...Under military control, rural Burma's subsistence farming village is losing its viability as the basic unit of society. Internally displaced people are usually thought to have fled military battles in and around their villages, but this paradigm doesn't apply to Burma. In the thousands of interviews conducted by the Karen Human Rights Group with villagers who have fled their homes, approximately 95 percent say they have not fled military battles, but rather the systematic destruction of their ability to survive, caused by demands and retaliations inflicted on them by the SPDC military.

The worsening situation of the internally displaced in all northern Karen districts, forced labour and convict porters, rice quotas, the desperate situation of rank-and-file SPDC soldiers, forced repatriation of refugees in Thailand, and the SPDC's persistence in denying that there is any problem whatsoever.

Revised 2007...Resettlement: A Vital Instrument Of International Protection And An
Element Of Comprehensive Solutions...

Comprehensive Approach To Resolving Refugee Situations And Providing
Appropriate Durable Solutions:
2.1 Voluntary Repatriation
2.2 Local Integration
2.3 Resettlement in the Context of other Durable Solutions
Resettlement Processes Flowchart...

Pa'an, Dooplaya, Toungoo, Papun, & Thaton Districts. Over 250 orders dating from mid-1999 through late September 2000, the vast majority of them from the latter half of that period. Includes restrictions on the movement of villagers, forced relocation, demands for forced labour, extortion of money, food, and materials, threats to villagers and other demands, as well as documents related to rice quotas which farmers are forced to give, education and health.

Promoting Worker Rights Worldwide"..."In Burma, the Solidarity Center supports union efforts to expose the government's criminal and systematic worker rights violations, promote and protect migrant worker rights, and sow the seeds of democracy."..."In Thailand, the Solidarity Center and its partners push for enforcement of international labor standards and national labor law, strive to protect the rights of migrant workers and prevent human trafficking, and seek legal redress for trafficking victims.

This document presents the findings, conclusions and recommendations of the People's Tribunal on Food Scarcity
and Militarization in Burma. The Tribunal’s work will appeal to all readers interested in human rights and social
justice, as well as anyone with a particular interest in Burma. The Asian Human Rights Commission presents this
report in order to stimulate discourse on human rights and democratization in Burma and around the world.

Burmese version

...According to the U.S. Committee for Refugees, more than 600,000 Burmese refugees and asylum seekers remained in countries neighboring Burma at the end of 2003. Driven out by the ruling military regime’s policies and practices that suppress their freedom and violate their human rights, refugees and asylum seekers have fled to countries including Bangladesh, India, Malaysia and Thailand. Refugees flee forced labor, forced relocation, torture, rape, and other human rights violations perpetrated by members of the Tatmadaw (armed forces) or other State sponsored individuals or organizations.

Deport first and discuss later," declared Gen Chettha Thanajaro. Thailand's Army. Army Commander-in-Chief was voicing his support for a plan to repatriate nearly 1million foreign laborers, most of whom are Burmese.

As more and more Burmese go to Thailand in pursuit of relative freedom from persecution and poverty, Burma's closet neighbor is seeking new ways to address the root causes of their immigrant problem.

For more than 60 years, Karen rebels have been fighting a civil war against the government of Myanmar...In February 1949, members of the Karen ethnic minority launched an armed insurrection against Myanmar's central government.
In pictures: Sixty years of war.

Over 60 years later, the conflict continues, with more than a dozen ethnic rebel groups waging war against the army in their fight for self-rule.

Now, the war is entering a new and bloody stage.