Memorandum submitted by the Karen Human
Rights Group (KHRG)
RE: DFID ASSISTANCE TO BURMESE IDPS AND
REFUGEES ON THE THAI BURMA BORDER
ABOUT KHRG
The Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG) is an independent
local organisation committed to improving the human rights situation
in Burma by projecting the voices of villagers and supporting
their strategies to claim human rights. The Karen Human Rights
Group (KHRG) was established in 1992 and now consists of a small
group of Karen office and management staff and foreign volunteers,
supported by an extensive network of approximately 30 researchers
based inside Burma. We document the situation in any and all parts
of Burma whenever firsthand information is available, though our
background and limited resources lead us to focus most of our
activities in southeastern Burma, particularly Karen areas. Though
KHRG often operates in or through areas controlled by the Karen
National Union (KNU), we are independent and unaffiliated with
any other group. KHRG's actions and reports are in no way controlled,
restricted, or censored by the KNU or any other group or organisation.
Our commitment is not to any organisation, but to the villagers
whose voices are far too often ignored. To this end, our reporting
follows their perspective on human rights—a more holistic
view requiring an understanding of how different factors and abuses
combine, rather than the incident-based legal perspective favoured
internationally. We also focus on the strengths of local people
in responding to their human rights situation rather than presenting
them as helpless victims.
In the field, we work directly with villagers
to help them overcome outside perceptions of them as `helpless
victims' by focusing on their strengths and the strategies they
already use successfully to resist human rights abuses and retain
control over their own lives, land and livelihoods. Through this
work we hope to catalyse discussions and other processes among
villagers themselves that can enhance these strategies and strengthen
their position relative to armed and powerful groups.
SUBMISSION
I am writing on behalf of the Karen Human Rights
Group (KHRG) an independent NGO established in 1992 which works
directly with internally displaced peoples (IDPs) and other rural
villagers primarily in the Karen areas of eastern Burma. We at
KHRG are happy to see that DFID is initiating this investigation
and feel that increased DFID support for groups working with IDPs
and others across the Thai-Burma border is surely needed and can,
if appropriately targeted, prove beneficial to these communities.
Over the past 15 years KHRG has been the most
prolific organisation in documenting and disseminating information
regarding the situation of IDPs in Karen areas. We recommend that
for an in-depth understanding of the IDP situation in eastern
Burma you examine KHRG's reports, all of which are available online
at www.khrg.org.
In the present letter I would like to focus
primarily on just two of the questions which the Committee has
presented. Namely, how can donors assist IDPs in Burma most effectively,
and what are the advantages and disadvantages of cross-border
assistance as compared to other ways of assisting IDPs in Burma?
To properly respond to these questions it is fundamental to listen
to the concerns of IDPs themselves and understand the strategies
they already employ to address these concerns. KHRG's reports
are therefore based on the voices of IDPs and other villagers
in order to clarify these issues. What villagers have consistently
told KHRG researchers in thousands of interviews over the past
15 years is that displacement for them is primarily a means of
resisting the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC)'s attempts
to expand military control over their lives. In order to resist
such control and maintain their freedom, villagers in eastern
Burma have fled to the forested hills where they can more effectively
evade military movement restrictions, forced relocation, demands
for forced labour, extortion and other abuses.
Given this situation, the first question: how
can donors most effectively assist IDPs in Burma? The answer is
by supporting the strategies these communities already employ.
In a more concrete sense, donors such as DFID would do best to
support cross-border groups which provide humanitarian and other
assistance to IDPs outside of SPDC structures. Accessing such
assistance is a primary strategy which IDPs employ to address
their needs and improve their situation. The major groups providing
such assistance are the Karen Office for Relief and Development
(KORD), the Committee for Internally Displaced Karen People (CIDKP),
the Backpack Health Worker Teams and the Free Burma Rangers (FBR).
On top of this, there is a strong need to document and disseminate
accurate and timely information regarding the IDP situation to
the international community in order to strengthen contextual
understanding; as this understanding shapes external intervention
in areas such as aid delivery and international relations with
the SPDC. This can be done by supporting human rights groups which
work directly with IDPs, such as KHRG. KHRG is also involved in
conducting workshops for IDP communities which seek to catalyse
discussion on the strategies they employ to resist abuse and claim
their rights. Organisations not working directly with these communities
have a tendency to misunderstand the context, misrepresent local
concerns and alienate those groups whom they wish to aid. Relating
to the second question, the benefits of cross border aid are thus
clear when displacement is correctly understood as a measure civilians
employ to evade military control. Cross-border aid allows civilians
to address their needs without forcing them into relocation sites
or other military-controlled areas. Aid delivered via SPDC structures
as opposed to cross-border aid would serve as a coercive mechanism
whereby civilians would be starved out of displacement and forced
to submit to military rule in relocation sites and SPDC-controlled
villages where abuse and restrictions fundamentally undermine
their ability to maintain the livelihood and meet their basic
needs.
On 24 April 2007 KHRG will be releasing a 121-page
report examining development and international aid in Karen State
and the interrelation with human rights abuses. This report is
particularly pertinent to the Committee's investigation and I
highly recommend that you examine the report as it draws primarily
on the voices of civilians living in Karen State and highlights
their concerns regarding development, humanitarian aid and related
human rights abuses. This report will not be publicly accessible
from our website until April 24th but KHRG has put it online at
an unlisted web address explicitly for the Committee's review.
The report can be accessed at www.khrg.org/khrg2007/khrg0701.html
We hope that DFID's new initiative marks the
start of strong and consistent support for the internally displaced
peoples of Burma.
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