Forced relocation of several ethnic groups

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Websites/Multiple Documents

Description: Highly recommended. Well-organised site. In "list of sources used" are most of the main reports from 1995 bearing on IDPs (though the reports from 1995 to 1997 are missing - temporarily, one hopes) and more Burma pages updated June 2001. Go to the home page for links on IDPs, including the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement.
Source/publisher: IDMC
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English
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Description: One major report, several shorter articles. " The repressive government of Burma has caused hundreds of thousands of people, mainly members of minority ethnic groups, to flee to Thailand, Bangladesh and other countries in search of safety."
Source/publisher: Refugees International
Date of entry/update: 2010-11-29
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English
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Description: A Search engine. UNHCR Documentation Centre?s website. Lots of refugee and other documents.
Date of entry/update: 2010-11-29
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
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Description: Some reports and articles on Burma
Source/publisher: US Committee for Refugees (USCR)
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English
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Individual Documents

Description: "This report is based on information submitted to KHRG in September 2012 by a community member from Yangon Region trained by KHRG to monitor human rights conditions. It describes events occurring in Pyay City, Bago Division, on August 3rd 2012 when City Development Committee staff and policemen carried out a nighttime city-sweep to remove homeless families. The authorities used a public rubbish truck to forcibly detain the families and then to transport them to Okshittpin Forest, which is halfway between Pyay City and the border with Rakhine State. The families were abandoned in the forest during a monsoon rain, and were threatened not to return to Pyay. Both children and adults were threatened with prison if they returned. However, the families did return to Pyay, after they encountered several problems along the way, including being without food to eat for two days, not having baby formula for infants, inadequate shelter under which to sleep, and most of the younger children became sick. Once they returned to Pyay City, the families were assisted with medicine. Pocket money and education was provided to the children by a local organization."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)
2013-07-08
Date of entry/update: 2013-08-10
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 84.49 KB
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Description: "In some countries, the internally displaced are beyond the reach of international humanitarian organizations. Although the displaced populations concerned may be in dire need of assistance and protection, and could benefit immeasurably from outside support, few or no steps are taken, or strategies developed, to gain access to them. Whereas conflict is the inhibiting factor in some cases, in others, the governments concerned do not request aid and by and large reject any that is offered. Only rarely does the United Nations Security Council deem such situations to be threats to international peace and security and demand entry. Leading examples of governments that successfully bar international involvement with their displaced populations are Turkey, Burma, and Algeria. The situations in the three countries are, of course, quite different. In Turkey and Burma, governments have deliberately uprooted people in order to destroy their possible links to insurgency movements. In Algeria, displacement is a by-product of conflict, primarily between the government and Islamist insurgent groups..."
Creator/author: Roberta Cohen
Source/publisher: "Forced Migration Review" No. 6
1999-12-00
Date of entry/update: 2010-11-29
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Seminar on IDPs in Burma,
Creator/author: Ms. Kathleen Newland
Source/publisher: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
2000-05-24
Date of entry/update: 2010-11-29
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "...The main objective of this research is to examine housing, land, and property rights in the context of Burma?s societal transition towards a democratic polity and economy. Much has been written and discussed about property rights in their various manifestations, private, public, collective, and common in terms of ?rights?. When property rights are widely and fairly distributed, they are inseparable from the rights of people to a means of living. Yet in the contemporary world, millions of people are denied access to the land, markets, technology, money and jobs essential to creation of livelihoods (Korten, 1998). The most significant worldwide problems of unjust property rights remain those associated with landlessness, rural poverty, and inequality (Hudson-Rodd & Nyunt, 2000)..."
Creator/author: Nancy Hudson-Rodd
Source/publisher: Edith Cowan University, Centre for Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE)
2004-10-00
Date of entry/update: 2007-02-26
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 741.09 KB
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Description: "...The objective of this research paper is to describe specific ways in which the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) deprives the people of Burma of their land and livelihood. Confiscation of land, labour, crops and capital; destruction of person and property; forced labour; looting and expropriation of food and possessions; forced sale of crops to the military; extortion of money through official and unofficial taxes and levies; forced relocation and other abuses by the State..."
