Reports By Year > 2007

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.

Our News Bulletins are available via email, subscribe to the KHRG newsletter list by entering your email address on the KHRG homepage. Topics covered in News Bulletins will generally be documented in more detail in future KHRG reports.

There were 22 reports in 2007. These are listed below.

REPORT TITLE	DATE
Video evidence of forced labour in Papun District  [News Bulletin]	Dec 13th, 2007
With international interest on Burma firmly focused on events in Rangoon and the regime's purported 'cooperation' with the United Nations, local SPDC authorities have continued demands for forced labour in the rural areas of Karen State unabated. Following the seasonal forced labour cycle the SPDC has once again initiated widespread forced labour projects with the onset of dry season. In Papun District such forced labour has included cutting down and delivering bamboo poles, constructing bridge-side fences and cutting back forest growth from the sides of vehicle roads. To carry out this labour local SPDC authorities have utilised women, children and men. This report includes video and photographic evidence of the SPDC's perpetration of forced labour.
SPDC troops burn villages and step up operations against civilians in southern Toungoo District  [News Bulletin]	Dec 7th, 2007
Following the deployment of new SPDC Army units in southern Toungoo District at the end of November, SPDC troops have been sweeping through the forests on search and destroy missions targeting displaced communities in hiding. Already in December, these patrols have burnt down at least two villages and killed at least one displaced villager as well as having destroyed numerous hidden food stores which they have encountered during patrols of the area. The local displaced communities are now facing heightened food insecurity and an ongoing risk of military attack.
Villagers risk arrest and execution to harvest their crops  [Field report]	Dec 4th, 2007
The months of November and December which follow the annual cessation of the rainy season mark the traditional harvest time for the agrarian communities of Karen State when villagers must venture out into their fields in order to reap their ripe paddy crops. Across large areas of Toungoo District, however, where the SPDC lacks a consolidated hold on the civilian population, this time of year has become especially perilous as the Army enforces sweeping movement restrictions backed up by a shoot on sight policy in order to eradicate the entire civilian presence in areas outside its control and restrict the population to military-controlled villages and relocation sites where they can be more easily exploited for labour, money, food and other supplies. Displaced communities in hiding thus risk potential arrest and execution by venturing out into the relatively open area of their hill side agricultural fields where they are more easily spotted by SPDC troops who regularly patrol the area. Yet, because of the Army’s persistent attacks against covert farm fields, food stores and displaced communities in hiding these villagers confront a severe food shortage which has increased pressure on them to tend to their covert fields despite the risks. As a consequence some villagers have already lost their lives; having been shot by SPDC soldiers while attempting to tend their crops and address their community’s rising food insecurity.
Increased roads, army camps and attacks on rural communities in Papun District  [Field report]	Nov 16th, 2007
Having initially begun construction a decade ago, the SPDC has this year completed the Papun section of a roadway which extends northwards from the east-west Kyauk Kyi to Saw Hta vehicle road towards the SPDC army camp at Buh Hsa Kee in southern Toungoo District. While still incomplete on the Toungoo side of the border the Papun section effectively cuts the northern half of Lu Thaw township into two east-west sections and forms a dangerous and difficult to cross barrier for those civilians fleeing from ongoing military attacks against their communities. Nevertheless villagers in Lu Thaw and other areas of Papun continue to evade SPDC forces and the district currently has the highest number of internally displaced people in hiding out of any area of eastern Burma. Notwithstanding the creative and courageous strategies which these villagers have adopted in order to avoid the army columns which continue to hunt them down, they remain in a precarious situation; one which has only heightened in its severity with the completion of the Papun section of the north-south vehicle road and the upgrading of other roadways further south.
KHRG Photo Gallery 2007  [Photoset]	Nov 6th, 2007
This updated version of KHRG Photo Gallery 2007 includes additional photos received from KHRG field researchers since the second installment of the Gallery in September 2007. These most recent additions include photos taken since the start of 2007 up until August 2007 and bring the total number of photos in the Gallery to 259. The Gallery will continue to be updated throughout the year as we receive more photos from the field.
SPDC Army atrocities in Ler Muh Bplaw village tract in the words of a local resident  [Field report]	Oct 24th, 2007
While the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) continues its diplomatic manoeuvring claiming a 'return to normalcy' and courting favour with United Nations special envoy to Burma, Ibrahim Gambari, attacks on villages and military atrocities in northern Karen State have continued unabated. Nevertheless, local villagers continue to resist such abuse and speak out, where possible, against its daily perpetration. This report comprises a translated account of the situation in Ler Muh Bplaw village tract, Lu Thaw township, Papun District written not by a KHRG researcher or any other of the organisation’s staff, but rather by a local village head from Ler Muh Bplaw village tract who testifies in his own words to the atrocities that continue to undermine rural lives and livelihoods. The report discusses SPDC operations including attacks on villages and the killing of civilians as well as the state of health and education for the communities of Ler Muh Bplaw village tract. The text of the report is supported with photographs taken by KHRG field researchers.
