Protracted Displacement and Militarization in Eastern Burma
HEADLINES
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NEWS ON MIGRANTS
Large numbers of migrant workers in Mahachai return to Burma
NEWS ON REFUGEES
25 percent of Shan families forcibly relocated
Concern over forced relocation of 60 Kachin villages
TBBC’s latest IDP report: Protracted Displacement and Militarisation in Eastern Burma
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NEWS ON MIGRANTS
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Large numbers of migrant workers in Mahachai return to Burma
Wed 28 Oct 2009, Jaloon Htaw
According to a Mon migrant worker source living in Mahachai, in Thailand’s Samutsakom province, hundreds of Burmese migrant workers living in the city have already returned to Burma after opting not to register for the new temporary passports that will become mandatory for migrant workers in Thailand this February.
This source reported to IMNA that last week, he saw truckloads of roughly 300 migrant workers departing from Mahachai several times a week. Reportedly the travelers paid migrant brokers working in conjunction with the Thai Mahachai police force to plan their trips back to Burma.
“They went back in police trucks, I saw them. Three different days last week, they went back. They said, they don’t want to get the temporary passports,” he said.
According to a female Mon migrant worker who works in a canned fish factory in Mahachai, more than 10,000 migrant workers of different ethnicities work in her factory alone, include Mon, Burmese and Tavoian nationalities. This source claims that while many of her peers are preparing to depart now, many are waiting until the end of the year to earn extra funds. Many Burmese migrant workers fear that the paperwork for the temporary passport, which requires applicants to write down their home addresses in Burma, will result in the Burmese government demanding funds from their families back home.
“In our factory nobody is going back in this month. Some, at the end of this month, they have to go back. Some, after the end of the year they will go back. After getting a temporary passport, they are afraid the Burmese authorities will collect money [from their families]. So they are going back,” she added.
A second female Mon migrant worker, who is employed at a snack foods factory in Mahachai, also reports that many of her fellow workers are returning home; many are waiting for their current temporary IDs to expire at the end of the year, which will allow them to earn extra money for travel costs.
“Every day, migrant workers are going back, I have heard. In our factory, at lead 100 people have already gone back. Not all are going back immediately. Some migrant workers want to pay for the travel cost, so they are waiting until the end of the year,” she added.
According to a member of the Raks Thai Foundation, a non-profit organization in Mahachai that provides services to migrant workers, on the 24th of October of this year, the Thai labor ministry sends a letter to all of the country’s factory owners, ordering them to ensure that their migrant workers registered for the temporary passports. These orders have resulted in many factory owners and supervisors cutting the salaries of migrant workers who refuse to register.
“Now, almost 1000 migrant workers already have temporary passports in Mahachai. But, some of migrant workers don’t want to get them still. The Thai labor ministry already sent a letter, some of factory owners are forcing them to get passports [the migrant workers] but some are don’t force them. They explain the situation to them. It depends on the migrant workers to get make the passports. Some of the migrant workers don’t want a passport, so they go back. But some are also going back to resolve personal matters anyway,” he told IMNA.
The current migrant worker ID cards expire in February 2010, when the new passports become mandatory. According to the March 31st issue of The Nation, the Thai labor ministry is preparing to issue 400,000 foreigners migrant workers in Thailand.
According to the Mae Sot Branch of the “Human Rights and Development Foundation”, in 2009, roughly 500,000 migrant workers had legal identification to work in Thailand, while 700,000 migrant workers lacked ID’s. At least 200,000 migrant workers in Mahachai alone lack proper identification.
http://www.monnews-imna.com/newsupdate.php?ID=1575
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NEWS ON REFUGEES
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25 percent of Shan families forcibly relocated
Oct 27, 2009 (DVB)
More than a quarter of families in Burma’s northeastern Shan state were forcibly relocated in the past year, while nine percent of families had at least one member injured by a landmine, a US health academic said.
A further 24 percent of families had one member taken by Burmese troops for forced labour, according to Professor Chris Beyrer, from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
The findings were reported to the US House Foreign Affairs Committee during a testimony on US policy to Burma last week.
While much of the rhetoric surrounding the policy shift has focused on Aung San Suu Kyi and Burma’s 2,100 political prisoners, Beyrer said that attacks on ethnic nationalities in the Karen and Shan states “are the second major cause for concern in Burma today”.
Attacks by Burmese troops in Shan state, Burma’s largest state with a population of nearly five million, had been particularly intense, with 39 villages targeted and 10,000 villagers forcibly displaced as “part of a systematic and widespread scorched earth campaign”.
