South East Asia

Burma: Displacement and exodus

The case for international intervention

As Burma brutally suppressed the peaceful protests led by none other than the Buddhist monks, the United Nations Security Council sought to get its act together. However, China opposed any sanction citing it as an internal matter of Burma. On 1 October 2007, the Chief of Army Staff of the largest democratic country in the world, India, General Deepak Kapur made the most serious foreign policy statement on the issue: “the crackdown is an internal matter” of Burma.

In this article, Asian Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Network (AITPN) examines how displacement from Burma has already made a case for intervention by the international community.

 

I. Scale of internal displacement

 

The Burmese military junta has already displaced hundreds of thousands of its citizens. While many fled the country, majority remain displaced within the country. The number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) continues to grow at an alarming rate. Military operations, development projects and economic hardships have contributed to a frightening situation of humanitarian catastrophe. Today, Burma has the worst forced displacement crisis in Asia.

 

According to a recent report by Thailand Burma Border Consortium (TBBC), an estimated 500,000 persons have been internally displaced in eastern Burma. These IDPs have been forced to leave their homes due to variety of reasons but have not been allowed to return to their native places till date. Of these, nearly 295,000 are currently living in temporary settlements in the ceasefire areas administered by ethnic nationalities, about 99,000 persons are believed to be hiding due to fear from the military government (known as the State Peace and Development Council, SPDC), and approximately 109,000 persons have followed SPDC’s eviction orders and moved into designated relocation sites. However, these estimates are considered to be conservative. Most parts of eastern Burma remain inaccessible to international observers and there were risks involved in collecting information from conflict-affected areas.

 

Militarization and human rights violations by the army contributed to the increased number of the IDPs. The recent survey by the TBBC further identified 273 infantry and light infantry battalions to be active in eastern Burma, representing more than 30 percent of Burmese Army’s battalions nationwide. In Karen state’s Papun district alone, human rights groups reported the establishment of 33 new military camps since late March 2006.

Burmese military tactics include forcing ethnic minorities to abandon their homes, and the use of scattered mortar fire to intimidate those who try to grow rice or other crops. According to the TBBC, more than 3000 villages were destroyed, forcibly relocated or otherwise abandoned in eastern Burma between 1996 and 2006. At least 167 entire villages had been displaced during the past year alone. These field reports have recently been corroborated by high-resolution satellite images taken before and after the villages were displaced.

 

a. Deplorable conditions of the displaced persons

 

The conditions of the displaced persons have been deplorable. The agony of internal displacement is aggravated by the healthcare crisis in eastern Burma. Recent surveys show that health indicators among the displaced population are some of the worst in the world, with 12 percent of the population suffering at any time from the most serious form of malaria, widespread malnutrition, high risk of injury from landmines and armed conflict, and high rates of infant mortality. These highly vulnerable populations receive little international assistance. There has also been consistent food insecurity. The military had planted a large number of landmines in and around the villages, and the people cannot travel beyond a certain area to collect food. They also cannot have access to their crops. In some parts of Karen State the army had allegedly set rice fields on fire.

Due to the severe restrictions on the humanitarian agencies, it has become extremely difficult for them to operate in Burma. In March 2006, the Medicins San Frontieres closed its programmes in Mon and Karen States due to “unacceptable conditions imposed by the authorities on how to provide relief”. The Global Fund also stopped funding programmes on HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in 2005, stating that pressure from the military made it difficult to work with local health authorities, and that travel restrictions restricted access to people in need.

 

b. Human rights violations

 

The military government of Burma is infamous for human rights violations. The ethnic minorities have been the primary targets.

The soldiers have been responsible for gross human rights violations including raping women and girls, stealing food, destroying homes and other properties, using slave labour and participating in the drugs trade.  The TBBC revealed that at least 38 villagers were killed by the Burmese Army in 2007 in Thandaung Township alone. According to the Free Burma Rangers, a relief organisation working in the conflict areas of eastern Burma, the Burmese Army’s offensive in Karen State has continued throughout May and June 2007. On 2 June 2007, six villagers were killed by the army in Mon Township of Nyaungelbin district. Three weeks later, the village headman of P’Na Ner village was reportedly captured and killed by the army personnel. On 23 June 2007, the army personnel reportedly murdered an entire family of 5 persons including two children identified as Kyaw Eh Wah (4) and Saw Pa Heh Soe (13) in Htee K’bler village.

 

c. Sexual violence

 

The Burmese army also used rape as a weapon of  its ongoing war against several ethnic minority groups. A new report titled Unsafe State: State-sanctioned sexual violence against Chin women in Burma, released by the Women’s League of Chinland in March 2007 documented 38 cases of sexual violence committed with impunity by the Burmese Army throughout Chin State in western Burma near the India border. Almost half the cases documented were gang rapes, and at least a third was committed by officers. Sexual violence is typically accompanied by extreme brutality, including severe torture and murder. The report further revealed that one woman was stripped naked and tied to a cross in “a savage act of mockery against her Christian beliefs”. According to Amnesty International, girls as young as five years old have been made to perform forced labour duties, and women have been forced to serve and otherwise entertain troops against their will.

