PREFACE

On 16 January 2000, Khin Maung Myint, Liaison Officer for the United Wa State Army, announced that the Wa leadership had begun a three-year project of relocating “50,000” of their people from the Chinese border in the north to the Thai border in the south.

Some media attention was given to this initial announcement, but there has since been almost no international coverage of the Wa resettlement program, which has been continuing up until today. Eastern Shan State, like most of Burma’s border areas, is largely sealed off to the outside world, and as a result, this massive population transfer and its accompanying abuses have been effected in virtual secrecy.

This report is an attempt to expose the effects of the move on the Wa settlers themselves, as well as on the local populations in southern Shan State into whose areas they were settled.

Clearly, the move has fomented ethnic tensions between the Wa and other indigenous peoples in eastern Shan State, such as the Lahu, Akha and Shan. The aim of this report is not to exacerbate these tensions, but rather, by exposing and analyzing the current problems, to emphasise the need for a political solution that will enable the various ethnic peoples to live alongside each other in equality and peace.

The report has been based on numerous interviews conducted with Wa, Shan, Akha and Lahu villagers along the Thai-Burma border between June and December 2001. Due to lack of official data from the Wa authorities, and due to the ongoing nature of the resettlement, the report is necessarily incomplete. However, the urgent need to expose to the outside world what has been happening has compelled us to publish this report using the data available.

We are indebted to various individuals and organisations for their assistance in producing this report.

Lahu National Development Organization