- Exhaustive research and analysis of documents on resettlement issue.

- Meetings with some international agencies interested in the question of resettlement, information sharing about cases of resettlement identified in the field and agencies' response to this issue.

- Field study in 16 Districts, covering more than 150 villages in 8 provinces (5) throughout the country.

Hundreds of interviews have been conducted with provincial and district authorities as well as with representatives from mass organizations at village level, traditional authorities and households affected by resettlement. Maps, database and narrative reports were presented to the relevant partners for each area covered by the study.

Foot Notes:

3. It studied a sample of 16 villages in two provinces. 4. Relocation Policy in Laos may be causing poverty: UN Press Release, Vientiane, Laos 5/4/2004 5. Luang Namtha, Bokeo, Sayaboury, Xieng Koung, Savannakhet, Sekong and Attapeu

Page 8

"The Degree of Implementation of the National Directives varies between provinces due to the level of integration of the minorities, the motivation and means of the local authorities, development opportunities (private investors, state sponsored project, international agencies, etc.) or external pressure as in the case of opium."

4.2 Authorities' participation and access to information

Provincial and district authorities have drawn up local 5 years socio-economic development plans that are accessible to development partners. The study shows that in 15 out of 16 districts visited, the socio-economic development plans included a resettlement plan. The orientations and precise information concerning the implementation are available at the district planning office.

Usually handled in a relatively discrete way by the authorities, resettlement plans are sometimes openly displayed like in Attapeu and Houaphan provinces. The current study focuses essentially on resettlements that have occurred in the actual 5 years plan (2001-2005). Resettlement in the case of infrastructure building falls out of the scope of the study.

Generally, resettlement are internal to districts and take place from the mountain to the lowlands. In some cases resettlement takes place within mountainous areas, such as in Sanxay district (Nam Ngone sub-district) in Attapeu province, and there are also plans involving the resettlement between disctricts of a province, from Nale to Vieng Poukha in Luang Namtha province for instance. Finally resettlement from Northern provinces to three Southern provinces (Khammouane, Savannalhet and Attapeu) is also implemented as a means to redistribute the population more evenly from overpopulated area toward areas where land for paddy cultivation is available.

During the study, making the distinction between the plan and the reality in the field turned out to be difficult. Authorities often presented the situation as if the objectives had already been met but field visits would infirm this information. In Attapeu province for instance, the provincial Cabinet informed us that there was only 7 and 5 upland villages left in Sanxay and Phouvong district. In reality, there are respectively 21 villages still located in the uplands in Sanxay and 6 in Phouvong.

The Degree of Implementation of the National Directives varies between provinces due to the level of integration of the minorities, the motivation and means of the local authorities, development opportunities (private investors, state sponsored project, international agencies, etc.) or external pressure as in the case of opium.

Some districts have almost completed their resettlement plan (Viengpoukha) while others are in the dusk (Vilaboury). In the case of Sepone district, traumatic experiences of past attempts to resettle upland population explain the low commitment by local authorities to implement national resettlement strategy. In Kalum district, the resettlement plan is put on a hold and will be implemented according to the completion of the road to Vietnam since resettlements will be targeted along the road. Everywhere, the presence of international agencies strongly cautions local development plan among which resettlement is a sine qua non condition.

Page 9

Results

1. Population and areas affected by resettlement The 16 districts targeted by the study share the following characteristics:

- They are included in the list of 47 poorest districts prioritized by the Lao government in the NGPES

- They are mountainous and characterized by a high rate of non-accessible villages

- They are all populated by ethnic minorities.

A district sharing these characteristics is likely to elaborate a resettlement plan for isolated mountain villages in order to meet the national guidelines.

In the area covered by the study, the district involving most of the resettlement plan include: Nga district in Oudomxay province (16,000 people), Long district in Luang Namtha (12,000 people), Sanxay in Attapeu (11,926 people), Sayaboury (9,500 people), Dakcheung in Sekong (6,500 people), Nonghet in Xieng Kouang (6,000 people) and Nale in Luang Namtha (5,968 people).

Figures:

For the entire area covered by the study,

- 32% of the villages of the district visited during the study totalizing 457 villages out of 1,415 villages are included in resettlement plan for 2001-2005. This means 98,660 or 23% of the entire population of the 16 districts.

- 135 villages totalizing 28,010 people or 28.4% of the population targeted have already been resettled since 2001.

- 70,659 people are still included in the resettlement plan for 2005 and 2006-2010.

Districts with the highest number of resettled population include:

Long (5,361 people)

Sanxay (5,154 people)

Phouvong (4,081 people)

Nga (2,500 people)

Vieng Poukha in Luang Namtha (2,256 people)

2. How is resettlement implemented

"One major aspect highlighted during interviews is the opacity with which the resettlement decision making process and its implementation are taking place. When negotiations occur between the village and the authorities, the community often take decisions based on wrong or vague information. As a result, the "voluntariness" of the decision is highly questionable."

Accessing villagers' opinion has been an essential aspect in allowing to enlighten the reasons why communities, households or individuals move, what kind of alternatives are offered to them, what type of decision making processs they are going through. Hundreds of testimonies collected at village level in 8 provinces confirmed that a vast number of means and measures are used against villagers who have very often no other choice than accepting the government's diktats regarding relocation.

Page 10

A Villager: "Our village was located on a road. The district came with 12 big green trucks and forced us to climb in. Nobody wanted to leave. Villagers were crying. Then, some officials threatened to handcuff villagers who refuse to climb on the trucks. Finally we all left with only a few belongings and animals we had time to take."

The Government of Laos uses a wide spectrum of propaganda tools from threats and pressures, to incentives and promises to reach its goal: the resettlement of minorities living in the country's mountainous margins. The resettlement does not stem from a choice made by villagers according to their own priorities such as the access to the land, to the water or to the food accompanied with cultural considerations.

In order to avoid resettlement, upland villages have to meet several compulsory criteria which can vary from one district to another one. These criterions include a minimum of households, a road or river-link to the village, access to school, health service, water and land suitable for paddy cultivation.

2.1 Persuasion

2.1.1

Threats

When propaganda does not convince villagers to move, threats become a useful tool in the hands of local authorities. Violence against reluctant villagers is hardly ever used but the threat of it serves to scare them. Some villagers were also threatened with prison. Some villagers were told if they ran away from the relocation site they would be shot.

