Reports By Year > 2010

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 23 reports in 2010. These are listed below.

REPORT TITLE	DATE
Supporting local responses to extractive abuse: Commentary on the ND-Burma report 'Hidden Impact'  [KHRG Commentary]	Sep 6th, 2010
Eighteen years of KHRG field research indicates that regular extractive abuses by the SPDC Army and NSAGs threaten local livelihoods and are a fundamental human rights concern for villagers throughout eastern Burma. These abuses appear to be the product of the established SPDC Army and NSAG practice of supporting military units via extraction of significant material and labour resources from the local civilian population, enforced by implicit or explicit threats of violence. These findings were recently affirmed by ND-Burma, which last week released a report documenting the prevalence and impact of arbitrary taxation for communities across Burma. This commentary is designed to support ND-Burma's report, by offering additional recommendations based upon evidence that civilians have developed and employed a range of strategies for protecting themselves from extractive abuse or its consequences. These responses vary between contexts, and have been formulated based on first-hand awareness of the local dynamics of abuse and potential space for safe response. Seeking to understand, and then support, these local protection efforts should be the starting point for any external actors interested in improving human rights conditions in eastern Burma in both the short and long term.
Self-protection under strain: Targeting of civilians and local responses in northern Karen State  [Regional or Thematic report]	Aug 31st, 2010
The SPDC Army continues to attack civilians and civilian livelihoods nearly two years after the end of the 2005-2008 SPDC Offensive in northern Karen State. In response, civilians have developed and employed various self-protection strategies that have enabled tens of thousands of villagers to survive with dignity and remain close to their homes despite the humanitarian consequences of SPDC Army practices. These protection strategies, however, have become strained, even insufficient, as humanitarian conditions worsen under sustained pressure from the SPDC Army, prompting some individual villagers and entire communities to re-assess local priorities and concerns, and respond with alternative strategies - including uses of weapons or landmines. While this complicates discussions of legal and humanitarian protections for at-risk civilians, uses of weapons by civilians occur amidst increasing constraints on alternative self-protection measures. External actors wishing to promote human rights in conflict areas of eastern Burma should therefore seek a detailed understanding of local priorities and dynamics of abuse, and use this understanding to inform activities that broaden civilians' range of feasible options for self-protection, including beyond uses of arms.
Southern Papun District: Abuse and the expansion of military control  [Field report]	Aug 30th, 2010
This report presents information on the human rights situation in village tracts along the southern end of the Ka Ma Maung to Papun road in southern Dweh Loh and Bu Tho townships. SPDC and DKBA units maintain control over strategic points in lowland areas of this part of southern Papun, including relocation sites and vehicle roads, and support their presence by levying a range of exploitative demands on the local civilian population. SPDC and DKBA forces also continue to conduct offensive military operations in upland areas of southern Papun; for villagers living beyond permanent military control, these activities entail exploitative abuses, movement restrictions and, in some cases, violence including military attacks. Communities in both lowland and upland areas employ a variety of strategies to protect themselves and their livelihoods from SPDC and DKBA abuses and the effects of abuse. Strategies documented in this report include negotiation; paying fines in lieu of compliance with demands; discreet semi- or false compliance, or overt non-compliance or refusal to meet demands; strategic displacement to areas beyond consolidated SPDC or DKBA; and actively monitoring local security conditions to inform decisions about further self-protection responses. This is the last of four reports detailing the situation in Papun District’s southern townships that have been released in August 2010. Incidents described below occurred between September 2009 and April 2010.
Central Papun District: Village-level decision making and strategic displacement  [Field report]	Aug 27th, 2010
This report details a sequence of events in one village in central Papun District in late 2009. The report illustrates how the community responded to exploitative and violent human rights abuses by SPDC Army units deployed near its village in order to avoid or reduce the harmful impact on livelihoods and physical security. It also provides a detailed example of the way local responses are often developed and employed cooperatively, thus affording protection to entire communities. This report draws extensively on interviews with residents of Pi--- village, Dweh Loh Township, who described their experiences to KHRG field researchers, supplemented by illustrations based on these accounts by a Karen artist. This is the third of four field reports documenting the situation in Papun District's southern townships that will be released in August 2010. The incidents and responses documented below occurred in November 2009.
