U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants World Refugee Survey 2005 - Myanmar

Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)  

Introduction  The Myanmarese army attacked, forcibly relocated, and pursued villagers in eastern Myanmar, displacing some 550,000 persons belonging to the Shan, Karen, Karenni, Mon, and Tavoyan ethnic groups. Of these, 365,000 were living in self-administered temporary settlements, while about 84,000 were hiding in forested combat zones, where the Government allowed the military to execute any individual found. The army forced an estimated 77,000 villagers to live in government relocation sites, cutting off civilian support to resistance groups. Human rights violations and continuing insurgencies in eastern and western Myanmar contributed to displacement among the Chin, Karen, Karenni, Mon, Rohingya, and Shan peoples.

In eastern Myanmar, between 2002 and mid-2004, 157,000 civilians were displaced and at least 240 villages were destroyed, abandoned, or relocated. Between 1996 and 2002, about 200,000 fled to Thailand. In January, the military launched a major offensive in Karen and Karenni States, displacing over 2,200 in Tougoo District and some 3,500 in Muthraw District, both in Karen State, and an unknown number north of the Toungoo-Mawchi road. In September 2004, the army reportedly attacked in Mergui-Tavoy, Karen State, killing three villagers and a Karen National Liberation Army medic, destroying 62 homes, 5 rice barns, a clinic, and a school, and displacing 242.

In October, the ousting of the head of military intelligence in Rangoon ended cease-fire talks between the Karen National Union (KNU), the largest active resistance army, and the ruling military junta. In November, the army attacked villages in Nyaunglebin District of western Karen State, burning many homes and about 20,000 baskets (nearly 430 tons) of rice, and displacing nearly 5,000. The attacks ceased by year's end, but the displacement continued. In November and December, the army reportedly attacked civilians in Taungoo District, northern Karen State, displacing more than 3,000, whom the army used as forced labor to construct roads into territory formerly held by the resistance.

In December, the military attacked Saw Wah Der village in northern Karen State, causing 400 to flee. The soldiers captured two men and took them to the army camp at Kaw They Der. These and other IDPs from Yaw Tha Bei and Wah Baw Kee scattered in small groups in the jungle where, weakened by exposure, many fell sick with diarrhea, malaria, respiratory infections, and typhoid.

In western Myanmar, the Government carried out forced labor and military portering, arbitrary arrest, extortion, religious persecution, destruction of property, beatings, torture, rape, and summary execution in Chin State. The military accused the Chin of supporting resistance groups. The army displaced thousands and many living near the border of India fled to its northeastern Mizoram State.

Protection  The ruling junta provided no protection to IDPs; rather the military actively targeted them. The Government took no action to investigate or prosecute soldiers involved in dozens of killings and rapes of IDPs in ethnic areas. The army and the allied Karenni Solidarity Organization followed their January offensive in Karen and Karenni States with sweeps against IDPs in the area throughout the year. In September, the military attacked an IDP hiding spot in Karenni State, summarily executing one wounded child. The same day, soldiers attacked IDPs from Nu Thu Hta on the Karen-Karenni border, killing one host villager and one rebel soldier.

Legal Status  In Rakhine (Arakan) state, authorities discriminated against and persecuted ethnic Rohingya Muslims. The 1982 Citizenship Law denied them citizenship and the rights to own property, to travel, to attend secondary schools, to hold civil service positions, and to register marriages and births. Local authorities, sometimes in cooperation with ethnic majority Rakhine Buddhists, confiscated Rohingya land and belongings, destroyed religious property, and detained, beat, raped, and murdered Rohingya.

Livelihoods  In eastern Myanmar, authorities evicted ethnic minorities, confiscated their land and rice harvests, and forced them to sell large amounts of rice to the army at 20 percent of market value. Travel restrictions limited access to markets and economic activities. The Rohinyga, to whom the Government denied documentation and travel outside their townships, could not engage in any form of commerce.

The Government reserved the right to confiscate property without compensation. In March, the Government reportedly evicted families and seized land in Chin State for an India-Burma-Thailand highway project. In July, the military expropriated land from 150 families in Ye, Mon State, for military construction.

Movement Restrictions  Authorities denied documentation to ethnic minorities and IDPs in rural areas in order to limit their movement and control the population, especially in areas of armed resistance. Ethnic minorities and IDPs could request letters from village leaders to travel outside their villages or townships, but individuals with such letters could still be harassed, arrested, or fined. Members of ethnic minorities in urban areas, however, could receive documentation.

In eastern Myanmar, the army forbade members of ethnic minorities to enter areas it designated as "black," and threatened to shoot them on sight. It designated "brown" areas as those where ethnic minorities could travel only with military permission. Nonetheless, soldiers shot or tortured even those with written permission from the military in brown areas. The military was less likely to charge IDPs who entered urban or "white" areas with allegiance to resistance movements, and it was easier to move freely with local permission letters.

The army mined the area south of Mawchi, in southern Karenni State, to the border, where many Karenni had fled, targeting old villages and IDP hideouts. The military laid extensive landmines along roads in Karen and other ethnic conflict areas around villages, at water sources, and on main trails. Rebel forces also laid mines around villages.

Humanitarian Aid  The Government did not provide humanitarian aid to IDPs or allow others to provide it. The junta did not allow any aid across its borders to ethnic states, where mortality and morbidity rates were significantly higher than in central Myanmar. In eastern Myanmar, these rates were above emergency levels. The Government did allow the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and international nongovernmental organizations to provide limited and monitored assistance in some ethnic areas, but not to IDPs. Thailand also did not allow international humanitarian aid into eastern Myanmar. Nevertheless, independent humanitarian actors crossed the border surreptitiously to help the IDPs of Myanmar.

Copyright 2005, U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants