displacement

Reports of rape and the murder of two civilians have emerged following a Burma Army offensive in parts of Kachin State and Shan State, that has also led to more than three thousand civilians displaced in the attacks. The frontline humanitarian organisation, Free Burma Rangers, allege that on April 10, Burma Army soldiers from Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) raped a…

The Burma Army attacked the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) positions on Thursday 10 April. The 10-hour Burma Army offensive took place in the La Gat Yang and Man Win areas on the Kachin-Shan border. A report released by a humanitarian organization, the Burma Free Rangers, documents that, “Burma Army soldiers from Military Operation Command (MOC) 16, Division 88, and Light…

The Democratic Karen Benevolent Army (DKBA) has invited villagers displaced by the Burma Army to stay with them. The DKBA has told villagers from the Tha-Mee-Lay village, Hle-Gu Township, to come and stay with them after the villagers were forced from their homes by the Burma Army on February 4. The displacement involved around 150 families – about 500 people…

State-run oil and rubber plantations are blocking displaced Karen villagers from returning to their original land. Since the ceasefire between the Karen National Union and the Burma government in 2012 dispossessed villagers in the Tanintharyi region have begun to return to their former villagers. P’doh Saw Eh Kaw, chairman of Ler Mu Lah township, spoke to Karen News about the…

Burma Army units in Kachin State are looting the rice rations of internal displaced people (IDP’s), and have fired on a group of villagers in at least one occasion last month, reports the Free Burma Rangers, a frontline humanitarian organization. The FBR lists and dates the Burma Army took over a camp for displaced people. On 21 November 2013, Burma…

Environmental researchers have found village water sources close to a tin mining operation in Southern Burma have dangerous levels of lead and arsenic. Independent community-based researchers from Kamoethway, east of Dawei Town, working with an environmentalist expert from the Netherlands carried out water testing in villages close to a tin mining operation and found that the villagers water sources are…

The ethnic alliance, the United Nationalities Federal Council, blamed the government for the fighting in Kachin State. The UNFC said the ongoing fighting in kachin State is a result of the government’s territorial containment policy in ethnic states. The UNFC said that thousands of Kachin civilians have been forced from their homes due to the recent fighting on November 17…

Despite being resettled, displaced Karen villagers in Thar Mae Plaw, in southern Burma, are still living in fear after the Burma Army repeatedly entered their newly resettled site. Saw Honny, a relief worker helping the displaced to resettle in Thar Mae Plaw spoke to Karen News. “Burma Army, Infantry Battalion 101, about 26 soldiers led by 2nd Battalion Commander Aung…

The human rights situation in Burma is moving too slowly, says Fortify Rights a non-profit human rights organization based in Southeast Asia, with positive political progress being undermined by a festering civil war in the country’s north. “Positive political changes have come to Burma but the human rights situation is deeply concerning,” said Matthew Smith, executive director of Fortify Rights.…

More than 1,000 villagers have fled in the face of new operations by the Burma Army against the Shan State Army-North (SSA-N), said the Shan Human Rights Foundation. “Atrocities by Burmese troops in a new military operation against the SSA-North have caused over 1,000 villagers, from 16 villages in Tangyan, to flee from their homes during the past two weeks.”…