Central Papun District: Abuse and the maintenance of military control  [Field report]	Aug 23rd, 2010
This report presents information on the human rights situation in village tracts in central Papun District located near the northern section of the Ka Ma Maung to Papun Road, south of Papun Town in Bu Tho Township. Communities must confront regular threats to their livelihoods and physical security stemming from the strong SPDC and DKBA presence in, and control of the area, as these military units support themselves by extracting significant material and labour resources from the local civilian population. Villagers have reported movement restrictions and various exploitative abuses, including arbitrary taxation, forced portering, forced labour fabricating and delivering materials to military units, forced mine clearance and forced recruitment for military service. Some communities have also reported threats or acts of violent abuse, typically in the context of enforcing forced labour orders or where villagers have been accused of contacting or assisting KNLA forces operating in the area. This is the second of four reports detailing the situation in Papun District’s southern townships that will be released in August 2010. Incidents documented in this report occurred between April 2009 and February 2010.
Southwestern Papun District: Transitions to DKBA control along the Bilin River  [Field report]	Aug 18th, 2010
This report documents the human rights situation in communities along the Bilin to Papun Road and along the Bilin River in western Dweh Loh Township, Papun District. SPDC forces remain active in these areas, but DKBA soldiers from Battalions #333 and #999 have increased their presence; local villagers have reported that they continue to face abuses by both actors, but KHRG has received a greater number of reports of DKBA abuses, especially regarding exploitative demands, movement restrictions and the use of landmines in civilian areas. This report is the first of four reports detailing the situation in southern Papun that will be released in August 2010. Incidents documented in this report occurred between November 2009 and March 2010.
Submission for the UN Universal Periodic Review: Human rights concerns in KHRG research areas  [Regional or Thematic report]	Jul 6th, 2010
In 2006, the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council (HRC) was established and empowered to review the human rights practices of every UN member state, using a mechanism called the Universal Periodic Review (UPR). UPR processes are conducted every four years for each member state by soliciting information from states, UN Agencies and other stakeholders, including local organisations. In January 2011, the HRC is scheduled to review the human rights practices of Burma’s military government for the first time. KHRG submitted information for inclusion in this review on July 5th 2010. This brief submission, based upon 61 KHRG reports published during the period 2008-2010, is reproduced below.
KHRG Photo Gallery 2010  [Photoset]	Jun 15th, 2010
The first instalment of KHRG’s Photo Gallery 2010 presents 131 still images selected from photos taken by field researchers since July 2009. Of these photos, 56 were taken during the latter half of 2009 and 75 were taken during 2010. This edition of the gallery is divided into six subtopics, including forced displacement, life under military control, convict porters, children in armed conflict, soldiers, weapons and army camps, and land and livelihoods.
Village burnt and residents forced to relocate in Pa’an District  [News Bulletin]	Jun 4th, 2010
DKBA soldiers in Dta Greh Township, Pa'an District, have burnt the small village of Gk'Law Lu and forced its residents to relocate. This incident is the second time Gk'Law Lu has been burnt and relocated by DKBA soldiers: the village was first burnt and residents forcibly relocated in October 2008. Relocated families, meanwhile, may face serious threats to their livelihoods if potential DKBA travel restrictions and risks from landmines limit access to farm fields in their home village.
SPDC shelling destroys villagers' rubber plantations in Dooplaya District  [News Bulletin]	May 20th, 2010
Two villagers have lost nearly 3,000 rubber trees in a fire started when SPDC soldiers from IB #548 fired mortars into their plantations as the men fled in anticipation of fighting between IB #548 and a patrol of KNLA troops on April 23rd 2010. The men will attempt to replant their plantations, but have each effectively lost four-year investments of labour and money.
Attacks on cardamom plantations, detention and forced labour in Toungoo District  [Field report]	May 13th, 2010
This field report documents recent human rights abuses committed by SPDC soldiers against Karen villagers in Toungoo District. Villagers in SPDC-controlled areas continue to face heavy forced labour demands that severely constrain their livelihoods; some have had their livelihoods directly targeted in the form of attacks on their cardamom fields. In certain cases individuals have also been subjected to arbitrary detention and physical abuse by SPDC soldiers, typically on suspicion of having had contact with the KNU/KNLA after being caught in violation of stringent movement restrictions. Villagers living in or travelling to areas beyond SPDC control, meanwhile, continue to have their physical security threatened by SPDC patrols that practice a shoot-on-sight policy in such areas. This report covers incidents between January and April 2010.
