The Regional Consultation on the Situation of Internally Displaced Peoples, hosted by Forum Asia, was held in Bangkok at
SASA International House on October 21 and 22, 1999. There were 43 participants over the two days, with interests in
seven countries in the region. The backgrounds of the participants were diverse: while the majority represented NGOs
working directly with displaced peoples and displaced peoples' organisations, there were also representatives from the
UNHCR, academics and Forum Asia.

In a nation of 50 million people there are estimates that up to 1 million are Internally Displaced Persons (IDP). Despite the relatively recent use of the phrase internally displaced people in the context of Burma, there is evidence that the practices that lead to this displacement have been in place for a long period of time.

Burma Partnership is pleased to announce the launch of a new documentary film today to coincide with the International Day of Peace. The film, entitled “Guns, Briefcases and Inequality: The Neglected War in Kachin State,” demonstrates the need for the government of Burma to engage in meaningful political dialogue with all ethnic nationalities on equal terms, including discussing amendments to the 2008 Constitution.

...This paper examines the value and limitations of HLP restitution in contexts of customary land tenure
and legal pluralism and examines the role that customary justice can play as part of a transitional
justice process. It argues that actors involved with restitution and broader efforts to reinstate justice,
the rule of law, and democracy in post-conflict and transitional contexts should engage, albeit under
certain conditions, with nonstate justice mechanisms. For the overwhelming majority of populations

Mit Zwangsarbeit, ethnischen Umsiedlungen und ausländischen Investitions-Dollars sichert die Militärjunta ihre Machtstrukturen in Myanmar. Forced labour, internal displacement, foreign investments, power structures.

Critics dismiss Asean plan for free movement of labor...

"DESPITE the high-minded ideals of the Asean Vision 2020 plan launched more than a decade ago by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), cynics continue to dismiss its aim of labor mobility in a “community of caring societies” as just so much humbug.

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.

Introduction: "For nearly four decades, Myanmar (also known as
Burma) was ruled by military-led governments that
committed grave human rights violations, resulting in
international economic sanctions against the
country for
many years.1 Beginning in 2012, however, after the
liberalization of some governmental policies, Western
nations lifted these sanctions. In an effort to gain
ground on countries like China and India that had
maintained economic ties with Myanmar during the time

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

About 60,000 Kachin villagers fleeing Burma Army attacks and persecution, who are sheltering in
Kachin-controlled territory along the China-Burma border, have received almost no international aid since
conflict broke out in June 2011.
Data compiled from local relief groups shows that international aid agencies, including the UN, have
provided only 4% of basic food needs of this displaced population, who have been kept alive almost entirely
by private donations from local and overseas compatriots. Over 2 million US dollars are needed a month for

...This chapter has described aspects of forced migration in Burma that
are under-researched, including the phenomenon of serial displacement,
and has proposed a three-part typology. Many internally displaced
persons and others move repeatedly, sometimes for a combination
of reasons; others have been displaced for some time and have found
at least semi-durable solutions to their plight; many are living mixed
with communities who are not—or have not recently been—displaced.
Forced migrants’ needs can be assessed and appropriate interventions

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