In Vieng Pukha district, at the beginning of 2004 a Kui village was forced to move to the neighboring district of Sing.

Official written documents from the district governor could be used as an order to the head of village and have a value of law. The community have to implement the resettlement content according to the time frame suggested or to act illegally. (1)

The three official letters in the annexes highlight three cases of resettlement to a designed site for which negotiation is not an option.

2.1.2 Promises to move

Combined with threats and pressures, promises are a crucial factor to persuade upland villagers to resettle in the valleys. District officials almost systematically tell villagers that they will get a paddy field, have access to water, education and health. They promise aid such as rice and utensils for settling in their new location. Once they have moved, villagers soon find out that promises are not kept. In many cases, assitance, land access and services delivery constitute more a rhetorical speech to reach resettlement goals rather than a means of reaching rural development plans. The immediate consequence for the villagers is increased precariousness.

Testimony:

The case of a tarieng village in Sanxay District, Attapeu Province. X village in Sanxay distrct, Attapeu province was resettled on January 17, 2002; right in the period of clearing their swidden land. 28 households (140 persons) moved to the actual site while 4 households left for another upland village. Upon arrival, they had to squat for 2 months in abandoned district administration facilities while building new houses. Their houses left behind have been dismantled and stolen by Dak Pok Mai villages that had remained in the upland.

They have been promised paddy field, eagle wood (mai ketsana) nursery, rice, etc. they only got 20 kg of salt per household. Presently, X village's territory is limited to the village space set on a former military post. The promised paddy field have been claimed by another village. For the first year, X villagers farmed on the land traditionally belonging to Dak Kiet village resettled in Tad Seng Focal Site but the yields were low due to wrong seedlings, and also to the ravages of a part of their fields done by buffalo herds. They have asked district authorities for assistance but received nothing.

1. See in annex three official letters highlighting cases of resettlement for which negotiation is NOT an option.

2.1.3 Permanent Presence

The local authorities can post some of their men in resettled villages, as another means of pressure. They are often military or police personnel. In most cases, the reason given by the government has to do with security, especially in border areas. In reality, their presence deters any villagers of new settlements from moving back to their former village since any movement, departure as much as arrival, is carefully checked.

As villagers are inclined to move back to the mountain because of the precarious situation in their new location, posting officials in resettlement areas forbig or at least reduce these kinds of risks. And they can also help to put pressure on the villagers yet to be resettle.

2.1.4 Official Visits

Although often located in remote areas, villages to be resettled receive regular visits from the district government in order to convince them to move.

Testimony:

Head of a Khmu Village:

"In the valley we will have water for drinking and washing. It is better than here. But it is mainly the repeated visits made by the district that push us to leave. The district took us twice to visit the new location and its fields. Since then it puts regular pressure on us, saying things like 'Now that you have seen over there why aren't you moving?' Each time district officials visit the village they ask us why we are still here?"

2.1.5 State Propaganda

Media play a significant role in the production and dissemination of state propaganda and its vision of modernity and development. Speakers located in each district capital nationwide broadcast twice a day outstanding facts on the local scene including socio-economic development plans, government decrees, amount of cash received or invested for develoment projects, etc. The total monopoly of information and absence of alternative information sources suggest the supremacy of the development model and contribute to mobilizing the population.

2.2 Coercive Measures

Apart from persuasion tools, other measures are implemented in a coercive manner, bringing such heavy constraints into peoples' lives tha they will consider moving as a coping mechanism.

Poppy eradication and limits on swidden cultivation are useful tools to push villagers from the uplands down into the valleys. For years poppy cultivation was forbidden but tolerated in Northern Laos where villagers were producing opium as their MAIN cash crop. In 2000, with the approval of the Opium Elimination Program, the ban on poppy cultivation became effective and the following year eradication started. In areas known for their involvement in opium production, the government decided to move the villagers. In others, dwellers have to resettle by themselves because the loss of opium's benefits added to the limitation of swidden cultivation made it too difficult for them to cope.

The head of an Akha village located in the mountains of Northern Laos regrets that "26 families left us because of the new regulation regarding swidden cultivation and poppy eradication." Swidden cultivation restrictions and poppy eradication cause a serious loss of income, which constitute a clear push factor for villagers in mountainous area to move to the lowlands.

In fact by leaving their territory, its resources and the know-how they have, most of the villagers entered a vicious circle leading to impoverishment, in the name of development. (NGO's TAKE NOTE!) 2.3 Relevance of the plans and conditions of implementation

Discussions on resettlement plans with the authorities highlight the absence of feasibility studies. Usually, such plans are elaborated by the district authorities according to the Prime Minister Decree 01, 2001. But information used to plan resettlement is scarce and hardly any assessment is carried out to evaluate the potentialities beforehand.

Demographic figures used by the authorities are often wrong. Land suitable for paddy cultivation are often estimated, using topographic maps for instance, and the carrying capacity of the land is generally not enough to welcome the resettled population. The availability of clean water is usually not sufficient to fulfil resettled population's needs – and often there is no water at all. For Dak Sa village in Dakcheung, where the proposed resettlement site for 4 villages has no water at all. Finally, communities located in the lowlands, often do not accept the district's plans and restrict the installation of new comers.

Page 12

Despite State propaganda and promises, resettled population rarely obtain assitance for moving to their new area and cultivating suitable land. Out of all the districts visited during the study, only Sanxay and Phouvong in Attapeu province had momentarily received some help. All districts resettlement plans include a budget submitted to the provincial authorities but the funds are rarely granted. This does not prevent the authorities from activating the plans at the expense of the communities that then bear all the costs for it.

3. Consequences of resettlement

3.1 Short term consequences

The integration of upland households in the lowland area is possible in certain cases when the household owns capital (animals / cash), manpower and when it remains master of its own destiny. A 3-10 year period is needed for the household to emerge in the new society of integration, but this is not the case of the majority of the household, and this step is made further difficult when they are forced to move. Then emerge negative consequences and their daily lives become almost martyrdom.

3.1.1 Sanitary conditions of resettled communities The first years following the resettlement are generally characterized by a brutal degredation of living condition of the population involved. Used to drink spring water in the hills, resettled people find it hard to get use to river water available in the new sites that must imperatively be boiled. In the upland, incidence of malaria is low but once in the lowlands, villagers don't know how to deal with this disease which is everywhere and infects rapidly.