Creator/author: Dr Nancy Hudson-Rodd, Dr Myo Nyunt, Saw Thamain Tun, Sein Htay
Source/publisher: Edith Cowan University, National Council of Union of Burma (NCUB), Federation of Trade Unions-Burma (FTUB)
2004-04-00
Date of entry/update: 2007-02-26
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 448.43 KB
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Description: "The situation of internally displaced people (IDPs), in Burma remained critical throughout 2002. The U.S. State Department?s country report for 2002 on Burma estimated that forced relocations had produced hundreds of thousands of refugees, with as many as one million internally displaced persons. "Throughout 2002 the military continued to forcibly relocate minority villages, especially in areas where ethnic activists and rebels were active, and in areas targeted for the development of international tourism." (Human Rights Watch World Report 2003) In 2002, Human Rights Watch reported that tens of thousands of villagers in the ethnic insurgent areas remained in forced relocation sites or were internally displaced. It has been estimated that in 2002 around 170 villages have been burned down and 300 villages have been forced to relocate, in the Karen area alone. (Source: UN Wire) The most significant displacement has occurred in the border ethnic areas where the military regime has been at war with ethnic armed opposition groups for over 50 years. Ethnic minorities such as the Muslim Rohingyas of Arakan State, the Shan, Karen, Kachin and the Karenni, as well other smaller ethnic groups that live in the same areas have suffered disproportionately. Whatever their background, internally displaced persons in Burma live under conditions of severe deprivation and hardship. Almost all are without adequate access to food or basic health and education services. A large number of IDPs are women and children. People in Burma become displaced as a result of SPDC policies that either directly or indirectly compel them to leave their homes. Villagers are subject to forced relocation by the SPDC as part of the military?s four-cuts program; for urban resettlement or "beautification" projects, which are often linked to the SPDC?s campaigns to promote tourism; and for rural resettlement programs. People are also frequently left with no choice but to flee their home villages when faced with resource scarcity, and the loss of their security and livelihoods that result from oppressive SPDC policies. Economic reasons for fleeing include: numerous demands for forced labor and portering; government crop quotas; ceaseless taxes and fees to support the army; army looting or destruction of property; and uncompensated loss of land or property due to SPDC development projects. Even more pressing are people?s fears of the torture, rape, arbitrary arrest and arbitrary killings perpetuated in border areas by the military. Finally, villagers also often flee in anticipation of forced relocation..."
Source/publisher: Human Rights Documentation Unit, NCGUB
2003-10-00
Date of entry/update: 2003-11-10
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : htm
Size: 156.56 KB
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Description: 1. Introduction 1; 2. Historical Context and Current Implications of the State Taking Control of People, Land and Livelihood 2; 2.1. Under the Democratically Elected Government 2; 2.1.1. The Land Nationalization Act 1953 2; 2.1.2. The Agricultural Lands Act 1953 2; 3. Under the Revolutionary Council (1962-1974) 2; 3.1. The Tenancy Act 1963 3; 3.2. The Protection of the Right of Cultivation Act, 1963 3; 4. The State Gains Further Control over the Livelihoods of Households 3; 4.1. Under the Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP) Rule (1974 - 1988) 3; 4.1.1 Land Policy and Institutional Reforms 3; 4.2 Under the Military Rule II - SLORC/SPDC (1988 - present) 4; 4.2.1. Keeping it Together: Agriculture, Economy, and Rural Livelihood 5; 5. Militarization of Rural Economy 8; 5.1. Land confiscation 8; 5. 2. Land reclamation 11; 5.3. Military Agricultural Projects 13; 5.4. The Fleecing of Burmese Farmers 15; 5.5. Procurement 17; 5.5.1. Other crops 20; 5.5.2. Farmers tortured in Mon State 23; 6. Forced Relocation and Disparity of Income and wealth 25; 7. Conclusion 29... APPENDICES NOT YET ACQUIRED Appendix 1. Summary Report on Human Rights Violations by SPDC and DKBA Troops in 7 Districts of KNU ( 2000 to 2002) 31; Appendix 2. Forced labor by SPDC troops on road construction from Pa-pun to Kamamaung in 2003 38; Appendix 3. Survey Questionnaires (Ward/village and Household - in Burmese) 45.
