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IV.  Internal Displacement and Refugees

Anywhere from 2 to 4 million people are internally displaced in Burma, including those who have been driven out of urban areas without compensation to make way for foreign-owned factories, people who have fled their villages because they cannot provide all the forced labour and extortion money demanded of them, and those who have been forcibly driven out of their villages due to SPDC campaigns to consolidate military control over various regions. The photos below relate to the latter two groups, particularly those who have fled into hiding in the forest rather than to relocation sites, larger villages, or towns. At least 300,000 people have been displaced by the forced relocations in central Shan State, another 50,000 in Karenni State, an estimated 300,000 or more in Karen State, and many throughout Tenasserim Division. Many of those who go to the SPDC-controlled relocation sites as ordered find that they cannot survive there for long because they are given no food or medicine, there is no work to get food, and the Army uses them for forced labour, so they eventually flee back into the forests and hills near their home villages to join those already in hiding there. For people living in hiding in the forest conditions are desperate. They can only live in small groups of families for fear of detection by SPDC columns, who will shoot them on sight or take them as porters if they are found. They forage for jungle vegetables and herbal medicines and try to grow rice in small patches, fleeing from one shelter to another whenever an SPDC column comes nearby. In the hills of northern Karen State, where tens of thousands of people are hiding, temperatures drop close to freezing at night in January and February. Many die of treatable diseases or are shot by SPDC troops.

Even under these conditions, most people are desperate to remain close to their land and only head for the Thai border to become refugees when they no longer have any other option. However, on arrival at the border many of them are now blocked or forced back by Thai troops. As a result, some of them have formed ‘IDP (internally displaced person) camps’ just on the Burma side of the border. Since September 1999, three of these IDP camps - at Tee Ner Hta, Meh La Po Hta and Law Thay Hta, all in Pa’an District of Karen State - have been attacked and destroyed by SPDC troops. A steady stream of Shan, Karenni and Karen refugees are now attempting to cross the border into Thailand, often forced to sneak across the border to avoid discovery and forced repatriation at the hands of Thai soldiers. If they manage to find their way into a refugee camp, they are generally kept in ‘holding centres’ for months; then Thai authorities routinely reject their claim to asylum but still allow them to register to receive food in the camp. Over 100,000 Shan refugees have crossed into Thailand, where there are no refugee camps for them at all so they have to disappear into the illegal labour market. Over 1,000 more Shan refugees are now arriving each month, and the job market can no longer absorb them so life in Thailand with no form of protection from arrest and deportation is extremely difficult.

Papun District

Conditions are particularly difficult for the tens of thousands of people displaced by the SPDC campaign to destroy hill villages in northern Papun District. Many of them have been surviving in the forest for 3 years now, always having to dodge passing SPDC columns, foraging for food and taking the risk of being shot on sight. Conditions have recently become even more frightening because SPDC units have been landmining the ruins of their villages. An increasing number are now trying to get to refugee camps in Thailand, but the journey is dangerous and they face the risk of forced repatriation if discovered by Thai troops once they cross the border. For more details see "Information Update #2000-U1" (KHRG, April 2000), "Wholesale Destruction" (KHRG, April 1998), and an upcoming KHRG report on the region, as well as photos from Photo Set 97-B, Photo Set 99-A and Photo Set 99-B.

Photos #4-1, 4-2: Villagers from three villages in western Lu Thaw township living in hiding in the forest in January 2000 after fleeing Light Infantry Division #66. [Photos: KHRG researcher]

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Photo #4-3: After their villages and schools were burned by SPDC Light Infantry Division #66 in December 1999/January 2000, a village teacher teaches some of the children from three villages in western Lu Thaw township villages who are displaced in the forest. [Photo: KHRG researcher]

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Photo #4-4: A villager from K--- village in western Lu Thaw township, Saw Maw Toh, age 40. He fled with other villagers when Light Infantry Division #66 destroyed their village, but then died of illness in the forest because there was no medicine. He leaves a wife and 2 children aged 1 and 9. [Photo: KHRG researcher]

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Photo #4-5: Villagers who have fled their village in Papun District huddle around a fire in the forest to keep warm. The photo was taken in January, when temperatures in the region can drop close to freezing at night. [Photo: KHRG researcher]

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Photo #4-6: Internally displaced people spend the night in a shelter in the forest, T--- village area, Papun district. [Photo: KHRG researcher]