The access to health services remains difficult even when private health services or dispensaries are available because communities lack cash and also rarely speak Lao. Finally, increased mortality rates are one of the most acknowledged and reported negative consequences of resettlement. Resettled populations face mortality rates three times higher than lowland villages and twice higher than traditional upland communities.

Elders and under 5 years of age children are the main victims of those mortality episodes. Bearers of the tradition and of the knowledge amassed during their life and handed down from previous generations, the deaths stop the process of socio-economic and cultural reproduction of their communities.

3.1.2 Decapitalization

The most widespread effect of resettlement is the impoverishment of the resettled population. All migrants face decapitalization in the short term including the demolition and transportation of assets (housing material, production tools, seedlings, animals, etc), the clearing of the new site and also sometimes the payment for land for the construction of a new house and the acquisition of new production land.

To cover the expenses that average few hundred dollars, households who own animals will sell some or their entire herds but the one without capital falls in the infernal cycle of indebtedness or realize a precarious move without acquiring new lands.

In Bokeo province where many villagers from Nale' district were resettled, the fee entrance for a household unit is a common practice but the amount varies a lot from village to village.

Page 13

Testimony

A Villager:

"Among youths some would like to settle in the plain but can't afford it. I know villagers where you have to pay to the community more than a million kip as "entrance fee". And you need more than two million to buy land. Only if you have money you can move down. Here we lack cash to move down. To settle in the plain, especially to build a house, costs a fortune. Here in the mountain in a year's time you can build your house with the wood you cut yourself. Down in the plain you must buy everything."

Capitalization traditionally takes the form of large and small animal ownership. Unfortunately, resettlement is also corollary of a high animal mortality, especially small animals that badly tolerate the integration into dry and hot areas.

For some individuals owning ritual functions or also key positions in the traditional institutions, resettlement is often synonymous of symbolical decapitalization linked to the loss of benefits in nature associated to their functions. In Akha societies for instance, the Nipa receive gifts or presentations for the services; notably at the village gates. Often resettlement involving consolidation of hamlets or the incorporation of hamlets into larger units annihilates symbolical tasks and the holder of those functions face a decapitalization both symbolical and in terms of benefits.

3.1.3 Food sovereignty

Used to agricultural system based on mixed farming, mountain animal husbandry completed by collection of forest products and other activities such as basketry, ironsmith, wood sawing, etc. Households resettled in the lowlands have fewer of these resources. Access to land is difficult, but even for the wealthiest, who can afford to buy a piece of land, 3 to 5 years are needed to produce enough to insure food security. Swidden cultivators usually lack previous experience, technical expertise, animals for ploughing, control of water, paddy rice seedlings etc. Such shortages constitute the main obstacle hampering the transition process from swidden to paddy cultivation. All the other traditional activities are also impracticable in the lowlands.

Land allocated by the state average generally ½ hectare per household. This requires an important labor input to become productive.

Most of the households face severe food security decrease: From 8-10 months in the uplands to 4-6 months in the lowlands, and the income generation activities (hunting, fishing, and basketry) that traditionally allow covering other expenses (clothing, medicine) and savings are then devoted to maintain food security.

The settlement of growing numbers of people in the valleys put increase pressure on available land. Given the situation of alnd scarcity, the newcomers get easily into conflict with established populations to whom the resettlement was imposed on and who ALREADY claim access to the land and natural resources.

Testimony

A Tai Leu villager living along the Namtha River: "Two villages settled on our territory and causes problems for cultivation. In fact we can't cultivate that land anymore. There wasn't any prior agreement; we had to accept because it was the district's plan."

In many of the cases, resettlement does not mean the transition from shifting cultivation to paddy cultivation, at least in the short term, and the period is one of uncertainty and psychological insecurity, of disillusion and trauma. The resettlement obviously does not reach its development goal; neither, its main official environmental objective: the reduction of swidden surfaces.

3.1.4 Proletarization of landless farmers For landless shifting cultivators resettled in the lowland, wage labour become a coping mechanism contributing to food security in the transition from subsistence livelihood to the market economy and this emergence of this new proletarian class meets directly government plan for minorities shifting from a perceived unsustainable livelihood to "permanent" occupation. (!!)

This switch from subsistence production to wage labour is inscribed in macro projects linked to foreign investments, such as cassava planting in Nong district, Savannakhet province, watermelon production in Long district, Luang Namtha province, etc. Private companies both Lao and foreign; mostly Vietnamese and Chinese in Northern Laos, commercialize non timber forest products.

Page 14

In all cases, ethnic minorities are hired as non-specialized laborers and obtain low salary. Higher positions necessitating technical expertise are fulfilled by companies' permanent staff or by staff coming from Vientiane and the opportunity to gain knowledge and climb the layers remain also non-existent. This scheme meets directly government objective of transition from a livelihood labeled as non-productive, unsustainable, to one fashioned like a professional occupation.

This phenomenon is corollary to a new phenomenon of competition and the emergence of uneven power relations undermining community solidarity.

3.1.5 Drug Addiction and Prostitution In the area of the Golden Triangle in Northern Laos where opium cultivation has been strongly curbed, cultural and psychological traumas from resettlement have contributed to increased drug addiction. But without access to opium, more dangerous type of drugs such as yabaa (ATS, type of amphetamines), become widespread, not only for former opium addicts but also among all the people relying on daily labor to insure food security.

In the same area, prostitution activities have been identified. Brothels are emerging along the road, especially close to sawmills and sites of exploitation of resources, and some villages become famous as night stops for traders, pointing out the risks of HIV transmissions.

3.1.6 Loss of social cohesion and increased dependence to state institutions

Traditional societies' reproduction is based on regulations on kinship and cultural transmissions that allow the intergration of the individual and his social identification. Such changes induce a deep alteration in the traditional social cohesion of the communities that have to face fundamental internal dissensions and new problems for which elders are not prepared. The cohabitation with communities from diverse origins remains difficult and the increased precariousness leads to search for individual solutions and at short terms. The role and the weight of state in the community life is increased ten fold. Dispossessed from its land, the community usually rely increasingly on the state to regulate conflicts, propose alternatives and provide assistance at the occasion of sanitary or food crisis.

3.2 Long Term Consequences

3.2.1 The loss of ethnic identity

Resettled communities are progressively loosing their identities. Precariousness in which they are immerged with resettlement is not likely to maintain their specific cultures characterized by a great variety of languages, architecture, clothing, music and other know how elaborated and handed down through the generations.

