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The Peace Way Foundation was formed in February 2002. It operates as an umbrella organisation, under which is a project called Burma Issues. BI has operated since 1990. The formation of the Peace Way Foundation allowed us to be a recognised and registered organisation with the Thai Government. By becoming a Foundation our organisation has obtained legal status and ensured greater security for the work we do. One of the aims in forming the Foundation was also to allow us to expand our work and our ideology into other areas and countries, not to be secular in our work, but to strive to help build a global grassroots movement.
The organisation was initially founded in 1990 and acts as a private, non-profit organisation devoted to a peaceful resolution to Burma's struggle for human rights and democratic rule. We are non-partisan and do not advocate, campaign for or represent any leaders, political parties or ideologies as solutions to Burma's civil strife.
The Peaceway Foundation is unique in that we focus on the marginalised communities living in the war zones of Burma as the target group for building a peace based on justice for everyone. Our approach is based on concepts of community organising and empowerment of these marginalised communities. We are firmly committed to nonviolent forms of peacemaking and conflict transformation.
As of the year 2002, Burma has suffered more than fifty years of armed conflict and forty years of one-party military rule. Despite growing international awareness of human rights abuses throughout the country, the resolution of Burma's conflicts and the strengthening of its democratic civil society will be a long-term struggle. This struggle must be nurtured and led by the people of Burma themselves, and international support for political change only will not help address the social and cultural aspects of the conflict.
The civil war has disrupted the lives of people all over the country, but has had an especially devastating effect on people living in the distant rural areas which lie along the border lines between Burma and its neighbours. These people are isolated from the rest of the country with little or no access to information and no chance to participate in the political and economic life of the country. They have little opportunity for education, health care, jobs, and adequate food supplies.
The Peaceway Foundation believes that the civil war in Burma is caused by chauvinism that can be found in all levels of society and among all groups. Chauvinism is an attitude or belief that an individual or specific group has the right to dominate another individual or group with the purpose of dividing the people, preventing their solidarity and fomenting discrimination and mistrust. This chauvinism feeds the forces of militarism and perpetuates violence in all areas of society including ethnicity, religion and gender.
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Resources
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5Finding Food in Fear/Living in Fear (video)
Finding Food in Fear/Living in Fear
Introduction for ‘one family’....
In February 2010, Burma Issues conducted a field trip inside Karen State to raise internally displaced persons’ (IDPs) awareness of the upcoming elections. While they were watching a video, the township where the IDPs were staying was attacked by the Burmese army. They had to flee into the jungle and our cameraman decided to follow.
Living Ghosts - The spiraling repression of the Karenni population under the Burmese military junta
Executive Summary: "The people of Karenni State are living ghosts. Their daily survival is an
achievement; however, it also signifies their further descent into poverty and a
spiralling system of repression. Whilst this report documents the deteriorating
situation in Karenni State over the past six years, this is nothing new for the
ethnically diverse population of this geographically small area. They have been
living in a protracted conflict zone for over 50 years with no respite from decades
"I Will Not be Forced From My Own Land" - internal displacement in Burma
In a nation of 50 million people there are estimates that up to 1 million are Internally Displaced Persons (IDP). Despite the relatively recent use of the phrase internally displaced people in the context of Burma, there is evidence that the practices that lead to this displacement have been in place for a long period of time.
After the 1997 Offensives: The Burma Army's Relocation Program in Kamoethway Area
Mass Displacement by the Burmese Army's forced relocation program in Tenasserim division first rose to awareness when multi-national companies started to build the Yadana gas pipeline. What followed was a Burmese Army offensive in 1997 to KNU controlled areas to secure more of the area for their business interests. After the arrival of foreign companies and the Yadana gas pipeline the Kamoethway area became a refuge for those fleeing from the gas pipeline area. Later Kamoethway area itself became another target for Burmese troops trying to gain better access to the gas pipeline.
IDPs in Burma: A short summary
Burma has a population of 50 million people, recent estimates place 2 million of those people as Internally Displaced
Persons (IDP). They live precarious and transient lives in the jungles of Burma’s ethnic border areas and in the more urban
central plains. They are denied the stability of having a home and a livelihood and are forced into a constant state of
movement: never having the opportunity to maintain a home, their farms, access to education and medical facilities and
peace of mind...