Donate this Holiday Season

With the holiday season directly before us, those wishing to support the amazing work of Burma’s human rights and relief organizations might consider the groups below.

Happy holidays from all of us at Burma Partnership […]

SPDC and DKBA order documents: January 2009 to June 2010

This report includes translated copies of 94 order documents issued by State Peace and Development Council Army and Democratic Karen Buddhist Army officers to village heads in Karen State between January 2009 and June 2010. These documents serve as supplementary evidence of ongoing exploitative local governance in rural Burma. The order documents collected here include demands for attendance at meetings; the provision of money and food; the production and delivery of thatch shingles and bamboo poles; forced labour as messengers and porters for the military; forced labour on bridge repair, the provision of information on individuals and households; and restrictions on trade […]

Supporting local responses to extractive abuse: Commentary on the ND-Burma report Hidden Impact

Eighteen years of KHRG field research indicates that regular extractive abuses by the SPDC Army and NSAGs threaten local livelihoods and are a fundamental human rights concern for villagers throughout eastern Burma. These abuses appear to be the product of the established SPDC Army and NSAG practice of supporting military units via extraction of significant material and labour resources from the local civilian population, enforced by implicit or explicit threats of violence. These findings were recently affirmed by ND-Burma, which last week released a report documenting the prevalence and impact of arbitrary taxation for communities across Burma. This commentary is designed to support ND-Burma’s report […]

Supporting civilians that face ongoing military attacks

The Burma Army continues to launch deliberate military attacks that target civilians and undermine humanitarian conditions in upland areas of Karen State, according to the Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG), which today released the report Self-protection under strain: Targeting of civilians and local responses in northern Karen State. Drawing on over 212 interviews and 85 field documents submitted by KHRG field researchers since January 2009, the report makes clear that civilians contending with attacks need increased humanitarian support. This support must be designed to strengthen local communities existing capacities for protection of human rights […]

Self-protection under strain: Targeting of civilians and local responses in northern Karen State

The SPDC Army continues to attack civilians and civilian livelihoods nearly two years after the end of the 2005-2008 SPDC Offensive in northern Karen State. In response, civilians have developed and employed various self-protection strategies that have enabled tens of thousands of villagers to survive with dignity and remain close to their homes despite the humanitarian consequences of SPDC Army practices. These protection strategies, however, have become strained, even insufficient, as humanitarian conditions worsen under sustained pressure from the SPDC Army […]

Attacks on cardamom plantations, detention and forced labour in Toungoo District

This field report documents recent human rights abuses committed by SPDC soldiers against Karen villagers in Toungoo District. Villagers in SPDC-controlled areas continue to face heavy forced labour demands that severely constrain their livelihoods […]

Cross-border DKBA attack displaces households in Thailand

On April 21st 2010, Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) soldiers from Battalion #7 of Brigade #999 crossed into Thailand and burned three huts in the Thai village of Hsoe Hta in Tha Song Yang District, Tak Province. The raid was ordered by Batallion #7 Column Commander Bpweh Kih, who believed that the villagers had been in contact with the KNLA and were withholding information about four DKBA soldiers who had recently deserted […]

Functionally Refoulement: Camps in Tha Song Yang District Abandoned as Refugees Bow to Pressure

Two temporary refugee camps established during June 2009 in Tha Song Yang District, Tak Province, Thailand, to provide refuge for villagers that fled increased conflict and exploitative abuse in Pa’an District have now been all but entirely abandoned. The camps were home to more than 2,209 refugees as recently as January 2010; over the last two months, the camp populations have dwindled as small groups have departed one by one. […]

Forced Labor, Movement and Trade Restrictions in Toungoo District

This field report documents the continuing and worsening demands for forced labour and restrictions on movement and trade imposed on villagers in Toungoo District by the SPDC army.  These exploitative and restrictive practices undermine the livelihoods of both individuals living under SPDC control and villagers who have opted to live in hiding.  Heavy demands for […]

Abuse between borders: vulnerability for Burmese workers deported from Thailand

The Royal Thai Government appears poised to deport as many as 1.4 million workers that fail to complete “nationality verification” procedures by the end of February 2010. The majority of these workers are Burmese. Based upon extensive research conducted by KHRG and other organisations, it is likely that many of these workers came to Thailand […]