3.2.2 Exodus

The absence of real opportunities in the resettlement sites risks to lead resettled population in a new exodus, that is likely to be directed towards urban poles lower in the valleys. The actual adult population, not comfortable with the Lao language and the lifestyle of lowlanders are likely to remain, but the younger generations will need only a few years to adapt to their new environment.

3.3 Abandonment of traditional territories and new positioning in the main stream society The resettlement has also a negative impact on the socio-economic structures beyond the village level. With the relocation of a large majority of villagers, the remaining communities find it difficult to survive in an "empty" environement. The isolation produced by the resettlement of neighboring communities often stimulates the last upland communities to move closer to other populated area because they can't count on the neighboring villages anymore. With the general dynamic of resettlement and regular propaganda, they see their moving as inescapable.

Testimony

An Akha villager from a recently resettled village along the Mekong river:

"Other villages had all moved down on the Mekong bank these past years. We were the only village left upland. We were isolated, staying there became unthinkable."

Page 15

When resettled villagers compare the kind of livelihoods they had before in the upland with their new life in the lowlands, they clearly explain that they left a large territory for a restricted space, a temperate climate for a dry and hot climate, river well-stocked with fish for non permanent streams, highly diversified activities for specialized culture, community life for integration into the nation state, a self-managed territory for a space defined and managed by the state, and a food secure situation for a situation of food insecurity.

3.4 Communities' reactions concerning resettlement Villagers have been trying to resist the governement's diktats in various ways. The most common route is to try to negotiate with the district and defend options perceived as better suited to their situation and bearing a less negative impact.

3.4.1 Decision making at the community level

For villages targeted by government resettlement plan, an internal process of decision making is initiated. The process of collective decision making is difficult to analyze. Representativesfrom mass organizations (Head of the village, Head of Elders, Lao Women's Union's representatives, etc.) will position themselves for or against the plan; diverse positioning will also emerge as we have observed during the study. A decision is rarely approved unanimously by the entire community and divergence often emerges between youth open to change and the elders.

Villages will often send scouts to assess the resettlement site proposed by the authorities. This phase usually determines the validity of the proposed site in terms of water and land availability, livelihood opportunities, neighborhood, etc. If the community agrees, resettlement is then organized to the new site. The village may refuse the proposed site and make a different proosition. Sometimes, disagreements within the community results in a scission of the village; some will join relatives in the hills, others will move down, either to the proposed site or to a self-selected one. The community ceases to exist.

In this last scenario, the wealthiest households are generally the ones that move first. They have the capital and can afford to pay for paddy land in the lowlands. Poorest segments usually composed of elders, single-headed households, etc. often remain in the hills and will finally come down to join a community since for scattered hamlets, negotiation isn't an option and they are usually consolidated in larger units or grafted onto existing communities.

Elders are generally opposed to leaving their traditional environment. In resettled communities their traditional knowledge becomes obsolete, depreciated and contested. On the contrary, the youth are more receptive to resettlement plans and may form a pressure group within the community, notably because they own the manpower.

Testimony

An Elder:

"We gave up bird's songs and the sound of the wind in the tree's canopy for the sound of trucks coming on the road."

Some committed to the Party representatives will follow directives. And resettlement also allows certain individuals wishing to emancipate from traditional leadership to gain political power. Former soldiers back in the village may become the new head of the village by leading a portion of the population to settle down in the lowland according to the plan.

3.5 Reactions and adaptations

As we see, people are not passive and elaborate a plurality of answers and resistance patters to the imposed discourse and resettlement. Village leadership is a determining factor in the negotiation process with the authorities that will insure that the villages have some guarantees regarding the resettlement site, the availability of farming land, access to services, etc. Some communities follow the plan andmove to the selected site, others refuse to move. Reactions and adaptations to the plan are elaborated and if at the end villages do move, the final picture is often far from the model planned by the authorities. Modes of population redistribution dictated by internal mechanisms: clan schisms, migration due to diseases or episodes of mortality still happens, but now we observe the emergence of new patterns of mobility. Facing government pressure to resettle, communities elaborate different answers; scission, fragmentation, refusal, compromises, etc., and government and international development agencies have lost the control.

3.5.1 Meeting compulsory criterions

When district officials ask villagers to move down to the lowland, they use the legal criterions that any village in Laos must fulfill (including a minimum of households, a road or riverlink to the village, access to schoool, health services…) Using the legal way too, villagers try to reach these criterions in order to avoid resettlement.

Page 16

Villagers are usually well aware of the new regulations regarding a minimum of households for villages that the local authorities try to enforce. Therefore they set up plans to maintain the size of their village or, if necessary, increase it to reach the minimum required. Villages make it the easiest possible for newcomers but try in the same time to deter any departure.

Testimony

Head of an upland Lamet village:

"For those who want to settle here, they just hav to offer a chicken, a bottle of alcohol and 5000 kips to perform the welcoming ritual. But villagers who want to leave here must pay one million kips to the village. We put that harsh rule to encourage people to stay. In fact we are afraid of a population diminution. We haven't reached yet the district target which is a minimum of 200 persons for our village."

3.5.2 The 'no' way

Although risky, the decision to refuse any resettlement is taken by many villagers. For most of them they have already experienced a traumatic forced resettlement in the recent years and can't see how to go through it again.

Sometimes, human tragedies faced by resettled communities weaken government discourse and allow communities to resist based upon the irrelevance of the site proposed, the incapability from local departments to reasonably manage resettlement. The case of Dak Lieng Loung in Tad Seng Focal Site in Sanxay district, Attapeu province illustrates well this phenomenon.

A first segment of Dak Lieng Loung village was resettled in 2003. Then in 2004, 22 households from Dak Lieng Loung village came down and cleared the land in order to build their houses. Acknowledging the bad conditions of the first segment already resettled: lack of food and no access to water in the dry season, they decided to go back to the upland village located 1.5 hours away, declaring that they will not come back.

Testimony

A villager:

"We prefer to be assassinated in our hills instead of dying miserably in the plain." This comment reveals the type of relations with the authorities and the kinds of threats received by upland communities.

3.5.3 The middle way

Villagers who realize that staying in their initial locations are impossible and do not want to confront the authorities work on a third choice. They do not try to maintain their village at its place and do not accept to go where local authorities want them to go, but they propose or sometimes impose a middle way. Even when it does not fit its plans, the government often accepts the third choice made by the villagers because at least they are moving from their initial location. The negotiations with the authorities is not about the fact of moving but about the destination. That choice is also a guarantee for the government that villagers will not return after resettlement.

3.5.4 New distrust and mistrust

Forced resettlement, absence of support by the government and its regular change of plans engender uncertainty and fuel new feelings of distrust and mistrust among villagers toward the Lao authorities. For many of them, even used to following the rules imposed by the Party, the experience of resettlement questioned seriously their relation with the State.

Testimony

An Akha woman from a resettled village in Northern Laos:

"If we hadn't been forced to follow the government policy we wouldn't be so poor now. But we respected the law. In this country if you respect the law you get poorer! You have nothing to gain by respecting the government policy…."

Distrust and mistrust is very strong among villagers who accepted and followed the government's plan but then were told to move again. They have a feeling of betrayal. The head of an ethnic Lamet village explains in details how after they were told by the governor to move to another district they received a letter from the district forbidding them to move. Finally they were told to find relatives anywhere and to go to live with them. "The district treats us like a young boy to whom you hold the Willy to make him stand or sit!"

Page 17

The distrust and feeling of betrayal is particularly vivid for members of the Party. Being the local Party secretary, the head of an Akha village, accepted to move even though the new location imposed by the district was far from offering good conditions for his villagers. Lacking water, the villagers would like to return but fear a new imposed resettlement.

Testimony

A villager:

"The district will never let us return. But if the district asks us to move to another place, I leave to Burma! That's enough! I do not know anybody in Burma but I will go. Here we are like dust; we are swept up from one side to the other. I do not know if the situation is better in Burma but here we are thrown one day on the right, the day after on the left. They treat us like dog, like enemies. I'm not an enemy. We respect the law but now it is become unbearable."

3.5.5 The valley as a cul-de-sac

If some impoverished resettled villagers who can't make their living in the valley manage to return to their original site, for a large majority of them this option is very improbable. First, in the case they left a village still existing, going back there would mean to lose face. The remaining villagers can also refuse to accept them, especially if their departure wasn't the result of a shared decision inside the village.

The cost of moving back to the mountain and the cost of a house constitute another obstacle for villagers who have already lost most of their capital, usually animals, because of their move down and potential returnees are also facing the state administrative control, especially in new settlement zones where the government keep a presence, police or army, to deter any departure.

Nevertheless, unable to survive in the lowland due to the lack of paddy land, hundreds of communities throughout Laos have challenged the policy and returned to their hills.

3.6 Discrimination against ethnic minorities

Testimony

An Akha Elder:

"You are Akha (talking to the translator), you know what it means to move, it is not easy. When we were young we were moving because we decided so. Nowadays, we do not decide anymore, the government is forcing us. I moved five times in my life but it is the first time that I'm forced to it by the government. We, Akha, never move if the conditions are not favorable."

Although Laos has signed the International Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), the resettlement of ethnic minorities is discriminatory in practice as double standard is applied on displacement criteria and restriction on swidden cultivation.

UNOCHA's guiding principles on internal displacement stipulates that: "States are under a particular obligation to protect against the displacement of indigenous peoples, minorities, peasants, pastoralists and other groups with a special dependency on and attachment to their lands" (Principle 9). Ethnic minorities in Northern Laos have obviously "a special dependency" on their land: without their traditional subsistence-based livelihood they loose their self-reliance in terms of food production and access. Once resettled, villagers are forced into a market-oriented economy focused on cash crops production. They become dependent on different economic dynamics that they cannot control.

Page 18

Global Approach

1. Resettlement analysis at national level

1.1 Methodology

in order to determine the potential for resettlement at national level, we used the list of the 47 poorest districts set out in the NGPES (National Growth and Poverty Eradication Strategy). Among the 16 districts where resettlement had been studied in depth, 15 were on this list. (1)

The results of this survfey showed that the main criteria for resettlement were the absence of access road and small size of the village. It appeared that 55% of the villages with no access road were included in the plan, and that the average population in one village was 215 people. The study also revealed that only 28.4% of the population included in the resettlement plan for 2001-2005 had actually been resettled. Based on the assumption that resettlement has on average the same features, it is possible to apply these characteristics to the remaining 32 districts and extrapolate the scale of the resettlement plan at the national level.

For the 32 districts included in the NGPES, the data were provided by the National Statistical Center, Poverty Statistcal Reports, Provincial Committees/Authorities as of March 2003. (2)

Figures

The results show that:

- There are 211,125 people included in the resettlement plan for 2001-2005 in 15 provinces and 42 districts. (3)

- 59,947 people have already been resettled.

- 151,178 people remain to be resettled

(Given what we know about the resettlements which have already occurred, the human tragedy, the plan to resettle the balance of the people would be an enormous humanitarian disaster)

1.2 Potential for resettlement at Province and district level

Houaphanh and Oudomxay provinces display the most important resettlement with more than 35,000 people included in the resettlement plan. Following is Luang Namtha and Savannakhet province4s with more than 18,000 people each concerned by resettlement. These 4 provinces totalize 58% of the population affected by resettlement plans.

Then come Phongsaly and Attapeu provinces with more than 15,000 people and Sekong, Xieng Kouang and Sayaboury with about 10,000 people affected by resettlement plans.

Figures
Population Included in Resettlement Plan:
Houaphane 40,000+
Oudomxay 25,000+
Luang Namtha 20,000+
Savannakhet 15,000 +
Attapeu 15,000+
Phongsaly 15,000+
Sekong 10,000+
Xieng Kouang 10,000
Sayaboury 9,000
Saravanh 5,000+
Borikhamxay 5,000+
Bokeo 5,000
Luang Phrabang 5,000
Khammouane 4,000
Vientiane Less than 1,000
Saysomboun Less than 1,000

The scale of resettlement is very different from one district to another: Samtay district in Houaphane province and Nga district in Oudomxay province display the highest number of population included in resettlement plan with around 16,000 people. Long district in Luang Namtha and Sanxay district in Attapeu have more than 10,000 people affected. These 4 districts represent more than 25% of the population included in the resettlement plan.

15 districts display figures between 5,000 and 10,000 people totalizing 97,923 people. They represent 46% of the overall resettlement planned at national level.

In 13 other districts, resettlement affects between 2,000 and 5,000 people (23%).

There are 5 districts with between 1,000 and 2,000 people affected and 5 others where this population is comprised between 1 and 1000.

5 districts might not have a resettlement plan.

Notes:
1. Mok district in Xieng Kouang province included in the study is not among the 47 poorest district prioritized in the National Growth and Poverty Eradication Strategy (NGPES)
2. Table 1.3, List of 72 poor districts per province (household poverty), World Bank, Lao PDR Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper and Joint Staff Advisory Notes, November 5, 2004. Report No: 29966
3. Among the 47 poorest districts, 5 districts might not have resettlement plans.

Page 19

2. Why is resettlement still happening?d
Resettlement is a transversal issue covering several domains, in which development actors are involved. At a more global level, resettlement is a direct consequence of two major trends of the Lao PDR policy. The first refers to the State’s willingness to integrate “marginal” communities and to control the territory and can be referred to as “Laocisation”. The second stems from the growing economic integration of Laos resulting in the application of international standards and is connected to GLOBALISATION.

2.1 Laocization and economic integration
For the last two decades, the New Economic Mechanisms (NEM) Chinh takanakanh mai meaning “New Thinking” in Lao language, has brought reforms and soci-economic opportunities (infrastructures and market) mainly in the lowlands and in the centre of the country. The government then enlarged its actions on peripheral and remote areas.

The Lao version of the perestoika, NEM’s reforms and policy changers lay down the bases of market oriented economy. The Lao national development process is connected with the country’s integration to the market economy and to structural adjustments policies driven by multilateral institutions.

Such development goals provide the justification for the government policy towards isolated ethnic minorities, perceived as backwarded “la lang”, superstitious, and impairing growth while the Lao dominates the modern sector of the economy. Although resettlement plans are presented exclusively as development tools, they also serve other purposes.

Resettlement allows the state to reinforce its control over the entire population located within the state’s boundaries by bringing it closer to communication means.

Finally the government expects ethnic minorities to start contributing to the national economy. The National Program of Rural Development illustrates well this evolutionist view: “Grassroots activities shall focus on the education and mobilization of the population to be aware of and implement their civil obligations and revolutionary duties, and on the exchange of their traditional production methods for the new and more efficient ones, to transcend from backwardness, to generate wealth for their families and to contribute to the national construction and development.” (4)

The nature of the Laosisation process is translated in the way Lao government defines poverty. During national studies, criterions for wealth are essentially based upon Lao socio-economic model. Ethnic minorities that have a strong identity and perceive themselves as self-sufficient, will be labeled as poor since they do not farm paddy rice, speak Lao and have access to infrastructures and services in their village.

Notes:
4. National Rural Development Program 1996-2000, p. 10

Page 20

2.2 The impact of the development approach The transition from planned economy to market economy has come with an array of new partners, issues, criterions inherent to development and their funding by international actors.

After decades of isolation in the condition of a buffer state, Lao became a member of the ASEAN in 1997, and a crossroad connecting Chinese, Thai, Malay, Vietnamese markets. Bridges over the Mekong River and international roads have opened up remote areas and encouraged resettlement plans.

International assistance for development is based upon norms that the Lao statemust meet in order to be eligible for loans and grants. At the national level, the country must reach a minimum standard of school enrolment and access to health care. In parallel, a minimum of population density is needed to get funding for a dispensary. The repartition of the rural population then becomes a condition to access funding. (In other words, the western donors-controllers are forcing the resettelement)

In such a context, the implementation of rural development policy may push towards the achievements of imposed norms rather than on livelihood improvement. This process can go on with dramatic consequences when victims are ethnic minorities with little access to mechanisms for altering their situation.

3. The international legal framework for internally displaced persons UNOCHA’s Guiding Principles on internal displacement (1998) develop existing rights and make them more explicit to IDP’s: even if the Guiding Principles themselves are not binding international law, they are derived from binding instruments. The Lao People’s Democratic Republic has signed the Covenant on Economic and Social and Cultural Rights as well as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in 2000. The universal Declaration of Human Rights is also binding on the Lao Republic as a UN member state. These three international conventions set the legal framework for the IDPs protection, as provided by the Guiding Principles.

Principle 5
All authorities and international actors shall respect and ensure respect for their obligations under international law, including human rights and humanitarian law, in all circumstances, so as to prevent and avoid conditions that might lead to displacement of persons.

Principle 6
1. Every human being shall have the right to be protected against being arbitrarily displaced from his or her home or place of habitual residence.

2. The prohibition of arbitrary displacement includes displacement:

a. When it is based on policies of apartheid, “ethnic cleansing” or similar practices at or resulting in altering the ethnic, religious or racial composition of the affected population;
b. In situations of armed conflict, unless the security of the civilians involved or imperative military reasons so demand;
c. In cases of large scale development projects, which are not justified by compelling and overriding public interests;
d. In cases of disasters, unless the safety and health of those affected requires their evacuation; and
e. When it is used as a collective punishment.

Principle 7
1. Prior to any decision requiring the displacement of persons, the authorities concerned shall ensure that all feasible alternatives are explored in order to avoid displacement altogether. Where no alternatives exist, all measures shall be taken to minimize displacement and its adverse effects.

2. The authorities undertaking such displacement shall ensure, to the greatest practicable extent, that proper accommodation is provided to the displaced persons, that such displacements are effected in satisfactory conditions of safety, nutrition, health and hygiene, and that members of the same family are not separated. (This might include separating them by death?)

4. RECOMMENDATIONS!
To NGOs/IOs/Donors:
1. All NGOs/IOs/Donors involved in the resettlement areas shall adopt a code of conduct. Suggestions of guidelines could be:

- The NGOs/IOs/Donors involved will proactively seek to empower communities who choose to remain in their current location and will represent their interests to the government at local level.

- In the case where government has encouraged communities to move, the NGOs/IOs/Donors will work with these communities if the following circumstances are fulfilled:
- they have moved without force or threats,
- the displaced communities have access to the basic requirement needed to maintain or improve their food security.
- the local government authorities make every effort to ensure that their standard of living is maintained and or improved,
- they are not being resettled from outside the target area the organization is working.

- The NGOs/IOs/Donors will also consider working with communities in exceptional circumstances when resettlement results in an emergency and lives are threatened.

