Abstract: "This
paper
draws
on
case
studies
of
Burmese
migrants
in
the
city
of
Chiang
Mai,
Thailand,
to
explore

concepts
and
theories
of
migration,
uneven
development
and
acculturation
in
which
migrants
engages

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.

Photo essay.....
"The country's political reforms have not shielded remote communities from being devastated by ongoing conflicts...Myanmar has undergone political reform over the past few years, led by President Thein Sein, a former military commander who has adopted a more moderate stance concerning the country's political system.

Despite the reforms, however, conflicts involving minority groups have escalated, and Myanmar's Muslim communities, especially the Rohingya in the northwest, have become victims of violence.

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...

Research submitted by a KHRG field researcher indicates that fighting between DKBA and Tatmadaw troops between April 22nd and April 30th 2011 in Kya In Township has left at least three civilians dead and eight injured.

Historically underdeveloped and divided, Burma today is politically isolated, increasingly militarised, economically mismanaged by its own authorities, and socially and culturally divided along ethnic, religious, and language lines. Following independence from Britain in 1948, parties representing the ethnic minority population have been struggling for greater autonomy from the central Burmese regime.

At least 8,885 villagers in 118 villages in Lu Thaw Township, Papun District have either exhausted their current food supplies or are expecting to do so prior to the October 2011 harvest. The 118 villages are located in nine village tracts, where attacks on civilians by Burma's state army, the Tatmadaw, have triggered wide scale and repeated displacement since 1997.

...although now there is sporadic fighting and shelling, but the Burma army is
strengthening its positions and
for the IDPs there is constant displacement. The Burma army is resupplying after two months of
airstrikes and ground assaults. On this mission the Burma army has been close all the time and have
built more camps and crept closer to Kachin positions and communities since we have been here. We
have reconed them in many places and they look well supplied, well fed, well

This report is a preliminary exploration of forced migration/internal displacement in Burma/Myanmar in two main areas. The first is the status in terms of international standards, specifically those embodied in the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, of the people who leave home not because of conflict or relocation orders, but as a result of a range of coercive measures which drive down incomes to the point that the household economy collapses and people have no choice but to leave home.

Highly recommended. Well-organised site. In "list of sources used" are most of the main reports from 1995 bearing on IDPs (though the reports from 1995 to 1997 are missing - temporarily, one hopes) and more Burma pages updated June 2001. Go to the home page for links on IDPs, including the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement.

Innerhalb Burmas, dem heutigen Myanmar, leben 2 Millionen Menschen auf der Flucht, Internally Displaced People (IDP) genannt. Auch viele Karen leben in den unzugänglichen Dschungelgebieten nahe der Grenze zu Thailand.

Mission Statement: "The Back Pack Health Worker Team (BPHWT) is an independent, nonprofit, multi-ethnic organization dedicated to providing primary health care to ethnic groups and vulnerable populations in armed conflict and rural areas of Burma, where access to healthcare is otherwise unavailable. Furthermore, by equipping communities with the skills and knowledge necessary to manage their own health issues, the Back Pack Health Worker Team is dedicated to the long-term, sustainable development of a healthy society in Burma.