Living on a one-way ticket: self-reliance in the Mon resettlement sites report pdf
I. Introduction 
The primary armed group fighting in the name of Mon people agreed to a cease-fire in 1995. Though this ended armed hostilities between the group and Burma’s State Peace and Development (SPDC) government, human rights abuses committed against residents of Burma’s southern peninsula continue. This abuse, combined with a weak economic situation directly related to army abuses, has resulted in the movement of thousands of people whose homes are unsafe and/or economically untenable. Many of these people have, as one academic has said, “found their backs to Thailand” and have ended up in resettlement sites along the Thai-Burma border.
To the south of the Three Pagodas Pass border crossing into Thailand is a section of territory controlled by the NMSP. This territory is home to 3 primary resettlement sites that stretch from southernmost Karen State into Mon State and Tenasserim Division. Residents of these three resettlement sites – which total at least 10,000 people – have been pushed in recent years to become “self-reliant,” a push that is both a goal and born out of necessity as international aid support declines. The returned refugees, however, report that there are a series of obstacles to becoming truly self-reliant. Understanding these obstacles is the purpose of this report.
II. Background
A. Factors motivating displacement
Through the 1990s, the primary factor driving people from their homes and villages was armed conflict between the New Mon State Party (NMSP) and SPDC and related human rights abuses. When the NMSP and SPDC agreed to a ceasefire in 1995, however, the abuses did not necessarily cease. There are a variety of reasons for this; continued conflict between smaller armed Mon splinter groups like the Monland Restoration Party (MRP) and a group lead by Nai Chan Dein, as well as the Karen National Union (KNU); a continuation of the Pya Ley Pya “Four Cuts” policy in which the SPDC weakens insurgents by targeting their civilian supporters; gas pipelines running east into Thailand and north towards factories in Karen State; SPDC policy which encourages its armed forces to extract resources from local communities; lack of oversight and accountability for large numbers of soldiers who consequently conduct themselves with virtual impunity, and who often come from other parts of Burma and are without connections to the local community.
Whatever the underlying reasons, four main categories of human rights violations are regularly committed by army battalions on the southern peninsula, including:
a. Interrogation, assault and summary execution. Villagers are commonly interrogated on the whereabouts and activities of insurgents. Frequent violence is ostensibly a part of the information gathering process, but it is also deliberately used to intimidate villagers into compliance. Civilians are also executed summarily, sometimes for being suspected rebel supporters or sometimes simply for working or traveling in a “black area,” dubbed to be under rebel control and, consequently, a free fire zone. In other cases, villagers are punished after clashes with rebels. On February 19th, for instance, the Independent Mon News Agency reported that soldiers from Infantry Battalion No. 31 executed two youth near Pauk-pin-kwin village, Yebyu Township, Tenasserim Division after a soldier was wounded by a landmine laid by Mon rebels.
b. Travel restrictions, forced relocation and surveillance. SPDC battalions working to pacify particular areas sometimes relocate households and even entire villages. Any people seen in the cleared areas are subsequently assumed to be rebels or supporters and shot on sight. Residents of areas experiencing insurgent activity are also frequently placed on 6pm to 6am or 24 hour curfews. Designed to consolidate control of an area, the restrictions serve to severely undermine agricultural activities because farms sometimes lie far away from villages, must be guarded at night or must be tended at dawn before the heat of the day.
c. Punitive taxation, quotas, land seizure and looting. Mon State and Karen States and Tenasserim Division are home to high concentrations of SPDC army battalions. Battalions are encouraged to be “self reliant” by Burma’s central government, which functionally gives them free reign to extract resources from local residents. Agricultural products and livestock are frequently commandeered or simply stolen at night. Taxes and fees for basic services and permission are also common. Seizure of plantations and homes for army barracks or fund-raising is common as well. Insurgent groups also tax local residents. The Nai Chan Dein group has been particularly active since the close of the 2008 rainy season; in the last three months alone, at least 5 villages in an area of northern Tenasserim Division have each been ordered to pay his group 5 to 7 million kyat.
d. Forced labor, including conscription of porters and human minesweepers for military operations. Residents are frequently called upon to work as unpaid laborers on projects like road repairs or building and maintaining army barracks. During SPDC offensives or patrols villagers are also conscripted as porters and made to carry munitions and other supplies. Residents are also sometimes required to stand nightly or 24-hour sentry duty along the gas pipelines or outside villages.
click on report http://www.rehmonnya.org/data/Report%20MF-Feb09.pdf
