံမှုရှိသည့် နယ်မြေအတွင်းသို့ ရောက်ရှိအောင် ခွင့်ပြုပေးသည့် ထိုင်းနိုင်ငံအား အထူးပင်ကျေးဇူးတင်ရှိ ပါကြောင်း ပြောကြားလိုပါသည်။ နယ်စပ်ဖြတ်ကျော် ဝင်ရောက်လာသော ပြည်သူများအား အကူအညီများ တိုးမြှင့်ပေးခဲ့သော ထိုင်းနိုင်ငံမှ တာဝန်ရှိသူများအပါအဝင် မြေပြင်အခြေအနေတွင် ကနဦးဆုံးကူညီခဲ့သူများအား ကျေးဇူးတင်ရှိပါကြောင်း ဖော်ပြလိုပါသည်။ ထို့ပြင် နယ်စပ်ရှိ မိမိတို့၏ပြည်သူများအပေါ် အကူအညီများကို ဆက်လက်ပေးအပ်နေခြင်းကြောင့်လည်း အိန္ဒိယနိုင်ငံ အစိုးရနှင့် အိန္ဒိယအရှေ့မြောက်ပိုင်း ပြည်နယ်များမှ တာဝန်ရှိသူများအား အထူးပင် ကျေးဇူးတင် ရှိပါကြောင်း ဖော်ပြအပ်ပါသည်။..."
Source/publisher: Ministry of Foreign Affairs - Myanmar - NUG
2021-12-17
Date of entry/update: 2021-12-18
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Description: "European Karen Network today called on the European Union to impose a new round of targeted economic sanctions on the Burmese military, and agree to impose regular new rounds of sanctions from now on. As usual, it is ethnic people who are facing some of the worst human rights violations by the Burmese military since the coup. The majority of the 300,000 people displaced since the coup are from ethnic states. In Karen State, more than 70,000 internally displaced people have been hiding in the jungle since April, following bombing attacks which killed villagers and destroyed homes and schools. Since then jets and drones continue to fly over parts of Karen State every day, preventing people from returning home. This week the Burmese military has attacked Lay Kay Kaw town, in Dooplaya District (Myawaddy Township), Karen State. Arrests of democracy activists have been followed by indiscriminate shelling using heavy artillery, which is a war crime. More than 1,000 civilians are now fleeing from the area, and are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance. People who have already been displaced have been unable to grow this year’s crops, and are dependent on aid, but the Burmese military continues to restrict humanitarian access and international donors are not providing enough funding for food, shelter, medical care and education for children. Despite the fact that there are millions of people who can be reached with aid and Covid vaccines using cross-border mechanisms, this has only been happening in a very limited way. “There is much more that the European Union can do to cut the flow of money to the Burmese military, but while hundreds die and thousands are arrested, the EU is failing to use the economic leverage it has to promote human rights and democracy in Burma. Our Karen people and other people in Burma are doing everything we can to resist military rule, but the same cannot be said for the European Union,” said Nant Helen Buhtoo, Co-Chair of the European Karen Network. We call on the EU to bring in a new round of economic sanctions including: Gas revenue Revenue from extractive industries including copper and rare earths The Office of the Quartermaster General and other military bodies responsible for the purchase and manufacturing of arms Banks in Myanmar used by the military to earn and transfer revenue, such as the Myanmar Foreign Trade Bank Sanctions on Burmese companies and individuals financing the military, or which are supplying the military with arms and equipment or facilitating the purchase of arms and other equipment. The European Union should also impose sanctions to prevent European companies supplying aviation fuel to Burma, and impose sanctions on Burmese companies supplying fuel to the military. “Reducing the air capacity of the Burmese military would be one of the single most effective short term things the European Union can do to help prevent further airstrikes against our people, and help reduce human rights violations and address the humanitarian situation on the ground,” said Nan Kyi Aye, Chair of the European Karen Network..."
Source/publisher: "Burma Campaign UK" (London)
2021-12-16
Date of entry/update: 2021-12-16
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Description: "SAC Chairman Min Aung Hlaing visited Karen State and had a meeting with SAC members at Hpa An on May 31st 2021. In that meeting, he mentioned the possibility of resuming the Hatgyi Hydropwer Dam project. Human Rights Group (KHRG) and the Karen Rivers Watch (KRW) stand alongside local communities in strong opposition to General Min Aung Hlaing’s recent announcement that the State Administrative Council (SAC) intends to push ahead with the construction of the Hatgyi hydropower mega-dam on the Salween River. This would be catastrophic for ethnic and Indigenous communities in the Salween River Basin. The Hatgyi dam is a planned 1,360 megawatt dam on the Salween River in Karen areas. More than 10 million people rely on the Salween River and the Hatgyi dam will have severe negative impacts on ecosystems in the area, along with people’s livelihoods, wellbeing, and cultural integrity. Human rights violations have already been linked to the planned project site, including forced labor, rape, and forced displacement of over 5,000 people. Much of this displacement is due to conflict between ethnic Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) and the Myanmar military around the dam area. Conflict has broken out around the proposed site several times from 2014 - 2018. The dam has been met with strong opposition from communities, environmental organisations, and civil society. Local communities launched a powerful campaign against dams on the Salween River, which eventually led to the Hatgyi dam construction being put on hiatus, until now. Since the recent military coup, there has been intensified conflicts in ethnic areas across the country. In Karen territories alone, military airstrikes and ground artillery attacks have killed and injured dozens of people and displaced around 70,000. The SAC regime is looking to extract economic revenue from natural resources to fund their military activities and so are pushing ahead with mega-dam investment along the Salween River. This will exacerbate the dire humanitarian crisis in Karen State caused by the ongoing SAC military offensives. Due to the instability that followed the coup, people across the country are facing a multitude of hardships. Therefore, it is unacceptable that the SAC is trying to push for the hydropower dam project to generate more revenue to fund its military while civilians have no economic and physical security. It is more important than ever to demand the protection of the Salween River which is of great importance for ecology, indigenous culture, and livelihoods. Therefore, we make the following urgent demands: (1) The SAC military also known as Tatmadaw must immediately withdraw from Karen territories. They are committing atrocities against civilians whilst they invade Karen territories in order to establish military bases, and push ahead with investment projects such as dams, threatening and destroying local communities and the natural environment. (2) All planned controversial infrastructure development projects must be cancelled including the construction of mega-dams on rivers all across Myanmar, and including planned mega-dams and infrastructure projects along the Salween River. This is because rivers and lakes are an essential lifeline for our local people to live in peace. (3) The international community must oppose and sanction any and all sources of economic revenue going to the Myanmar military regime, including hydropower projects, and other investment projects. (4) All concerned actors, including state-owned and private companies that are commissioned to construct, or are otherwise investing in, the development and implementation of the Hatgyi hydropower dam project, must stop all plans and cooperation with regard to the construction of the dam. Contact persons: Saw Tha Phoe (KRW) - +95 978 263 9714 Saw Nanda Hsue (KHRG) - +66 811 297 564..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group
2021-06-11
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-11
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Description: "Dear friends, Thank you for all your love, prayers and help. Here in northern Karen State, there are over 40,000 people displaced by attacks of the Burma Army with daily mortar and machine-gun attacks; villagers’ farms and homes are hit and villagers continue to be hit. Saw Kit Mae, 32 years old, is one of the villagers wounded and he is now being treated at our clinic. Update: Lu Thaw township, Papun District On May 16 at 1530hrs, the Burma Army shelled from their base camp near Taw Mu Pler Mae into the Saw Mu Plaw area. The Burma Army unit Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) 20 shot 15 rounds of mortars into the villagers’ fields, wounding Saw Ki Mae and forcing the villagers to stop their planting of rice and flee. On May 17, the Burma Army LIB 20, in Ler Mu Plaw, shot into Taw Mu Pler Mae Village area at 2215hrs and also into Ler Mu Plaw villagers’ rice fields. Seven rounds were fired at 2215hrs and at 2230hrs they shot one more mortar. On May 18 at 0800hrs the Burma Army shot mortars into Kaw Kyo Village as villagers fled. On May 19 at 1732hrs the Burma Army shot more mortars into the Ler Mu Plaw area. On May 22 at 0940hrs local time, the Burma Army shot eight mortar rounds down into Kaw Ter Der area at the civilians who were working their fields. Four landed in Ta Ner Shee Daw Ko Village area and four landed in Ker Ser Pa Village area. On May 23 at 1933hrs local time, Burma Army Infantry Battalion (IB) 19 fired seven 60mm mortars from their long barreled mortar from their base to Ko Ka Paw Village. The rounds landed close to civilian homes and a rubber garden. Six exploded and one did not. On May 24 at 1430hrs local time, 393 civilians left their homes because the Burma Army base in Ko Kaw Day fired mortars to Wah Kaw Hta Village area..... Update: Dwe Lo Township, Papun District: On May 18 at 1400hrs the Burma Army Military Operations Command (MOC) 8, LIB 407, occupied Ma Taw They and shot mortars into Thwa Ko Lo Village. Villagers who fled told us, “Because the Burma Army comes to stay in our village and more and more and shoot the mortars, it is more and more also difficult for us villagers to travel and to work on our farms. Now it is not easy for us. Now is the time to do the farm and plough the fields. We are now afraid we will not be able to plant rice.” On May 20, at 1500hrs local time, Burma forces and their proxies, the Border Guard Force (BGF), burned down three house from Ta Thoo Kee Village. The three houses belonged to (1) Saw La Ba, family of 8 people, 4 F, 4 M, (2) Naw Dah, family of 6 people, 4 F, 2 M, (3) Mae Way Day Mo, family of 2 people, 1 F, 1 M..... Update: Thaton District, Karen State: The Burma Air Force flies jets and helicopters regularly over the district and ground troops shell villages and fields. Ground attacks by the Burma Army continue as the Burma Army attempts to resupply and build up their camps. But there have been no airstrikes for over a week. There are weekly flights of jets and attack helicopters especially south of Papun in Thaton District. So far we and others have been able to get rice to families in need and are distributing tarps for shelter. Thank you and God bless you, The Free Burma Rangers..."
