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U.S. Committee for Refugees World Refugee Survey 2000 - Burma

At least 200,000 Burmese refugees and asylum seekers were in neighboring countries in 1999, including 145,000 in Thailand (mostly ethnic minorities, along with some pro democracy activists); 40,000 in India (mostly Chin); 53,000 in Bangladesh (52,000 Rohingya and 1,000 Chin), more than 100 in Malaysia (also mostly Rohingya), and an unknown number in China (mostly Kachin). Hundreds of thousands of Burmese lived in neighboring countries, primarily Thailand, in refugee-like circumstances. Many may have fled Burma because they feared persecution.

An estimated 500,000 to 1 million Burmese were internally displaced. Although a continuing lack of access and information made this number difficult to verify, reports by agencies working inside Burma confirmed that internal displacement was a significant crisis there.

Political Developments and Human Rights

Despite increased international attention to Burma in 1999, the situation on the ground changed little. The State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), which in 1997 renamed itself the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), promised to renew dialogue with the National League for Democracy (NLD) but continued to arrest and detain its members. The government also sought to break up the NLD party structure by forcing resignations through arrest or intimidation.

The SPDC continued to target pro-democracy activists and ethnic minorities - including the Shan, Mon, Karen, Karenni, Chin, Kachin, Rohingya, and Rakhine.

In January 1999, the Karen National Union, one of the largest ethnic resistance groups, marked the 50th anniversary of its armed struggle and vowed to continue fighting for Karen independence and the restoration of democracy in Burma. In June, the KNU, the Shan State Army, the Arakan Liberation Party, the Karenni National Progressive Party, and the Chin National Front formed an alliance to fight Burma's military government.

In a March report to the annual session of the UN Human Rights Commission, Rajsoomer Lallah, the Commission's special rapporteur for Burma, concluded that the human rights situation in the country had deteriorated since 1998. In adopting its latest resolution on Burma, the Commission once again noted and deplored the rights violations, including oppressive measures directed at ethnic and religious minorities. The SPDC has not permitted Lallah to enter the country since he was appointed special rapporteur in 1996.

The following month, the International Labor Organization (ILO) concluded that the Burmese authorities had not "desisted in the least from carrying out or from condoning" practices such as forced labor, arbitrary detention, torture, and rape. In July, the ILO suspended Burma from participation until it reforms its forced labor practices.

Burma's foreign minister offered in July to begin a dialogue with the opposition on the condition that the NLD and its Nobel Peace Prize-winning leader Aung San Suu Kyi stop their criticisms of the regime, an offer rejected by the NLD.

The year saw escalating tensions between Burma and Thailand, which continued to host more than 100,000 Burmese refugees in camps along the border. In early October, after Thailand released five Burmese gunmen who had seized Burma's embassy in Bangkok and taken 87 hostages, the Burmese government closed the border to protest Thailand's decision to allow the gunmen to escape. Burma kept the border closed for nearly eight weeks.

After years of negotiation, the Burmese government allowed the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit political prisoners in Burma. Some critics, however, said the government transferred many prisoners in anticipation of the visits, resulting in family separations and other hardships.

The Burmese military continued its offensives against ethnic rebels and their suspected supporters during the year. Although not as vigorous as in 1997 and 1998 (before the army gained control of virtually the entire border region), these offensives continued to cause displacement and refugee flows.

Internal Displacement

Estimates of internal displacement in Burma continued to range from 500,000 to 1 million in 1999 (one source working inside Burma put the figure at closer to 2 million). Ethnic minorities, many of whom are rural people, constitute most of Burma's internally displaced, although significant numbers of ethnic Burmans are also displaced from cities or villages. Most displacement resulted from the military's twin strategies of forced labor and forced relocation.

As many as 500,000 Karen - 30 percent of the rural Karen population of eastern Burma - were either displaced or refugees at the end of 1999, with the vast majority being internally displaced. The continuing presence of Burmese army troops prevented villagers from returning to their homes - homes that may no longer exist because of the army's strategy of burning fields and villages.

In Central Shan State, the Burmese military ordered more than 300,000 people to move into strategic relocation sites between March 1996 and April 1998. In this relocation program, which extended throughout 7,000 square miles, the military often forced people to move from site to site two or three times. During the same period, more than 80,000 Shan fled to Thailand.

Between April and July 1996, the SPDC forced the populations of at least 182 villages in Karenni State and Mon State, displacement resulted less from forced relocation than from expanded military control and the accompanying forced labor, extortion, confiscation of land, religious persecution, and what many viewed as an attempt to "Burmanize" the country (i.e., to ethnically cleanse the country of the non Burman minorities). The Mon National Relief Committee estimated the number of displaced persons in Mon State at between 40,000 and 50,000.

The internally displaced generally fell into two categories. The first were those under control of the military regime, having been forcibly relocated from cities or villages to satellite towns or "relocation centers." The military's primary motive for such relocation was the "four cuts" strategy, designed to prevent aid to opposition forces by cutting four crucial links - food, finances, communications, and recruits. The strategy also ensured a steady supply of laborers for the army and for major development projects.

The second group of displaced were those who refused to relocate, or who could not survive in the relocation areas and chose to flee. They generally fled toward the Thai border but often could not cross because of Burmese troops or Thai border guards. They became stranded in the mountains and in the jungle.

For both groups of displaced, those in relocation centers and those in hiding, food was a scarce commodity. SPDC policies designed to control the people - including forced relocation, the burning of fields, high taxes, and the nationalization of crop yields - created food shortages throughout the country. An October 1999 report by the Asian Human Rights Commission concluded that food scarcity, caused primarily by militarization, was a daily obstacle for the Burmese people.

Although some UN agencies and international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) were present in Burma during 1999, SPDC suspicion of their activities, and the resulting restrictions, limited their ability to serve internally displaced persons. Nevertheless, these agencies along with local NGOs and ethnic groups did succeed in providing relief. In addition, programs of cross-border assistance - although limited by various constraints - reached some of the most vulnerable of the displaced persons to provide emergency food and medical assistance. The issue of humanitarian assistance to Burma generated much controversy during the year, as some critics charged that much of the aid was siphoned off by the government.

Repatriation from Bangladesh

Some 1,128 Rohingya refugees repatriated from Bangladesh with assistance from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in 1999. The Rohingyas, who are Muslim, fled human rights abuses by the Burmese military, including killings, forced labor, rape, and religious persecution.

Upon their return to Burma, the refugees received financial assistance, travel allowances, and materials from UNHCR, along with six months' food rations from the World Food Program. The Myanmar Red Cross Society provided services for vulnerable persons. The Burmese government provided no assistance.

Despite the ongoing repatriation, an estimated 52,000 Rohingya refugees remained in Bangladesh at year's end.