A report released yesterday by the Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG) said the preliminary ceasefire between Burma’s government and the Karen National Union (KNU), which was signed in January 2012, has brought its own challenges with “new forms of abuse and local concerns emerging in the evolving security environment.”
The report documents human rights conditions in southeastern Burma over the past two years. Despite the emergence of new human rights violations, the report also says that certain forms of abuse such as forced labor have declined sharply and that it’s now much easier to travel in southeastern Burma.
“KHRG researchers and villagers throughout the seven Karen districts in Southeast Myanmar have described the ability to travel and work more freely as the single most positive trend resulting from the ceasefire,” KHRG said in the report, adding that “This change is due to an end to armed conflict and the accompanying decrease in movement restrictions and harassment by Tatmadaw troops.”
However, the report also said that little progress has been achieved on human rights abuses associated with landmines, arbitrary curfews, and arbitrary taxation by Burma’s army and armed ethnic groups.
In an email interview with Karen News, KHRG Field Director Saw Albert Moo stated that in spite of the cessation of armed conflict, the lives of many villagers have not improved significantly. “The life of villagers that has been impacted by the conflict in staying the same as it was in the past. Their livelihood options, their living conditions, ongoing militarization… [i.e. living under the shadow of heavy military activity has made their lives] very difficult. Some villagers who been displaced for a long time still cannot return to their villages,” said Saw Albert.
Drug Trade on the Rise
The KHRG report also pointed out that the KNU ceasefire has been a boon for methamphetamine traders, some of whom are members of Burma’s army or the so-called “Border Guard Forces” (BGF) allied with Burma’s army. According to the report, the growth of drug dealing in the region has precipitated an increase in human rights violations such as sexual violence and drug-related killings.
“Villagers reported an increase in the production and sale of methamphetamines by BGF soldiers in Hpapun and Hpa-an districts, and have increasingly complained of the negative consequences of drug production, sale and use, as well as related killings and sexual violence, and the negative impacts of its availability on youth and social cohesion,” KHRG said in its report, which also described how the increasing ease of travel in southeastern Burma has contributed to the region’s growing drug trade.
New Burmese Army Bases
In addition, the KHRG report expressed concern over the construction of new Burmese army bases in ethnic areas and the renovation or reinforcement of older bases.
“New Tatmadaw (Burmese army) bases have been built and existing bases have been strengthened in KHRG’s research areas throughout 2012 and 2013. Ongoing militarization has [compelled] communities of internally displaced people to remain in temporary settlements, unwilling to return to their former villages until Tatmadaw camps have been closed.”
In an interview with Karen News this past January, the leader of the Karen National Defense Organization (KNDO), General Ner Dah Mya, estimated that Burma’s army had 300 military outposts in Karen “administered areas,” and the number of outposts certainly may have grown since January.
Indeed, a field researcher working for KHRG said that some villagers felt the ceasefire was simply an excuse for government forces to reinforce and expand their positions in ethnic areas.
“Villagers believe that the ceasefire is not a stable process for them because the Burmese army is rebuilding their camps and sending more rations during the ceasefire,” the field researcher said, adding that “[Villagers] always have to worry and also have to deal with land confiscation and extortion by the Burmese army after the ceasefire. Instead of removing their camps, the army has returned and rebuilt their camps in the mountains close to the working areas of the villagers, who do not show themselves to the army.”
Land Confiscation Destroying Villagers’ Lives
According to the KHRG report, villagers continue to report land confiscation for large-scale development projects or army camps since the ceasefire. The report found that land confiscated by the Burmese army has not been returned, and that Burma’s government has been confiscating new land under laws which permit the confiscation of certain lands classified as “vacant,” “fallow,” or state-owned. Moreover, the report found that local villagers aren’t being consulted when their land is taken under these laws.
“Since the ceasefire, villagers have begun to report increasingly about land confiscation for mining, logging, dams, infrastructure development and commercial agriculture. Land is confiscated by armed actors or the Myanmar government in collaboration with companies for those projects.” KHRG said.
In an e-mail to Karen News, KHRG cited the Hatgyi Dam as one example of a development project which has incited conflict in southeastern Burma: “armed conflict broke out between BGF and DKBA soldiers over the Hatgyi Dam in 2012, which caused villagers to flee and be displaced from their homes for a short period of time…Because of land confiscation, tens of thousands of villagers have been displaced and communities face increasing water contamination and damage to land because of development projects,” KHRG said in the e-mail, referring to projects such as the Hatgyi Dam as well as the Toh Boh Dam in Toungoo District.
Human rights organizations have reported similar patterns of land confiscation in other parts of Burma, including Shan State, where a government-backed company called Asia World—which has been the target of U.S. sanctions since 2008 due to alleged links with drug dealing—is building the country’s first dam on the Salween River. The dam, near the town of Kunlong, has displaced over 20,000 civilians from 60 different villages, according to the Shan Human Rights Foundation (SHRF).
“The project lacks transparency, violates local people’s rights, and is taking place in an area of active conflict. By going ahead with this massive project before a political settlement has been reached with the ethnic groups about control over natural resources, the Burmese government also risks derailing the peace process,” SHRF said in an interview with Karen News.