The findings of investigations into landmine injuries in Shan state were among the highest rates ever documented, he said.
Burma’s state expenditure on healthcare is amongst the lowest in the world. Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF) estimates that $US0.70 per capita per year, or 0.3 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP), is channeled into the health sector.
The volatile Shan state, which borders China, was the scene of heavy fighting in August and September between government troops and an armed ethnic group from the Kokang region.
The fighting, which erupted following rising tension over the government’s proposals to transform ethnic armies into border guard militias, forced some 37,000 refugees into China.
Beyrer said that the attacks on ethnic groups were part of the government’s preparation for the 2010 elections.
“The junta is creating new humanitarian emergencies with its current campaign for political control of ethnic areas and destabilizing its border regions with China,” he said.
“Burmese refugees continue to flee not only into China, but to Thailand, India, Bangladesh and Malaysia, making this a truly regional concern.”
http://english.dvb.no/news.php?id=2994
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Concern over forced relocation of 60 Kachin villages
by Usa Pichai Wednesday, 28 October 2009 12:48
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Over 60 villages are in the process of forced relocation from two dam sites in Burma’s northern Kachin State, said the latest report released on Tuesday by a Kachin Environmental group.
The Kachin Development Networking Group, (KDNG) a network of civil society groups and development organizations in Kachin State, Burma released a report “Resisting the Flood” on Tuesday. It has monitored developments and the likely impact of the 2,000-megawatt Chibwe Dam on the N’Mai River, work on which has already begun, and the Irrawaddy Myitsone Dam.
“Over 60 villages with approximately 15,000 people are in the process of being forcibly relocated without informed consent. This dislocation will cause many secondary social problems including conflicts over jobs and land, and an increase in migration and trafficking to neighbouring countries. Women will be particularly impacted,” the report said.
The group also sent an open letter on Tuesday to China Power Investment urging it to immediately stop construction of the Myitsone Dam and other dams in Kachin State “to avoid being complicit in multiple serious human rights abuses associated with the project”.
According to a statement from the group, on October 9, residents of Tanghpre village at the planned Myitsone dam site on the confluence at the source of the Irrawaddy handed an open letter directly to Burma’s Northern military commander, objecting to the dam.
In August military authorities informed residents that they had less than two months to begin moving out. “We cannot bring our farms with us when we move” said a representative of the Tanghpre Village Housewives Group in a meeting with the commander on October 10. “We do not want to move and we appeal to you to bring our concerns to Naypyidaw for consideration,” the statement noted.
On the same day, 300 residents assembled at the confluence for a public prayer ceremony to protect the rivers. Several historical churches will be submerged by the Myitsone Dam project, which will also flood forests in one of the world’s “hottest hotspots” of biodiversity, impact downstream riverine ecosystems that are home to the endangered Irrawaddy Dolphin and affect the delta region, which provides nearly 60 per cent of Burma’s rice.
The KDNG noted in the report that the project has no environmental, social or health impact assessments, which have been publicly disclosed, locally-affected residents have not been consulted about the project; their attempts to voice concerns have been ignored.
The report also noted that it is well-documented that development projects in Burma are accompanied by increased militarization and human rights abuses, including forced labour and rape.
The group mentioned that the location of the dams are insecure because it is in a ceasefire area that is extremely unstable; an outbreak of fighting would put local people, the project, and Chinese personnel at risk, and it faces risks from earthquake because it is located a mere 100 kilometers from a major fault line in an earthquake-prone area.
China Power Investment is planning a series of seven dams on the Irrawaddy and its two main tributaries. The majority of the electricity from all the dams will be transmitted to China.
On June 21 2009, Burma’s Ambassador to China Thein Lwin and the President of China Power Investment Corporation Mr. Lu Qizhou signed the Memorandum of Agreement between Burma’s Department of Hydropower Implementation and CPI for “the Development, Operation and Transfer of Hydropower Projects in the Maykha, Malikha and Upstream Ayeyawady-Myitsone River Basins.”
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TBBC’s latest IDP report: Protracted Displacement and Militarisation in Eastern Burma
http://tbbc.org/idps/report-2009-idp-english.zip
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http://www.nmg-news.com/nmg/news281009.html
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http://khitpyaing.org/news/Oct09/281009e.php
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Wednesday, 28 October 2009 17:39
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2009-10-28
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http://www.rfa.org/burmese/news/thai_lawyers_helping_human_traffic_victims-10282009142934.html
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