Source/publisher: Free Burma Rangers
2021-05-31
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-01
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Description: "This regular update, covering humanitarian developments in conflict-affected areas from 24 April to 24 May, is produced by OCHA Myanmar in collaboration with the Inter-Cluster Coordination Group and UNHCR. The next update will be issued towards the end of June 2021.....HIGHLIGHTS: Around 46,000 people were displaced in the south-eastern part of Myanmar between April and May due to the conflict and insecurity, about 37,000 of them displaced in late May following the clashes in Kayah State. In Chin State, thousands have been internally displaced following an escalation of hostilities in the town of Mindat since 12 May. In northern Shan, clashes between the Myanmar Armed Forces (MAF) and Ethnic Armed Organizations (EAOs) and among EAOs continue and around 2,800 people were displaced in May. A total of 8,400 people who have fled since January 2021 remain displaced. In Kachin State, there has been no new displacement during the reporting period, despite the active armed conflict between the MAF and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA); about 8,500 people who fled insecurity since mid-March remain displaced. No new population displacement has been reported in Rakhine State. Cases of acute watery diarrhea (AWD) are reported in IDP camps in Mrauk-U, Paukaw and Sittwe townships. Humanitarian response remains severely constrained in all conflict-affected areas due to insecurity, banking disruptions, road blockages and pre-existing access challenges. Myanmar Humanitarian Fund First Standard Allocation of US$10 million launched on 13 May has been amended with an additional $0.35 million to scale up response in Chin State. A total of US$40.2 million has been mobilized under the 2021 Humanitarian Response Plan, which seeks $276.5 million to address the needs of around 1 million people in conflict-affected areas. This represents less than 15 per cent of the funds required. KEY FIGURES 85.9K people internally displaced in the South-east due to clashes and insecurity in 2021 15K people internally displaced in northern Shan due to armed clashes in 2021 10K people internally displaced in Kachin State due to armed clashes in 2021 10K people hosted in sites in Chin State and Magway Region due to hostilities in Mindat in May SITUATION OVERVIEW UPSURGE IN DISPLACEMENT IN THE SOUTH-EAST: Around 46,000 people were displaced in the southeastern part of the country between April and May, according to data obtained by UNHCR from various sources. This includes the displacement of an estimated 37,000 persons across 57 locations in Kayah State where violence had erupted in late May between the MAF and the Karenni Army, the armed wing of the Karenni National Progressive Party, as well as the Karenni People’s Defense Force, an armed group formed by civilian resistance fighters. There have been additional displacements, mainly in Kayin State due to insecurity and the clashes between the Karen National Liberation Army and the MAF. Around 45,000 people are currently internally displaced in Kayin State. The majority of them are hiding in jungles with some 8,000 sheltering in caves along Salween River at the border with Thailand. A further 3,900 people remain displaced in Mon State and Bago Region since February. This makes 85,900 the total number of people who have been internally displaced in the region due to armed clashes as well as insecurity as of 24 May. The internal displacement comes in addition to cross-border movement that remains fluid. Around 7,000 people from Kayin State have crossed the border to seek safety in Thailand since late March and some 1,000 remain in temporary areas in Mae Hong Son Province in Thailand as of 23 May, according to UNHCR. Humanitarian needs include food, shelter and access to hygiene and sanitation facilities. Additionally, there have been reports of cases of water-borne diseases among the displaced population in the jungle as result of extended lack of access to hygiene and sanitation facilities compounded by the early arrival of the rainy season. Local sources warn of a looming food security crisis if people are unable to return to their villages of origin to tend to their crops and livestock. Humanitarian partners are doing their best to respond to these needs, both within Myanmar and across the border. For example, in Kayah State, partners provided food and basic households items, child protection and health interventions to a small number of IDPs. However, access restrictions due to insecurity, road blockages, remote terrain, landmine contamination and other bureaucratic impediments continue to impede programme delivery across Kayah and elsewhere. INCREASING HUMANITARIAN NEEDS IN CHIN STATE: Thousands of people have been displaced following an escalation of violence between the MAF and the Chinland Defense Forces (CDF) in and around the town of Mindat in Chin State on 12 May. The MAF deployed heavy artillery, military helicopters and snipers to the area, and despite the reported retreat of the CDF the following day, the MAF reportedly continued its attacks, including against civilian areas and infrastructure in the town of Mindat, which is home to about 25,000 people (2014 data). Over 9,000 IDPs are currently hosted in 16 sites, mainly in churches and monasteries, in and around Mindat and 7 sites in Saw in Magway Region. Thousands more had reportedly fled to nearby forests and mountains in search of safety and protection. There are also reports of civilian casualties, damage to and occupation of civilian infrastructure, incidents of the MAF using civilians as human shields and alleged cases of sexual assault against women and girls. Clashes also occurred between the MAF and the CDF in Loklung Village near the capital city of Hakkha on 18 May. This has led to the displacement of around 1,000 people to neighboring villages, according to local partners. The displaced population and those who remain in town are in urgent need of food, water, medicine, shelter and protection services, such as gender-based violence and psychological support. Local communities and religious institutions are making efforts to provide humanitarian assistance; however, this is not reaching everyone in need. Access restrictions, including due to road blockages and insecurity, are complicating the efforts to verify the reports of displacement, casualties and other incidents, as well as assess needs and respond. The Myanmar Humanitarian Fund (MHF) is supporting an operational partner in Chin State to scale up response, by topping up with an additional funding an existing humanitarian programme. MORE PEOPLE DISPLACED IN NORTHERN SHAN: Population movement remains fluid in northern areas of Shan State with new displacements and small-scale returns reported on a regular basis. In Hsipaw Township, around 2,510 people fled from their homes to safe areas due to hostilities between the Restoration Council of Shan State/Shan State Army and the allied forces of the Ta'ang National Liberation Army and the Shan State Progress Party/Shan State Army on 18 May. Small-scale population movements were also reported in Nawnghkio and Namtu townships and over the course of May, 2,800 people were internally displaced due to various clashes. A total of 15,151 people have been internally displaced in northern Shan since the start of 2021. While almost half of them returned to their places of origin within weeks, some 8,400 people remain displaced in 34 sites in Hsipaw, Kyaukme, Momeik, Namtu, Namhkan and Nawghkio townships. The IDPs are unable to return due to damage to their property and livelihoods as well as insecurity and risks from landmine contamination. Humanitarian partners organized three missions to the displacement sites and protracted IDP camps over the course of May to assess people’s needs and strengthen response coordination. Despite some assistance provided by host communities and local partners, the needs of families newly displaced remain largely unmet. The IDPs currently require temporary shelter, food, basic household materials, including mosquito nets, blankets, and mats, as well as access to water and sanitation facilities. NO NEW DISPLACEMENT IN KACHIN DESPITE INSECURITY: There has been no new population displacement in Kachin during the reporting period. Close to 10,000 people have been displaced across Kachin State following the resumption of clashes in mid-March. While many have returned to their places of origin since then, over 8,500 people remain displaced in Bhamo, Hpakant, Injanyang, Momauk, Myitkyina, Sadung, Shwegu and Waingmaw townships. Local communities and operational partners are responding to the needs of newly displaced people; however, access challenges and insecurity are complicating these efforts. The security situation remains volatile in Kachin State, with regular armed clashes between the MAF and the KIA in several townships and general insecurity across the state. Hostilities were reported across as many as 13 townships; however, clashes were intense in Momauk Township in particular, where fighting around the Ah Law Bum mountain area, currently controlled by the KIA continues unabated, with reports of aerial strikes by the MAF and artillery shelling by both sides. Since March, over 100 armed engagements were reported across Kachin. According to public sources, 11 civilians were killed and 22 others injured between 11 March and 12 May. The details of these incidents could not be verified at the time of reporting due to access challenges. ACUTE WATERY DIARRHEA IN CENTRAL RAKHINE: AWD cases were reported in IDP camps in MraukU, Pauktaw and Sittwe townships with majority of cases affecting children under five. Based on available information, the cases were reported to be highest during the week of 3 May, with 1,200 cases, and majority reported from six IDP camps. Over 2,000 cases of AWD have so far been reported as of 25 May. The situation has started to stabilize as the number of cases started to go down since 16 May, following robust response by operational partners who are coordination with relevant entities to scale up awareness raising efforts of good hygiene, testing of water quality, chlorination of the boreholes, and cleaning of solid waste and disinfection of latrines. Disease surveillance is ongoing and operational hours of mobile clinics have been extended in certain camps with larger caseloads. Case investigation and laboratory sample collection were also conducted with relevant entities and findings were directly shared to frontline health partners for appropriate clinical management. NO NEW DIPLACEMENT IN RAKHINE: There has not been any new clashes between the MAF and the AA since November 2020 and no new displacement has been reported. Some small-scale returns among IDPs continue to take place in a number of townships. Close to 82,000 people remain displaced at 147 sites and 27 host communities in 10 townships across Rakhine State. This is in addition to 126,000 IDPs hosted in protracted camps established in 2012..."
Source/publisher: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (New York) via "Reliefweb" (New York)
2021-05-27
Date of entry/update: 2021-05-28
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Description: "Thousands of ethnic Karen villagers in Myanmar are poised to cross into Thailand if, as expected, fighting intensifies between the Myanmar army and Karen insurgents, joining those who have already escaped the turmoil that followed a Feb. 1 coup. Karen rebels and the Myanmar army have clashed near the Thai border in the weeks since Myanmar's generals ousted an elected government led by democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi, displacing villagers on both sides of the border. read more "People say the Burmese will come and shoot us, so we fled here," Chu Wah, a Karen villager who crossed over to Thailand with his family this week from the Ee Thu Hta displacement camp in Myanmar, told Reuters. "I had to flee across the river," Chu Wah said, referring to the Salween river that forms the border in the area. The Karen Peace Support Network says thousands of villagers are taking shelter on the Myanmar side of the Salween and they will flee to Thailand if the fighting escalates. "In coming days, more than 8,000 Karen along the Salween river will have to flee to Thailand. We hope that the Thai army will help them escape the war," the group said in a post on Facebook. Karen fighters on Tuesday overran an Myanmar army unit on the west bank of the Salween in a pre-dawn attack. The Karen said 13 soldiers and three of their fighters were killed. read more The Myanmar military responded with air strikes in several areas near the Thai border. Thai authorities say nearly 200 villagers have crossed into Thailand this week. Thailand has reinforced its forces and restricted access to the border. Hundreds of Thai villagers have also been displaced, moving from their homes close to the border, to deeper into Thai territory for safety. "The situation has escalated so we can't go back," said Warong Tisakul, 33, a Thai villager from Mae Sam Laep, a settlement, now abandoned, opposite the Myanmar army post attacked this week. “Security officials won’t let us, we can’t go back.”..."
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Source/publisher: "Reuters" (UK)
2021-04-30
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-30
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "Myanmar’s coup has brought war back to a remote Southeast Asian frontier after 25 years, sending a new generation of villagers in both Myanmar and Thailand running for their lives from bullets and bombs. Ethnic Karen insurgents and the Myanmar army have engaged in heavy clashes near the Thai border in the weeks since the Feb. 1 coup, when Myanmar’s generals ousted an elected government led by democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi. The Karen and other autonomy-seeking ethnic minority forces based in frontier regions have supported the largely urban-based pro-democracy opponents of the junta, offering refuge to some, and tension with the military has boiled up into new fighting. Before dawn on Tuesday, Karen fighters attacked the Myanmar army's Thaw Leh Ta outpost on the west bank of the Salween River, which forms the border with Thailand as it cuts through steep, forested slopes on is way to the Bay of Bengal. "I've never heard gunfire like this, I've never seen people needing to flee like this," said Supart Nunongpan, 44, chief of the Thai village of Mae Sam Laep, a small river port of wooden houses and shops strung out along the Thai side of the Salween. The Myanmar army had held Thaw Leh Ta since 1995, the last time there was major fighting in the area when, after years of dry-season offensives, the Myanmar army captured the headquarters of the Karen National Union (KNU) guerrilla group, not far to the south. Divided and driven from most of its enclaves in eastern Myanmar, the KNU agreed to a ceasefire in 2012, ending an insurgency that began soon after Myanmar gained independence in 1948. Now war has resumed and the Myanmar military, equipped with more effective aircraft than it had 25 years ago, has launched repeated air strikes against KNU positions, sending some 15,000 villagers fleeing into the forest, with several thousand briefly seeking refuge on the Thai side of the border. Myanmar launched air strikes on Tuesday and again on Wednesday, with fighter jets and helicopters, Thai authorities on the border said. There was no word on casualties. About 100 villagers from Myanmar, most of them elderly, pregnant women or children, crossed to the Thai side on Wednesday to escape the air strikes, the Free Burma Rangers aid group said.....'STILL DANGEROUS': Hundreds of Thai villagers living too close to the border for comfort have also abandoned their homes and fled inland. One woman on the Thai side was wounded by a stray bullet on Tuesday, Thai authorities said. Thai villagers are sheltering in a school and a church in the settlement of Huay Kong Kad, a safe distance from the border. They think the fighting is far from over and it is only a matter of time before Myanmar's powerful military tries to take back the lost outposts. "I don't feel safe, it's still dangerous. I'm afraid of the air strikes," Amin, 40, another villager from Mae Sam Laep who goes by only one name, told Reuters. The Myanmar junta has not commented on the latest clashes but the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper blamed a rogue KNU brigade for the attacks, saying most of the KNU still backed the 2012 ceasefire. The head of foreign affairs for the KNU, Saw Taw Nee, rejected that as "nonsense", saying state media was trying to "divide and conquer". Thailand, which played host to more than 100,000 Karen refugees for decades, has said it wants to stay out of the latest surge of fighting but will provide humanitarian help if needed. For now, displaced Thai villagers wait. Several said they only dared slip back into Mae Sam Laep during the day to check on their homes, fearing more fighting at any time. “I’m afraid because we live on the border. The villagers are also afraid,” village head Supart said..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Reuters" (UK)
2021-04-29
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-29
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Sub-title: Fresh clashes between Myanmar security forces and regional armed groups have displaced thousands across the country, the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Tuesday.
Description: "According to the Office, almost 50 clashes between the military and the Kachin Independence Army were reported in several places in Kachin state, including use of airstrikes by security forces as well as mortar shelling by both sides, displacing nearly 5,000 people and damaging several homes. “Around 800 people returned to their villages of origin within a few days and an estimated 4,000 people remain displaced in various sites, including in churches and monasteries”, OCHA said in a humanitarian bulletin. This was the first reported displacement in the country’s northernmost state since September 2018. Kachin had been hosting about 95,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in long-term camps since 2011. “Humanitarians and local host communities are doing their best to provide emergency assistance to the newly displaced people, despite the operational challenges and insecurity”, OCHA added. In neighboring Northern Shan state, escalating clashes since January forced about 10,900 people to flee their homes, of whom nearly 4,000 remain displaced, the Office added, noting that hostilities had also increased since February in Kayin and Bago states, displacing almost 40,000 people. About 3,000 people, mostly from Kayin, reportedly crossed the border into Thailand. The majority are said to have since returned. Funds needed for assistance Apart from the ongoing political strife in the aftermath of the military takeover on 1 February, nearly a million people across Myanmar, over two-thirds of them women and children, identified at the start of 2021, are in need of humanitarian assistance and protection. UN and humanitarian partners launched a $276 million response plan to assist nearly 950,000 people through 2021. However, into the last week of April, only 12 per cent or $32 million of the amount needed has been received. Rising hunger and desperation There are also fears of a sharp rise in hunger and desperation across Myanmar due to the triple impact of pre-existing poverty, the coronavirus pandemic and the ongoing political crisis. Estimates by the UN World Food Programme (WFP) indicate that up to 3.4 million people – particularly those in urban centres – would be hit by high levels of food insecurity over the next six months. Already, there are signs of families in and around Yangon being pushed to the edge, skipping meals, eating less nutritious food and going into debt, just to survive, the agency said last week, as it mounted a new food assistance programme to help the most vulnerable. The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), meanwhile, warned that even before the COVID-19 pandemic, almost a third of the country’s children were living in poor households. “In the current crisis, the situation has worsened. UNICEF is working to support the most vulnerable children and families across Myanmar, ensuring their access to lifesaving services”, the agency said on Monday..."
