Indigenous & Community Land Rights

Situation to end 1998

Burmese version

The region commonly known as Pa’an District forms a large triangular area in central Karen State, bounded in the west and north by the Salween River and the town of Pa’an (capital of Karen State), in the east by the Moei River where it forms the border with Thailand, and in the south by the motor road from Myawaddy (at the Thai border) westward to Kawkareik and Kyone Doh.

Covers land grabbing, land titling, land reform, indigenous tenure systems, and NGO responses.

This report aims to provide a picture of the current situation in central Shan State, where the military junta ruling Burma has forcibly uprooted and destroyed over 1,400 villages and displaced over 300,000 people since 1996. This campaign against civilians is still continuing, and the number of villages destroyed is increasing each month.

The last two years have seen a profound deterioration in the human rights situation throughout the central Shan State in Myanmar. Hundreds of Shan civilians caught in the midst of counter-insurgency activities have been killed or tortured by the Burmese army. These abuses, occurring in a country which is closed to independent monitors, are largely unknown to the outside world.

A report on forced relocation and extrajudicial killings in Shan State, Burma.

1. The Karen and Kawthoolei: The Karen; Kawthoolei; The Kawthoolei districts ||
2. Displacement and counter-insurgency in Burma:
Population displacement in Burma;
Protracted ethnic conflict in Burma;
Counter-insurgency: the four-cuts ||
3. The war in Kawthoolei:
Seasonal offensives: the moving front line and refugee flows, 1974-92;