Burmese Migrant Workers: A Brush with the Law

By Naw Cha Mu

It is estimated that there are between 400,00 and 2 million migrant workers in Thailand with the largest number coming from Burma. Naw Cha Mu discusses the challenges faced by this group, from the police and their employers, as they try to make a living in the relatively prosperous Thai economy. She also shares her own experience of a brush with the authorities....

Motivated by Money: Environmental Policies in Burma

By M. McAteer

Since the opening of the economy after the 1988 democracy protests foreign companies have poured money into Burma in exchange for access to its abudndant natural resources. In the past few years the junta and some of the multi-national companies doing business with it, such as UNOCAL and TOTAL, have been keen to show that this rapid increase in resource extraction, particularly in the fossil fuel and logging sections, has been accompanied by a blantant lack of consideration for the potential impact on the environment. Matthew McAteer examines what is really happening in Burma behind the military's statements and what the future holds for one of the worlds most pristine ecosystems.....

Land Confiscation: Killing By Default

By Moo Ko Htee

Cases of land confiscation and forced eviction have been known in Burma since the military seized power in 1962. However with the rapid expansion of the armed forces since 1988 they have become all the more common as under supplied troops are forced to steal farmland in order to support themselves. The loss of the land is not only disastrous for hte owner by also impacts deeply on a society where tries to the earth are still strongly felt....