Executive Summary: "The Irrawaddy, one of Asia's great river systems which flows through Burma's heartlands, is about to be dammed. Burma's military junta is allowing Chinese companies to build a giant 152-meter-tall hydropower dam and transmit the electricity back to China. The dam is one in a series that the junta has planned involving the export of power to neighboring countries. While the regime will gain new revenues, Burma's ordinary citizens, who have no say in the process, will bear the costs.

The Thailand Burma Border Consortium (TBBC) has been collaborating with ethnic community-based organisations to document the characteristics of internal displacement in eastern Burma since 2002. This year's research updates estimates of the scale and distribution of internal displacement, and documents the impacts of militarization and state-sponsored development, based on quantitative surveys with key informants in 38 townships.

The Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, 2007 provides for benefits and compensation to people displaced by land acquisition purchases or any other involuntary displacement. The Bill creates project-specific, state and national authorities to formulate, implement, and monitor the rehabilitation and resettlement process.

A photojournalist put aside his camera to comfort a young Karen woman at the birth of her son in a jungle hideout...

"It was a makeshift village on the Thai side of the Moei River bordering Burma and Thailand, about 60 miles north of the Thai border town of Mae Sot. Around 100 Karen lived there, so-called “internally displaced persons,” refugees from the excesses committed by the Burmese army and the equally feared troops of the regime-backed Democratic Karen Buddhist Army...

Migrant artist shares his earnings with the refugees who people his canvases...

"Suffering from depression and weighed down by the hardships of life in Burma, Maung Maung Tinn finally decided to leave his home town, Moulmein, capital of Mon State. That was in 1994.

Correspondent Anne Fletcher meets former activists of the 88 Generation who made new lives o­n the other side of the world...

"The menacing group of five soldiers emerged from Rangoon’s city hall, knelt down and aimed their guns at the protesters. Tin Maung Htoo, a 16-year-old high school student, sat tight, linking arms with others in the front row.

The first shots Tin Maung Htoo heard, however, sounded like machine gun fire from armored cars sweeping round both sides of the Sule Pagoda o­n that August night, 19 years ago.

Die Armee der SPDC Militärdiktatur ist mittlerweile auf eine Truppenstärke von 500.000 Soldaten angewachsen und jetzt selbst nur noch durch ein System der Angst zu kontrollieren. Fast jeder hat einen Vorgesetzten und die Exekution ist nur einen Schuß entfernt. Der militärische Geheimdienst ist überall und selbst die höheren Ränge werden oft ‘Reinigungen’ nach sowietischem Vorbild unterzogen. Karen; Flüchtlinge; Burma Army; Refugees

This decree aproves the General Regulation for Land Concesion in Angola.

Joint handbook by OCHA/IDD, UN HABITAT, UNHCR, FAO, OHCHR, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) and the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC)

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Background:
Burmese Refugees in Thailand:
2006 Demographics of Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Thailand ;
Thai Government Policy towards Refugees and Asylum Seekers;
Change of the Thai Government;
Policy for Refugees in the Camps;
Detained, Arrested and Deported Refugees;
The UNHCR and the Refugee Status Determination Process;
Situation of Women in Refugee Camps;
Situation of Children in Refugee Camps;
Situation of Specific Ethnic Groups of the Refugee Population;

This background briefing reports on a study of land access for returnees in Rwanda, and the impacts of land access policies in the post-conflict period. It also seeks to understand better the roles international humanitarian agencies and NGOs have played, and how their performance can be improved. It is not suggested that Rwanda is typical, but rather that the centrality of land issues there has thrown up a revealing set of broader questions.

This background briefing reports on a study of land access
for returnees in Rwanda, and the impacts of land access
policies in the post-conflict period. It also seeks to
understand better the roles international humanitarian
agencies and NGOs have played, and how their performance
can be improved. It is not suggested that Rwanda is typical,
but rather that the centrality of land issues there has thrown
up a revealing set of broader questions.