Source/publisher: UN News
2021-04-28
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-29
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Sub-title: The military’s Thaw Le Hta outpost is across the Salween River from Mae Sam Laep, a strategic port on the Thai border that has been used to send aid to IDPs
Description: "The Karen National Union (KNU) announced on Tuesday morning that they had taken over a base belonging to the Myanmar military on the Thai border; hours later, the regime’s forces launched airstrikes against Karen villages in the area. Early on Tuesday morning, Brigade 5 of the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA)– the armed wing of the KNU– seized and then destroyed the regime base in the Thaw Le Hta area of Karen State’s Mutraw District, known in Burmese as Hpapun. The base is located on the Salween River, opposite the Thai village of Mae Sam Laep in Mae Hong Son province. Around seven Myanmar soldiers were seen fleeing during the raid by Karen forces, the Karen Information Center reported. By around 1pm, the Myanmar army had launched airstrikes in near Dagwe village (Dagwin in Burmese), some 10 miles north of Thaw Le Hta, according to Padoh Mahn Mahn, the KNLA’s Brigade 5 spokesperson. “Bombing the area near villages is very concerning for the residents living there,” Padoh Mahn Mahn told Myanmar Now. There are also reports of Myanmar military airstrikes on the village of Bwa Der, also in Brigade 5. Further details about the air attacks, including those regarding casualties and the numeber of people displaced, were not available at the time of reporting. Mae Sam Laep is a strategic point along the Thai-Myanmar border regarding transportation and humanitarian aid delivery, with a river port from which supplies have been sent to internally displaced people (IDPs) in KNU-controlled areas. In response to the fighting at Thaw Le Hta on Tuesday, Thai authorities evacuated hundreds of Thai villagers from Mae Sam Laep and closed the port. Prior to the fighting on Tuesday, this stretch of the Thai-Myanmar border area along the Salween River had seen heightened military tension/ On April 23, Myanmar troops stationed across the river from another Thai village– Tha Hta Fung– fired “warning shots” above a civilian boat carrying Thai border patrol officers, the Bangkok Post reported. A Thai government official later described the incident as a “misunderstanding.” However, another KNLA Brigade 5 spokesperson, Saw Kler Doh, told the Karen Information Center that Tuesday’s attacks on Thaw Le Hta were carried out in response to regime troops shooting at boats along the Salween River. The offensive against the Thaw Le Hta military outpost marks the second time since the February 1 coup that the KNLA’s Brigade 5 has seized a junta base. On March 27, they took over the army’s stronghold at Thee Mu Hta, killing at least five soldiers and taking at last eight prisoners. The junta responded by launching airstrikes at the end of March at Karen villages in Mutraw District (Brigade 5) and in Brigade 3– in Hteepado, Nyaunglebin District, and Maetamat, Shwegyin Township, located in Bago Region. These air attacks killed an estimated 20 civilians, wounded more than 40, and displaced tens of thousands, according to the Free Burma Rangers (FBR), a local relief organisation. Fighting between the KNU’s Brigade 1 and the regime’s armed forces also broke out in Thaton on the morning of April 23. One junta officer was reportedly killed in the fighting, but the number of total casualties could not be confirmed at the time of reporting. FBR estimated that there were 24,000 IDPs in the territories controlled by the KNU’s Brigades 1, 3, and 5 in mid-April. In and near the KNU’s Brigade 6 area– Dooplaya District, in Karen State– locals have reported that the junta’s troops have increased interrogation of and extortion of money from civilians on the roads. Regime soldiers in Dooplaya also violently cracked down on a motorcycle protest on April 24 at Three Pagodas Pass, near the Thai border..."
Source/publisher: "Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
2021-04-27
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-28
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Topic: Thai-Burma border, Karen refugees
Sub-title: Long-time refugees on the Thai-Myanmar border face cuts in rations but say they cannot return to areas where fighting is ongoing
Topic: Thai-Burma border, Karen refugees
Description: "International aid for refugees and displaced people in camps on the Thai-Myanmar border has been slashed since Myanmar’s first supposedly democratic government was elected four years ago. The assumption underpinning this cut in funding was that conditions are, or soon will be, safe for refugees to return to their homes. However, many of the Karen refugees and displaced people who returned to their original areas in the years following the election have struggled to re-establish livelihoods amid continued land grabs by the government and military. In the last 12 months, armed conflict in southeastern Myanmar has also increased, forcing thousands of recently returned villagers to flee their homes once more. This correspondent traveled to the Thai-Myanmar border and spoke to people living in camps for refugees and displaced people who are weighing the near-impossible choice between returning home to villages that remain unsafe or finding new ways to survive as the international support that has sustained them for years is cut back..."
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Source/publisher: "Asia Times" (Hong Kong)
2019-04-27
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-27
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "Brave Zu Zu Mi, 10, fled her village after fighting broke out. On her terrifying journey, she protected her siblings as they walked for three days before reaching a camp. Her hope is to become a teacher one day, but access to formal education for displaced children in camps is limited. Unresolved conflict, poverty and under-development are preventing children, like Zu Zu Mi, in remote parts of Myanmar from benefiting from the reform and peace efforts by the government. Investing in children can help steer Myanmar move towards a more prosperous and stable future. All children, from every community, should benefit from the country’s reform and development..."
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Source/publisher: "UNICEF"
2017-05-23
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-20
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Topic: Development project, Food Security/Right to livelihood, Indiscriminate firing of mortars / small arms, Injury, Internally Displaced Persons, Land Confiscation, Refugees, Right to education, Right to health
Topic: Development project, Food Security/Right to livelihood, Indiscriminate firing of mortars / small arms, Injury, Internally Displaced Persons, Land Confiscation, Refugees, Right to education, Right to health
Description: ""In the camp, food rations were reduced, and we no longer received bamboo or wood to fix our homes. We faced challenges for our family livelihoods and we had to sneak out of the camp to go collect wood and bamboo. This is why I decided to return to Myanmar.” Naw Y---, a recently repatriated refugee Between February 20th and 23rd 2019, more than 500 men, women and children from five refugee camps, including Karenni refugee camps, in Thailand, returned to Myanmar.[1] This third refugee repatriation process was facilitated by the Thai and Myanmar governments, the UNHCR, and other humanitarian aid organisations. To shed light on this process and understand how resettled refugees are adjusting to their new lives, KHRG conducted interviews with 13 repatriated refugees in Mae La Way Ler Moo (Mae La Hta)[2] and Lay Hpa Htaw[3] resettlement sites in March and April 2019. These refugees – six men and seven women – came from Nu Poe, Ban Don Yang (Thaw Pa) and Mae La (Beh Klaw) refugee camps. KHRG also interviewed three local leaders responsible for the resettlement sites from the Karen National Union (KNU) and the KNU/KNLA Peace Council (KNU/KNLA-PC). The testimonies of the recently repatriated refugees reveal a stark reality. The journey to their new homes was spent cramped in the back of dusty trucks, without enough food or water. A lack of basic social services, agricultural lands and income-generating opportunities awaited them on their arrival to resettlement sites. Resettled refugees are also concerned by the close proximity of Tatmadaw army camps to their new homes, and by the fact that the land surrounding resettlement sites is contaminated by unexploded ordnances (UXOs)..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)
2019-06-20
Date of entry/update: 2019-07-21
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Size: 715.01 KB
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Description: ''The Burma Army 44th Division, Battalion 2, under the command of Ko Ko Win, launched attacks against the Karen of Papun District, Karen State on 30 and 31 August and 1 September, displacing over 200 Karen people from Kan Nyi Now Village in Dwe Lo Township, Papun (Muthraw) District, Karen State, Burma. In the initial attack on 30 August, the Burma Army fired five rounds of 81 mm mortar into the village and hundreds of rounds of rifle and machine-gun fire. On 31 August they patrolled further out from the village, firing into the jungle. On 1 September, the Karen responded to halt the advance of the Burma Army and fighting continues as of this report. So far in the current attack, one Karen soldier has been wounded and the villagers are in hiding as the attacks continue. At the same time Burma Army troops of Battalion 1, commanded by Min Min Htun, also of the 44th Division, are attacking in the No Hta and Hte Mae K’La area. Casualties are unknown at this time...''
Source/publisher: Free Burma Rangers
2018-09-01
Date of entry/update: 2018-12-14
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "Refugee and IDP return should be a part of the peace agreement." On the day of the 2nd Panglong Union Peace Conference is taking place in Nay Pyi Taw, the displaced Karen people organized a public demonstration demanding the removal of the Burma Army camp from their ancestral lands, in order to facilitate their safe return and rehabilitation of their livelihoods. Similarly as part of this demonstration, Karen IDPs in the Hpla Koh area of Mutraw District- displaced for over four decades- have already organized the same public demonstration on May 15th with the same demands. The ongoing peace process and its mechanisms do not provide better security for the IDPs nor prevent the expansion of the Burma Army camps. Mutraw District/5th Brigade alone has seen the number of Burma Army camps increase from 65 to 81 since 2012. This increase in Burmese troops means that thousands of refugees or IDPs remain afraid to return to their homelands because they dare not live in areas that are under the Burma Army?s control. The IDPs from Ee Tu Hta and Hpla Koh have demanded the following demands for fundamental changes that are needed for a safe, voluntary and dignified return. (1) Burma Army camps must be withdrawn completely from our villages, farms, orchards and the roads to our homes. Specifically, there can be no return until the 17 Burma Army camps shown on the attached map are withdrawn. (2) Land mines must be removed from our villages, farms, orchards and roads. (3) An end to human rights violations, such as sexual abuse, forced labor, extortion, killing, and the destruction or confiscation of farms and orchards. (4) The end of civil war in all ethnic areas of Burma (5) A code of conduct that is properly monitored for government and ethnic military to uphold (6) Refugee and IDP return should be a part of the peace agreement with a comprehensive and clear plan for the reintegration of IDPs and refugees, with IDP return as the first priority, which includes genuine participation of the affected populations. (၂၄ မေလ ၂ဝ၁၇) ယနေ့တွင် ဒုတိယအကြိမ်မြောက်ပင်လုံညီလာခံကို နေပြည်တော်၌ ကျင်းပနေစဉ် ကရင်စစ်ဘေးဒုက္ခသည်များသည် ၎င်းတို့ယခင်နေရပ်ဌာနေသို့ လုံခြုံစိတ်ချ စွာပြန်သွာပြီး ဘဝတဖန်ပြန်လည်စတင်နိုင်ရန်အတွက် အတူတကွစုစည်းကာ မြန်မာ စစ်တပ်၏စစ်စခန်းများအား ၎င်းတို့၏ဘိုးဘွားပိုင်နယ်မြေဒေသများထဲမှထွက်ခွာပေးရန် လုပ်ရှားမှုတစ်ခုပြုလုပ်ကာ..."...For a list of videos click on "Videos" on the KESAN homepage
Source/publisher: KESAN
2017-08-07
Date of entry/update: 2018-11-12
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "I?m willing to return to my homeland only if there is genuine peace." For Burmese subtitles, see the Alternate URL. To commemorate the World Refugee Day on 20th June 2017, standing together with refugees, the Karen Peace Support Network (KPSN) would like to share the voices and concerns of Karen Refugees along the Thai -Burma border. The video "Don?t abandon us" tells the story of refugees who are facing cuts in humanitarian aid while being encouraged to return before their homeland is secure. The video documentary was filmed in two Karen Refugee camps, Mae La Oon and Mae Ra Ma Luang..."
Source/publisher: Karen Peace Support Network (KPSN); KESAN,
2017-06-20
Date of entry/update: 2018-11-12
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "On 8 December 2005, the General Assembly declared that 4 April of each year shall be observed as the International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action. On this occasion, KHRG calls on the Government of Myanmar to take action against the use of landmines in order to better protect villagers living in mine contaminated areas in Myanmar. Decades of ongoing conflict have left villagers living in fear due to the landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) that litter the land and continue to constitute a serious threat to the safety, health and lives of villagers. Despite Myanmar?s Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) which states that all signatories to the 2015 agreement will end the use of landmines, and cooperate towards clearing all landmines, KHRG reports indicate that this promise is not being upheld. KRHG continues to receive reports on the new use of landmines and that landmines remain persistent threat to villagers in the region. KHRG reports show that throughout the last 26 years, Tatmadaw, Border Guard Forces (BGF), and the DKBA (Buddhist, Benevolent and splinter) have planted landmines as a strategy to terrorise villagers. More recently, armed actors are now planting landmines not only to defend themselves but also to protect key income generating industries of which armed groups control..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG) via "Progressive Voice"
2018-04-04
Date of entry/update: 2018-04-07
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Description: "This Interview with Saw A--- and Saw B--- describes events occurring in Hlaingbwe Township, Hpa-an District before September 2016, including forced labour, forced porters, arbitrary demands and fighting between armed groups. Between 2014 and 2016, the villagers who live in E--- and F--- villages, Meh Proo village tract, were forced to do forced labour for the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) led by Commander-in-Chief, Kyaw Thet, and Second Commander-in-Chief, Bo Bee. Before fighting broke out in September 2016 between the Border Guard Force, assisted by the Tatmadaw, and the DKBA, villagers from E--- and F--- villages were forced to porter rations and woven baskets containing landmines by the DKBA. The DKBA arbitrarily demanded 100 baskets of husked rice from E--- and G--- villages to store and use during the fighting. Between 400 and 500 villagers in Meh Proo village tract fled to D--- village because of the fighting between the BGF, aided by the Tatmadaw, and the DKBA, in September 2016."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)
2017-02-20
Date of entry/update: 2017-03-20
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "The following Interview was conducted by a community member trained by KHRG to monitor local human rights conditions. It was conducted in Hpapun District on October 12th 2016 and is presented below translated exactly as it was received, save for minor edits for clarity and security.This interview was received along with other information from Hpapun District, including six other interviews and 62 photographs."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)
2017-03-02
Date of entry/update: 2017-03-20
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "This Interview with Saw A--- describes an arbitrary arrest that occurred in Htantabin Township, Toungoo District, in January 2016. Saw A--- describes how he was arrested and sued because of a demonstration, which he and other people held against Kaung Myanmar Aung Company on January 12th 2016 after the company confiscated villagers? lands. Saw A--- faces criminal charges for using a loudspeaker, as it broke the law against the disturbance of public peace. Chief of Police, Aye Zaw from No. 2 Police Station, Toungoo District, submitted the charge against him as a complainant."
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: "Internally displaced persons (IDPs) returning to their former villages are being sued for trespass by the Asia World and Shwe Padonmar companies who claim the land was given to them for palm oil plantations?"
