Memorandum submitted by Christian Solidarity
Worldwide
1. SUMMARY
1.1 Burma is facing a humanitarian crisis
caused entirely by the military regime's policies, including lack
of investment in health and education, mismanagement of the economy
and offensives against civilians. There is an urgent need for
humanitarian assistance to the internally displaced people in
Burma.
1.2 Since 1996, more than 3,000 villages
in eastern Burma have been destroyed by the Burma Army.
1.3 It is estimated that at least one million
people are internally displaced.
1.4 There are over 150,000 refugees in Thailand,
more than 60,000 refugees in India, over 20,000 in Malaysia, and
several thousand in Bangladesh.
1.5 In 2006, the Burma Army carried out
its worst offensive against civilians in Karen State since 1997.
More than 25,000 people were internally displaced in less than
one year in Karen State alone. According to the Thailand Burma
Border Consortium, over 82,000 people were forced to flee their
villages in eastern Burma in 2006.
1.6 Human rights violations are well-documented.
The Burma Army uses rape as a weapon of war on a widespread and
systematic basis. Forced labour, forced relocation of villages,
destruction of crops, livestock and villages, the use of human
minesweepers, the forcible conscription of child soldiers, torture,
imprisonment and killings are widespread.
1.7 Some IDPs have been able to establish
temporary settlements where they can survive, while many others
are literally on the run in the jungle, without food, medicine
or shelter.
1.8 Several courageous organisations consisting
of indigenous ethnic aid workers and some international aid workers
travel into the affected areas to deliver much-needed medical
assistance and other humanitarian provisions to the IDPs.
2. ABOUT CSW
2.1 Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW)
is a Non-Governmental Organisation specialising in human rights
research and advocacy. CSW has been working on Burma for almost
20 years, and carries out fact-finding visits to the Thai-Burmese
border at least twice a year.
2.2 Since 2004, CSW has carried out two
fact-finding visits to the India-Burma border and two visits to
the China-Burma border, in addition to our regular visits to the
Thai-Burmese border.
2.3 On each visit, CSW has obtained first-hand
testimonial evidence of human rights violations from IDPs and
refugees. On several visits CSW has visited villages that have
been burned down.
2.4 CSW is primarily an advocacy organisation,
but we have a small-scale humanitarian aid dimension to our work,
which involves providing funding to other agencies engaged in
the provision or delivery of aid. CSW provides small-scale funding
for cross-border humanitarian aid to the IDPs, as well as supporting
several orphanages in the refugee camps in Thailand.
2.5 CSW has facilitated visits to the Thai-Burma
border for John Bercow MP when he served as Shadow Secretary of
State for International Development in 2004; for Simon Coveney
TD MEP, the European Parliament's rapporteur on human rights,
in 2005; and for the Shadow Secretary of State for International
Development Andrew Mitchell MP in 2007.
2.6 In 2007, CSW arranged a visit for a
delegation of Chin and Kachin representatives to London, Brussels,
Berlin and Washington, DC. These visits included meetings with
the Minister of State for Trade at the Foreign and Commonwealth
Office, the Rt Hon Ian McCartney MP; the European Commission;
the Chair of the Human Rights Committee in the European Parliament;
the German Foreign Ministry and members of the German Parliament;
senior advisers to the US Secretary of State, the National Security
Council and the Speaker of the US House of Representatives.
2.7 CSW works primarily with the ethnic
groups—the Karen, Karenni and more recently the Shan and
the Mon on the Thai-Burmese border, the Chin on the India-Burma
border and the Kachin on the China-Burma border.
2.8 CSW has provided evidence at hearings
in the US Congress and the European Parliament, and regularly
briefs MPs, MEPs, Foreign Office officials, EU officials, the
US Congress, the US State Department and the UN.
2.9 CSW's Advocacy Officer for South Asia,
Benedict Rogers, has made 18 visits to different parts of Burma
since 2000, including 13 visits to the Thai-Burmese border. He
has visited IDPs and refugees on the Thai-Burmese border on each
occasion. He is the author of a book, A Land Without Evil:
Stopping the Genocide of Burma's Karen People (2004, Monarch),
and has written numerous reports and articles on Burma.
3. INTERNALLY
DISPLACED PEOPLE
IN BURMA
3.1 The displacement of people in Burma
is caused directly by the policies of Burma's military regime,
the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC). The SPDC is carrying
out a military offensive targeting ethnic civilians, including
women and children, involving the destruction of villages. The
SPDC spends over 40% of its budget on the military, and less than
60p per person per year on health and education combined. According
to the World Health Organisation (WHO), Burma has one of the lowest
levels of government expenditure on health care in the world—it
is ranked 190 out of 191 countries.
3.2 According to the Thailand Burma Border
Consortium, the total number of internally displaced people is
estimated to be at least 500,000[30].
Other sources estimate the figure to be more than one million.