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Photos #4-7, 4-8: Villagers in H--- village area, Papun District, living in the forest in January 2000 after fleeing their villages. [Photo: KHRG researcher]

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Photos #4-9, 4-10: Villagers from M--- village, Dweh Loh township who were forced to move to Klaw Maw, but later fled back to the area of their village. They have to live in hiding in the forest and are in constant fear of discovery by SPDC troops. These photos were taken in November 1999. [Photos: KHRG researcher]

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Photo #4-11: An elderly man internally displaced in Dweh Loh township in late 1999. He can no longer walk so he cannot flee, and he fears that if SPDC troops come they will rape his daughter, also in the photo, so they left their village and now live in hiding in the forest. [Photo: KHRG researcher]

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Photos #4-12, 4-13: Villagers from N--- village in Lu Thaw township who fled and have been hiding in the forest since the SPDC came and destroyed their village and their rice supplies in late 1999. [Photos: KHRG researcher]

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Photos #4-14, 4-15, 4-16, 4-17: Villagers from P---, M--- and M--- villages who have fled and are hiding in the forest because the SPDC burned their villages in November and December 1999. [Photos: KHRG researcher]

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Photo #4-18: Villagers in central Lu Thaw township area going to buy salt and fishpaste near Papun town in late 1999. SPDC troops have destroyed all the food in their village so they have to live in hiding in the forest and walk a 4-day round trip to buy small quantities of staple foods. [Photo: KHRG researcher]

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Photo #4-19: U P---, a Buddhist monk in Dweh Loh township. After repeated harassment by SPDC troops, he and his 3 novices left the village to stay in the forest, where the villagers built a small monastery for him to stay in. [Photo: KHRG researcher]

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Photo #4-20: Lay Pu Plaw village. SPDC troops have occupied the hilltops around the village, so the villagers have all fled into hiding and their homes are abandoned. [Photo: KHRG researcher]

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Photo #4-21: A house abandoned when all the villagers fled SPDC patrols, Dweh Loh township.  After fleeing, many villagers take the risk of returning to take the roof thatch from their own houses to use in building shelters in the forest. [Photo: KHRG researcher]

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Photo #4-22: A man aged at least 90 who says he fought for the British Army both before and during World War Two. He says the SPDC and its predecessor regimes have now killed almost all of his family, so he stays alone in the hills near N--- in Lu Thaw township. Villagers throughout Papun District suffered horrific retaliations when they fought the Japanese as underground resistance for the Allies in World War Two, and when interviewed many veterans like this man express sadness that their people have been so utterly forgotten by Britain and their other former allies. [Photo: KHRG researcher]

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Photo #4-23: Villagers from Saw Mu Plaw who fled after SPDC troops burned their village and others in the area. Here they are taking a rest during their long trip to try to get into a refugee camp in Thailand. [Photo: KHRG researcher]

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Photo #4-24: Newly arrived refugees from Papun District at Meh Ka Kee refugee camp in Thailand, late April 2000. [Photo: KHRG researcher]

Nyaunglebin District

Conditions in the hills of eastern Nyaunglebin District are very much like those in northern Papun District, which are described above (under ‘Papun District’). Thousands of internally displaced villagers are living in hiding in the forested hills with little food and no medicines, dodging SPDC patrols which systematically destroy their shelters and food supplies. These people are even further from the Thai border, and for those who decide they can no longer survive in their home area they must pass through the devastated area of northern Papun District to reach Thailand, where they also face the possibility of forced repatriation by Thai troops. For more information on their situation, see "Death Squads and Displacement" (KHRG, May 1999), "Wholesale Destruction" (KHRG, April 1998), and photos in Photo Set 99-B, Photo Set 99-A, and Photo Set 97-B.

