Over 500,000 IDPs at risk in Burma

Mizzima News April 18, 2008

At least half a million people were residing in perilous conditions as internally displaces persons (IDPs) in Burma at the close of 2007, according to a new report released yesterday.

The Norwegian Refugee Council's Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) estimates that during a twelve month period from October 2006 to October 2007, an additional 76,000 Burmese citizens were forced to flee their homes, with northern Karen state and eastern Pegu Division being hit hardest.

Burma's IDP population consists of approximately 300,000 people living in camps at temporary ceasefire areas under the surveillance of various ethnic groups, 100,000 subsisting in Burma's jungles and another 100,000 struggling to eke out a living in government controlled relocation sites.

IDMC fears that the burgeoning global food crisis, specifically the rising cost of rice, will only serve to exacerbate the IDP crisis inside the impoverished Southeast Asian country.

Burma is consistent with the broader plight of IDPs in Asia, in that a vast majority of those forced from their homes are the result of long standing conflict and protracted displacement.

The report accuses Burma's military government of being responsible for a highly disproportionate number of the recorded human rights violations against IDPs, including torture, beatings and forced conscription.

"Despite being responsible for the wellbeing of citizens within their territory, many national governments in 2007 were still unwilling or unable to prevent people being forced from their homes, or provide adequate protection and assistance to those who had been displaced," averts Norwegian Refugee Council Secretary-General Elisabeth Rasmusson.

Yet, excluding the Middle East, even though Burma's IDP population outpaces that of any other Asian country, IDMC does not list Burma as one of the 13 "countries with worst displacement situations." However West Papua, Indonesia, is included.

In all, IDMC documented 26 million people around the world as conflict-related IDPs in 2007, a six percent increase from the previous year. Sudan, Colombia and Iraq top the figures, combining for nearly half of the global IDP population.

Drawing stark attention to the dearth of information regarding much of Burma, IDMC acknowledged that their estimate is based predominantly on the eastern regions of the country, an area of the country monitored by several Thai-based human rights and watchdog organizations.

Source