Forced Displacements and Destroyed Lives around Upper Paunglaung Dam in Shan State, Myanmar

Introduction: "For nearly four decades, Myanmar (also known as
Burma) was ruled by military-led governments that
committed grave human rights violations, resulting in
international economic sanctions against the
country for
many years.1 Beginning in 2012, however, after the
liberalization of some governmental policies, Western
nations lifted these sanctions. In an effort to gain
ground on countries like China and India that had
maintained economic ties with Myanmar during the time
of the sanctions, a number of states–including
Australia, Canada, Japan, the United States, and many
European countries –increased development aid and
allowed their businesses to operate in Myanmar for the
first time in decades.
This
investment has been touted as a way to improve
economic conditions for the people of Myanmar, one of
the poorest countries in Southeast Asia, following years
of government mismanagement, corruption, and
economic sanctions that destroyed the country’s
economy.2
While the opening in Myanmar has allowed
foreign investment to soar and made new capital
available for plantations, logging, special economic
zones, deep sea ports, hydroelectric dams, and mining
concessions, all of these types of projects have been
associated with unlawful land confiscations from
individuals and communities with little or no
compensation.
Economic development projects in Myanmar are causing
widespread displacement and are having devastating
impacts on those communities living in project
locations, including human rights violations and adverse
effects on livelihoods, food security, and health. For
those subjected to unlawful evictions
and
land grabs,
the consequences are dire, driving many
people
into
poverty. Government policy has encouraged the
development of these projects, and weak and unclear
land policies, including some new land laws written to
support investment and economic growth, have
provided the government, military, and businesses with
legal cover to confiscate people’s land without a
transparent process for determining and awarding
compensation.
In the following report, Physicians for Human Rights
(PHR) builds on its previous research on land
confiscations in Myanmar by using an epidemiological
survey tool to assess the human rights, livelihood, and
health impacts on communities displaced by the
reservoir created by Paunglaung dam in southern Shan
state...