Creator/author: Saw Tun Linn
Source/publisher: Burma News International
2016-11-08
Date of entry/update: 2016-11-11
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: Conclusion: "...This memorandum describes a Myanmar military counterinsurgency offensive that involved the widespread targeting of civilians in northern Kayin State and eastern Bago Division. Myanmar Army soldiers fired mortars at villages, opened fire on fleeing villagers, destroyed homes, laid landmines in civilian locations, forced villagers to work and porter, and captured and executed civilians. The impact on the population was massive. Tens of thousands of individuals were displaced during the campaign and many were killed. In Thandaung Township—the area which was the focus of the Clinic?s investigation—nearly every village was affected by the Offensive and almost all of the villagers residing in black areas were forced to flee. Evidence collected by the Clinic during the investigation demonstrates that the actions of Myanmar Army personnel during the Offensive constitute crimes under international criminal law. These crimes include the war crimes of attacking civilians, displacing civilians, destroying or seizing the enemy?s property, pillage, murder, execution without due process, torture, and outrages upon personal dignity, and the crimes against humanity of forcible transfer of a population, murder, enslavement, torture, and other inhumane acts. The Clinic has also collected evidence relevant to the war crime of rape, as well as the crimes against humanity of rape and persecution. More research and analysis is necessary to determine whether these crimes could be included in a criminal case associated with the Offensive..."
Source/publisher: International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School
2014-11-05
Date of entry/update: 2014-11-06
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 850.42 KB
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Description: "This Photo Set presents 17 still photographs taken by a local community member who has been trained by KHRG to monitor human rights conditions. The photos were all taken in March 2012 at the Toh Boh Dam construction site in Tantabin Township within locally-defined Toungoo District. According to the community member who took these photos, more than 100 households have been relocated from the area now occupied by the dam construction site, where construction is ongoing."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)
2012-08-23
Date of entry/update: 2012-08-24
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 240.45 KB
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Description: "Since the end of September 2008, SPDC and DKBA troops have begun preparing for what KHRG researchers expect to be a renewed offensive against KNU/KNLA-controlled areas in Pa?an District. These activities match a similar increase in joint SPDC-DKBA operations in Dooplaya District further south where these groups have conducted attacks against villagers and KNU/KNLA targets over the past couple of weeks. The SPDC and DKBA soldiers operating in Pa?an District have forced villagers to carry supplies, food and weapons for their combined armies and also to walk in front of their columns as human minesweepers. This report includes the case of two villagers killed by landmines during October while doing such forced labour, as well as the DKBA?s forced relocation of villages in T?Moh village tract of Dta Greh township, demands for forced labourers from the relocated communities and the subsequent flight of relocated villagers to KNLA-controlled camps in Pa?an District as a means to escape this abuse; all of which took place in October 2008."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)
2008-10-20
Date of entry/update: 2012-03-13
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English, Karen
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Description: "At least 8,885 villagers in 118 villages in Lu Thaw Township, Papun District have either exhausted their current food supplies or are expecting to do so prior to the October 2011 harvest. The 118 villages are located in nine village tracts, where attacks on civilians by Burma?s state army, the Tatmadaw, have triggered wide scale and repeated displacement since 1997. As tens of thousands of civilians in northern Karen State have been displaced, over-population in hiding areas where civilians can more effectively avoid attacks has created shortages of arable land, depleted soil fertility and reduced potential crop yields. Civilians forced to cultivate land or live near Tatmadaw camps, meanwhile, have faced recent attacks, including indiscriminate shelling and attacks on food supplies, buildings and livelihoods. These existing obstacles to food security were compounded by an unusually dry rainy season in 2010, coupled with other environmental factors, causing the 2010 harvest to fail. The impact of acute food shortages on the civilian population is magnified by budgetary constraints of local relief organisations, which can access the affected area but are currently unable to provide emergency assistance to many of those facing food shortages. This regional report is based on research conducted by KHRG researchers in Lu Thaw Township in February and March 2011, including 41 interviews with villagers and village and village tract leaders in the affected areas. This research was augmented by interviews with members of local relief organisations in February, March and April 2011."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)
2011-05-11
Date of entry/update: 2012-02-27
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 1.31 MB
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Description: "This report contains the full transcripts of seven interviews conducted between June 1st and June 18th 2010 in Dta Greh Township, Pa?an District by a villager trained by KHRG to monitor human rights conditions. The villager interviewed seven villagers from two villages in Wah Mee Gklah village tract, after they had returned to Burma following initial displacement into Thailand during May and June 2009. The interviewees report that they did not wish to return to Burma, but felt they had to do so as the result of pressure and harassment by Thai authorities. The interviewees described the following abuses since their return, including: the firing of mortars and small arms at villagers; demands for villagers to porter military supplies, and for the payment of money in lieu of the provision of porters; theft and looting of villagers? houses and possessions; and threats from unexploded ordnance and the use of landmines, including consequences for livelihoods and injuries to civilians. All seven interviewees also raised specific concerns regarding the food security of villagers returned to Burma following their displacement into Thailand."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)
2011-05-06
Date of entry/update: 2012-02-27
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "Tatmadaw forces continue to deliberately target civilians, civilian settlements and food supplies in northern Papun District. On February 25th 2011 shelling directed at communities in Saw Muh Bplaw, Ler Muh Bplaw and Plah Koh village tracts in Lu Thaw Township displaced residents of 14 villages as they sought temporary refuge at hiding sites in the forest. After villagers fled, Tatmadaw troops looted civilians? possessions, burned parts of settlement areas and destroyed buildings and food stores in Dteh Neh village. No civilian deaths or injuries were reported to result from this shelling; local village heads confirmed that all villagers affected managed to flee to safe locations during the shelling, many because of warnings received through a locally-developed system to alert community members of attacks. This report is informed by KHRG photo documentation, as well as interviews with and written testimony from a total of nine village heads, village tract leaders and village officials from communities located or hiding in the affected area. An additional 41 interviews conducted during February and March 2011 in Lu Thaw Township were also drawn upon."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)
2011-04-08
Date of entry/update: 2012-02-27
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 1.4 MB
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Description: "Research submitted by a KHRG field researcher indicates that fighting between DKBA and Tatmadaw troops between April 22nd and April 30th 2011 in Kya In Township has left at least three civilians dead and eight injured. The indiscriminate firing of mortars and small arms in civilian areas by armed groups involved in the conflict, and conflict related abuse including an explicit threat by Tatmadaw forces to burn civilians? homes, caused at least 143 villagers from Gkyaw Hta, Khoh Htoh, T?Aye Shay and Mae Naw Ah villages to seek refuge in the Ra--- area of Thailand between April 22nd and 30th 2011. As of May 13th 2011, KHRG confirmed that the firing of mortars and small arms was ongoing in the areas of K?Lay Kee and Noh Taw Plah, and that some villagers continued to seek refuge at discreet locations in Thailand."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)
2011-05-17
Date of entry/update: 2012-02-27
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 503.17 KB
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Description: "Amidst ongoing conflict between the Tatmadaw and armed groups in eastern Dooplaya and Pa?an districts, civilians, aid workers and soldiers from state and non-state armies continue to report a variety of human rights abuses and security concerns for civilians in areas adjacent to Thailand?s Tak Province, including: functionally indiscriminate mortar and small arms fire; landmines; arbitrary arrest and detention; sexual violence; and forced portering. Conflict and these conflict-related abuses have displaced thousands of civilians, more than 8,000 of whom are currently taking refuge in discreet hiding places in Thailand. This has interrupted education for thousands of children across eastern Dooplaya and Pa?an districts. The agricultural cycle for farmers has also been severely disrupted; many villagers have been prevented from completing their harvests of beans, corn and paddy crops, portending long-term threats to food security. Due to concerns about food security and disruption to children?s education, as well as villagers? continuing need to protect themselves and their families from conflict and conflict-related abuse, temporary but consistent access to refuge in Thailand remains vital until villagers feel safe to return home. Even after return, food support will likely be necessary until disrupted agricultural activities can be resumed and civilians can again support themselves."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)
2011-01-21
Date of entry/update: 2012-02-26
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: BURMA ARMY ATROCITIES PAVE THE WAY FOR SALWEEN DAMS IN KAREN STATE... "As Thailand proceeds with plans to join Burma?s military regime in building a series of dams on the Salween River to gain ?cheap? electricity, this report reveals the atrocities being inflicted on the people of Northern Karen State to pave the way for two of the planned dams. The Upper Salween (Wei Gyi) Dam and Lower Salween (Dar Gwin) Dam are planned to be built on the river where it forms the border between Thailand?s Mae Hong Son province and Burma?s Karen State. Together they will produce about 5,300 MW of electricity. It is estimated that the reservoir for the Upper Dam will stretch for 380 kilometers inside Karen and Karenni States of Burma. Both dams are located at the eastern edge of Papun district in Karen State. Once a Karen liberated area, during the last decade Papun has been the site of repeated military offensives and anti-insurgency campaigns by the regime?s troops to crush the Karen resistance. Before 1992, there were only ten Burma Army garrisons in Papun district. Today there are fifty-four garrisons, including twelve along the Salween river bank, fortified with heavy artillery. The military campaigns have decimated the local population. 210 villages have been destroyed, and villagers forcibly relocated to 31 relocation sites, where movement has been strictly controlled, and villagers are subject to forced labour and other human rights abuses. Tens of thousands of villagers have fled to Thailand as refugees; others live in hiding in the jungle, where they live in constant fear of being found and tortured or killed. In 1992, there were estimated to be about 107,000 people in Papun district. Now this has been halved to about 54,000, of whom about 35,000, or 60%, are internally displaced in the jungles. The rest have fled to Thailand or other parts of Burma. Out of 85 original villages in the mountainous area of Eastern Papun directly adjoining the planned dam sites, only a quarter remain. Most of the communities who had farmed and traded along the Salween River have fled to Thailand, and many farms in the fertile tributary valleys have been lying fallow for over a decade. Over 5,000 villagers remain hiding in the jungle, facing severe food shortages and health problems. Roads to the planned dam sites have been built using forced labour, and landmines have been planted alongside the roads. There has been no consultation with local communities about the dam plans. If the dams are built, the floodwaters will permanently displace many of the communities currently in hiding or living as refugees in Thailand. The increased military security for the dam sites will also inevitably mean further abuses against local populations. The Salween dams fit into the ongoing strategy of the Burmese military regime to use ?development? projects to gain funding and collusion from neighbouring countries to subjugate ethnic resistance movements, and exploit the natural resources in the ethnic areas. Karen Rivers Watch makes the following recommendations:..."
Source/publisher: Karen Rivers Watch
2004-11-00
Date of entry/update: 2012-02-23
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: Burmese
Format : pdf
Size: 1.43 MB
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Description: BURMA ARMY ATROCITIES PAVE THE WAY FOR SALWEEN DAMS IN KAREN STATE... "As Thailand proceeds with plans to join Burma?s military regime in building a series of dams on the Salween River to gain ?cheap” electricity, this report reveals the atrocities being inflicted on the people of Northern Karen State to pave the way for two of the planned dams. The Upper Salween (Wei Gyi) Dam and Lower Salween (Dar Gwin) Dam are planned to be built on the river where it forms the border between Thailand?s Mae Hong Son province and Burma?s Karen State. Together they will produce about 5,300 MW of electricity. It is estimated that the reservoir for the Upper Dam will stretch for 380 kilometers inside Karen and Karenni States of Burma. Both dams are located at the eastern edge of Papun district in Karen State. Once a Karen liberated area, during the last decade Papun has been the site of repeated military offensives and anti-insurgency campaigns by the regime?s troops to crush the Karen resistance. Before 1992, there were only ten Burma Army garrisons in Papun district. Today there are fifty-four garrisons, including twelve along the Salween river bank, fortified with heavy artillery. The military campaigns have decimated the local population. 210 villages have been destroyed, and villagers forcibly relocated to 31 relocation sites, where movement has been strictly controlled, and villagers are subject to forced labour and other human rights abuses. Tens of thousands of villagers have fled to Thailand as refugees; others live in hiding in the jungle, where they live in constant fear of being found and tortured or killed. In 1992, there were estimated to be about 107,000 people in Papun district. Now this has been halved to about 54,000, of whom about 35,000, or 60%, are internally displaced in the jungles. The rest have fled to Thailand or other parts of Burma. Out of 85 original villages in the mountainous area of Eastern Papun directly adjoining the planned dam sites, only a quarter remain. Most of the communities who had farmed and traded along the Salween River have fled to Thailand, and many farms in the fertile tributary valleys have been lying fallow for over a decade. Over 5,000 villagers remain hiding in the jungle, facing severe food shortages and health problems. Roads to the planned dam sites have been built using forced labour, and landmines have been planted alongside the roads. There has been no consultation with local communities about the dam plans. If the dams are built, the floodwaters will permanently displace many of the communities currently in hiding or living as refugees in Thailand. The increased military security for the dam sites will also inevitably mean further abuses against local populations. The Salween dams fit into the ongoing strategy of the Burmese military regime to use ?development” projects to gain funding and collusion from neighbouring countries to subjugate ethnic resistance movements, and exploit the natural resources in the ethnic areas. Karen Rivers Watch makes the following recommendations:..."
