 One IDP, Saw Pah Htoo's, told this story of his terrifying experience fleeing the Burmese troops. |
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"We got word that the Burmese soldiers were coming, so we ran. There was a very old woman so we had to carry her. Finally, we couldn't carry her anymore because we were too tired and we had to run. We set her down on the mountain path. The Burmese soldiers saw her. The kicked her down the mountain and killed her. I don't know her name. She was about 80 years old." |
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| IDPs in hiding place, Toungoo District, Karen State, Burma | |
Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) are some of the single most vulnerable group of people in the world. IDPs are those people who face persecution or oppression, but who did not or could not flee their country.
IDPs have few options for help. They have no adequate shelter and are continually plagued by disease and hunger. The international community does not recognize the status of IDPs, and thus provides little protection or assistance to them. They are not protected under international refugee law. Unlike funding for refugees, no overall funding exists for IDPs.
From hidden settlements in Burma's jungle, Internally Displaced Persons face a huge challenge to survive. Disease is rife, education nearly impossible and food desperately short.
Burma's military leaders have implemented a strategy to crush resistance from all ethnic groups living inside its borders. It is a conflict of David and Goliath proportions as the military junta's 400,000 man army is intent on annihilating anyone in the way of its policies of exploitation and domination, leaving villages burned down and their own countrymen displaced and without shelter.
The apostle John says, "If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth" (1 John 3:17-18). In light of this clear command for action, and along with what we know about them, it is impossible to ignore the needs of more than 1.5 million innocent victims of one of the world's most brutal military regimes.
Partners supports 9 out of the 25 clinics offering medical assistance to Karen and Karenni IDPs. Working in concert with groups such as the Free Burma Rangers, Partners delivers medical, material, and survival aid when communities are displaced by attacking Burma Army forces. In each instance of contact with IDP populations we endeavor to communicate through our words, literature, and presentations, how God loves and cherishes them, even in the middle of their terrible suffering.
To read more about how Partners assists IDP's please see our 5 Alive campaign page. Or, to read specifically about how Partners supports IDP children, please see our Children of War page.
A Campaign of Brutality,
the new report by FBR (3.1 MB)
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HERE 
| The United Nations defines an IDP as: A person who has been forced to flee or leave their home as a result of or in order to avoid the effects of: and |
 The Enemy Came Click HERE to view. |