09/15/2005

Burma has the worst internal displacement crisis in Asia. In 2005, there were estimated to be at least half a million internally displaced persons in eastern Burma alone. The vast majority of this population belongs to ethnic minority groups. In eastern Burma’s Karen State, where this woman and child live, an informal ceasefire agreement in 2004 between the Karen political leadership and the Burmese military regime raised hopes that there would be a reduction in armed conflict and the associated abuses. Following the informal ceasefire, the number of skirmishes between the Burmese military and the Karen ethnic army decreased. However, the conflict has worsened dramatically in recent months following the Burmese government’s 2005 decision to change the country’s capital from Rangoon to the remote outpost of Pyinmana.