3.3 In 2006, over 82,000 people were forced
to flee their villages in eastern Burma[31].
More than 25,000 Karen civilians were displaced.
3.4 Since 1996, over 3,000 villages have
been destroyed in eastern Burma alone[32].
3.5 The Burma Army's offensive in Karen
State in 2006 was the worst in a decade. According to reports
received by CSW, civilians were shot at point-blank range. Several
civilians were beheaded and severely mutilated. A nine year-old
girl was shot and wounded, after her grandmother had been killed.
3.6 In November 2006 and March 2007, CSW
visited a camp of 3,000 IDPs who had fled this offensive. One
woman told CSW that her son had been beheaded. Another described
how her husband had been tortured, tied to a tree, his eyes gouged
out, and then drowned. A third woman recalled how her husband
had been killed—his eyes torn out, his ears, nose and lips
cut off.
3.7 When the Burma Army attacks a village,
it often destroys all means of survival, including cooking pots,
rice barns, rice paddies, other crops, livestock, houses and clinics,
and lays landmines around the village to prevent villagers from
returning.
3.8 The offensive is continuing into 2007.
More than 1,000 people have been displaced from villages in northern
Papun District, Karen State, and at least three have been killed.
3.9 On 15 March 2007 troops from Burma Army
Infantry Battalions 379 and 380 attacked Saw Ka Der in southern
Mon Township, Karen State, causing at least 600 villagers to flee
into the jungle.
3.10 On 18 March 2007 villages in Toungoo
District, Karen State were shelled.
3.11 On 20 March 2007 Burma Army troops
attacked Tha Da Der and Hta Kaw To Baw villages, causing more
than 400 civilians to flee into hiding.
3.12 It is important to note that although
the offensive in Karen State is particularly severe, these abuses
occur regularly in Karenni and Shan areas as well.
4. AID TO
THE IDPS
4.1 The IDPs urgently need basic humanitarian
assistance—primarily medical supplies, rice and blankets.
Many are without any medical assistance, food or shelter. Some
are able to build new settlements, but many are on the run in
the jungle.
4.2 Several courageous relief organisations
travel into the IDP areas to deliver emergency assistance. These
teams consist of indigenous Karen, Karenni or Shan people, but
sometimes with the assistance and training of international aid
workers.
4.3 In CSW's experience, all of these groups
show exemplary levels of accountability by providing detailed
financial accounts, and written, photographic and video records
of the distribution of aid and the documentation of human rights
violations.
4.4 These groups receive very limited funding.
Some other governments do discretely provide funding for cross-border
humanitarian assistance, and so there is a precedent for government-funding—but
there is a need for this to be increased.
4.5 IDPs are the most vulnerable people
in Burma, with little or no means of survival. Many, if not most,
IDPs can only be reached through cross-border initiatives.
4.6 The Department for International Development
(DFID) now permits DFID funds to be used for cross-border assistance
from Thailand to the IDPs. This change of policy was announced
in a Written Ministerial Statement on 5 March.
4.7 DFID's budget for Burma is currently
£8 million a year. DFID provides £50 million a year
to Vietnam, and £38 million a year to Zimbabwe (£143
million over five years).
4.8 DFID provides no funding to indigenous
human rights organisations which provide a vital role in documenting
the plight of the IDPs, reporting human rights violations and
disseminating crucial information to the outside world. These
include organisations such as the Shan Women's Action Network
and the Karen Women's Organisation, which have published detailed
reports on the widespread, systematic use of rape.
5. RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 CSW warmly welcomes DFID's decision
permit DFID funds to be used for cross-border humanitarian aid
from Thailand to the IDPs.
5.2 CSW strongly recommends a significant
increase in DFID's budget for Burma. Extra funds as a result of
a budget increase should be used for aid to the IDPs through cross-border
assistance, and funding for indigenous human rights documentation,
dissemination and education initiatives. CSW recommends at least
doubling the budget for 2008 and future years, from £8 million
to £16 million—which would still be significantly less
than countries such as Vietnam or Zimbabwe.
5.3 CSW recommends that DFID ensure that
assistance to the IDPs is directed towards Karenni and Shan IDPs
as well as Karen.
5.4 CSW recommends that DFID explore the
needs on the India-Burma border and the Bangladesh-Burma border,
and identify ways of providing assistance to Chin State in particular.
Chin State is recognised as the poorest part of Burma, and is
in urgent need of assistance for health care and education. There
are Backpack Health Worker Teams operating from the India-Burma
border into Chin State providing life-saving medical assistance,
and they deserve DFID support.
5.5 CSW recommends that DFID work to improve
donor co-ordination and communication both within Burma and along
the border areas.
30 Thailand Burma Border Consortium, Internal Displacement
in Eastern Burma: 2006 Survey, p 3. Back
31
Ibid., p 2. Back
32
Ibid., p 3. Back
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