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Memorandum submitted by the Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)
RE: DFID assistance to Burmese IDPs and refugees on the Thai Burma border
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 April 24th 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 but please do not distribute the report or web address until April 24th.
If the committee is interested in funding particular projects, please contact us at KHRG and we can send you detailed funding proposals covering the programmes in which we are involved. For further information regarding KHRG please see 'About KHRG' appended below.
We hope that DFID's new initiative marks the start of strong and consistent support for the internally displaced peoples of Burma.
Stephen Hull,
Researcher Karen Human Rights Group
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.
April 12th 2007
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