Forced labour, extortion and the state of education in Dooplaya District  [Field report]	Oct 16th, 2007
As world attention focused last month on the large-scale public demonstrations in Rangoon and other major urban centres around Burma, the magnitude of domestic frustration over the military's systematic impoverishment of the civilian population became evident to the international community. This frustration is keenly felt by the people of Dooplaya District in southern Karen State and found expression last month in local anti-regime gatherings. Amongst other abuses, forced labour and extortion in their many guises have been leading causes in the economic collapse and resultant frustration with militarisation in Dooplaya District. A crucial factor making these abuses even more oppressive in Dooplaya and other areas of Karen State as compared with central Burma is the multiplicity of armed groups which compete with each other and with the region's civilian administration for the spoils of village-level exploitation. Across Dooplaya District the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) Army; the regime's district and township-level civilian administration; the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA); and the Karen Peace Force (KPF) all continue to fatten themselves off of the toil of village labour. Amongst other detrimental consequences, this persistent predation has undermined opportunities for educational advancement and the application of such education beyond traditional village livelihoods or subservience within the local system of militarisation.
Protests spread in rural Karen State  [News Bulletin]	Sep 25th, 2007
While international attention follows the rapid escalation of protests in the main urban centres in Burma, a growing movement of local anti-regime demonstrations has likewise emerged in Karen State. At least 330 Buddhist and Christian Karen villagers, including monks, teachers, parents and students from 10 villages in Dooplaya District gathered together on Monday, September 24th to share information about the country-wide protest movement; express their solidarity with the anti-regime sentiment; and offer prayers according to their particular religious beliefs. While the extent of military control in Karen State, the greater impunity with which local SPDC personnel operate and the smaller population size of individual communities all restrict the scale of open protest in this area, these acts are nevertheless significant as demonstrations of solidarity with the broader protest movement.
State agencies, armed groups and the proliferation of oppression in Thaton District  [Field report]	Sep 24th, 2007
Throughout SPDC-controlled areas of Karen State the regime has been developing civilian agencies as extensions of military authority. On top of this, the junta has continued to strengthen the more traditional forms of militarisation and, at least in Thaton District, has firmly backed the expansion of DKBA military operations to control the civilian population and eradicate KNLA forces which continue to actively patrol the area. The people of Thaton District thus face a myriad of State agencies and armed groups which have overburdened them with demands for labour, money and supplies. While engaging with these groups, addressing the demands placed on them and attending to their own livelihoods, local villagers have sought to manage a delicate balance of seemingly impossible weights.
Shouldering the Burden of Militarisation: SPDC, DKBA and KPF order documents and forced labour since September 2006  [Orders report]	Aug 14th, 2007
Forced labour continues to be among the most pervasive of human rights abuses in Burma and a leading cause of displacement, both internally and as refugees into neighbouring countries. Villagers living in Karen State have expressly condemned the regular, and in many cases daily, demands for forced labour imposed upon them. According to these individuals forced labour has lead to collapsing livelihoods, increased poverty and severe difficulties in addressing health, education and other community needs; leading them to respond with varied strategies including flight and displacement. Such views have been consistent in thousands of KHRG interviews with local villagers conducted over the past 15 years. Despite these testimonies the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), the military regime currently ruling Burma, continues to deny the practice of forced labour. However, order documents explicitly demanding forced labour and signed by SPDC officers are regularly collected by KHRG field researchers working throughout Karen State. These documents provide tangible evidence of the continued large-scale perpetration of forced labour in Karen State by military officers and civilian officials of the SPDC, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army and the Karen Peace Force. This report has been written to provide contextual details on the widespread and systematic perpetration of forced labour as background to a compendium of 145 order documents sent to villages in Karen State since September 2006, translations of which are included in the appendices below. These order documents have been compiled for submission to the International Labour Organisation’s Committee of Experts meeting in September 2007.
Landmines, Killings and Food Destruction: Civilian life in Toungoo District  [Field report]	Aug 9th, 2007
The attacks against civilians continue as the SPDC increases its military build-up in Toungoo District. Enforcing widespread restrictions on movement backed up by a shoot-on-sight policy, the SPDC has executed at least 38 villagers in Toungoo since January 2007. On top of this, local villagers face the ever present danger of landmines, many of which were manufactured in China, which the Army has deployed around homes, churches and forest paths. Combined with the destruction of covert agricultural hill fields and rice supplies,these attacks seek to undermine food security and make life unbearable in areas outside of consolidated military control. However, as those living under SPDC rule have found, the constant stream of military demands for labour, money and other supplies undermine livelihoods, village economies and community efforts to address health, education and social needs. Civilians in Toungoo must therefore choose between a situation of impoverishment and subjugation under SPDC rule, evasion in forested hiding sites with the constant threat of military attack, or a relatively stable yet uprooted life in refugee camps away from their homeland. This report documents just some of the human rights abuses perpetrated by SPDC forces against villagers in Toungoo District up to July 2007.
