In military-ruled Burma, also known as Myanmar, large-scale natural gas
projects have directly and indirectly led to violations of basic human rights
through the complicity of multinational corporate actors. These abuses are
ongoing and there is an unreasonably high risk they will increase as more gas
projects are developed. This paper assesses the past, present, and future human
rights impacts of large-scale natural gas extraction in Burma, and the
implications these impacts have in terms of corporate accountability. The

... In 2014, Myanmar(Burma)confounded industry analysts by emerging to become the World's third biggest tin producer, experiencing a 5-year tin production increase of ca.4900%. This surprise emergence of Myanmar as a major tin producer is a possible Black Swan event that potentially has significant re-percussions both for the future of global tin production, and for the economic development of Myanmar. This is a disruptive event that has likely contributed to a substantial drop in tin prices in 2015. The

Amidst ongoing conflict between the Tatmadaw and armed groups in eastern Dooplaya and Pa'an districts, civilians, aid workers and soldiers from state and non-state armies continue to report a variety of human rights abuses and security concerns for civilians in areas adjacent to Thailand's Tak Province, including: functionally indiscriminate mortar and small arms fire; landmines; arbitrary arrest and detention; sexual violence; and forced portering.

Summary: "In 2008, Myanmar’s military rulers ratified a new constitution that ensured their continued monopoly of the country’s natural resources. Section 37 (a) states:
“the Union is the ultimate owner ofall lands and all natural resources above and below the ground, above and beneath the water and in the atmosphere”

China’s ability to elbow out other contenders for the Shwe gas—from Thailand, Japan and South Korea, as well as India—underlines Beijing’s rising influence within the Burmese regime

In recent months, both China and India have signed agreements with the Burmese military junta
indicating their willingness to buy gas from the proposed Shwe gas project in western Burma,
with Thailand also expressing interest. If built, the Shwe project would be Burma’s largest gas
development project ever. Matthew Smith and Naing Htoo analyse the events surrounding the
recent agreements and the inevitable consequences if the project were to proceed...

Includes Cluster Munition Monitor Report, 2013

Since the Scotland-based HALO Trust started work in Afghanistan in 1988 and Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) cleared its first mine in Cambodia in 1992, the two NGOs have cleared and destroyed several million landmines and explosive weapons from conflict zones around the world. Their total haul in Myanmar? Zero.

“It is very frustrating,” says Henry Leach, HALO Trust representative in Yangon. “We are the biggest operator in the world but have not cleared a single mine in Myanmar in three years of being here.”

On remote Madae Island on Myanmar’s western coast, the Chinese state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), is constructing a huge seaport, oil terminal and oil and gas pipeline to China for shipping more than 80% of China’s imported oil from the Middle East and Africa without people’s consent, and without implementation of EIA, SIA and FPIC. The construction of these projects has resulted in human rights abuses, massive land confiscation, environmental destruction and destruction of the islanders’ livelihoods and farmlands.

While Burma’s ethnic states are blessed with a wealth of natural resources and biodiversity, they
have been cursed by the unsustainable extraction and sale of those resources, which has fuelled
armed conflict. Instituting a system of devolved federal management of natural resources can
play a key role in resolving conflict and building a lasting peace in Burma.
Despite some ceasefires on paper, Burma remains in a state of conflict. Ongoing offensives in
Kachin and Shan states alone have left hundreds of thousands homeless. Fundamental calls for

Key developments since May 2005: Both the military junta and non-state armed groups have continued to use antipersonnel mines extensively. The Myanmar Army has obtained, and is using an increasing number of antipersonnel mines of the United States M-14 design; manufacture and source of these non-detectable mines—whether foreign or domestic—is unknown. In November 2005, Military Heavy Industries reportedly began recruiting technicians for the production of the next generation of mines and other munitions.

Landmines are weapons that kill and maim indiscriminately, whether it be civilians, soldiers, elderly, women, children or animals
and cause injury and death long after the official end of a war. Contrary to trends in the rest of the world, rather than reduce or
abolish the use of landmines, the SPDC has actually increased production of anti-personnel landmines and at least in the case of
the Burma-Bangladesh border, is actively maintaining minefields. In Asia, Burma is currently second only to Afghanistan in the