 

According to the Free Burma Rangers, two young women, aged 18 and 22, from Takehder village in Luthaw Township of Papun district in Karen state, were captured while they were gathering vegetables in the jungle. The victims were raped, their breasts and ears were cut and then killed by Burmese soldiers. The exact date of the attack is not known.

 

d. Child soldiers and forced labour

 

According to human rights activists, hundreds of thousands of villagers in conflict-ridden areas were allegedly forced to become “porters” of the military during anti-insurgency operations, build army bases and raise money for military and infrastructure projects. Burma’s military regime has also reportedly recruited about 70,000 child soldiers.

 The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has been highly critical of Burma’s labour practices. There appears to be a direct correlation between forced labour and military activities in ethnic areas. Ethnic minority civilians were forced to work on a variety of infrastructure projects, including roads, bridges, and railways. Those who refuse to work for the military were allegedly threatened. 

 

II. Dimensions of ethnicity

 

Ethnic groups comprise one-third of Burma’s 52 million people. Burma has one of the most ethnically diverse populations in South East Asia. There were more than 100 different ethnic groups and sub-groups. Some of the major groups included Karen, Karenni, Mon, Shan, Chin, Wa, Arakan, Rohingya, Kachin, etc. Each ethnic group is different from the other. The only thing which is common is that they have all been oppressed by the military junta in Burma.

 

The pattern of the Burmese military has been to eliminate all opposition and take full control of ethnic areas. As part of its strategy to curb the support of ethnic armed opposition groups (AOGs), it targets civilians on the charges of being supporters of the AOGs. The largest concentration of displaced people is found among the Karen, Karenni, Shan and Mon ethnic groups in eastern Burma.

 

According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), Burma has some 350,000 army personnel, and there are nearly 110,000 paramilitaries. The junta’s military expenditures reportedly account for over 40 percent of national budget while its health and education spending are only 0.4 percent and 0.5 percent respectively. The military has been used to crush ethnic minority-led armed conflicts in the country. The ethnic-populated states have been highly militarized. As the military takes control of new territory in ethnic areas, it initiates development projects and exploits natural resources, which displace more civilians. The military government under its programme for ethnic cleansing and controlling indigenous minorities has forced millions to abandon their homes. The SPDC’s forcible relocation of minority ethnic groups was not just concentrated in areas of active ethnic armed conflict but also in areas targeted for infrastructure development.

 

The government had agreed ceasefires with 17 ethnic armed groups although several have broken down as the government intensifies its pressure on minorities. The Karen National Union has never signed a ceasefire and is the largest of the AOGs, and has been battling with the military government for 50 years in one of the world’s longest-running insurgencies.  

 

According to a report by Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), violations against Christians in Burma are widespread and systematic. The Christians who are predominantly found among the non-Burmese ethnic groups such as Chin, Kachin, Nagas and Karen suffer from a deliberate campaign of discrimination in jobs and promotions, restrictions on church events, meetings and literature, and the arrest, torture and imprisonment of pastors and church workers. The most affected group is the Karen, a mainly Christian people who make up just over 10 percent of Burma’s population. The Karen bear the brunt of the army’s “Four Cuts” counter-insurgency strategy, in which it tries to defeat armed ethnic groups by denying them access to food, funds, recruits and information from other armed opposition groups. In the west, the Muslim Rohingya people and other minority groups along the borders with Bangladesh and India suffer discrimination and forced relocation. Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya were displaced in schemes to resettle the urban poor and build large-scale infrastructure projects.

 

III. Influx of refugees into neighbouring countries

 

Burma’s refugee crisis has a regional impact. More than a million of Burmese citizens have fled to neighbouring countries such as Bangladesh, India, Malaysia and in particular Thailand. They face a host of hardships as asylum seekers or illegal immigrants, facing social and economic discrimination as well as living in fear of arrest and deportation. 

In recent years, the flow of people out of Burma has become one of South East Asia’s largest migration movements. According to estimates, about 2 million people had gone to Thailand, more than 200,000 Rohingyas were living in Bangladesh while thousands were believed to have gone to Malaysia. Others had gone north to India and China. However, exact figures are hard to obtain. Some of these refugees have for years been fleeing fighting and persecution at the hands of an increasingly brutal military. Others were economic migrants driven by the desire to escape Burma’s grinding poverty and hardship. Burmese workers have been filling unpopular, low-paid jobs, often ending up doing incredibly dangerous or dirty work. The Thai government offers one-year migrant worker permits - albeit with restrictions and conditions - to those that can afford them. Many people, however, choose to take their chances and work illegally, leaving them vulnerable to unscrupulous employers.

 

Yet, those who have an interest to exploit the natural resources term the on-going crisis as Burma’s internal affair.