Background on Burma

Essential Facts

• The dictatorship is one of the world’s top human rights violators
• Most child soldiers in the world, estimated at 70,000
• World’s #2 worst health care system next to Sierra Leone
• World’s #2 exporter of heroin next to Afghanistan
• It uses its army in a massive land grab for natural resources
• Ethnic minorities are driven from ancestral lands over 2000 years in their possession
• These lands happen to be rich in natural resources
• This includes Oil, Natural Gas, Precious Gems and Hydro Power
• The dictatorship uses 800,000 forced laborers daily for profit
• The Dirty List at www.ukburmacampaign.org shows who helps profit making
• Over 450,000 internally displaced persons now in Eastern Burma alone
• Over 3300 ethnic minority villages burned or mined to date
• Army attacks against villagers are on-going in Eastern Burma
• Over 2000 pro-democracy leaders and activists imprisoned
• The democratic movement leader and Nobel Peace Price winner, Madame Aung San Suu Kyi, remains under house arrest

Check the Sources
Amnesty International: www.amnesty.org
Assistance Assn for Political Prisoners (Burma): www.aappb.org
Burma Issues: www.burmaissues.org
Democratic Voice of Burma: www.communique.no/dvd
Free Burma Coalition: www.freeburmacoalition.org
Free Burma Rangers: www.freeburmarangers.org
Human Rights Watch: www.hrw.org
Human Trafficking: www.humantrafficking.org
Radio Free Asia: www.rfa.org
Thai-Burma Border Consortium: www.tbbc.org
US Campaign for Burma: www.uscampaignforburma.org
US State Department: www.state.gov/p/eap/ci/bm