Human rights groups say the people of Myanmar's eastern Shan state have for decades suffered abuses at the hands of the military junta as part of a campaign to suppress ethnic minority groups throughout the country.
Activists accuse troops in Shan state of driving ethnic people from their land and destroying their villages to exploit timber as well as build infrastructure such as dams Â? and not just in areas of active insurgency.
As a result, hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to flee into dense forest jungles or seek refuge across the border in Thailand.
But those who remain face abuses such as forced labour and rape by government troops, according to Nang Charm Tong of the Shan Women's Action Network (SWAN) who spoke to AlertNet at a recent conference in New Delhi.
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