Country: Myanmar

Group: Mon 

Date Finalized: 11/8/2021

Team: Hannah Goldman (lead), Jocelyn Chen, Mason McNeel

The ethnic Mon group in Myanmar are a clear case of forced displacement. The data for the evidence is available from credible sources as so we rated data quality a three out of three.

            The exact population of Mon in Myanmar is unknown, but estimates range from one to eight million and most reside in the Mon state as farmers (Minority Rights Group, 2015; Monzel, n.d.).  In 1757 the last Mon kingdom fell, and the Burman king had thousands of Mon killed and so large numbers of the group fled. Since then, the Mon people have fought for their independence (Minority Rights Group, 2015). In the 1800s the Mon agreed to fight with the British with the promise of a reestablished Mon kingdom.  However, at the end of the war the Mon territory became part of Burma and the Mon people gained no autonomy (Minority Rights Group, 2015). In 1948, as as independent Burma formed, an armed Mon activist group formed to fight for Mon rights.  However, the Burmese state did not give the Mon the autonomy they sought and many Mon fled to Thailand (Human Rights Watch, n.d.). Myanmar and Mon groups reached a ceasefire in 1995 that included repatriating of Mon that had fled to Thailand and allowed the Mon to keep their arms in small Mon territories. However, the Burmese state has violated this agreement on several occasions (Human Rights Watch, n.d.). To this day the government commits human rights violations against the group and the Mon refugees returned from Thailand do not feel safe and have become internally displaced in Myanmar (Human Rights Watch, n.d.; Monzel, n.d.).

Sources

  1. Minority Rights Group. 2015. Mon. (2015, June 19). https://minorityrights.org/minorities/mon/
  2. Human Rights Watch. N.d. UNWANTED AND UNPROTECTED: (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2021, from https://www.hrw.org/legacy/reports98/thai/Thai989-04.htm
  3. Monzel, N. B. H. (n.d.). Mon Affairs Union Statement. etrieved September 26, 2021, from  https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/MinorityIssues/Session3/statements/MonAffairUnionStatement.pdf