In Toungoo District between November 2011 and February 2012 villagers in both Than Daung and Tantabin Townships have faced regular and ongoing demands for forced labour, as well movement and trade restrictions, which consistently undermine their ability to support themselves.

...Between June 2011 and February 2012, instability
across Kachin and northern Shan states resulted in
displacement, damage of infrastructure and loss of
lives and livelihoods. Despite ongoing peace negotiation
between parties to the conflict, incidents
continue to be reported. Additionally, there are
indications that a number of people fled just across
the Myanmar-China border and live with relatives
or in temporary makeshift camps, but information is
still unclear and cannot be independently verified.

HIGHLIGHTS/KEY PRIORITIES:
• Displacement and humanitarian needs continue to increase. The urgent needs include shelter, NFIs,
WASH, vaccines and psychosocial support, among others...
• The UN team visited Laiza and provided NFI assistance to IDPs. Advocacy for follow up missions across all
affected areas continues

This report includes a situation update submitted to KHRG in February 2012, by a villager describing events occurring in Toungoo District during the period between November 2011 and January 2012. It discusses augmented troop rotations, resupply operations and the sending of bulldozers to construct a new vehicle road between the 20-mile point on the Toungoo – Kler La road and Kler La. It also contains reports of forced labour, specifically the use of villagers to porter military equipment and supplies, to serve as set tha, and the clearing of vegetation by vehicle roads.

KEY DEVELOPMENTS:

* The Burma Army is currently attacking within six miles of Mai Ja Yang, a city in Kachin State that is a refuge for over 1,000 displaced people
* The Burma Army is firing an average of 100 mortar rounds per day into this area and is receiving reinforcements.
* Over 40,000 Kachin people now displaced by attacks and more are preparing to run

Moon Nay Li is the General Secretary of the Kachin Women’s Association Thailand (KWAT), an organisation which she joined in 2002 in order to work for her people and community. The KWAT was founded on September 9th 1999 in response to recognising the urgent need for women to organise themselves to help solve the growing social and economic problems in the Kachin State...The KWAT is very concerned that foreign aid and investment is serving to subsidise the government’s war machine.

This report includes a situation update submitted to KHRG in November 2011 by a villager living in a hiding site in northern Lu Thaw Township, Papun District. The villager described an incident that occurred in October 2011 in which Tatmadaw soldiers fired six mortar shells into an area in which civilians are actively seeking to avoid attacks by Tatmadaw troops; no one was killed or injured during the attack.

KEY DEVELOPMENTS:

"While ceasefire negotiations are taking place in some ethnic areas, attacks continue in Kachin State, Northern Burma. The Burma Army is pressing its attacks in Kachin State with over 100 battalions deployed. There are over 50,000 Kachin people displaced, over 60 Kachin civilians killed and 100 Kachin soldiers killed. Burma Army casualties are unknown, but estimated at 1,000 wounded and killed. Along with the KIO, WPN, Partners and other organizations, the Kachin FBR teams are helping those in need

The Burma Army continues to attack people in three townships of Ba Maw District, Kachin State: Mun Si Township, Shwegu Township and Ba Maw Township. On 16 December 2011, Burma Army soldiers killed a woman from Prang Kawng Village. The woman, 30-year-old Lamung Kaw Seng, suffered from a mental disability. As Burma Army troops approached the village, all the villagers fled except for Lamung Kaw Seng. When the soldiers found her, they killed her and threw her into a toilet pit.

By District, Camp; population figures by by age and gender

A top United Nations official has urged the Burmese government to allow access to Kachin internally displaced persons (IDPs) in rebel-controlled areas of northernmost Burma.

Baroness Valerie Amos, the UN under-secretary-general for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, told a press conference in Rangoon on Friday that conditions for displaced civilians remain dire and there was no reason to restrict access.

Villagers in Te Naw Th'Ri Township, Tenasserim Division face human rights abuses and threats to their livelihoods, attendant to increasing militarization of the area following widespread forced relocation campaigns in the late 1990s. Efforts to support and strengthen Tatmadaw presence throughout Te Naw Th'Ri have resulted in practices that facilitate control over the civilian population and extract material and labour resources while at the same time preventing non-state armed groups from operating or extracting resources of their own.