Villages that faced militia recruitment during this period were Alaesakhan village, Hlar-chaung-pyar village, and Ta-nee Tha-kyar village in Ye Pyu Township, and Ma-kyi village, in Ye Township. Villagers in these areas were confronted with execution, extortion, torture, and forced relocation by the Burmese Army [at that time, the
SPDC], accused of supporting rebel groups, and used as human shields leading the Burmese army [SPDC].
Consequently, many of these villagers, along with their entire families, were forced to flee their homes, leaving their orchards and other properties behind.
Background: Located on Burma’s eastern border, there are approximately 15 IDP camps. These camps are situated in YebyuTownship, Southern Ye Township, and Kyainnseikyi Township. The Thailand Burma Border Consortium (TBBC)’s 2010 report, entitled, “Protracted Displacement and Chronic Poverty in Eastern Burma/Myanmar,”
documents the effect of Burma’s increased policy of militarization and pressure on villagers living in former ceasefire areas to become part of the Border Guard Forces. Over 8,000 residents from Mon areas [including YeTownship] were reported to have fled from the army’s militarization efforts1. The report also estimates that by
the end of 2010, there were over 500,000 IDPs living in Burma’s eastern border.
IDP camps, or sites, tend to look like very small villages, living in compounds, or in the middle of the forest.
They mostly consist of 20 to 50 families, and because of their unstable situation, are forced to remain mobile, to evade army attacks, or to find more abundant food sources. Residents in these camps subsist by producing charcoal in the dry season, picking tall grass to make brooms, cutting bamboo for the production of a sticky rice
dessert, and some grow hill paddy rice. Most of these jobs barely maintain subsistence levels and many children
in the camps suffer from malnourishment.
Wishing to remain anonymous, one field coordinator, working with a Mon relief agency in the IDP areas, reported that IDPs were receiving no medical care. Mon relief agencies had begun to provide last resort medical aid. In Pa-nan-pon village alone, a Mon relief agency supplied aid to 500 IDPs, while in Kyun Pin village, 300
IDPs were given some form of medical assistance.
Speaking with one Mon relief agency, HURFOM discovered that one Pauk-pin-kwin villager and two Alaesakhan villagers were shot and killed after criticizing the SPDC’s militia recruitment project. SPDC troops based in Pauk-pin-kwin village forced villagers to relocate near a railway station, while residents in Khaw Zar subtownship
were forced to construct the Village Peace and Development Council’s (VPDC) office and cover all the army’s expenses. Additionally, villagers were forced to work as unpaid labor and serve sentry duty, and it has been reported that one group of villagers living under travel restrictions, when going out to sea to fish, had their boat
shot by SPDC soldiers, and the villagers were forced to swim back to shore.
Unlike refugee camps, most IDPs are mostly forced to fend for themselves. In the past, IDPs received assistance from Mon relief agencies in the forms of cooking necessities such as rice, fish paste, cooking oil and beans. Only in emergency situations are some IDPs provided with limited health care.