Cross-border DKBA attack displaces households in Thailand  [News Bulletin]	Apr 30th, 2010
On April 21st 2010 DKBA soldiers from Battalion #7 of Brigade #999 crossed into Thailand and burned three huts in the Thai village of Hsoe Hta in Tha Song Yang District, Tak Province. The raid was ordered by Batallion #7 Column Commander Bpweh Kih, who believed that the villagers had been in contact with the KNLA and were withholding information about four DKBA soldiers who had recently deserted from a DKBA camp at Bpaw Bpah Hta, Pa’an District. The incident falls into a broader recent pattern of cross-border violence and killings by the DKBA, often against suspected KNLA supporters; it also gives substance to statements made by deserters during interviews with KHRG that indicate they would be summarily executed if recaptured by the DKBA.
Attacks and displacement in Nyaunglebin District  [News Bulletin]	Apr 9th, 2010
At least 2,000 villagers have been displaced by SPDC Army attacks on villages in northern and central Kyauk Kyi Township, Nyaunglebin District. At least four villagers have been killed, while abandoned villages have been burned, including one clinic. More than ten schools have also been abandoned, disrupting students during their exam period. SPDC Army battalions conducted resupply operations at the end of February and KHRG field researchers predict attacks will soon resume.
Functionally Refoulement: Camps in Tha Song Yang District abandoned as refugees bow to pressure  [Field report]	Apr 1st, 2010
Two temporary refugee camps established during June 2009 in Tha Song Yang District, Tak Province, Thailand, to provide refuge for villagers that fled increased conflict and exploitative abuse in Pa'an District have now been all but entirely abandoned. The camps were home to more than 2,209 refugees as recently as January 2010; over the last two months, the camp populations have dwindled as small groups have departed one by one. On March 31st and April 1st, the last residents of the Nong Bua and Mae U Su sites left in two large groups, of 24 and 102 families respectively. This report details the circumstances of the refugee' departure, including interviews that indicate refugees left because of a persistent campaign of harassment by soldiers of the Royal Thai Army (RTA), who pressured the refugees to return to Burma in spite of warnings that safe return is not currently possible. The report also details the dangers returned refugees may face, including risks from landmines as well as violent and exploitative abuse by the DKBA and SPDC Army. This section also includes details regarding the death and injury of two young boys that accidentally detonated an unexploded M79 cartridge they found outside the village of Mae La Ah Kee on March 31st 2010. Highlighting the risks returned refugees may face, the boys came from a family that had been forced out of the Mae U Su site by RTA soldiers at the end of the rainy season 2009.
Forced Labour, Movement and Trade Restrictions in Toungoo District  [Field report]	Mar 4th, 2010
This field report documents the continuing and worsening demands for forced labour and restrictions on movement and trade imposed on villagers in Toungoo District by the SPDC army. These exploitative and restrictive practices undermine the livelihoods of both individuals living under SPDC control and villagers who have opted to live in hiding. Heavy demands for forced labour limit the time that villagers in relocation sites or SPDC-controlled areas can devote to securing their livelihoods; this strain is exacerbated by increasing restrictions on villagers’ freedom to travel for farming and trade, the latter of which is essential for obtaining basic foodstuffs and other necessities in many parts of Toungoo. This situation in turn reduces the availability and accessibility of essential food and medicines to villagers in hiding, who continue to resist SPDC exploitation despite grave risks to their physical security. This report covers incidents between June 2009 and January 2010.
SPDC mortar attack on school in Papun District  [News Bulletin]	Feb 24th, 2010
One 15-year-old student is dead and two other students are injured after an 81 mm mortar fired into an IDP hiding site in Lu Thaw Township, Papun District, landed in a school set up by the villagers. As of February 21st, the site’s 353 residents remained in hiding and are actively seeking to avoid being shot-on-sight by SPDC Army troops that remain in their area.
Abuse between borders: vulnerability for Burmese workers deported from Thailand  [Field report]	Feb 22nd, 2010
The Royal Thai Government appears poised to deport as many as 1.4 million workers that fail to complete "nationality verification" procedures by the end of February 2010. The majority of these workers are Burmese. Based upon extensive research conducted by KHRG and other organisations, it is likely that many of these workers came to Thailand not out of an apolitical desire for economic opportunity, but as a protection strategy initiated in response to the exploitative and violent abuse that drives poverty in their home areas. Moreover, even workers who do not face abuse upon return face abuse at the checkpoints to which Thai authorities transfer them during deportation procedures. These abuses include taxation, forced labour, beatings, killing and rape. Incidents documented in this report took place between November 2009 and February 2010.
