Reports By Year > 2000

Below are a set of links to all reports published by KHRG matching your search criteria and compiled from information received from KHRG's field researchers. If you wish to search for a particular report, please use our main search page.

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There were 12 reports in 2000. These are listed below.

REPORT TITLE	DATE
Convict Porters  [Regional or Thematic report]	Dec 20th, 2000
Based on KHRG interviews with prison convicts from all over Burma who have escaped forced labour for SPDC troops, this report tells the story of their arrest, sentencing, life in the prisons and the increasing use of convicts as porters by Burma's military junta. Documents the arbitrary arrest and sentencing of people to long jail terms for petty offences, the brutal and inhuman conditions in the prisons, and the even more brutal abuse and killings of convicts who are forced to go into combat situations with the military - in many cases after their sentences should have expired. This report also includes an Annex of Interviews.
A Village on Fire: The destruction of rural life in southeastern Burma  [Article or paper]	Oct 31st, 2000
This article by Kevin Heppner of KHRG appeared in issue 24.3 of the journal Cultural Survival Quarterly, issued on October 31st 2000. Looking at SPDC policies and strategies of destroying villages and livelihoods as a means of undermining resistance, it discusses how this is destroying the viability of the rural agricultural village as a social, cultural and economic entity. Agricultural villages are Burma's core and lifeblood but they are too vulnerable to military demands, and by destroying their viability the SPDC is destroying the very fabric and future of Burma.
Photo Set 2000-B  [Photoset]	Oct 18th, 2000
Forced labour, landmines, village destruction, internal displacement, the internally displaced at Ler Baw Gher, and forced repatriation of refugees
Karen Human Rights Group Commentary  [KHRG Commentary]	Oct 17th, 2000
The world is replete with repressive regimes, but even among the most repressive there are few who would try to claim that "there is no problem" in their country. As virtually everyone in the world knows, you cannot hope to solve a problem until you admit that it exists, yet the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) military junta in Burma endlessly persists in facing every problem with nothing but barefaced denial. They don’t even seem to realise how ridiculous they appear to the outside world when they claim that ‘there is no poverty’ in a country ranked among the world’s ten poorest by the United Nations; that ‘women enjoy perfect equal rights’ in a country where sexual abuse by the Army and trafficking in women and girls are huge problems; that ‘the Burmese race is immune to HIV’ in a country with possibly the worst HIV infection rate in east Asia; and that ‘there is no forced labour’ in a country where villagers flee their villages en masse to escape demands to build roads and haul supplies for the Army.
Peace Villages and Hiding Villages: Roads, Relocations and the Campaign for Control in Toungoo District  [Regional or Thematic report]	Oct 15th, 2000
Based on interviews and field reports from KHRG field researchers in this northern Karen district, looks at the phenomenon of 'Peace Villages' under SPDC control and 'Hiding Villages' in the hills; while the 'Hiding Villages' are being systematically destroyed and their villagers hunted and captured, the 'Peace Villages' face so many demands for forced labour and extortion that many of them are fleeing to the hills. Looks at forced labour road construction and its relation to increasing SPDC militarisation of the area, and also at the new tourism development project at Than Daung Gyi which involves large-scale land confiscation and forced labour.
SPDC & DKBA Orders To Villages: SET 2000-B  [Orders report]	Oct 12th, 2000
Following are the direct translations of just over 250 order documents and related letters sent from State Peace & Development Council (SPDC), Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), and Karen Peace Army (KPA) military units and local authorities to villages in Pa'an, Dooplaya, Toungoo, Papun, Thaton and Nyaunglebin Districts of Karen State, southeastern Burma.
Photo Set 2000-A  [Photoset]	Jun 1st, 2000
Village destruction and relocation; detention, torture, shootings and killings; forced labour and extortion; internal displacement and refugees; landmines; and SPDC deserters
Papun and Nyaunglebin Districts: Villagers Flee as SPDC Troops Resume Burning and Landmining of Villages  [Field report]	Apr 25th, 2000
Villagers from Dweh Loh township, just southwest of the town of Papun, have begun fleeing the area in large numbers after SPDC troops burned and then landmined at least 9 of their villages in March 2000, at the same time that villagers throughout the region have been fleeing in increasing numbers from increased SPDC militarisation and forced labour.
Karen Human Rights Group Commentary  [KHRG Commentary]	Apr 6th, 2000
Recent months have seen a great deal of activity internationally related to Burma, with Thailand hardening its stance toward refugees and the Non-Governmental Organisations who help them, the United Nations once again condemning Burma for human rights abuses, the International Labour Organisation deciding to take unprecedented steps to press the SPDC to cease forced labour, officials from many countries meeting in South Korea (despite the SPDC’s anger) to discuss what to do about Burma, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the Thai Government seriously discussing the possible forced repatriation of Karen and Karenni refugees, multinational corporations challenging American selective purchasing laws in the U.S. Supreme Court, and several other developments. In the meantime, the international media has been in a scramble over a sideshow, all trying to be the first to get an exclusive interview with Johnny Htoo and Saw Luther, the teenage cheroot-smoking leaders of God’s Army in Tenasserim Division.
Exiled At Home: Continued Forced Relocations and Displacement in Shan State  [Regional or Thematic report]	Apr 5th, 2000
An update on the worsening situation for the people of over 1,400 villages which have been forcibly relocated and destroyed by the SPDC since 1996 in central Shan State; starvation, forced labour and physical abuse in the relocation sites, the struggle of the internally displaced hiding in the forests, the hunting and killing of villagers by SPDC patrols, massacres in Kun Hing township, and the flight to Thailand. Also updates progress on the foreign-financed Salween Dam project.
Starving Them Out: Forced Relocations, Killings and the Systematic Starvation of Villagers in Dooplaya District  [Regional or Thematic report]	Mar 31st, 2000
The current situation in SPDC-occupied Dooplaya District of Karen State, including new campaigns of forced relocation, military confiscation of the entire rice crop, internal displacement and widespread hunger. The flight of increasing numbers of villagers to the Thai border, many of whom are being forced back at gunpoint by Thai troops.
SPDC & DKBA Orders To Villages: SET 2000-A  [Orders report]	Feb 29th, 2000
Following are the direct translations of close to 300 written orders sent from State Peace & Development Council (SPDC) and Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) Army units and local authorities to villages in Papun, Toungoo, Dooplaya and Pa'an Districts of Karen State, southeastern Burma.
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