Displacement and Dispossession: Forced Migration and Land Rights in Burma

Abstract

Burma today is experiencing a crisis in security of land tenure, which includes the widespread abuse of human, economic, social, cultural, and political rights. This report, 'Displacement and Dispossession: Forced Migration and Land Rights in Burma' focuses on land confiscation by Government forces, responsible for Burma’s most acute Housing, Land and Property (HLP) rights abuses. Among the most vulnerable populations are more than one million internally displaced people in Burma, most from ethnic nationality communities. These include at least 500 000 people in the armed conflict-affected border regions of eastern Burma.

This report focuses on the ongoing abuses of HLP rights occurring under military rule today, particularly in areas populated by non-Burman peoples. In recent years, the peoples living in these areas have been the most severely affected by large-scale displacement. These abuses occur during military counter-insurgency operations; for the construction and support of new army battalions; to make way for infrastructure development projects; in the context of natural resource extraction; and to provide vested interests with business opportunities.

When addressing land rights issues, it is important to recognise that indigenous peoples such as Burma’s ethnic nationalities enjoy a special relationship with the land. In Burma, the struggle for HLP rights is linked to the struggles for justice, democracy, and for sustainable livelihoods. For ethnic nationality communities in particular, the struggles include the right to reside in, and participate in decisions regarding, their ancestral homelands.

The HLP violations found in Burma today are embedded in short-sighted and predatory policies that date back to the early years of Independence, and to the period of colonial rule. These problems can only be resolved in the context of substantial and sustained change in Burma. Political transition should include improved access to a range of fundamental rights, as enshrined in international law and conventions — including respect for HLP rights.

Protection from (and during) forced migration, and solutions to the widespread HLP crises in Burma, depend ultimately on settlements of the conflicts that have wracked the country for more than half a century. Unfortunately, efforts at conflict resolution have thus far met with only very limited success.

The events of August-October 2007 – when Government forces brutally suppressed protesting monks and civilians (see Section 4.5) – reminded the world of the Burmese peoples’ struggle for freedom. The events also demonstrated civil society’s potential as an engine for political change, the entrenched nature of the military regime, and the marginalisation of most opposition organisations.

This report describes some interesting and useful projects that civil society groups have implemented in Burma. These examples show that, notwithstanding the need for fundamental political change in Burma, steps can and should be taken now to address HLP issues. Opportunities exist to assist the rehabilitation of displaced people, in ways that link political action with humanitarian relief and development.

The Thai Burma Border Consortium (TBBC) and its partners estimated that in 2007, approximately 76 000 people had been newly displaced by armed conflict and associated human rights abuses. The majority of new incidents of forced migration and village destruction were concentrated in northeast Karen State and adjacent areas of Pegu Division — areas that were still subject to armed conflict. Across much of southern and central Karen State, the situation for most villagers was relatively stable. The total number of IDPs in eastern Burma recorded by TBBC and its partners in October 2007 was 503 000. These included 295 000 people in ceasefire zones, 99 000 IDPs ‘in-hiding’ in the jungle and 109 000 IDPs in relocation sites.

The above estimates do not include IDPs who choose not to make themselves available to armed opposition groups, nor the large numbers of people who have achieved (at least semi-) durable solutions to their plight, especially those living in peri-urban areas. The estimates also exclude hundreds of thousands of IDPs in other parts of Burma (especially Kachin and Shan States, and the west of the country, as well as in some parts of Karen State). Including these figures would bring the total to over a million internally displaced people.

As at September 2007, there were 152 228 registered refugees in Thailand living in 10 camps (1 Shan, 4 Karenni and 5 Karen), including 11 663 living in Mon resettlement sites. Since December 2005, at least 4 000 Karen new arrivals had entered Thailand. Furthermore, large numbers of people continued to cross the border, without entering official camps, including most Shan new arrivals, who for several years have been estimated to number approximately 1 000 per month. The actual number of camp residents also included several thousand (mostly newly arrived) people whom the Thai authorities excluded from camp lists.

In this report, the statistical information provided by the TBBC is contextualised by a specific typology of displacement:

Forced Migrants: Internally Displaced Persons: Type 1 Armed conflict-induced Type 2 Military occupation - and ‘development’- induced (post armed conflict). Other Forced Migrants: Type 3 Livelihoods vulnerability-induced.

¶ The first two displacement types are products of conflict, and as such constitute forced migration, and cause internal displacement. Type 3 is the primary form of internal and external migration in and from Burma (and many other developing countries). The main causes are inappropriate government policies and practices; limited availability of productive land and poor access to markets, resulting in food insecurity; lack of education and health services; and stresses associated with the transition to a cash economy. Show more