Photos #4-25, 4-26: Villagers in hiding in Mone township, Nyaunglebin district. SPDC troops have been sweeping their area since November, so many are living in hiding. The villager in photo #4-26 is sick, but there is no medicine. [Photos: KHRG researcher]

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Photo #4-27: Hiding place of villagers in the forest, Kheh Der village tract, Kyauk Kyi township. [Photo: KHRG researcher]

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Photo #4-28: Internally displaced villagers in G--- area, Nyaunglebin District, in early 2000. [Photo: KHRG researcher]

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Photos #4-29, 4-30, 4-31, 4-32: Villagers from T--- who fled their village and are now internally displaced in the forest. At this particular hiding place there are about 30-40 villagers in 10 tiny huts like these. [Photos: KHRG researcher]

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Photo #4-33: Abandoned house in Ka Pa Hta village, Mone township. The villagers fled because SPDC units regularly patrol the area. [Photo: KHRG researcher]

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Photo #4-34: Villagers who fled into the hills of Mone township after their village, G---, was ordered to relocate to an SPDC-controlled site in July 1999. Here they are discussing their future. [Photo: KHRG researcher]

Pa’an District

People continue to flee villages in eastern Pa’an District due to village destruction, forced relocation, and increasing forced labour as the SPDC increases its military presence in the region. This particularly involves forced labour as porters for SPDC combat columns penetrating into heavily landmined areas, and the villagers are regularly taken as human minesweepers. Many of the villagers who have fled these abuses are displaced in the Dawna mountains, but many have also attempted to cross into Thailand. Since August 1999, they have had to play cat and mouse with the Thai Army, which regularly forces new arrivals back across the border. For this reason, over 5,000 of them have ended up in ‘IDP camps’ just on the Burma side of the border, most of them in the largest of these camps, Meh La Po Hta, which began in late 1998. In September 1999, the SPDC attacked one of these camps at Tee Ner Hta, causing hundreds of villagers to scatter into the forest or into Thailand. Then in March/April 2000, the SPDC attacked and destroyed Meh La Po Hta, which was sheltering approximately 4,500 internally displaced people, and Law Thay Hta, which was sheltering several hundred more. Most of these people have now fled into Thailand, where an uncertain future awaits them because Thai authorities do not want to accept any new arrivals to existing refugee camps. For more information on the situation see "Beyond All Endurance" (KHRG, December 1999) and the photos in Photo Set 99-A and Photo Set 99-B.

Photo #4-35: Karen internally displaced people (IDPs) from Pa’an district at Tee Ner Hta. In this picture, they had crossed the Moei River into Thailand to meet with officials of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (who cannot cross the border to meet the internally displaced), and the Karen Refugee Committee. After the meeting they had to cross the river back to their IDP camp in Karen State. In September 1999, just two weeks after this photo was taken, their IDP camp was shelled by SPDC troops and they scattered, some into the forest and some into Thailand. [Photo: KHRG researcher]

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Photos #4-36, 4-37, 4-38, 4-39: Karen internally displaced people (IDPs) in Pa’an District who fled their villages to an IDP camp at Law Thay Hta, along the border with Thailand. In April 2000 this camp was attacked by the SPDC, and most of the IDPs have now fled across the border into Thailand. [Photos: KHRG researcher]

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Photo #4-40: New refugee arrivals in Beh Klaw refugee camp, August 1999. At the time, new arrivals from Pa’an District were held in the school by Thai authorities for months with no proper living conditions. When this photo was taken, the Thai Army had already begun blocking all new arrivals from crossing the border in the area. [Photo: KHRG researcher]

Dooplaya District

When the SPDC mounted a mass military offensive and occupied most of Dooplaya District in 1997, tens of thousands of people fled their villages and many tried to make it to Thailand. Just under 10,000 made it, but many more were cut off by the SPDC Army’s rapid advance and became internally displaced. Some of these people managed to reach Thailand later, but most returned to try to survive in their villages. Despite heavy demands for forced labour and extortion, most of them were still managing to survive, but in late 1999 the SPDC began a clampdown throughout Dooplaya, particularly in Kya In township. In a meeting with the leaders of 70-80 villages on November 25 near Kya In Seik Gyi, the Army formally announced plans to confiscate the entire rice crop, forcibly relocate all small villages, and summarily execute anyone who had worked with the KNU in the past 15 years. Since then, more villagers have been fleeing to become internally displaced, and several thousand have tried to enter Thailand. They report that people still living in the district are going hungry, surviving on taro roots because they have been forced to hand over all of their rice to the SPDC and do not dare face the soldiers every day, as ordered, to obtain their daily ‘ration’. The worst of the displacement in Dooplaya appears to have only begun. For more details, see "Starving Them Out" (KHRG, March 2000).

