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.

This report includes a situation update submitted to KHRG in April 2012 by a community member describing events occurring in Papun District, in the period between January and March 2012. It provides information on land confiscation by Border Guard Battalion #1013, which has appropriated villagers’ communal grazing land between D--- and M--- villages for the construction of barracks for housing soldiers' families.

This report contains the full transcript of an interview conducted during October 2011 in Nyaunglebin District by a community member trained by KHRG to monitor human rights conditions. The community member interviewed Naw P---, a 42-year-old flat field farmer, who described her experiences being forcibly relocated by Tatmadaw troops, most recently in 2004 from D--- to T--- relocation village.

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.

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

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.

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

This report contains the full transcript of an interview conducted by a KHRG researcher in May 2011 with a villager from Ler Doh Township, Nyaunglebin District. The researcher interviewed Naw P---, a 40-year-old farmer who described her experiences living in a Tatmadaw-controlled relocation site, and in her original village in a mixed-administration area under effective Tatmadaw control.

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.

...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.

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.