Deep in the wilds of northern Myanmar's Kachin state a brutal civil war has intensified over the past year between government forces and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA).

People & Power sent filmmakers Jason Motlagh and Steve Sapienza to Myanmar (formerly Burma) to investigate why the conflict rages on, despite the political reforms in the south that have impressed Western governments and investors now lining up to stake their claim in the resource-rich Asian nation.

Three of the country’s four offshore gas fields are to be shut down in April “for annual maintenance”, according to a senior official with Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise...The Yadana, Yetagun and Zawtika gas fields are to be halted for about a week each at the end of April, said the official, who is an offshore director but declined to be named.

“We have negotiated with PTT [the gas buyer] for gas exports, and with the Ministry of Electric Power for domestic supply, to arrange a shutdown of the gas fields for maintenance,” he said yesterday.

While the major non-American Western oil companies adopt and wait-and-see policy and US firms remain barred by Washington’s sanctions, shadowy oil enterprises are gaining footholds in Burma.

Among firms which have recently won licenses to explore for oil and gas are little-known businesses based in Panama, Nigeria and Azerbaijan—countries where corporate accountability can be murky.

Not only does the bidding process remain opaque, the pedigree of some of the participants is too...

This report is based on information submitted by community members in March 2013 describing events occurring in Papun District in February 2013. On February 11th 2013, a landmine exploded in K'Ter Tee village tract, Dwe Lo Township, Papun district. A total of five villagers were killed in the explosion, three of whom were under the age of 18. The villagers were hit by the landmine while transporting sand in a car for the Green Hill Company, a company affiliated with BGF Battalions #1013 and #1014. The group who planted the landmine is unknown.

The oft-cited UN Habitat report on the 1989-1990 urban resettlement programme in Burma which the report estimates affected 1.5 million people (16 percent of the urban population). "...During the early months of 1990 international attention was focused on the Yangon squatter clearance and resettlement programme launched by the Government in 1989. The Mission found that the programme is not limited to Yangon, but has broad national coverage.

SPECIAL ISSUE ON LANDMINES:- Burma's Landmine

Community and Customary Land - 12 files ...
Dispute Mechanisms and Approaches - 9 files...
General - 45 files
Human Rights - 14 files...
Land and the Ceasefire Process...
Land Grabbing - 68 files...
Land Titling - 7 files...
Community Mapping: Overcoming Complexities...
Free, Prior, Informed, Consent: Policy Brief...

Executive Summary: "The remote and environmentally rich Hugawng valley in Burma's northern Kachin State has been internationally recognized as one of the world's hotspots of biodiversity. Indeed, the military junta ruling Burma, together with the US-based Wildlife Conservation Society, is establishing the world's largest tiger reserve in the valley. However, the conditions of the people living there have not received attention.

BURMA
LANDMINE
ISSUE
2009: UN Security Council - act now!...Understand us...KNU LANDMINE POLICY...Mine incidents rise...Landmine deaths double...Pizza-oven helps
mine victims walk...Worried about mines, but who will feed us?...How to help -- when there's no doctor...Ranger's deliver aid...No place to call home...Landmines show no mercy...Once were enemies...More attacks - more landmines...Uncle Maw Keh offers
hope to landmine victims...Burma's Killing Fields...Lucky to be alive...

This report includes a situation update submitted to KHRG in June 2012 by a community member who described events occurring in Dooplaya District during the period between April 2012 and June 2012, specifically in relation to landmines, education, health, taxation and demand, forced labour, land confiscation, displacement, and restrictions on freedom of movement and trade. After the 2012 ceasefire between the Burma government and the KNU, remaining landmines still present serious risks for local villagers in Kawkareik Township because they are unable to travel.

Analysis of KHRG's field information gathered between January 2011 and May 2012 in seven geographic research areas indicates that, during that period, new landmines were deployed by government and non-state armed groups (NSAGs) in all seven research areas. Ongoing mine contamination in eastern Burma continues to put civilians' lives and livelihoods at risk and undermines their efforts to protect against other forms of abuse.

Unregulated gold mining, agro-industrial farming and hydropower development in Kachin State is affecting thousands of villagers, who are suffering from environmental destruction and a loss of farmland, a Kachin rights group warned.

The People’s Foundation for Development, a NGO based in the Kachin state capital Myitkyina, launched a report in Rangoon on Monday that documented ten cases in which local villagers lost their land and livelihoods to large-scale investment projects and rampant gold mining.