This report includes a situation update submitted to KHRG in May 2013 by a community member describing events occurring in Papun District mostly between March 2012 and March 2013, and also provides details on abuses since 2006. The report specifically describes incidents of forced labour, theft, logging, land confiscation and gold mining. The situation update describes military activity from August 2012 to January 2013, specifically Tatmadaw soldiers from Infantry Battalion (IB) #96 ordering villagers to make thatch shingles and cut bamboo.

Oil, gas and mineral revenues are generated in nearly every state and region in Myanmar, with the most important interests lying in Bago, Kachin, Magway, Mandalay, Sagaing, Shan and Tanintharyi. In these and other regions, petroleum and mining activities have had significant impacts on livelihoods in affected communities, and on the local environment. There is also a perceived lack of benefits from extraction accruing to local populations.

...The research presented in this discussion paper
by Thet Aung Lynn and Mari Oye provides an
overview of the current role of subnational government in natural resource management and
revenue collection in Myanmar. Natural resources provide a large share of government revenue, and
there is potential for growth in these sectors in coming years. The government under President
Thein Sein has made reform of
the
natural resource management system a
priority, and the topic

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.

We are at a critical juncture in our history, more promising than at any time in recent memory. The country will have a civilian-majority government that came to office through the votes of a multitude of smaller nationality groups for a pan-national party promising political change. If this political transition is to succeed, poverty must be alleviated, corruption curtailed, drug abuse radically reduced, and a host of other social crises addressed that have long blighted our country.

This report contains the full transcript of an interview conducted during August 2011 by a villager trained by KHRG to monitor human rights conditions. The villager interviewed Saw T---, a 74 year-old Buddhist village head who described the planting of what he estimated to be about 100 landmines by government and non-state armed groups in the vicinity of his village.

Summary: "This paper presents an overview of the distinctive
features of communal tenure in
different community-based land and natural resource
management systems. Communal
tenure refers to situations where groups, communities, or one or more villages have
well defined, exclusive rights to jointly own and/or manage particular areas of natural
resources such as land, forest and water. These are
often referred to as
common pool
resources: many rural communities are dependent on these resources for their

Ramree Island, Myanmar - Zaw Myint looked quizzical as he sniffed a handful of grey sludge. He had just pulled the mud up from the bottom of an oil well he's digging on Myanmar's impoverished western coastline, hoping for the sweet whiff of black gold.

"The money I get working here is good," Zaw Myint said, standing in a shallow pool of water that glistened with the sheen of oil.

Modern mine warfare began in 1969, and over the past thirty years mine pollution has increased
greatly. Today mines are being laid on a near daily basis by both government forces and several
armed ethnic groups. The military government of Burma, formerly known as the State Law and
Order Restoration Council (SLORC), now calls itself the State Peace and Development Council
(SPDC).

Key developments since May 2000: Myanmar government forces
and at least eleven ethnic armed groups continue to lay antipersonnel
mines in significant numbers. The governments of Bangladesh and
Thailand both protested use of mines by Myanmar forces inside their
respective countries. In a disturbing new development, mine use is
alleged to be taking place under the direction of loggers and narcotics
traffickers, as well as by government and rebel forces.

Key developments March 1999-May 2000: Government forces and at least ten ethnic armed groups continue to lay
antipersonnel landmines in significant numbers. Landmine Monitor estimates there were approximately 1,500 new mine victims in 1999. The Committee Representing the People's Parliament endorsed the Mine Ban Treaty in January 2000."
Includes chart of Ethnic Political Organizations with Armed Wings in Burma.

This News Bulletin describes the proposed construction of a portion of the Asia Highway from Eindu to Kawkareik Town, crossing 17 different villages and one town in Hpa-an, Kyonedoe and Kawkareik townships in Dooplaya and Hpa-an districts. The Burma/Myanmar government has demarcated the route and plans to construct the road with funding from the Asian Development Bank (ADB). The planning of the project has thus far been carried out with little consultation with local communities, who remain suspicious of such projects.