Source/publisher: Karen Rivers Watch
2004-11-00
Date of entry/update: 2012-02-23
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: BURMA ARMY ATROCITIES PAVE THE WAY FOR SALWEEN DAMS IN KAREN STATE... "As Thailand proceeds with plans to join Burma?s military regime in building a series of dams on the Salween River to gain ?cheap? electricity, this report reveals the atrocities being inflicted on the people of Northern Karen State to pave the way for two of the planned dams. The Upper Salween (Wei Gyi) Dam and Lower Salween (Dar Gwin) Dam are planned to be built on the river where it forms the border between Thailand?s Mae Hong Son province and Burma?s Karen State. Together they will produce about 5,300 MW of electricity. It is estimated that the reservoir for the Upper Dam will stretch for 380 kilometers inside Karen and Karenni States of Burma. Both dams are located at the eastern edge of Papun district in Karen State. Once a Karen liberated area, during the last decade Papun has been the site of repeated military offensives and anti-insurgency campaigns by the regime?s troops to crush the Karen resistance. Before 1992, there were only ten Burma Army garrisons in Papun district. Today there are fifty-four garrisons, including twelve along the Salween river bank, fortified with heavy artillery. The military campaigns have decimated the local population. 210 villages have been destroyed, and villagers forcibly relocated to 31 relocation sites, where movement has been strictly controlled, and villagers are subject to forced labour and other human rights abuses. Tens of thousands of villagers have fled to Thailand as refugees; others live in hiding in the jungle, where they live in constant fear of being found and tortured or killed. In 1992, there were estimated to be about 107,000 people in Papun district. Now this has been halved to about 54,000, of whom about 35,000, or 60%, are internally displaced in the jungles. The rest have fled to Thailand or other parts of Burma. Out of 85 original villages in the mountainous area of Eastern Papun directly adjoining the planned dam sites, only a quarter remain. Most of the communities who had farmed and traded along the Salween River have fled to Thailand, and many farms in the fertile tributary valleys have been lying fallow for over a decade. Over 5,000 villagers remain hiding in the jungle, facing severe food shortages and health problems. Roads to the planned dam sites have been built using forced labour, and landmines have been planted alongside the roads. There has been no consultation with local communities about the dam plans. If the dams are built, the floodwaters will permanently displace many of the communities currently in hiding or living as refugees in Thailand. The increased military security for the dam sites will also inevitably mean further abuses against local populations. The Salween dams fit into the ongoing strategy of the Burmese military regime to use ?development? projects to gain funding and collusion from neighbouring countries to subjugate ethnic resistance movements, and exploit the natural resources in the ethnic areas. Karen Rivers Watch makes the following recommendations:..."
Source/publisher: Karen Rivers Watch
2004-11-00
Date of entry/update: 2012-02-23
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: Karen
Format : pdf
Size: 1.51 MB
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Description: "This report contains the full transcript of an interview conducted by a KHRG researcher in July 2011 with a villager from Kawkareik Township, Dooplaya District. The researcher interviewed U Sa---, who described how his family and other residents of Pa--- village faced threats and abuses from Tatmadaw soldiers after local DKBA forces captured a Tatmadaw soldier at his home on June 15th 2011. U Sa--- described the following abuses: threats to burn or shell civilian areas; shelling of civilian areas; indiscriminate use of small arms in civilian areas; the taking of civilians as hostages; threats to kill civilians; and the imposition of movement restrictions, including threats to shoot villagers violating restrictions on sight. U Sa--- explained that he and his family fled Pa--- on June 16th to avoid these threats; as of July 3rd, they did not yet feel safe to return to their home. This interview was conducted by a KHRG researcher in July 2011; other details on the situation in Pa--- village after June 15th, including a general situation update, one incident report, and three photographs were submitted by a different KHRG researcher in June and July 2011."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)
2011-07-22
Date of entry/update: 2012-02-19
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 464.96 KB
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Description: "This report contains the full transcripts of three interviews conducted during March and April 2011 in Tantabin Township, Toungoo District by a villager trained by KHRG to monitor human rights conditions. The three female interviewees described the following abuses: attacks on villages, villagers and livelihoods; killing of villagers; theft and looting; taxation and demands; forced displacement; and forced labour, including the production and supply of building materials and forced portering. They also raised concerns regarding food shortage, the provision of education for children during displacement caused by Tatmadaw attacks, and access to healthcare. One of the women explained that villagers communicate with non-state armed groups and other villagers to share information about Tatmadaw movements, prepare secret caches of food in the forest outside their village in case of a Tatmadaw attack, and hold school classes outside of their village in agricultural areas during displacement caused by Tatmadaw attack. These interviews were received along with other information from Toungoo District, including a general update on the situation in Toungoo District, ten incident reports, seven other interviews and 350 photographs.Toungoo Interviews: March and April 2011
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)
2011-07-20
Date of entry/update: 2012-02-19
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 139.44 KB
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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. The situation around Palu village remains highly unstable; in order to avoid conflict and conflict-related abuse, civilians are moving frequently between their homes and fields, more secure locations outside the village and along the Moei River, and both official and unofficial locations in Thailand?s Phop Phra District. Residents of the community have told KHRG that they believe male villagers face a serious threat of being forcibly recruited as porters to support re-supply operations of Tatmadaw units deployed in the area, and that men in Palu are actively avoiding encountering Tatmadaw troops."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)
2010-12-04
Date of entry/update: 2012-02-19
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 301.36 KB
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Description: This report contains 12 incident reports written by a villager trained by KHRG to monitor human rights conditions, based on information provided by 12 different villagers living in hiding sites in Lu Thaw Township, Papun District between November 2010 and January 2011.[1] The twelve villagers described human rights concerns for civilians prior to and during displacement to their current hiding sites, including: deliberate firing of mortars and small arms into civilian areas; burning and destruction of houses, food and food preparation equipment; theft and looting of villagers? animals and possessions; and use of landmines by the Tatmadaw, non-state armed groups, and local gher der ?home guard? groups in civilian areas, resulting in at least one civilian death and two civilian injuries. The reports register villagers? serious concerns about food security in hiding areas beyond Tatmadaw control, caused by effective limits on access to arable land due to the risk of attack when villagers cultivating land proximate to Tatmadaw camps, depletion of soil fertility in cultivable areas, and a drought during the 2010 rainy season which triggered widespread paddy crop failure.[2] To address the threat of Tatmadaw attacks targeting villagers, their food stores and livelihoods activities, villagers reported that they form gher der groups to monitor and communicate Tatmadaw activity; utilise early-warning systems; and communicate amongst themselves and with non-state armed groups to share information about Tatmadaw troop movements. Two villagers stated that the deployment of landmines by gher der groups and KNLA soldiers prevents access to civilian areas by Tatmadaw troops and facilitates security for villagers to pursue their agricultural activities. Another villager described how his community maintained communal agricultural projects to support families at risk from food shortages. These reports were received by KHRG in May 2011, along with other information concerning the situation in Papun District, including 11 other incident reports, 25 interviews, 137 photographs and a general update on the situation in Lu Thaw Township.[3]
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)
2011-08-24
Date of entry/update: 2012-02-12
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 840.59 KB
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Description: "This report contains the full transcript of an interview conducted by a KHRG researcher in August 2011. The KHRG researcher interviewed Saw K---, a 30-year-old medic with the Backpack Health Worker Team (BPHWT), an organisation that provides health care and medical assistance to displaced civilians inside Burma. Saw K--- described witnessing a joint attack by Tatmadaw soldiers from three different battalions on a civilian settlement in Ma No Roh village tract, Te Naw Th?Ri Township, Tenasserim Division in January 2011. Saw K--- reported that mortars were fired into P--- village, causing residents and Saw K---, who was providing healthcare support in P--- village at that time, to flee. Saw K--- reported that Tatmadaw soldiers subsequently entered P--- village and burned down 17 houses, as well as rice barns and food stores belonging to villagers, before planting landmines in the village. According to Saw K---, the residents of P--- have not returned to their homes, and have been unable to coordinate to restart the school that was abandoned in P--- because most households now live at dispersed sites in the area."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)
2011-09-15
Date of entry/update: 2012-02-01
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 149.83 KB
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Description: "This report includes a situation update submitted to KHRG in August 2011 by a villager describing events occurring in Papun District in January 2011 and human rights consequences for local communities. It contains updated information concerning Tatmadaw military activities and details the following human rights abuses: coordinated attacks on villages by Tatmadaw and Border Guard troops and the firing of mortars and small arms in civilian areas, resulting in displacement of the civilian population and the closure of two schools; the use of landmines by the Tatmadaw and non-state armed groups; and forced portering for the Tatmadaw and Tatmadaw Border Guards. The report also mentions government plans for a logging venture and the construction of a dam. Moreover, it documents villagers? responses to human rights concerns, including strategic displacement to avoid attacks and forced labour entailing physical security risks to civilians; advance preparation for strategic displacement in the event of Tatmadaw attacks; and seeking the protection of non-state armed groups against Tatmadaw attacks and other human rights threats."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)
2011-10-06
Date of entry/update: 2012-01-31
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 254.27 KB
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Description: "This report contains the full transcript of an interview conducted in December 2010 in Te Naw Th?Ri Township, Tenasserim Division by a villager trained by KHRG to monitor human rights conditions. The villager interviewed Saw T---, a 59-year-old village head who, at the time of interview, was in hiding from Tatmadaw troops in an area of Tenasserim Division beyond government control. Excerpts from Saw T---?s interview with KHRG have been published in the previous KHRG field report ?Militarization, Development and Displacement: Conditions for villagers in southern Tenasserim Division” however, the full transcript of his testimony is now available below. Saw T--- described witnessing attacks on villagers by Tatmadaw soldiers and cited regular demands for villagers to serve as forced porters for the Tatmadaw and other forms of forced labour as one of the main factors which originally motivated him to go into hiding. Saw T--- explained that villagers in hiding employ a range of strategies to avoid Tatmadaw forces, including coordinating security strategies and sharing information with villagers at other hiding sites, maintaining contact with and seeking protection from non-state armed groups, cultivating crops that are easy to harvest quickly, travelling covertly to villages in mixed-administration areas in order to engage in trade and other livelihoods activities, and crossing vehicle roads during the night."
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 includes a situation update submitted to KHRG in November 2011 by a villager living in a hiding site in northern Lu Thaw Township, Papun District. The villager described an incident that occurred in October 2011 in which Tatmadaw soldiers fired six mortar shells into an area in which civilians are actively seeking to avoid attacks by Tatmadaw troops; no one was killed or injured during the attack. This situation update places the occurrence of such incidents in the context of the repeated and prolonged displacement of villagers in northern Luthaw who continue to actively seek to avoid contact with government troops due to ongoing attacks against civilian objects. The villager who wrote this report raised concerns about food shortages in hiding site areas where the presence of Tatmadaw soldiers proximate to previously cultivated land has resulted in overcrowding on available farmland and the subsequent degradation of soil quality, severely limiting villagers? abilities to support themselves using traditional rotational cropping methods. For detailed analysis of the humanitarian situation in this area of Luthaw Township, see the previous KHRG report Acute food shortages threatening 8,885 villagers in 118 villages across northern Papun District, published in April 2011."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)
2012-01-17
Date of entry/update: 2012-01-18
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 273.46 KB
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Description: "For more than 60 years, Karen rebels have been fighting a civil war against the government of Myanmar...In February 1949, members of the Karen ethnic minority launched an armed insurrection against Myanmar?s central government. In pictures: Sixty years of war. Over 60 years later, the conflict continues, with more than a dozen ethnic rebel groups waging war against the army in their fight for self-rule. Now, the war is entering a new and bloody stage. Myanmar is the only regime still regularly planting anti-personnel mines. But it is not only the army that uses them. Rebel groups also regularly use homemade landmines or mines seized from the military. As the conflict escalates, civilians are trapped in the middle of some of the worst fighting in decades. 101 East travels to Myanmar, home to the world?s longest running civil war."
Source/publisher: Al Jazeera (101 East)
2011-08-11
Date of entry/update: 2011-12-27
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English, Karen (English sub-titles)
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Description: Finding Food in Fear/Living in Fear Introduction for ?one family?.... In February 2010, Burma Issues conducted a field trip inside Karen State to raise internally displaced persons? (IDPs) awareness of the upcoming elections. While they were watching a video, the township where the IDPs were staying was attacked by the Burmese army. They had to flee into the jungle and our cameraman decided to follow. He became particularly interested in one family – a grandmother, 2 parents and 4 young children – who have endured permanent displacement for 3 generations. For 4 months he became deeply involved with them and managed to film an intimate portrait of their daily struggles. He then returned after a period of time to assess if their lives had improved. They hadn?t. As the family had to leave all of their possessions behind their life is now a cyclical nightmare. Every time they manage to build a hut for shelter, or manage to plant a basic crop, they have to flee from violence. Soldiers and landmines ensure that returning is out of the question. They manage to keep on building new shelters but never manage to make a home. Although shot in eastern Burma, this video highlights the plight of the countless millions of IDPs across the country who have to contend with extreme violence, food shortages and a lack of access to health care and education."
Source/publisher: Burma Issues
2010-00-00
Date of entry/update: 2011-10-04
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: Karen (English sub-titles)
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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: "Mass Displacement by the Burmese Army?s forced relocation program in Tenasserim division first rose to awareness when multi-national companies started to build the Yadana gas pipeline. What followed was a Burmese Army offensive in 1997 to KNU controlled areas to secure more of the area for their business interests. After the arrival of foreign companies and the Yadana gas pipeline the Kamoethway area became a refuge for those fleeing from the gas pipeline area. Later Kamoethway area itself became another target for Burmese troops trying to gain better access to the gas pipeline. In 1997 the Karen in Kamethway area were forcibly relocated by Burmese troops to their designated relocation sites where they were under strict control.This report focuses on the forced relocation program in Kamoethway area: how the villagers survive in the relocation sites, what is the current situation of the forced relocation sites and how the Burmese troops control the villagers..."
Source/publisher: Burma Issues
2003-04-00
Date of entry/update: 2010-12-06
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "Burma has a population of 50 million people, recent estimates place 2 million of those people as Internally Displaced Persons (IDP). They live precarious and transient lives in the jungles of Burma?s ethnic border areas and in the more urban central plains. They are denied the stability of having a home and a livelihood and are forced into a constant state of movement: never having the opportunity to maintain a home, their farms, access to education and medical facilities and peace of mind..."
