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Karen Human Rights Group
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Karen Human Rights Group
The Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG) is a grassroots Karen-led human rights organisation, established in Karen State during 1992 and it is now operating across rural southeast Burma/Myanmar. With over twenty years of experience. KHRG is recognised internationally as an authority on major issues such as internal displacement, forced labour, landmines, conflict and land confiscation in southeast Burma/Myanmar. KHRG works directly with "rural villagers who are suffering abuses such as forced labor, systematic destruction of villagers and crops, forced relocations, extortion, looting, arbitrary detention, torture, sexual assault and summary executions." Most of these abuses were committed by soldiers and officials of the State Peace & Development Council (SPDC), Burma's previous ruling military junta. The organisation's goal is to support villagers in rural Burma, by helping them develop strategies to resist abuse and by translating their testimonies for worldwide distribution, accompanied by supporting photos and documentary evidence.
Most recently, KHRG was awarded the Asia Democracy and Human Rights Award in 2013, and KHRG staffers have been chosen to represent national civil society organisations in discussing land rights with the Myanmar National Human Rights Commission and the Myanmar Peace Center, and to testify before the United Nations Security Council about child soldiers.
The Karen are a group of Indo-Chinese tribes living principally in Burma in the Indo-Chinese Peninsula. The greater part of this territory they occupy in connection with the other peoples of the country, namely, the Burmese, Shan, Siamese, and Chin. The only exclusively Karen country is the hilly region of the Toungoo district and the Karenni subdivision.
The Karen languages, members of the Tibeto-Burman group of the Sino-Tibetan language family, consist of three mutually unintelligible branches: Sgaw, Pwo, and Pa'o.[20] [21] Karenni (Red Karen) and Kayan belong to the Sgaw branch. Karens were Animists originally, but today the majority is Buddhist in conjunction with Animism. The Buddhist influence came from the Mon who were dominant in Lower Burma until the middle of the 18th century. Tha Byu, the first convert to Christianity in 1828. Persecution of Christians by the Burmese authorities has continued to this day, fuelled by the belief that Western imperialists have sought to divide the country not only on ethnic but on religious grounds.
Burma is a country of ethnic diversity, its estimated population of 48–50 million being divided between 15 major ethnic groups, many of them with distinct subgroups. These groups come from very different origins. The extent of differences is visible in their cultures and languages. According to the Karen, their people "arrived in Burma, a region at the time was virtually unpopulated jungle, approximately 2,500 years ago after a migration in several stages from the region of what is now Mongolia, and settled in what is now the Irrawaddy and Sittaung basin of central Burma." This began the movement of peoples like the Karen from the central lowlands out into the hills. The British took over what is now Burma in 3 wars: 1824–26, 1852–53, and finally in 1886, when ‘Burma’ became part of the British Empire as a province of British India. Burma gained its independence in 1948. "The military has dominated government since General Ne Win led a coup in 1962 that toppled the civilian government of U Nu. Burma remains under the tight control of the military-led State Peace and Development Council."
Burma is home to one of the longest running civil wars in the world. Over the last 50 years, opposition organisations representing a variety of political agendas have taken up arms against the central government in Rangoon. Since 1962, the country has been run by a succession of military governments, including the current ruling junta, the SPDC. The primary victims in Burma's protracted civil war have been ethnic minority people, like the Karen, Mon and Karenni.
Under the rule of the SPDC, farming villages have to deal with several Army battalions moving into the area, restricting the movements of villagers and demanding food, labour, and building materials. Karen families operate on a subsistence level, growing enough rice and vegetables for their own use. Their system has no safety net in hard times, therefore there is no built-in capacity to deal with this situation. Their forced relocation under the SPDC military is for the purpose of using them as a convenient source of unpaid labour at local Army camps and along the roads. After a few months, many people find they have little option but to starve or flee. The Burmese army carries out massive forced relocation of rural villages, with the intention of eliminating civilian support for opposition groups or clearing ground for infrastructural projects. These days most people know what is happening at the relocation sites, so when they are ordered to move they simply flee into hiding in the forests surrounding their farmlands. Tens of thousands of people are presently living in this way "under the constant risk of being captured or shot by passing SPDC patrols who also seek out and destroy their food supplies and crops in the fields. Eventually, they can no longer survive this way and try to make their way to the border [between Burma and] Thailand to become refugees."
The Karen Human Rights Group envisions a future in which people in Burma achieve full human rights and justice. To this end, the KHRG seeks to further develop as an independent, credible and Karen-led organisation working in close co-operation with local communities and operating with a perspective on human rights as articulated by villagers themselves.
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Karen Human Rights Group
The Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG) is a grassroots Karen-led human rights organisation, established in Karen State during 1992 and it is now operating across rural southeast Burma/Myanmar. With over twenty years of experience. KHRG is recognised internationally as an authority on major issues such as internal displacement, forced labour, landmines, conflict and land confiscation in southeast Burma/Myanmar. KHRG works directly with "rural villagers who are suffering abuses such as forced labor, systematic destruction of villagers and crops, forced relocations, extortion, looting, arbitrary detention, torture, sexual assault and summary executions." Most of these abuses were committed by soldiers and officials of the State Peace & Development Council (SPDC), Burma's previous ruling military junta. The organisation's goal is to support villagers in rural Burma, by helping them develop strategies to resist abuse and by translating their testimonies for worldwide distribution, accompanied by supporting photos and documentary evidence.
Most recently, KHRG was awarded the Asia Democracy and Human Rights Award in 2013, and KHRG staffers have been chosen to represent national civil society organisations in discussing land rights with the Myanmar National Human Rights Commission and the Myanmar Peace Center, and to testify before the United Nations Security Council about child soldiers.
The Karen are a group of Indo-Chinese tribes living principally in Burma in the Indo-Chinese Peninsula. The greater part of this territory they occupy in connection with the other peoples of the country, namely, the Burmese, Shan, Siamese, and Chin. The only exclusively Karen country is the hilly region of the Toungoo district and the Karenni subdivision.
The Karen languages, members of the Tibeto-Burman group of the Sino-Tibetan language family, consist of three mutually unintelligible branches: Sgaw, Pwo, and Pa'o.[20] [21] Karenni (Red Karen) and Kayan belong to the Sgaw branch. Karens were Animists originally, but today the majority is Buddhist in conjunction with Animism. The Buddhist influence came from the Mon who were dominant in Lower Burma until the middle of the 18th century. Tha Byu, the first convert to Christianity in 1828. Persecution of Christians by the Burmese authorities has continued to this day, fuelled by the belief that Western imperialists have sought to divide the country not only on ethnic but on religious grounds.
Burma is a country of ethnic diversity, its estimated population of 48–50 million being divided between 15 major ethnic groups, many of them with distinct subgroups. These groups come from very different origins. The extent of differences is visible in their cultures and languages. According to the Karen, their people "arrived in Burma, a region at the time was virtually unpopulated jungle, approximately 2,500 years ago after a migration in several stages from the region of what is now Mongolia, and settled in what is now the Irrawaddy and Sittaung basin of central Burma." This began the movement of peoples like the Karen from the central lowlands out into the hills. The British took over what is now Burma in 3 wars: 1824–26, 1852–53, and finally in 1886, when ‘Burma’ became part of the British Empire as a province of British India. Burma gained its independence in 1948. "The military has dominated government since General Ne Win led a coup in 1962 that toppled the civilian government of U Nu. Burma remains under the tight control of the military-led State Peace and Development Council."
Burma is home to one of the longest running civil wars in the world. Over the last 50 years, opposition organisations representing a variety of political agendas have taken up arms against the central government in Rangoon. Since 1962, the country has been run by a succession of military governments, including the current ruling junta, the SPDC. The primary victims in Burma's protracted civil war have been ethnic minority people, like the Karen, Mon and Karenni.
Under the rule of the SPDC, farming villages have to deal with several Army battalions moving into the area, restricting the movements of villagers and demanding food, labour, and building materials. Karen families operate on a subsistence level, growing enough rice and vegetables for their own use. Their system has no safety net in hard times, therefore there is no built-in capacity to deal with this situation. Their forced relocation under the SPDC military is for the purpose of using them as a convenient source of unpaid labour at local Army camps and along the roads. After a few months, many people find they have little option but to starve or flee. The Burmese army carries out massive forced relocation of rural villages, with the intention of eliminating civilian support for opposition groups or clearing ground for infrastructural projects. These days most people know what is happening at the relocation sites, so when they are ordered to move they simply flee into hiding in the forests surrounding their farmlands. Tens of thousands of people are presently living in this way "under the constant risk of being captured or shot by passing SPDC patrols who also seek out and destroy their food supplies and crops in the fields. Eventually, they can no longer survive this way and try to make their way to the border [between Burma and] Thailand to become refugees."
The Karen Human Rights Group envisions a future in which people in Burma achieve full human rights and justice. To this end, the KHRG seeks to further develop as an independent, credible and Karen-led organisation working in close co-operation with local communities and operating with a perspective on human rights as articulated by villagers themselves.