Refoulement Deferred: Still no durable solution for hosting refugees in Tha Song Yang District  [News Bulletin]	Feb 5th, 2010
The Thai military appears to have temporarily scaled down plans to repatriate thirty households from one of three sites for refugees in Thailand’s Tha Song Yang District, Tak Province after being notified that they did not wish to return to Burma. Three households were nevertheless returned to Burma today, however, and Thai authorities have not indicated any willingness to allow the other 3,000 refugees to remain in Thailand beyond the immediate future. Until a durable solution is found for hosting these refugees, it is highly likely that Thai authorities will again attempt to forcibly repatriate them. At this juncture, return should not be considered to be voluntary or spontaneous. The three families that were returned today, and any others repatriated to Burma, potentially face significant threats to their human rights and security.
Threatening refoulement: harassment and pressure on refugees in Tha Song Yang District  [News Bulletin]	Feb 3rd, 2010
Local Thai military authorities appear to be moving forward with plans to evict 3,000 refugees residing at three temporary sites in Tha Song Yang District, Tak Province. This is not consistent with public and private assurances given by higher-level Thai authorities that any repatriation would be “voluntary.” Refugees interviewed by KHRG report that, starting on February 1st, Thai soldiers began visiting the temporary sites three times a day, threatening refugees and telling them that the camps must be vacated by February 15th. This bulletin details events between January 26th and February 3rd 2010. Appendix 1 then provides full transcripts of four interviews with refugees describing what could be the initial stage of refoulement. Appendix 2 then summarises significant threats to human rights and security that refugees could face should they be forced to return to Pa’an District.
Unsafe return: Threats to human rights and security for refugees leaving Tha Song Yang District  [News Bulletin]	Jan 27th, 2010
More than 4,000 refugees remain in Thailand's Tha Song Yang District, Tak Province, after fleeing fighting and exploitative abuse following joint SPDC/DKBA attacks on KNLA camps near the Ler Per Her IDP site in Dta Greh Township, Pa'an District. Though fighting between these groups is currently at a lull, refugees continue to face serious obstacles to safe return. All three armed groups remain active in the wider Ler Per Her area, and villagers have reported occasional shelling and small arms fire. Large numbers of unmarked landmines have also been placed in civilian areas. While many of these locations are currently abandoned, mines have injured or killed at least five people near Ler Per Her since June, including a 13-year-old boy and a woman in her third trimester of pregnancy. Returning refugees thus face serious risk of injury by landmines. Returned refugees would also face human rights abuses including conscription as forced labourers working on military projects, portering supplies and clearing landmines as well as reprisals against them as accused KNLA supporters. For these reasons, no refugees from the Ler Per Her area should be forced to repatriate against their will. Moreover, refugees should be included in any future negotiations regarding repatriation or relocation.
Attacks on displaced villagers in Nyaunglebin District  [News Bulletin]	Jan 22nd, 2010
At least 1,000 villagers have fled from ten villages during the last five days following the establishment of a new SPDC Army camp in central Nyaunglebin District. Two villagers in the area of the camp are confirmed to have been killed by soldiers from this camp. Three other villagers are missing after another SPDC battalion attacked a party of villagers that had escaped from an SPDC relocation site to tend to their farms.
Patterns of Abuse: Photographs of rural life in a militarized Karen State  [Regional or Thematic report]	Jan 6th, 2010
This photo album contains more than 125 full colour images showing scenes of life in rural Karen State, from paddy cultivation to attacks on villages to flight as displaced people and refugees. Photographed over the course of KHRG’s nearly 18 years of human rights work, these images present a striking picture of the patterns of abuse experienced by villagers in a militarized Karen State. Professionally printed on glossy paper and in a hard cover binding, this photo album is available for sale on the KHRG website. All proceeds go to funding KHRG’s documentation work, gathering information, stories and photos from villagers and advocating for respect of human rights in Burma, as well as supporting villagers’ own strategies to claim their rights.
Grave Violations: Assessing abuses of child rights in Karen areas during 2009  [Regional or Thematic report]	Jan 3rd, 2010
The UN Secretary-General has listed the SPDC Army, as well as other armed groups in Burma, in five consecutive reports to the Security Council for violations of children’s rights. It has been more than two years since the UN established a formal mechanism for monitoring child rights violations in Burma. As the year closes, however, KHRG research indicates that grave violations of children’s rights increased during 2009. This report provides details on these grave violations, covering the period of January to December 2009.
Search