Source/publisher: Burma Issues (Peaceway Foundation)
2003-04-00
Date of entry/update: 2010-12-06
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: "At least 2,000 villagers have been displaced by SPDC Army attacks on villages in northern and central Kyauk Kyi Township, Nyaunglebin District. At least four villagers have been killed, while abandoned villages have been burned, including one clinic. More than ten schools have also been abandoned, disrupting students during their exam period. SPDC Army battalions conducted resupply operations at the end of February and KHRG field researchers predict attacks will soon resume."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG #2010-B6)
2010-04-09
Date of entry/update: 2010-10-13
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English, Karen
Format : pdf pdf
Size: 306.17 KB 55.62 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: Abstract: :Widespread human rights violations have been occurring in ethnic areas of Burma since the late nineteen sixties. This report, based on a 2008/9 field survey, focuses on the government?s use of mass displacement and relocation designed to destabilize the ethnic populations of Karen State. The government first initiated a policy of ethnic relocation in Karen State in 1975 as part of what became known as the four cuts campaign, a policy intended to deprive the ethnic resistance movement of food, money, intelligence and recruits. While noting the existence of such earlier camps, this report specifically examines the lives of people living in sites after a further concerted effort to control the civilian population was initiated in 2006. This report identifies three types of site created by the military regime. The first, roughly translated from Burmese as ?model? villages, are some of the most recent examples and have been created under the guise of development; the second type, initiated in 1979, are primarily security driven and have resulted in highland villages being relocated to the plains; the third, which are also security initiated and mainly located in Taungoo, consists of villages cleared from areas of military infrastructure. Villagers in this latter type, unlike the previous two, have been given no provision for relocation; rather, the population was told to vacate the area with little regard as to where they would go. Relocated villagers, despite the fact that purported contact with resistance forces has all but been eradicated, continue to face severe abuses by Burmese authorities. Forced labour on infrastructure projects and military controlled business is widespread. Villagers are ordered to act as sentries, messengers, porters and minesweepers by the Burma Army. Corruption and illegal taxation is prevalent in all the sites assessed. In addition, the opportunity for making a living has been drastically reduced. Malnutrition, especially in infants, has increased and is exacerbated by army restrictions that prevent villagers from access to food, medicine and education. This report identifies serious issues of concern that continue to affect the ethnic populations of Burma. It highlights the government?s disregard for the rights of its people and its blatant use of the local population as little more than a captive workforce to be used as the military dictates."
Creator/author: Paul Keenan
Source/publisher: Ethnic Nationalities Council
2010-01-00
Date of entry/update: 2010-08-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 3.56 MB
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Description: "On January 17th 2010 the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) Army set up a camp at Kheh Der village tract, Kyauk Kyi Township, Nyaunglebin District. At least 1,000 residents of the ten villages that made up Khe Der tract have fled to avoid attack.[1] KHRG has also confirmed that these SPDC troops have killed two villagers, including a village head, from Kheh Der..." "At least 1,000 villagers have fled from ten villages during the last five days following the establishment of a new SPDC Army camp in central Nyaunglebin District. Two villagers in the area of the camp are confirmed to have been killed by soldiers from this camp. Three other villagers are missing after another SPDC battalion attacked a party of villagers that had escaped from an SPDC relocation site to tend to their farms..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG #2010 B-1)
2010-01-22
Date of entry/update: 2010-03-24
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 290.15 KB
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Description: "...Whether in hiding or living under military control, displaced villagers of Karen State and other areas of rural Burma have shown themselves to be innovative and courageous in responding to and resisting military abuse. They urgently need increased assistance but it is they who should determine the direction of any such intervention. This article, co-authored by two KHRG staff members, appears in issue number 30 of the journal Forced Migration Review (FMR), issued in April 2008 and is available on both the KHRG and FMR websites..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Right Group Articles & Papers (KHRG #2008-W1)
2008-04-23
Date of entry/update: 2009-11-25
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "International reporting of the large-scale migration of those leaving Burma in search of work abroad has highlighted the perils for migrant during travel and in host countries. However, there has been a lack of research in the root causes of this migration. Identifying the root causes of migration has important implications for the assistance and protection of these migrants. Drawing on over 150 interviews with villagers in rural Burma and those from Burma who have sought employment abroad, this report identifies the exploitative abuse underpinning poverty and livelihoods vulnerability in Burma which, in turn, are major factors motivating individuals to leave home and seek work abroad..." _Thailand-based interviewees explained to KHRG how exploitative abuses increased poverty, livelihoods vulnerability and food insecurity for themselves and their communities in Burma. These issues were in turn cited as central push factors compelling them to leave their homes and search for work abroad. In some cases, interviewees explained that the harmful effects of exploitative abuse were compounded by environmental and economic factors such as flood and drought and limited access to decent wage labour.[17] While the individuals interviewed by KHRG in Thailand would normally be classified as ?economic migrants?, the factors which they cited as motivating their choice to migrate make it clear that SPDC abuse made it difficult for them to survive in their home areas. Hence, these people decided to become migrants not simply because they were lured to Thailand by economic incentives, but because they found it impossible to survive at home in Burma. Clearly, the distinction between push and pull factors is blurred in the case of Burmese migrants. The concept of pull factors for migrants is further complicated because migrants are not merely seeking better jobs abroad, but are instead pulled to places like Thailand and Malaysia in order to access protection. For refugees and IDPs, protection is a service that is often provided by government bodies, UN agencies and international NGOs. For refugees in particular, protection is often primarily understood to mean legal protection against refoulement - defined as the expulsion of a person to a place where they would face persecution. Beyond legal protection against refoulement, aid agencies have implemented specific forms of rights-based assistance, such as gender-based violence programmes, as part of their protection mandates. However, for migrants from Burma the act of leaving home is overwhelmingly a self-initiated protection strategy through which individuals can ensure their and their families? basic survival in the face of persistent exploitative and other abuse in their home areas. This broader understanding of protection goes beyond legal protection against refoulement and the top-down delivery of rights-based assistance by aid agencies. It involves actions taken by individuals on their own accord to lessen or avoid abuse and its harmful effects at home.[18] KHRG has chosen to use the term self-initiated protection strategy, rather than a more generic concept like ?survival strategy?, in order to highlight the political agency of those who choose such migration. By seeing this protection in political terms, one can better understand both the abusive underpinnings of migration from Burma as well as the relevance of such migration to the protection mandates of governments, UN agencies and international NGOs currently providing support to conventional refugee populations. Understanding protection in this way presents opportunities for external support for the many self-initiated protection strategies (including efforts to secure employment without exploitation, support dependent family members, enrol children in school and avoid arrest, extortion and deportation) which migrant workers regularly use._
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group Regional & Thematic Reports (KHRG #2009-03)
2009-07-10
Date of entry/update: 2009-11-11
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "Over the past three years, the Burma Army has conducted an extensive forced relocation campaign in Nyaunglebin District. As part of the wider offensive in northern Karen State, the forced relocations in Nyaunglebin District have aimed to bring the region?s entire civilian population into more easily controllable settlements in the plains, along vehicle roads and alongside army camps and bases. Local villagers, however, have resisted these efforts in numerous ways. Villagers? resistance strategies include: fleeing into hiding to evade forced relocation; negotiating with local SPDC commanders to avoid relocation or garner increased freedom of movement at relocation sites; and covertly leaving relocation sites to temporarily or permanently return to their former homes and lands. The Burma Army?s attacks against civilian communities in hiding, combined with forced relocation efforts and civilian evasion in Nyaunglebin District, have created ongoing cycles of displacement..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group Regional & Thematic Reports (KHRG #2009-01)
2009-01-12
Date of entry/update: 2009-11-11
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "Villagers in SPDC-controlled parts of Tenasserim Division, including 60 villages forced to move to government relocation sites in 1996, continue to face abuses including movement restrictions, forced labour and arbitrary demands for ?taxation? and other payments. In response, thousands of villagers continue to evade SPDC control in upland jungle areas. These villagers report that they are pursued by Burma Army patrols, which shoot them on sight, plant landmines and destroy paddy fields and food stores. This report primarily draws on information from September 2009. Because KHRG has not released a field report on the region since 2001, this report also includes quotes and photographs from research dating back to 2007..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group Field Reports (KHRG #2009-F19)
2009-10-29
Date of entry/update: 2009-11-11
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "This report presents information on ongoing abuses in Nyaunglebin (Kler Lweh Htoo) District, Karen State committed by SPDC forces during the period of March to May 2006. Attacks on hill villagers have continued as SPDC units seek to depopulate the hills and force all villagers to relocate to military-controlled villages in the plains and along roadways. However, those villagers living in SPDC-controlled areas are subject as well to continued abuses including arbitrary arrest and detention, extortion, restricted movement and forced labour..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group Field Report (KHRG #2006-F6)
2006-07-10
Date of entry/update: 2009-11-09
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "The first two months of 2007 have done nothing to lessen the intensity of attacks against the villagers of Toungoo District. SPDC forces continue to send in more troops and supplies, build new camps and upgrade older ones using forced village labour, convict porters and heavy machinery brought in for this purpose. Local villagers have been the ones to suffer from the increased military build-up and infrastructure ?development? as such programmes have put the SPDC in a stronger position to enforce their authority over civilians in rural areas and undermine the efforts of local peoples to evade military forces and maintain their livelihoods. Employing the new roadways and camps to shuttle troops and supplies deeper into areas beyond military control, SPDC forces continue to expand their reach in terms of extortion of funds, food and supplies; extraction of forced labour; and restriction of all civilian movement, travel and trade. These abuses have combined to exacerbate poverty, worsen the humanitarian situation and restrict the options of villagers living in these areas..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group Field Report (KHRG #2007-F1)
2007-02-19
Date of entry/update: 2009-11-08
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "The attacks against civilians continue as the SPDC increases its military build-up in Toungoo District. Enforcing widespread restrictions on movement backed up by a shoot-on-sight policy, the SPDC has executed at least 38 villagers in Toungoo since January 2007. On top of this, local villagers face the ever present danger of landmines, many of which were manufactured in China, which the Army has deployed around homes, churches and forest paths. Combined with the destruction of covert agricultural hill fields and rice supplies, these attacks seek to undermine food security and make life unbearable in areas outside of consolidated military control. However, as those living under SPDC rule have found, the constant stream of military demands for labour, money and other supplies undermine livelihoods, village economies and community efforts to address health, education and social needs. Civilians in Toungoo must therefore choose between a situation of impoverishment and subjugation under SPDC rule, evasion in forested hiding sites with the constant threat of military attack, or a relatively stable yet uprooted life in refugee camps away from their homeland. This report documents just some of the human rights abuses perpetrated by SPDC forces against villagers in Toungoo District up to July 2007..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group Field Report (KHRG #2007-F6)
2007-08-09
Date of entry/update: 2009-11-08
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "The first half of 2007 has seen the continued flight of civilians from their homes and land in response to ongoing State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) military operations in Toungoo District. While in some cases this displacement is prompted by direct military attacks against their villages, many civilians living in Toungoo District have told KHRG that the primary catalyst for relocation has been the regular demands for labour, money and supplies and the restrictions on movement and trade imposed by SPDC forces. These everyday abuses combine over time to effectively undermine civilian livelihoods, exacerbate poverty and make subsistence untenable. Villagers threatened with such demands and restrictions frequently choose displacement in response - initially to forest hiding sites located nearby and then farther afield to larger Internally Displaced Person (IDP) camps or across the border to Thailand-based refugee camps. This report presents accounts of ongoing abuses in Toungoo District committed by SPDC forces during the period of January to May 2007 and their role in motivating local villagers to respond with flight and displacement..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group Field Report (KHRG #2007-F4)
2007-05-30
Date of entry/update: 2009-11-08
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "In the ongoing offensive against villagers in northern Karen State, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) has been working to develop infrastructure supportive of increased military control. The construction of new bases and vehicle roads serve this objective as they obstruct the efforts of local communities to evade army patrols and sustain their livelihoods in areas beyond the reach of SPDC forces. Increased control, in turn, allows the SPDC to more easily exploit rural communities for labour, food and other supplies in support of military structures. This report examines how military deployment and the construction of new roads and bases further into Papun District have led local villagers to respond by evading encroaching army units despite the increasing difficulty of this tactic, and how the subsequent displacement has affected children?s access to education..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group Field Report (KHRG #2007-F3)
2007-03-26
Date of entry/update: 2009-11-08
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "With the dry season in northern Karen State well under way, the SPDC continues to intensify its militarisation of the area. In Nyaunglebin District this intensification has come in the form of an increased troop build-up with the regime deploying new military units, establishing new camps and bases and attacking displaced civilian communities in hiding. Maintaining a shoot-on-sight policy SPDC soldiers operating in Nyaunglebin have shot and killed or otherwise severely injured displaced villagers and destroyed rice storage barns and civilian rice supplies across the district. In those areas more firmly under SPDC control, soldiers have ordered villagers to labour building army camps, porter mortar shells and army rations and repair SPDC-controlled vehicle roads in support of the region?s growing military presence. This report looks at the human rights situation in Nyaunglebin District from October to December 2007..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group Field Report (KHRG #2008-F1)
2008-01-11
Date of entry/update: 2009-11-07
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "While the SPDC leadership proposes dates for a constitutional referendum and eventual multiparty elections it nonetheless continues without the slightest hesitation the violent subjugation of villagers in northern Karen State. The area of Toungoo District is now saturated with SPDC troops and the local civilian population living under military control as well as those living in hiding are facing constricting options for their lives. The SPDC has continued to increase the military build-up of the area deploying more troops, building new camps and bases and constructing and upgrading vehicle roads to facilitate troop deployment and the stocking of army camps. In this context attacks on villages, arbitrary detentions, killings, forced labour and extortion have continued consistent with the regime?s policy of civilian subjugation and in opposition to its claims of a potential return to civilian rule through the current constitution-vetting process..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group Field Report (KHRG #2008-F2)
2008-02-15
Date of entry/update: 2009-11-07
