Resource information
Compilation of the information available in the Global IDP
Database of the Norwegian Refugee Council
(as of 13 November, 2003)..."
PROFILE SUMMARY:
Summary (November 2003):-
"Notorious across the world for its suppression of Aung San Suu Kyi’s democracy movement, the military
regime in Burma is less known for displacing hundreds of thousands of its own people. Between 600,000
and one million people remain internally displaced in Burma because of the military regime’s brutal
policies to control border areas populated by ethnic minorities. Exposed to ongoing violence and
systematic human rights abuses at the hands of government troops, these people are without protection
from either their government or the international humanitarian community. This has affected the eastern
border areas in particular, and especially the Karen, Karenni, Shan and Mon ethnic groups. In western
Burma, the Muslim Rohingya people and other minority groups along the Bangladesh and India borders
have also suffered from the military campaign. In addition, thousands more have been displaced in
schemes to resettle the urban poor and the building of large-scale infrastructure projects. With their
traditional livelihoods ruined and humanitarian assistance blocked by the army, the situation of Burma’s
displaced people is desperate. In order to improve both the democratic process and the humanitarian
situation, more active international diplomacy, and attention towards the situation in the ethnic minority
areas is required from the UN, its agencies and international NGOs...
