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.

Abstract: "While international humanitarian access in Burma has opened up
over the past decade and a half, the ongoing debate regarding the appropriate
relationship between politics and humanitarian assistance remains unresolved.
This debate has become especially limiting in regards to protection
measures for internally displaced persons (IDPs) which are increasingly seen
to fall within the mandate of humanitarian agencies. Conventional IDP
protection frameworks are biased towards a top-down model of politicallyaverse

About 60,000 Kachin villagers fleeing Burma Army attacks and persecution, who are sheltering in
Kachin-controlled territory along the China-Burma border, have received almost no international aid since
conflict broke out in June 2011.
Data compiled from local relief groups shows that international aid agencies, including the UN, have
provided only 4% of basic food needs of this displaced population, who have been kept alive almost entirely
by private donations from local and overseas compatriots. Over 2 million US dollars are needed a month for

...This paper examines the value and limitations of HLP restitution in contexts of customary land tenure
and legal pluralism and examines the role that customary justice can play as part of a transitional
justice process. It argues that actors involved with restitution and broader efforts to reinstate justice,
the rule of law, and democracy in post-conflict and transitional contexts should engage, albeit under
certain conditions, with nonstate justice mechanisms. For the overwhelming majority of populations

Mit Zwangsarbeit, ethnischen Umsiedlungen und ausländischen Investitions-Dollars sichert die Militärjunta ihre Machtstrukturen in Myanmar. Forced labour, internal displacement, foreign investments, power structures.

Critics dismiss Asean plan for free movement of labor...

"DESPITE the high-minded ideals of the Asean Vision 2020 plan launched more than a decade ago by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), cynics continue to dismiss its aim of labor mobility in a “community of caring societies” as just so much humbug.

BURMA ARMY ATROCITIES PAVE THE WAY FOR SALWEEN DAMS IN KAREN STATE... "As Thailand proceeds with plans to join Burma’s military regime in building a series of dams on the Salween River to gain “cheap” electricity, this report reveals the atrocities being inflicted on the people of Northern Karen State to pave the way for two of the planned dams. The Upper Salween (Wei Gyi) Dam and Lower Salween (Dar Gwin) Dam are planned to be built on the river where it forms the border between Thailand’s Mae Hong Son province and Burma’s Karen State.

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

Archive from May 98.

Chapter 1 - UNHCR's Mandate for Voluntary Repatriation:
1.1 The Statute;
1.2 The 1951 Convention on the Status of Refugees;
1.3 General Assembly Resolutions;
1.4 UNHCR Executive Committee Conclusions;
1.5 Requests by the Secretary-General;
1.6 Summary of the Current UNHCR Mandate for Voluntary
Repatriation...
Chapter 2 - The Protection Content of Voluntary Repatriation:
2.1 International Human Rights Instruments and the Right to Return;
2.2 Cessation of Status and Fundamental Changes in the Country of
Origin;

...When an estimated 50,000 ethnic Kokang civilians poured into southwest China last month to escape fighting between the Myanmar Army and Kokang rebels, Beijing called for peace and provided food, medical supplies and camps for the refugees. But China’s stance as a benevolent mediator in Myanmar’s many internal conflicts and its treatment of asylum seekers is far less altruistic than Beijing cares to admit.

1. INTRODUCTION: