Displacement and dispossession: Forced migration and land rights in Burma

ABSTRACTED FROM EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Burma today is experiencing a crisis in security of land tenure, which includes the widespread abuse of human, economic, social, cultural, and political rights. This report, Displacement and Dispossession: Forced Migration and Land Rights in Burma focuses on land confiscation by Government forces, responsible for Burma’s most acute Housing, Land and Property (HLP) rights abuses. Among the most vulnerable populations are more than one million internally displaced people in Burma, most from ethnic nationality communities. These include at least 500 000 people in the armed conflict-affected border regions of eastern Burma. This report focuses on the ongoing abuses of HLP rights occurring under military rule today, particularly in areas populated by non-Burman peoples. In recent years, the peoples living in these areas have been the most severely affected by large-scale displacement. These abuses occur during military counter-insurgency operations; for the construction and support of new army battalions; to make way for infrastructure development projects; in the context of natural resource extraction; and to provide vested interests with business opportunities.

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