The Compounding Consequences of DKBA Oppression: Abuse, poverty and food insecurity in Thaton District  [Field report]	Jul 9th, 2007
As the principal means of establishing control over the people of Thaton District, the SPDC has supported a more aggressive DKBA role in the area. With the junta's political, military and financial backing the DKBA has sought to expand its numbers, strengthen its position vis-à-vis the civilian population and eradicate the remaining KNU/KNLA presence in the region. To those ends, the DKBA has used forced labour, looting, extortion, land confiscation and movement restrictions and embarked on a hostile campaign of forced recruitment from amongst the local population. These abuses have eroded village livelihoods, leading to low harvest yields and wholly failed crops; problems which compound over time and progressively deepen poverty and malnourishment. With the onset of the rainy season and the 2007 cultivation period, villagers in Thaton District are faced with depleting provisions. This food insecurity will require that many harvest their 2007 crop as early as October while still unripe. The low yield of an early harvest, lost time spent on forced labour and the harmful fallout of further extortion and other abuses will all combine to ensure once again that villagers in Thaton District confront food shortages and increasing poverty.
Provoking Displacement in Toungoo District: Forced labour, restrictions and attacks  [Field report]	May 30th, 2007
The first half of 2007 has seen the continued flight of civilians from their homes and land in response to ongoing State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) military operations in Toungoo District. While in some cases this displacement is prompted by direct military attacks against their villages, many civilians living in Toungoo District have told KHRG that the primary catalyst for relocation has been the regular demands for labour, money and supplies and the restrictions on movement and trade imposed by SPDC forces. These everyday abuses combine over time to effectively undermine civilian livelihoods, exacerbate poverty and make subsistence untenable. Villagers threatened with such demands and restrictions frequently choose displacement in response – initially to forest hiding sites located nearby and then farther afield to larger Internally Displaced Person (IDP) camps or across the border to Thailand-based refugee camps. This report presents accounts of ongoing abuses in Toungoo District committed by SPDC forces during the period of January to May 2007 and their role in motivating local villagers to respond with flight and displacement.
Child soldiers recruited to support expansion of the KNU-KNLA Peace Council  [News Bulletin]	May 28th, 2007
The recent KNU splinter group, the KNU-KNLA Peace Council, in seeking to expand its military forces, consolidate its presence in Pa'an District and put forth a show of strength, has embarked on an intensive recruitment campaign, including the recruitment of Karen children under the age of 18 from homes in Mae La refugee camp and Thai-Karen villages in Tak Province, Thailand. Tricked into joining and prevented from leaving, some of these children have escaped and returned to their homes whilst the parents of other missing children are trying to secure their sons' release and fear for their safety.
Response to UN statement on KHRG report  [KHRG Commentary]	Apr 26th, 2007
Following the release on Tuesday April 24th 2007 of KHRG's report Development by Decree: The politics of poverty and control in Karen State, the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator's Office released a press statement addressing some of the issues raised in the KHRG report. This KHRG commentary is in the format of a media statement to follow up with the UN response by addressing some of the issues raised by the Office of the Humanitarian Coordinator.
Development by Decree: The politics of poverty and control in Karen State  [Regional or Thematic report]	Apr 24th, 2007
In pursuit of domestic submission and international recognition of its legitimacy the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) currently ruling Burma pronounces daily on the manifold military-implemented development programmes initiated across the country which, it argues, are both supported by and beneficial to local communities. Villagers in Karen State, however, consistently reject such claims. Rather, these individuals describe a systematic programme of military expansionism with which the junta aims to establish control over all aspects of civilian life. In the name of development, the regime's agenda in Karen State has involved multifarious infrastructure and regimentation projects that restrict travel and trade and facilitate increased extortion of funds, food, supplies and labour from the civilian population, thereby exacerbating poverty, malnutrition and the overall humanitarian crisis. Given the detrimental consequences of the SPDC's development agenda, villagers in Karen areas have resisted military efforts to control their lives and livelihoods under the rubric of development. In this way these villagers have worked to claim their right to determine for themselves the direction in which they wish their communities to develop. Drawing on over 90 interviews with local villagers in Karen State, SPDC order documents, official SPDC press statements, international media sources, reports by international aid agencies and academic studies this report finds that rather than prosperity, the SPDC's 'development' agenda has instead brought increased military control over civilian lives, undermined villagers' rights and delivered deleterious humanitarian outcomes contradictory to the very rhetoric the junta has used to justify its actions.
