Burma Partnership is pleased to announce the launch of a new documentary film today to coincide with the International Day of Peace. The film, entitled “Guns, Briefcases and Inequality: The Neglected War in Kachin State,” demonstrates the need for the government of Burma to engage in meaningful political dialogue with all ethnic nationalities on equal terms, including discussing amendments to the 2008 Constitution.

Research on refugees/migrants, mostly Thailand-related

This report includes a situation update submitted to KHRG in April 2012 by a community member describing events occurring in Papun District, in the period between January and March 2012. It provides information on land confiscation by Border Guard Battalion #1013, which has appropriated villagers’ communal grazing land between D--- and M--- villages for the construction of barracks for housing soldiers' families.

Civilians in Dooplaya District continue to be impacted by conflict between the Tatmadaw and armed Karen groups, who have increased fighting in the area since November 7th 2010. The situation around Palu village remains highly unstable; in order to avoid conflict and conflict-related abuse, civilians are moving frequently between their homes and fields, more secure locations outside the village and along the Moei River, and both official and unofficial locations in Thailand's Phop Phra District.

Executive Summary: "The growing optimism surrounding Burma’s political and social
transitions has begun to be accompanied by ambitions to resettle
displaced communities along the country’s border with Thailand. As
the notion and its attendant proposals continue to proliferate, it
seems timely to assess how the communities directly affected by this
prospect feel about resettlement. Interviews were conducted with 61
Mon internally displaced people (IDPs) who expressed an array of
views ranging from excitement for better jobs in new locations to

This report contains the full transcript of an interview conducted during October 2011 in Nyaunglebin District by a community member trained by KHRG to monitor human rights conditions. The community member interviewed Naw P---, a 42-year-old flat field farmer, who described her experiences being forcibly relocated by Tatmadaw troops, most recently in 2004 from D--- to T--- relocation village.

This report contains the full transcripts of three interviews conducted during March and April 2011 in Tantabin Township, Toungoo District by a villager trained by KHRG to monitor human rights conditions. The three female interviewees described the following abuses: attacks on villages, villagers and livelihoods; killing of villagers; theft and looting; taxation and demands; forced displacement; and forced labour, including the production and supply of building materials and forced portering.

With the annual monsoon rains now falling over Karen State, the SPDC’s military offensive
against civilian villagers in northern Karen State would normally be drawing to a close.
However, quite the opposite is happening. The resumption of SPDC Army attacks on
villages and the increased patrols in Toungoo District shows that the offensive is far from
over. Thousands more landmines have been reportedly deployed across Toungoo District to
isolate certain parts of the district and restrict villagers’ movements. An analysis of SPDC

This report contains the full transcript of an interview conducted by a KHRG researcher in May 2011 with a villager from Ler Doh Township, Nyaunglebin District. The researcher interviewed Naw P---, a 40-year-old farmer who described her experiences living in a Tatmadaw-controlled relocation site, and in her original village in a mixed-administration area under effective Tatmadaw control.

Scroll down and click on FORCED RELOCATION, LAND CONFISCATION, STRATEGIC DISPLACEMENT or whichever Issue category you think may relate to internal displacement.

Summary:
"In late 2012, the Burma Army intensified military operations against strongholds of the
Kachin Independence Army (KIA). This culminated in a massive offensive on the KIA
headquarters at Laiza on the China-Burma border starting in mid-December. This month-long
assault involved repeated mortar shelling and aerial bombings in the Laiza area, populated by
20,000 civilians, over half of whom are internally displaced persons (IDPs) who were denied
refuge in China.

War disrupts the normal relationship between people and place.
Displaced by war, people must adapt to survive, both physically and
socially. When people are displaced for a long time, these
adaptations become normal; thus displacement starts as an
aberration but becomes a constant way of life. In eastern Burma,
'normal' displacement has led to significant changes in the political,
cultural and economic relationships between Karen people and their
'place' - both the physical space they occupy and their position in