Creator/author: Dr Nancy Hudson-Rodd, Dr Myo Nyunt, Saw Thamain Tun, Sein Htay
Source/publisher: NCUB, FTUB
2003-05-00
Date of entry/update: 2003-08-12
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : htm pdf
Size: 19.45 KB 412.77 KB
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Source/publisher: Human Rights Documentation Unit of the NCGUB
1995-09-00
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : htm
Size: 80.91 KB
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Description: "The plight of Internally Displaced People, or IDPs, in Burma was a continuing problem over the year 2000. Burma contributes over an estimated 1 million IDPs to the estimated world IDP population of 21 million and estimated Asian IDP population of 5 million. (The CIDKP put the IDP number at 2 million in 2000.) Internally displaced persons in Burma live under conditions of severe deprivation and hardship. All but few of these people are without adequate access to food or basic social, health and education services. A large number of this group are women and children. As no legal instruments for IDPs exist in today?s world, this mass population group in Burma has been left vulnerable because of the lack of international protection and assistance available to them. IDPs in Burma have been displaced by similar factors, which although are many, are all related to SPDC presence and policy..."
Source/publisher: Human Rights Documentation Unit, NCGUB
2001-10-00
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : htm htm
Size: 119.33 KB 6.04 KB
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Description: "The situation of Internally Displaced People (IDP?s), in Burma remained critical throughout 2001. The US State Department estimates that there could be up to1 million members of ethnic minority groups who the SPDC has forcibly relocated from their villages and districts, and who are currently living along the Thai border. Reports from NGOs also estimate that an additional 1 million IDP?s are living a precarious existance in other locations throughout the country..."
Source/publisher: Human Rights Documentation Unit, NCGUB
2002-09-00
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : htm
Size: 156.56 KB
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Description: Urban and rural displacement in Myanmar
Source/publisher: Burma Ethnic Research Group (BERG)
1999-07-00
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : htm
Size: 145.7 KB
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Description: Extracts on forced relocation and confiscation of land from the report of the Commission of Inquiry appointed under article 26 of the Constitution of the International Labour Organization to examine the observance by Myanmar of the Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29). Though its main focus was forced labour, the Commission of Inquiry also reported other violations of human rights. This series of customised versions of the report takes a number of these themes. The present document highlights references to forced relocation and confiscation of land. ... ADDITIONAL KEYWORDS: forced resettlement, forced relocation, forced movement, forced displacement, forced migration, forced to move, displaced
Source/publisher: ILO Commission of Inquiry (extracts)
1998-07-02
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : htm
Size: 221.61 KB
Local URL:
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Description: Urban Development. On Nov 14th 1996, the Slorc posted a notice at the gate of Kyandaw Cemetery giving relatives one month?s notice to move the remains to a new site at Shwe Nyaung-bin, two hours drive from Rangoon. Kyandaw cemetery is located on 50-70 acres of what has become prime real estate in downtown Rangoon, near Hantha-waddy intersection. Both Burmese and foreigners are buried there of Christian, Muslim, Hindu, and Buddhist faiths. Rumours abound in Rangoon as to what the military government wants the land for; a casino to be built by Khun Sa, a hotel to be built with foreign investment, or, a Japanese shopping center.
