Burma Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) Emergency Relief Appeal

Decades of armed conflict...

Decades of armed conflict have devastated ethnic minority communities, which make up approximately 35 percent of Burma's population. The Burmese army, or SPDC, has for many years carried out numerous and widespread summary executions, looting, torture, rape and other sexual violence, arbitrary arrests and torture, forced labour, recruitment of child soldiers, and the displacement and demolition of entire villages as part of military operations against ethnic minority armed opposition groups. Civilians bear the brunt of a state of almost perpetual conflict and militarization.

One result of the SPDC's brutal behaviour has been the creation of large numbers of internally displaced persons (IDP's) and refugees among Burma's ethnic minority communities. Conflict and its consequences have been going on for so long that in many ethnic minority-populated areas, continuous forced relocations and displacement--interspersed with occasional periods of relative stability--have become a fact of life for generations of poor villagers.

The scale of the IDP problem in Burma is overwhelming. Estimates suggest that, as of late 2004, as many as 650,000 people were internally displaced in Eastern Burma alone. Many IDP's live in hiding in war zones. Karen State is the location of some of the largest numbers of IDP's in Burma. Since 2002, approximately 100,000 people have been displaced from Karen areas. The majority of Karen IDP's have been forced out of their homes as a direct result of the SPDC''s "Four Cuts" counter-insurgency strategy in ethnic minority zones, in which the Burmese army has attempted to defeat armed ethnic groups by denying them access to food, funds, recruits, and information from other insurgent groups.

How will the funds be used?

Funds collected will be used to provide immediate food, water, shelter, medical aid to Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Burma.

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