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "As part of its campaign of militarisation in Northern Karen State the SPDC has had as a principle strategy the forcible relocation of villagers from areas outside of its control to relocation sites close to Army camps or vehicle roads where civilian control can be firmly established. Over the years, villagers in Papun District and across Karen State have come to learn well that SPDC control means regular abuse and exploitation and, therefore, have sought to avoid such control wherever possible. This report presents one recent example from January to February 2008 of the courageous and varied response strategies villagers use to resist forced relocation and abuse and evade control by SPDC soldiers. Interestingly, this case also hints at some internal dissent and corruption within the SPDC ranks..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group Field Report (KHRG #2008-F3)
2008-03-07
Date of entry/update: 2009-11-07
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "The months of November and December which follow the annual cessation of the rainy season mark the traditional harvest time for the agrarian communities of Karen State when villagers must venture out into their fields in order to reap their ripe paddy crops. Across large areas of Toungoo District, however, where the SPDC lacks a consolidated hold on the civilian population, this time of year has become especially perilous as the Army enforces sweeping movement restrictions backed up by a shoot on sight policy in order to eradicate the entire civilian presence in areas outside its control and restrict the population to military-controlled villages and relocation sites where they can be more easily exploited for labour, money, food and other supplies. Displaced communities in hiding thus risk potential arrest and execution by venturing out into the relatively open area of their hill side agricultural fields where they are more easily spotted by SPDC troops who regularly patrol the area. Yet, because of the Army?s persistent attacks against covert farm fields, food stores and displaced communities in hiding these villagers confront a severe food shortage which has increased pressure on them to tend to their covert fields despite the risks. As a consequence some villagers have already lost their lives; having been shot by SPDC soldiers while attempting to tend their crops and address their community?s rising food insecurity..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group Field Report (KHRG #2007-F11)
2007-12-04
Date of entry/update: 2009-11-07
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "While the rainy season is now underway in Karen state, Burma Army soldiers are continuing with military operations against civilian communities in Toungoo District. Local villagers in this area have had to leave their homes and agricultural land in order to escape into the jungle and avoid Burma Army attacks. These displaced villagers have, in turn, encountered health problems and food shortages, as medical supplies and services are restricted and regular relocation means any food supplies are limited to what can be carried on the villagers? backs alone. Yet these displaced communities have persisted in their effort to maintain their lives and dignity while on the run; building new shelters in hiding and seeking to address their livelihood and social needs despite constraints. Those remaining under military control, by contrast, face regular demands for forced labour, as well as other forms of extortion and arbitrary ?taxation?. This report examines military attacks, forced labour and movement restrictions and their implications in Toungoo District between March and June 2008..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group Field Reports (KHRG #2008-F7)
2008-07-01
Date of entry/update: 2009-11-01
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "SPDC troops have continued to target internally displaced persons (IDPs) within Toungoo District. Civilians continue be killed or injured by the attacks while many of the survivors flee their homes and take shelter in forest hiding sites. Some who have moved into SPDC forced relocation sites continue to secretly return to their villages to cultivate their crops, constantly risking punishment or execution by troops patrolling the areas. The SPDC?s repeated disruption of regular planting cycles has created a food crisis in Toungoo, further endangering the IDPs living there. This report examines the abuses in Toungoo District from April to June 2008..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group Field Reports (KHRG #2008-F9)
2008-08-01
Date of entry/update: 2009-11-01
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "Following the deployment of new Burma Army units in the area of Htee Moo Kee village, Lu Thaw township of northern Karen State, Papun District, during the first week of March 2008, at least 1,600 villagers from seven villages were forced to relocate to eight different hiding sites in order to avoid the encroaching army patrols. These displaced communities are now facing heightened food insecurity and an ongoing risk of military attack. This report is based on in-depth interviews with displaced villagers from Lu Thaw township regarding the recent Burma Army operations and the resultant effects on the local communities. It also includes information on the recent military attack on Dtay Muh Der village, Lu Thaw township, Papun District which Burma Army forces conducted during the first week of June 2008 and which led to the further displacement of over 1,000 villagers..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group Field Reports (KHRG #2008-F6)
2008-06-12
Date of entry/update: 2009-11-01
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "SPDC abuses against civilians continue in northern Karen State, especially in Lu Thaw township of Papun District. Because these villagers live within non-SPDC-controlled "black areas", the SPDC believes it has justification to attack IDP hiding sites and destroy civilian crops, cattle and property. These attacks, combined with the SPDC and KNLA?s continued use of landmines, have caused dozens of injuries and deaths in Papun District alone. Such attacks target the fabric of Karen society, breaking up communities and compromising the educations of Karen youth. In spite of these hardships, the local villagers continue to be resourceful in providing security for their families and education for their children. This report covers events in Papun District from May to July 2008..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group Field Reports (KHRG #2008-F12)
2008-08-22
Date of entry/update: 2009-11-01
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "SPDC abuses against civilians continue in northern Karen State, especially in the Lu Thaw and Dweh Loh townships of Papun District. Abuses have been particularly harsh in Lu Thaw, most of which has been designated a "black area" by the SPDC and so subject to constant attacks by Burma Army forces. Villagers who decide to remain in their home areas are often forced to live in hiding and not only face constant threats of violence by the SPDC, but also a worsening food crisis due to the SPDC?s disruption of planting cycles. This report covers events in Papun District from August 2008 to January 2009..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group Field Reports (KHRG #2009-F2)
2009-02-04
Date of entry/update: 2009-10-31
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "This report describes SPDC operations in and around internally displaced person hiding sites in Lu Thaw Township, Papun District. Villagers in this area continue to face constant physical threats and food insecurity caused by SPDC patrols-indeed, residents have been prevented from consistently accessing their farm fields for so long that they now face a dire food crisis. This report also details the rape of a 13-year-old girl by an SPDC soldier in Dweh Loh Township and the local military commander?s attempt to cover up the incident. This report examines cases of SPDC abuse from December 2008 to March 2009..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group Field Reports (KHRG #2009-F8)
2009-04-11
Date of entry/update: 2009-10-31
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "Since the beginning of 2009, SPDC troops have patrolled areas near displaced hiding sites in Nyaunglebin District. These patrols prevent displaced villagers from cultivating their secret crops or otherwise accessing food, which in turn exacerbates food insecurity for these civilians. Despite such hardships, villagers have responded by cooperating with each other-often sharing food or helping each other cultivate crops and sell goods in ?jungle markets?. This report describes the situation of displaced villagers in Nyaunglebin District from December 2008 to March 2009..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group Field Reports (KHRG #2009-F7)
2009-04-10
Date of entry/update: 2009-10-31
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "While recent media attention has focused on the joint SPDC/DKBA attacks on the KNLA in Pa?an District and the dramatic exodus of at least 3,000 refugees from the area of Ler Per Her IDP camp into Thailand, the daily grind of exploitative treatment by DKBA forces continues to occur across the region. This report presents a breakdown of DKBA Brigade #999 battalions, some recent cases of exploitative abuse by this unit in Pa?an District and a brief overview of the group?s transformation into a Border Guard Force as part of the SPDC?s planned 2010-election process, in which the DKBA has sought to significantly expand its numbers. Amongst those forcibly recruited for this transformation process was a 17-year-old child soldier injured in the fighting at Ler Per Her, whose testimony is included here..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group Field Reports (KHRG #2009-F11)
2009-06-29
Date of entry/update: 2009-10-30
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "As the 2009 rainy season draws to a close, displaced villagers in northern Papun District?s Lu Thaw Township face little prospect of harvesting sufficient paddy to support them over the next year. After four straight agricultural cycles disrupted by Burma Army patrols, which continue to shoot villagers on sight and enforce travel and trade restrictions designed to limit sale of food to villagers in hiding, villagers in northern Papun face food shortages more severe than anything to hit the area since the Burma Army began attempts to consolidate control of the region in 1997. Consequently, the international donor community should immediately provide emergency support to aid groups that can access IDP areas in Lu Thaw Township. In southern Papun, meanwhile, villagers report ongoing abuses and increased activity by the SPDC and DKBA in Dwe Loh and Bu Thoh townships. In these areas, villagers report abuses including movement restrictions, forced labour, looting, increased placement of landmines in civilian areas, summary executions and other forms of arbitrary abuse. This report documents abuses occurring between May and October 2009..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG #2009-F18)
2009-10-15
Date of entry/update: 2009-10-24
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English, Karen
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Description: Untold stories in Myanmar obscured by the catastrophic Cyclone Nargis...based on a media trip organised by Burma Campaign UK
Creator/author: Simon Ostrovsky (Director)
Source/publisher: Al-Jazeera (Listening Post) via Youtube
2009-02-21
Date of entry/update: 2009-02-23
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: A photojournalist put aside his camera to comfort a young Karen woman at the birth of her son in a jungle hideout... "It was a makeshift village on the Thai side of the Moei River bordering Burma and Thailand, about 60 miles north of the Thai border town of Mae Sot. Around 100 Karen lived there, so-called ?internally displaced persons,” refugees from the excesses committed by the Burmese army and the equally feared troops of the regime-backed Democratic Karen Buddhist Army..."
Creator/author: Dai Kurokawa
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" Vol 15, No. 9
2007-09-00
Date of entry/update: 2008-05-02
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: As thousands of displaced Karen fill temporary shelters along the Salween River in Burma, their plight has yet to mobilize the international community... "A large boat churns through the coffee-colored waters of the Salween River that separates Burma from Thailand. Sitting among plastic wrapped bundles of mosquito nets, tins of sardines, boxes of iron nails, plastic buckets, hammers and floor mats, a small chunky man stares at the fast-gathering rain clouds smothering the hot sun. ?There are already 670 people in the camp and hundreds more on their way,? says Hla Henry. ?If we don?t get shelters and clinics built before the heavy rains come, it will be a disaster.? He is the secretary for the Committee for Internally Displaced Karen People and says his job is to get help and support for Karen people forced from their homes by the Burmese army..."
Creator/author: Phil Thornton
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" Vol. 14, No. 6
2006-06-00
Date of entry/update: 2006-12-29
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: A savage onslaught by the Burmese army in Karen State has displaced thousands and seriously undermined any government talk‑ about democratic reform... "Up to four families squash into half-finished bamboo structures of three or four rooms built into the side of a mountain. Those on the other side of the mountain still wait for suitable shelter. Under these thatched roofs, various cooking utensils lie scattered among tired, poorly clothed and underfed Karen refugees just arrived from northern and eastern Karen State in Burma. They were driven out of their homes by an aggressive campaign by the Burmese army, which targets civilians as well as armed ethnic rebels..."
Creator/author: Shah Paung/Mae Ra Moo
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" Vol. 14, No. 6
2006-06-00
Date of entry/update: 2006-12-29
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "As the rainy season nears its end, SPDC operations in northern Papun District persist. Civilians living in Lu Thaw township in northern Papun District who fled from military attacks on their villages earlier in the current offensive have been joined by those more recently displaced. So long as military forces remain active in the area of their abandoned homes, these villagers are unable to return to tend their crops, collect possessions and reclaim their land. In these situations of displacement, villagers confront daily food shortages, unhygienic conditions and the constant threat of detection by military forces. With the establishment of new army camps, the likely construction of more roads and a possible large-scale relocation site at Pwah Ghaw, the ability of displaced villagers to maintain their livelihood, evade military forces and retain some measure of control over their land is becoming highly restricted. Nevertheless, the threat of regular abuse and ceaseless demands in military-controlled areas prompt villagers living in hiding to continue to evade capture and military subjugation..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG #2006-F10)
2006-10-06
Date of entry/update: 2006-10-06
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "KHRG continues to monitor the activities of large SPDC military columns which are systematically destroying villages in Papun, Nyaunglebin and Toungoo districts. We have just received information from a KHRG researcher in the field that in the past week SPDC Military Operations Command #15 has launched its expected pincer operation in northern Papun district, trying to catch Karen villagers between its Tactical Operations Command #2 coming from the south and Tactical Operations Command #3 coming from the north. These two large multi-battalion columns, with several hundred soldiers each, are attempting to force all villagers out of the hills west of the Yunzalin River (Bway Loh Kloh) in northern Papun district of Karen State. Tactical Operations Command #2 has pushed north from Naw Yo Hta and has now set up a new base at Baw Ka Plaw, just north of Kay Pu; while Tactical Operations Command #3 has approached the same area from the north, coming down from Bu Sah Kee and establishing themselves at a new camp at Si Day. This pincer movement and the establishment of these two new Army camps ensure that the hill villagers in the northern tip of Papun district will remain displaced for the coming months and will lose their entire rice harvest, creating serious concerns about their food security and survival over the coming year."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG #2006-B10)
2006-08-09
Date of entry/update: 2006-08-12
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "The SPDC is continuing its attacks on Karen hill villages throughout northern Karen State, trying to entirely depopulate the northern hills. SPDC columns have regrouped and resupplied and are now launching attacks into hill regions not previously reached by the offensive. If successful, this offensive threatens to completely annihilate the unique way of life and culture of the hill Karen, a distinct group within the Karen population, by either forcing them into relocation sites where they cannot practice their culture and livelihood, or simply killing them off and destroying all remnants of their existence..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)
2006-07-04
Date of entry/update: 2006-07-04
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "With the annual monsoon rains now falling over Karen State, the SPDC?s military offensive against civilian villagers in northern Karen State would normally be drawing to a close. However, quite the opposite is happening. The resumption of SPDC Army attacks on villages and the increased patrols in Toungoo District shows that the offensive is far from over. Thousands more landmines have been reportedly deployed across Toungoo District to isolate certain parts of the district and restrict villagers? movements. An analysis of SPDC Army troop movements and tactics suggests that the offensive is now set to expand eastward across the Day Loh River where it can be expected that SPDC units will soon commence shelling and destroying villages. In addition to this, the situation in the southeast of the district has become dire as the villagers are now caught between two advancing columns and have nowhere left to flee. It is likely that dozens more villages will be destroyed and thousands more villagers will be displaced in the coming months. Civilian villagers living in Toungoo District (Taw Oo in Karen), the northernmost of the seven Karen districts in eastern Burma, have been under attack since November last year. In its latest military offensive against the civilian population, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) military junta has been targeting Karen villagers living in the hills of northern Karen State in the ongoing attempt to consolidate its control and bring the whole of the population under its rule. Over the past six months, thousands of villagers have been displaced and dozens of villages have been abandoned and/or destroyed. The wet season has now commenced, but the attacks show no sign of slowing down. Unlike in previous years, when offensive activities would cease with the onset of the rains, the SPDC has actually recently intensified its activities against Karen civilians in Toungoo District. The situation for the villagers is now growing increasingly desperate as more and more troops flood into the district to inflict wholesale human rights violations..."... Table of Contents: The Scope of Displacement: Implications for Health and Education; Increased Isolation of Villages in the Region; Examining the Motives behind the Offensive.