(Note: If the above conditions were not met, how could the lives of the relocated persons NOT be threatened given the circumstances?)

2. The international donor community shall acknowledge that resettlement as a step taken to reach development objectives is currently a threat to the population’s livelihood.

3. The international donors and NGOs/IOs shall recognize that alternatives to resettlement as a development tool in upland areas exist, (based on developing existing potentialities in situ) and wish that implementing these alternatives becomes a priority.

4. NGOs/IOs/Donors shall be aware of the scale and seriousness of the resettlement issue at a national level and take into consideration the recommendations above when formulating their intervention strategy in the Lao PDR.

5. NGOs/IOs/Donors shall note the correlation between the resettlement issues and strategies defined in NGPES (eradication of opium cultivation, phasing out shifting cultivation, access to public services, administrative law, minimum household land and forest allocation, etc.) International donors can address this issue in the context the NGPES and in the design of the next Socio-Economic Plan starting in 2006.

To other actors:
6 All actors involved in upland development shall admit that compulsory relocation is not acceptable and must be stopped as it constitutes a violation of the right to the freedom of movements.

To the Lao PDR Government:
7. In case when resettlement remains the best option, the Lao Government shall make sure that the resettlement process is monitored and that corrections are brought in the resettlement implementation so as to ensure that the right to food and freedom of movements are respected.

8. The Lao government shall recognize the importance of implementing a participatory approach involving the community prior to resettlement. In particular, consultation and transparency are essential in the fields of habitat, cultivation land and infrastructures.

9. The access to information in each agency’s target area is a prerequisite for adopting a positioning and elaborating a strategy. By creating a negotiation space with the district authorities, agencies can help the population to respond to resettlement plans. The strategy is to confront them with communities’ position and highlight the risks for the population in order to come up with viable alternatives.

Page 22

5. Conclusion
The picture of development driven resettlement has a common feature: the absence of or the very limited consultation with the population. The study provides detailed information regarding the situation for 16 districts in 8 provinces. 211,125 person are included in resettlement plans in 42 districts among the 47 poorest districts.

The process designed and imposed by the central government with advises and support from international actors goes against the populations’ wishes, violates their basic rights and threatens their lives, livelihoods and culture.

Resettlement closer to urban centres and main roads seems almost eneluctable for most of the remote populations in the long run. However, when decided and done without the consent of the people and with no consideration for their survival means, the resettlement has an unbearable human cost. Despite the growing awareness of its disastrous consequences, resettlement is still ongoing.

This is explained by a two fold phenomenon. On the one hand, resettlement allows the control of ethnic minorities living in the peripheral areas and their cultural, territorial, political and economic integration. On the other hand, resettlement is implemented in the name of development and progress. In the current situation, supporting programs that encourage resettlement means threatening the population’s human rights.

International agencies must be careful not to speed up a process that has devastating human consequences and readjust their policy on the basis that resettlement is not a necessary condition for development in mountainous areas. On the contrary, a concerted approach involving all the parties must be encouraged, since the authorities are open for it. Resettlement can favor development but only when it is done with the population, not against it.

6. Appendix
6.1 Data on resettlement in the 16 districts visited during the study

Province District Total no. vill No. vill in reset plan % of total no. vill No. vill reset Vill still in plan TotalPopul. PopulInclud resetplan % ofpop tobe reset Pop resetalready PopTo beResetstill

Attapeu Sanxay 66 50 76% 21 29 17,070 11,926 70% 5,154 6,772
Attapeu Phouvong 30 21 70% 15 6 10,407 5,678 55% 4,081 1,597
Bokeo Phaoudom 95 34 36% 12 26 31,000 5,000 16% 1,500 3,500
Luang Namtha Long 131 80 61% 32 48 25,962 12,007 46% 5,361 6,646
Luang Namtha Nale 74 26 35% 9 15 24,900 5,968 24% 1,171 4,251
Luang Namtha Vienpoukha 47 18 38% 6 12 16,911 5,000 30% 2,256 2,744
Oudoumxay Nga 95 47 49% 5 42 25,600 16,000 63% 2,500 13,500
Savannakhet Phin 116 6 5% 0 6 47,987 2,400 5% 0 2,400
Savannakhet Sepone 159 17 11% 9 8 39,403 4,250 11% 2,250 2,000
Savannakhet Vilabouly 103 0 0% 0 0 28,300 0 0% 0 0
Savannakhet Nong 79 2 3% 2 0 20,050 500 2% 500 0
Sayaboury Sayaboury 90 19 21% 0 19 70,000 9,500 14% 0 9,500
Sekong Kalum 94 33 35% 10 23 13,000 3,940 30% 891 3,049
Sekong Dakcheung 94 34 36% 14 20 19,000 6,500 34% 1,800 4,700
Xieng Kouang Nonghet 112 50 45% 0 50 36,165 6,000 17% 0 6,000
Xieng Kouang Mok 30 20 67% 0 20 10,000 4,000 40% 0 4,000
Total 16 Dist. 1,415 457 32% 135 322 435,755 98,669 23% 28,010 70,659

6.2 Methodology of investigation:
6.2.1 Objectives
- To develop a methodology of investigation and to test it on the ground,
- To define a guideline of investigation

6.2.2 Step to follow and field of investigation
- Meet International Agencies (IA) working in the area/general data (demography, number of villages, ethnic groups) and main problematic,
- Meet governor for general data and principal orientations/plan of development, plan of resettlement or to evaluate the potential for resettlement,
- Authorization to access the services of planning, agriculture, the communication and health/more detail about plan of development and resettlement, cross checking of data
- Visits of the villages included in the plan of resettlement/opinion of villagers, evaluation of risks, evaluation of the possible alternatives,
- Definition of programs link with these problems and feedback to IA

Local plan of development and plan of resettlement are available and accessible (but need to be requested only to the person in charge) under cover of an operational organization working locally.

Set up a village database and gathering maps is necessary to improve the understanding of a situation, and for updating and analyzing the information already available.

