According to the Norwegian Refugee Council´s new report Internal Displacement: Global Overview of Trends and Developments in 2006, there are more than 500.000 internally displaced persons in Burma. The estimate is considered modest. The report directs its criticism straight at Burmese authorities since the displacement is caused by the use of force of government troops. In its most recent newsletter, released today, the Norwegian Burma Committe sums up the situation. (18-APR-07)
Based on the summary featuring in the Norwegian Burma Committee´s newsletter, released today, this article has been translated and prepared for publication here by HRHF / Niels Jacob Harbitz.
In addition to the 500.000 internally displaced, some 730.000 Burmese have fled to neighbourng countries. Once again, the estimate is conservative. In the last 18 months, the situation in Easter Burma has drawn relatively more attention, due to the regime´s intensified military offensive against opposition groups in the Karen state. Right, villagers in Eastern Burma hiding in the forests on their way to relative safety across the border with Thailand. Photo: BBC.
Constant threat of harassment and deportation
Generally, the situation for refugees in Easter Burma, mainl seeking refuge in Thailand, has been highlighted, to some extent att he expense of refugees from Western Burma, crossing into India, Bangladesh or south to Malaysia. These refugees have largely been overlooked by the international community and the respective recipient countries´ authorities. In the Mizoram state of India, there ae many Burmese refugees from the Chin state of their home country. Living conditions are difficult, and there is a constant threat of harassment and deportation by a local nationalist orgnisation that has taken upon itself to be a local protection agency. Local authorities do little to improve the situation.
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Children particularly vulnerable – and targeted
Due to its religious belief, the Moslem Rohingya minority fom the Rakhine state of Burma has also suffered under heavy suppression. Many members of this community have therefore escaped to Bangladesh. After running away from persecution in their home country and living under very miserable conditions in Bangladesh for many years, hundreds of Rohingya families are now once again uprooted and displaced, to further uncertainty on account of Bagladeshi authorities´ request for them to leave their tempoary homes, without offering any alternative or support. In Malaysia, even refugees with all their papers in order, establishing their legal status as refugees, risk being arrested and tortured, for no other reason than being refugees. Behind these unlawful arrests and torture is a voluntary corps with special permission raid houses and to arrest refugees without the need in doing so to show arrest orders from above. Children are particularly vulnerable to these raids. Only within the last month, at least six children have been arrested and held in custody by Malaysian immigration authorities. A seven yer old Burmese gurl was brutally abducted and later found killed,with both hands chopped off.
11. april Mizzima News: Over 2,000 Burmese refugees and migrants detained in Malaysia
6. april Chinland Guardian: Chin Community Mourns the Tragic Death of Dally Sui
. The estimate is considered modest. The report directs its criticism straight at Burmese authorities since the displacement is caused by the use of force of government troops. In its most recent newsletter, released today, the Norwegian Burma Committe sums up the situation. (18-APR-07)
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