Resource information
This report addresses the environmental and human rights situation faced by villagers and migrant workers in Shwegyin township of Nyaunglebin District, Pegu Division, Burma. Specifically, it examines the area around the Shwegyin and Mawtama Rivers where the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) and its business partners are engaged in building a dam, mining for gold, and logging the forests.The report highlights how heavy militarisation of the region, the indiscriminate granting of mining and logging concessions, and the construction of the Kyauk Naga Dam have led to forced labour, land confiscation, extortion, forced relocation, and the destruction of the natural environment. The human consequences of these practices have been social unrest, increased financial hardship, and great personal suffering for the victims of human rights abuses.The report makes numerous recommendations to the State Peace and Development Council on human rights, the environment, and mining which include:to make changes to the 1974 Constitution so that civilians have more rights over the land they occupy, including rights to obtain legal land titleto provide sufficient food, salaries, and other material supplies to its soldiers and officers so that they are self-sufficient in the field and do not need to live off the populationto replace outdated laws and replace ineffective environmental provisions to bring them into accordance with its 1994 Environmental Policy and the UN-supported national action plan for the environment known as “Myanmar Agenda 21”to strengthen the National Commission for Environmental Affairs (NCEA) by empowering it to enforce existing laws and other regulations regarding environmental issues to ban and take immediate legal action against individuals and companies using ecologically damaging techniques.The report also makes recommendations for international governments, international organisations and NGOs, the private sector and opposition groups.