Photos #4-41, 4-42, 4-43, 4-44: Villagers from D--- village, just southwest of Kawkareik in Dooplaya district. Their village was ordered to relocate and cleared out by SPDC Infantry Battalion #280, Column 2, led by Commander Htat Lwin. The villagers fled in November 1999 and now live in hiding in the forest. [Photos: KHRG researcher]

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Photo #4-45: Internally displaced villagers living in hiding, central Dooplaya District. [Photo: KHRG researcher]

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Photos #4-46, 4-47: Part of a group of 152 new refugees arriving at Noh Po refugee camp in Thailand in mid-December 1999. They fled Meh Gu area in Kya In township after troops from Strategic Command #881, Light Infantry Battalion #415, Column 2, commanded by Column Commander Soe Aung came to their village and ordered them to relocate. This is the same Battalion and Strategic Command that held a meeting on November 25^th 1999 to tell all village heads that they would have to hand over the entire rice harvest to the Army, that all remote villages would be forced to Army-controlled sites and that anyone who had helped the KNU within the past 15 years would be summarily executed. [Photos: KHRG researcher]

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Photo #4-48: Villagers who fled their villages in Dooplaya District arriving in Thailand, December 1999. [Photo: KHRG researcher]

Karenni (Kayah) State

In 1995 the SLORC military junta made a ceasefire deal with the Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP), but then broke it by attacking the KNPP. Since then, the SLORC and SPDC have tried to undermine the KNPP by forcibly relocating and destroying approximately 200 villages which cover the entire map of Karenni (Kayah) State. Thousands of people went to SPDC relocation sites while others fled into the hills to survive, where they are still fleeing SPDC columns who hunt them out. Most of those who originally went to the relocation sites as ordered have now fled those sites back to their home areas, because they had no access to food or work there and many were virtually starving to death. Since late 1999 the SPDC has increased its efforts to destroy any remaining village structures and food supplies and root out these villagers, and their circumstances are desperate. Most of them have little or no food, and many are dying of treatable diseases compounded by malnutrition. The trip to Thailand is extremely difficult and dangerous, and those who have managed to make the trip are finding it extremely difficult to gain entry to Thailand without being forced back by Thai troops. For further background see "Continuing Fear and Hunger" (KHRG, May 1999) and photos in Photo Set 97-A.

Photo #4-49: An internally displaced Karenni girl from Pa Koh village, which was burned by SPDC troops in early 2000. To see her burned school see photo #1-32 under ‘Village Destruction and Relocation’. [Photo: FBR volunteer]

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Photo #4-50: Karenni villagers whose villages have been destroyed fleeing from #3 township toward the Thai border. [Photo: FBR volunteer]

Shan State

An estimated 300,000 Shan villagers have been displaced by the SLORC/SPDC’s forced relocation and destruction of approximately 1,500 villages in central Shan State since 1996. Though this campaign was intended to undermine the Shan State Army, it has been ineffectual, so the SPDC has responded by expanding and intensifying it. The SPDC has expanded the area being relocated and has consolidated people into larger and larger relocation sites while providing no food or medicine, and no work except unpaid forced labour. The people in the relocation sites are desperate, so many have fled into hiding. SPDC units have committed several massacres of villagers trying to return to their home villages to forage, even those having permission passes to do so. People living in hiding are finding that they cannot survive any more, and over 1,000 people per month are crossing into Thailand to join the 100,000 or more who have already crossed. In Thailand there are no refugee camps for them, so they have no choice but to enter the illegal labour market. Shan refugees can now be found in the fruit orchards of northern Thailand, the building sites of Chiang Mai, Bangkok and other cities, and in bonded or slave labour in brothels, sweatshops, and Thai households. The steady flow of refugees has overflowed the northern job market, forcing Shan refugees either to live under desperate conditions or to seek work further afield in Thailand, which only makes them even more vulnerable to exploitation. For further information, see "Exiled At Home" (KHRG, April 2000) and reports by the Shan Human Rights Foundation available via the Shan web site (www.shanland.org).

Photo #4-51: Refugees from Murng Pan township who arrived in Thailand in February 2000, standing in front of some of the fields where they survive by doing illegal day labour for Thai employers. [Photo: KHRG researcher]

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Photo #4-52: A typical field hut where several families of Shan refugees live while doing day labour for Thai employers. There are no refugee camps for them. Since the mass relocations in Shan State began in 1996, it is estimated that well over 100,000 Shan refugees have filtered into the illegal labour market in Thailand. [Photo: KHRG researcher]