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG #2006-F5)
2006-06-12
Date of entry/update: 2006-06-14
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "War disrupts the normal relationship between people and place. Displaced by war, people must adapt to survive, both physically and socially. When people are displaced for a long time, these adaptations become normal; thus displacement starts as an aberration but becomes a constant way of life. In eastern Burma, 'normal' displacement has led to significant changes in the political, cultural and economic relationships between Karen people and their 'place' - both the physical space they occupy and their position in society. Those changes, and particularly the Karens' own revised perceptions of their place in the world, provide insights into how they, and others in Burma, cope with displacement. In Burma,1 population displacement is widespread, though little understood. Armed conflict, disputes over land and natural resources, and poverty drive people from their homes; but there has been little research on displacement's effect on people's lives.2 Many internally displaced persons live in remote areas that are also theatres of war; and the government of Burma denies permission to researchers or aid workers hoping to visit these contested regions. Furthermore, until a few years ago, Burma's displaced population attracted little international attention. Few, apart from a handful of Thailand-based aid organisations, knew about conditions in the war zones. By the late 1990s, however, the world became more aware of conditions inside Burma, thanks to reports of displacement, increasing numbers of would-be refugees seeking asylum in Thailand, the controversial repatriation of Burmese refugees from Bangladesh, deteriorating tolerance for refugees in Thailand, and the burgeoning influence of Burma's democracy movement..."
Creator/author: Chris Cusano
Source/publisher: "Caught Between Borders" - Norwegian Refugee Council (with kind permission)
2001-00-00
Date of entry/update: 2006-06-10
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 196.73 KB
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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: "...Over the past ten years the SPDC has undertaken numerous ?development projects? across Karen State, consistently claiming that these are purely for the good of the people. Such projects however are anything but, invariably bringing with them an increase in human rights violations in the area surrounding the development site. Villages are typically forcibly relocated and their inhabitants are used as forced labour. One such project is a hydroelectricity power plant that is to be built on the Day Loh River in Toungoo District. In 2005, KHRG examined the activities of 2,000 SPDC Army troops who moved into the region to secure the area surrounding the dam site. This report serves as an update of the dam situation, incorporating information which may be possible evidence of the complicity of foreign corporations, and explores the possibility that the imminent construction of this project and others like it are part of the motivation behind the current offensive underway in northern Karen State..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG #2006-B5)
2006-05-30
Date of entry/update: 2006-05-31
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: Karen Internally Displaced Persons wonder when they will be able to go home... "Sitting in his new bamboo hut in Ler Per Her camp for Internally Displaced Persons, located on the bank of Thailand?s Moei River near the border with Burma, Phar The Tai—a skinny, tough-looking man of 60 who used to hide in the jungles and mountains of Burma?s eastern Karen State—waits for the time when he can return home. ?We are living in fear all the time,? he says about the lives of IDPs. His words reflect the general feeling among IDPs from Karen State, which has produced the largest number of displaced people in Burma..."
Creator/author: Yeni
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" Vol. 13, No. 7
2005-07-00
Date of entry/update: 2006-04-30
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "...Burma?s State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) military junta claims to be implementing peace and development in Karen regions, but civilians in Toungoo District of northern Karen State say they are facing instead brutal treatment aimed at asserting military control. An example of SPDC-led ‘development? is a new dam project on the Thauk Yay Ka (Day Loh) river in western Toungoo District. Villagers in the area of this proposed dam say that it has brought a new military access road to their area and that large SPDC military columns now patrol their villages, looting their belongings and forcing them into labour. Security checkpoints along all roads in the area have proliferated, restricting the movements of villagers and extorting heavy ‘taxes? on all goods they try to take to market. Increased military presence along the roads has occurred throughout the district, from the Than Daung Gyi ? Leit Tho road in the north to the Kler Lah ? Bu Sah Kee road in the southeast, and close to 300 acres of villagers? farmland has been confiscated for the establishment of a large military base at Leit Tho in the north. This continues the campaign of control already exposed in KHRG?s March 2005 report from the district (see ‘Peace?, or Control?, KHRG Report from the Field #2005-F3). SPDC troops burn farmfields and plantations adjacent to vehicle roads for military security, while destroying the villagers? food security. People who have been forced from the hills into SPDC-controlled villages struggle against disease, food scarcity and restrictions on their movement, while those who have chosen to evade SPDC control in the hills must remain mobile to evade SPDC patrols who destroy their rice fields and landmine the pathways. In the relocation villages and in the forests, people are facing a difficult struggle against food scarcity, deteriorating health conditions, and SPDC human rights abuses..."...Dam security; Road security; New Army base at Leit Tho; Destruction of villages and livelihoods; Relocation sites and roadsides; Villagers in hiding; Health; Children and education
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG #2005-F7)
2005-08-19
Date of entry/update: 2005-08-20
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "...While the nonviolent struggle of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi against the Burmese military government?s continuing repression has captured the world?s attention, the profound human rights and humanitarian crisis endured by Burma?s ethnic minority communities has largely been ignored.4 Decades of armed conflict have devastated ethnic minority communities, which make up approximately 35 percent of Burma?s population. The Burmese army, or Tatmadaw, has for many years carried out numerous and widespread summary executions, looting, torture, rape and other sexual violence, arbitrary arrests and torture, forced labor, recruitment of child soldiers, and the displacement and demolition of entire villages as part of military operations against ethnic minority armed opposition groups. Civilians bear the brunt of a state of almost perpetual conflict and militarization. Violations of international human rights and humanitarian law (the laws of war) by the Tatmadaw have been particularly acute in eastern Karen state, which runs along the northwestern border of Thailand...One result of the Tatmadaw?s brutal behavior has been the creation of large numbers of internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees among Burma?s ethnic minority communities. Conflict and its consequences have been going on for so long that in many ethnic minority-populated areas, continuous forced relocations and displacement??interspersed with occasional periods of relative stability??have become a fact of life for generations of poor villagers. The scale of the IDP problem in Burma is daunting. Estimates suggest that, as of late 2004, as many as 650,000 people were internally displaced in eastern Burma alone. According to a recent survey, 157,000 civilians have been displaced in eastern Burma since the end of 2002, and at least 240 villages destroyed, relocated, or abandoned. The majority of displaced people live in areas controlled by the government, now known as the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), or by various ethnic armed groups that have agreed to ceasefires with the government. But approximately eighty-four thousand displaced people live in zones of ongoing armed conflict, where the worst human rights abuses continue. Many IDPs live in hiding in war zones. Another two million Burmese live in Thailand, including 145,000 refugees living in camps. Karen State is the location of some of the largest numbers of IDPs in Burma. Since 2002, approximately 100,000 people have been displaced from Karen areas,which include parts of Pegu and Tenasserim Divisions. Though a provisional ceasefire was agreed in December 2003 between the SPDC and the Karen National Union (KNU), sporadic fighting continues. Tatmadaw military operations against the KNU?s army, the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), in the first months of 2005 caused numerous deaths and injuries to civilians in poor villages along the Thai border. They also forced many civilians to flee internally or to Thailand. For example, at least 9,000 civilians were displaced in Toungoo District, in the far north of Karen State bordering Karenni State, and in Nyaunglebin District in northwest Karen State, during major Tatmadaw offensives between November 2004 and February 2005. The majority of Karen IDPs have been forced out of their homes as a direct result of the Tatmadaw?s ?Four Cuts” counter-insurgency strategy, in which the Burmese army has attempted to defeat armed ethnic groups by denying them access to food, funds, recruits, and information from other insurgent groups..."
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch
2005-06-09
Date of entry/update: 2005-06-09
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: "...The report pin points the dismal conditions for the Karen people throughout the district, but the desperate situation of specific group in worst hit areas. It was always the intention to build on the BERG report, Forgotten Victims of a Hidden War: Internally Displaced Karen in Burma, published in 1998, which provided the background and general description of the displacement of the Karen in Kawthoolei. The Mu Traw report has been the first attempt by the CIDKP to provide more detailed information focussing on a single district. It is hoped that the report will lead to future publications regarding the situation in the other Karen districts..."
Creator/author: Saw Klo Wah Moo, Saw Ternder, Saw La Thwe
Source/publisher: Committee for Internally Displaced Karen People
2000-12-00
Date of entry/update: 2005-04-11
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 1.38 MB
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Description: "This report describes the current situation faced by rural Karen villagers in Toungoo District (known as Taw Oo in Karen). Toungoo District is the northernmost district of Karen State, sharing borders with Karenni (Kayah) State to the east, Pegu (Bago) Division to the west, and Shan State to the north. To the south Toungoo District shares borders with the Karen districts of Nyaunglebin (Kler Lweh Htoo) and Papun (Mutraw). The westernmost portion of the district bordering Pegu Division consists of the plains of the Sittaung River, which are heavily controlled by the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) military junta which presently rules Burma. The rest of the district to the east is covered by steep and forested hills that are home to Karen villagers who live in small villages strewn across the hills. For years, the SPDC has endeavoured to extend its control through the hills, but their efforts thus far have been hampered by the continued armed resistance of the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA). Within the areas that are strongly controlled by the SPDC, the villagers must live with constant demands for forced labour, food, and money from the SPDC battalions that are based in the area. Villages that do not comply with SPDC demands risk being relocated and burned. Many villages have been burned and their inhabitants forcibly relocated to sites where the SPDC may more easily control and exploit them. Those villagers who do not move to the relocation sites flee into the jungles where they live as internally displaced persons (IDPs). Several thousand villagers now live internally displaced in the mountains of Toungoo District. These villagers live in almost constant fear of SPDC Army units, and must run for their lives if they receive word that a column of soldiers is approaching. SPDC Army columns routinely shoot displaced villagers on sight. The villagers here continue to suffer severe human rights violations at the hands of the SPDC Army soldiers, including, but not limited to summary arrest, torture, forced labour, extortion, extrajudicial execution, and the systematic destruction of crops and food supplies. Although a verbal ceasefire is in place between the Karen National Union (KNU) and the SPDC, not much has changed for the villagers in the district. KNLA and SPDC military units still occasionally clash. The SPDC has taken advantage of the ceasefire to move more troops into the area and to build new camps. These new camps and troops have meant that the villagers now have to do forced labour building the new camps and portering supplies up to the camps. There are also more troops and camps to demand food and money from the villagers. The many new camps have made it more difficult for internally displaced villagers work their fields or to go to find food..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)
2004-09-00
Date of entry/update: 2004-11-16
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: 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: Since mid-August, new flows of refugees have begun arriving at the Thai border from Karen villages in southeastern Pa?an District, central Karen State. Over 100 families, totalling well over 500 people, have arrived thus far and they say that many more will follow. Those who have arrived so far come from the villages of Pah Klu, Taw Oak, Tee Hsah Ra, Kyaw Ko, Tee Wah Thay, Tee Khoh Taw, Tee Wah Klay, B?Naw Kleh Kee and Ker Ghaw, most of which are within 2-3 days? walk of the border. . . According to Karen National Union (KNU, the main Karen opposition group) sources, troops from as many as 5 different SPDC Light Infantry Divisions have been sent into the area for an operation to run from August to December 1999, intending to subjugate the area with a special focus on clearing landmines by using villagers as human minesweepers. ADDITIONAL KEYWORDS: forced resettlement, forced relocation, forced movement, forced displacement, forced migration, forced to move, displaced
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG Information Update)
1999-08-27
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: Over the past four months, villagers from southeastern Pa?an District in Karen State have been steadily arriving at areas along the Thai border 35-60 km north of the Thai town of Mae Sot. They have risked treacherous travelling conditions during the rainy season to make the journey, camping in makeshift shelters along the way with little food or clothing. Testimonies collected from recent refugees indicate that the SPDC is intensifying its operation from August-December 1999 to clear all villages in the southeastern corner of Pa?an District in order to undermine Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) activities in the region.
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG Information Update)
1999-09-29
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: The current SLORC Offensive and Displaced People "From July 92. Karen men, women, children: Air-raids on civilian villages (20 civilians killed); precarious economic life of people hiding in jungle; children die of malnutrition; Saw Hta offensive; list of villages and numbers of the people displaced; economic oppression..." Area: Tee Moo Khee Area, Kaw Lu Der Area, Saw Hta
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG) Regional & Thematic Reports
1992-11-13
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : html
Size: 11.98 KB
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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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