...The report pin points the dismal conditions for the Karen people throughout
the district, but the desperate situation of specific group in worst hit areas. It
was always the intention to build on the BERG report, Forgotten Victims of a
Hidden War: Internally Displaced Karen in Burma, published in 1998, which
provided the background and general description of the displacement of the
Karen in Kawthoolei. The Mu Traw report has been the first attempt by the
CIDKP to provide more detailed information focussing on a single district. It is

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

The Convention entered into force on 29 September 2003...

Annex I:
United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime...

...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.

The Pa-O are one of the ethnic minorities of Burma. They live primarily in the Taunggyi area of southwestern Shan State. A smaller number live in the Thaton area of Mon State in Lower Burma. The Pa-O in the Thaton area have become "Burmanized" -- like their neighbors the Mon and Karen, they have adopted Burmese language, dress and customs. The Pa-O in southwestern Shan State have learned to speak Shan, but have maintained their own distinct language and customs, including their traditional dark blue or black dress.

The worsening situation of the internally displaced in all northern Karen districts, forced labour and convict porters, rice quotas, the desperate situation of rank-and-file SPDC soldiers, forced repatriation of refugees in Thailand, and the SPDC's persistence in denying that there is any problem whatsoever.

Roads, Relocations, and the Campaign for Control in Toungoo District. Based on interviews and field reports from KHRG field researchers in this northern Karen district, looks at the phenomenon of 'Peace Villages' under SPDC control and 'Hiding Villages' in the hills; while the 'Hiding Villages' are being systematically destroyed and their villagers hunted and captured, the 'Peace Villages' face so many demands for forced labour and extortion that many ofthem are fleeing to the hills.

Pa'an, Dooplaya, Toungoo, Papun, & Thaton Districts. Over 250 orders dating from mid-1999 through late September 2000, the vast majority of them from the latter half of that period. Includes restrictions on the movement of villagers, forced relocation, demands for forced labour, extortion of money, food, and materials, threats to villagers and other demands, as well as documents related to rice quotas which farmers are forced to give, education and health.

Deportation from Thailand of Burmese migrants, half of whom are women

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Seminar on IDPs in Burma,

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.

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