The limits of the new ILO mechanism and potential misrepresentation of forced labour in Burma  [KHRG Commentary]	Apr 10th, 2007
In late February 2007, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) reached an agreement regarding the implementation of a new mechanism intended to allow individuals to submit complaints of forced labour without fear of retaliation. External observers have reported that this agreement represents a positive step towards effectively addressing forced labour in Burma. However, as this commentary points out, the potential usefulness and effectiveness of the new mechanism is suspect. By outlining some of the ways in which the SPDC actively obstructs villagers from accessing such mechanisms and the inability of the ILO to ensure protection for civilians from retaliation, this commentary warns that the results of this agreement will likely misrepresent the true scale of forced labour in Burma. It further calls for the ILO to publicly acknowledge these limitations, so that the SPDC is unable to use the lack of complaints to deny the existence of forced labour.
KHRG Photo Gallery 2006  [Photoset]	Mar 31st, 2007
This gallery presents 1,000 photos taken by KHRG researchers in the field throughout 2006 and the first days of 2007, divided into thematic sections including a major section documenting the SPDC's attacks on northern Karen villages throughout the year and the response of villagers living there. First released in November 2006, it has been updated with close to 400 new photos in March 2007.
Road construction, attacks on displaced communities and the impact on education in northern Papun District  [Field report]	Mar 26th, 2007
In the ongoing offensive against villagers in northern Karen State, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) has been working to develop infrastructure supportive of increased military control. The construction of new bases and vehicle roads serve this objective as they obstruct the efforts of local communities to evade army patrols and sustain their livelihoods in areas beyond the reach of SPDC forces. Increased control, in turn, allows the SPDC to more easily exploit rural communities for labour, food and other supplies in support of military structures. This report examines how military deployment and the construction of new roads and bases further into Papun District have led local villagers to respond by evading encroaching army units despite the increasing difficulty of this tactic, and how the subsequent displacement has affected children’s access to education.
Over a hundred villagers cross into Thailand following joint SPDC and DKBA attacks in Dooplaya District  [News Bulletin]	Mar 9th, 2007
On March 8th 2007 State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) Light Infantry Division (LID) #22 arriving from their base at Ghaw Lay in joint operation with Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) Battalions #907 and #906 attacked Kler Law Kyeh village along with the neighbouring Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) Company #3 base, which both lie in eastern Kawkareik township, Dooplaya District. On approach to the KNLA base, SPDC and DKBA soldiers launched mortars and fired their guns into Kler Law Kyeh village. In response, local villagers have fled the area and approximately 140 of them have crossed into Thailand north of the town of Umphang with more expected to continue arriving.
State repression and the creation of poverty in southern Karen State  [Field report]	Feb 23rd, 2007
With most of southern Karen State's Dooplaya district under SPDC control since 1997, villagers face increasing regimentation, restrictions and exploitation by the SPDC and its armed allies that make life virtually unsustainable. The main aspects of this regimentation were already described in detail by KHRG in the report 'Setting Up the Systems of Repression: The progressive regimentation of civilian life in Dooplaya District' (KHRG #2006-04, September 2006). This report follows the same themes, updating the situation by drawing on KHRG's continued interviewing and reporting in the field since September 2006. Forced agricultural programmes, forced labour, and forced recruitment to SPDC-run organisations and administrative structures are combining with systematic state-run extortion, looting, and confiscation of land and crops to artificially create poverty and hunger, forcing many villagers to send family members to Thailand to work illegally for the family's survival. While some UN agencies claim that these are simple matters of poverty that have nothing to do with state repression, villagers are increasingly taking matters into their own hands by finding daring and creative ways to evade or refuse the demands placed on them by the SPDC and other authorities and undermine the power of these groups over their lives.
Bullets and Bulldozers: The SPDC offensive continues in Toungoo District  [Field report]	Feb 19th, 2007
The first two months of 2007 have done nothing to lessen the intensity of attacks against the villagers of Toungoo District. SPDC forces continue to send in more troops and supplies, build new camps and upgrade older ones using forced village labour, convict porters and heavy machinery brought in for this purpose. Local villagers have been the ones to suffer from the increased military build-up and infrastructure 'development' as such programmes have put the SPDC in a stronger position to enforce their authority over civilians in rural areas and undermine the efforts of local peoples to evade military forces and maintain their livelihoods. Employing the new roadways and camps to shuttle troops and supplies deeper into areas beyond military control, SPDC forces continue to expand their reach in terms of extortion of funds, food and supplies; extraction of forced labour; and restriction of all civilian movement, travel and trade. These abuses have combined to exacerbate poverty, worsen the humanitarian situation and restrict the options of villagers living in these areas.
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