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy", Vol. 5. No. 1
1997-01-00
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "?Total Denial? catalogues the systematic human rights abuses and environmental degradation perpetrated by SLORC as the regime seeks to consolidate its power base in the gas pipeline region. Further, the report shows that investment in projects such as the Yadana pipeline not only gives tacit approval and support to the repressive SLORC junta but also exacerbates the grave human rights and environmental problems in Burma.... The research indicates that gross human rights violations, including summary executions, torture, forced labor and forced relocations, have occurred as a result of natural gas development projects funded by European and North American corporations. In addition to condemning transnational corporate complicity with the SLORC regime, the report also presents the perspectives of those most directly impacted by the foreign investment who for too long have silently endured the abuses meted out by SLORC for the benefit of its foreign corporate partners." ...Additional keywords: environment, human rights violations.
Source/publisher: EarthRights International (ERI) and Southeast Asian Information Network (SAIN)
1996-07-10
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 310.45 KB
Local URL:
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Description: "Three Western oil companies -- Total, Premier and Unocal -- bent on exploiting natural gas , entered partnerships with the brutal Burmese military regime. Since the early 1990?s, a terrible drama has been unfolding in Burma. Three western oil companies -- Total, Premier, and Unocal -- entered into partnerships with the brutal Burmese miltary regime to build the Yadana and Yetagun natural gas pipelines. The regime created a highly militarized pipelinecorridor in what had previously been a relatively peaceful area, resulting in violent suppression of dissent, environmental destruction, forced labor and portering, forced relocations, torture, rape, and summary executions. EarthRights International co-founder Ka Hsaw Wa and a team of field staff traveled on both sides of the Thai-Burmese border in the Tenasserim region to document the conditions in the pipeline corridor. In the nearly four years since the release of "Total Denial" (1996), the violence and forced labor in the pipeline region have continued unabated. This report builds on the evidence in "Total Denial" and brings to light several new facets of the tragedy in the Tenasserim region. Keywords:, human rights, environment, forced relocation, internal displacement, foreign investment. ADDITIONAL KEYWORDS: forced resettlement, forced relocation, forced movement, forced displacement, forced migration, forced to move, displaced
Source/publisher: Earthrights International
2000-05-00
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 5.98 MB
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Description: Situation to the end of 1996
Source/publisher: US Committee for Refugees (USCR)
1997-00-00
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: Situation to end 1998
Source/publisher: US Committee for Refugees (USCR)
1999-00-00
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: Situation to end 1997
Source/publisher: US Committee for Refugees (USCR)
1998-00-00
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: Situation to end 2001
Source/publisher: US Committee for Refugees (USCR)
2002-00-00
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "...Under military control, rural Burma?s subsistence farming village is losing its viability as the basic unit of society. Internally displaced people are usually thought to have fled military battles in and around their villages, but this paradigm doesn?t apply to Burma. In the thousands of interviews conducted by the Karen Human Rights Group with villagers who have fled their homes, approximately 95 percent say they have not fled military battles, but rather the systematic destruction of their ability to survive, caused by demands and retaliations inflicted on them by the SPDC military. Where there is fighting, it is fluid and sporadic, and most villagers can avoid it by hiding for short periods in the forest. Once the SPDC occupies the area around their village, however, the suffering is inescapable. Villages, rooted to the land, are defenseless and vulnerable, and villages can be burned -- destroying rural life in southeastern Burma. "
Creator/author: Kevin Heppner
Source/publisher: "Cultural Survival Quarterly" Issue 24.3
2000-10-31
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: This document presents the findings, conclusions and recommendations of the People's Tribunal on Food Scarcity and Militarization in Burma. The Tribunal?s work will appeal to all readers interested in human rights and social justice, as well as anyone with a particular interest in Burma. The Asian Human Rights Commission presents this report in order to stimulate discourse on human rights and democratization in Burma and around the world.
Source/publisher: People's Tribunal on Food Scarcity and Militarization in Burma
1999-10-00
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: an edited version of a report by the People?s Tribunal on Food Scarcity and Militarization in Burma, which was published by the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) in October 1999.
Creator/author: People
Source/publisher: "Burma Debate", Vol. VI, No. 3
1999-09-00
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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