6.2.3 Required data from the authorities and IA and keys indicators:
- The access of the community by road or river and its characteristics: permanent, seasonal, or no access,
- The demographic size of the village, often local authorities have an ideal number of people that are required to set up a village,
- Budget for poverty eradication and localization of the targeted villages/ Budget resettlement and list of villages/ List of village for consolidation activities,
- The distribution of villages between mountain and the plain,
- The proportion of swidden/paddy cultivation, the presence of opium cultivation,
- Potential markets, economic opportunity, contracts in progress with private companies: commercial sawmill, plantation, cahs crops (corn, watermelon….),
- The existence of NBCA (National Biodiversity Conservation Areas),
- The existence of agricultural potential zones (estimated, studies, declined project….),
- The stage of implementation of the program of Land Use Planning and Forest Allocation is also a good indicator since where land has been allocated; villages are more likely to be stable, but not 100% of the time,
- The socio-economic-cultural background of the area needs not to be overlooked. Ethnic coposition, historic relationship between the groups and the majority; the cultural integration of the group and the historical bonds between them needs to be understood,
- The presence of insecurity and areas without control of the state is often linked to resettlement schemes.
6.2.4 Data required and indicators at the village level
- Village background
- Access to road and services
- Number of households with paddy cultivation
- Number of households food secure
- LUPFLA (Land Use Planning and Forest and Land Allocation)
- Demography
- Resources available
- Relationship with the authorities
- Villager’s position concerning resettlement

6.2.5 Official Letters: 3 Cases study
The reception of written documents from the district governor to the head of village usually sounds the knell of the community. The “agreement” and orders bear the seal and the signature of the governor and have value of law. The community have to implement the resettlement content according to the time frame suggested or to act illegally. As pointed out by a villager in Sanxay district, “We would prefer to stay and we refuse to move down, but if the authorities say so, we will have to move….we have to implement orders from above…..We cannot turn our back to the district”

The three offical letters below highlight three cases of resettlement to a designed site for which negotiations is not an option. All refer to State documents, laws or regulations, and use a figure that dominates the political scene. They all give a deadline for the implementation of the displacement. In Nga district Khamu and Hmong people are involved; in Long district the three villages are Akha while in Sayaboury, a Hmong village is targeted by the resettlement plan.

Page 24

Letter 1

“Agreement” from district governor in Oudomxay province to consolidate villages:

“In order to implement the guidelines of the 7th Party Congress and the Socio-Economic Development Plan to 2005-2010-2020; and the real achievements of three key priorities; opium eradication, shifting cultivation reduction and poverty reduction of 50% according to the agreementof the District Party Committee regarding permanent village and occupation, linked to foreign and local investments, Then district governor present this agreement to consolidate small village in big village.

Regulation 1: Agreement to consolidate small village in bigger unit:
A, B and C village are to be resettled in C village People from D village can choose to resettle to E or to C Village as they wish.

Regulation 2: Those individuals that would obstruct or not implement the present agreement would be responsible in front of higher instances and will receive the relevant punishment. The one who serves as example shall be properly rewarded by the Party.

Regulation 3: The resettlement must be successfully implemented from January to December 2002.

Regulation 4: The present agreement comes into force from the date of the signature onward.”,

District Governor
January 27, 2002

Letter 2

“Order” from district Governor about village resettlement in Luang Namtha province of 3 Akha villages.

“To: The villagers from A village
According to:
The regulation authorizing the Committee of Resettlement to evaluate the location of the new site dated March 9, 2004;
The authorization of district high positions and the Committee of Resettlement dated March 12, 2004

The Governor of district present the following orders:
People from A, must consolidate with B and C villages.
The 3 villages must resettle to D village.
The resettlement must not last long and be successfully done by March 30, 2004
(less than 18 days for three entire villages to move themselves)

Therefore, relevant stakeholders must seriously implement together according to this orders.

To be sent to:
Cabinet
Provincial Land Development Office
District Resettlement Committee
Relevant Stakeholder (A village)”

District Governor

Letter 3

“Agreement” from Sayaboury Provincial Governor on village consolidation

“Agreement of the Provincial Governor on village resettlement.
According to:
The statement No. 122/ny dated 05/07/1993 on village establishment and administration;
The statement No. 04/ny dated 12/04/2002 allocating permanent occupation and residence;
On the declaration of district governor No. 205 dated 18/07/2002 on village resettlement.

Regulation 1:
Agreement of the Provincial Governor:
The village administration transfer the administration of the village to the district governor to inspect and improve the responsibility of each individual based upon one’s knowledge and eral capability, to invite people toward permanent occupation and settlement according to the policy of the Party and the regulations set by the State insuring the improvement of peoples’ livelihood.

Regulation 2:
All Party organs and people must acknowledge and successfully implement these orders.

Regulation 3:
The present agreement must be fulfilled successfully within 90 days after the date it has been signed.

Sayabouray Province Governor

Page 25

7. Selected Bibliography
Monographs, Theses, articles and reports

Alton, Charles and Houmphanh Rattanavong
2004 Service Delivery and Resettlement: Options for Development Planning.
Lao/03/AOI, UNDP/ECHO. Vientiane, Lao PDR

Chagnon, Jacquelyn, Dirk Van Gansberghe, Binh Vongphasouk, Roger Rumpf,
2002 Looking Back to See Forward, Consultations about Good Governance and Participatory Development in the Lao PDR December 2002

Chamberlain, James
1998 Poverty Alleviation for All, Potentials and Options for People in the Uplands, Prepared in collaboration with Panh Phomsombath, Embassy of Sweden

Cohen, Paul T.
1998 Lower Slope Villages Going Downhill: Lao Soung (Akha) and Lao Loum (Leu). Relations in Meuang Xing, in Upland Farming Systems in Lao PDR – Problems and Opportunities for Livestock, ACIAR Proceedings No. 87, pp. 125-129.

2000 “Resettlement, opium and labour dependence: Akha-Tai relations in Northern Laos” Development and Change, vol. 31, p.179-200

Daviau, Steeve
2001, 2003 Resettlement in Long District, Luang Namtha province, Lao PDR,
Action Contre La Faim

Evrard, Oliver
2002 Forets en partage, population en movement, development rural et relations interethniques au Laos. Document de travail No. 17. Department des sciences de la population et du development, Universite catholique de Louvain.

1998 “L’integration politique et culturelle des ethnies minoritaires au Nord Laos: I’exemple des Phou Noi”, Peninsule (37. Nouvelle Serie) p. 23-43

2001 Emergence de la question fonciere et relations interethniques au Nord-Laos, PhD dissertation, Paris 1 – La Sorbonne University, 496p.

2002 “Forets en partage, populations en mouvement: development rural et relations interethniques au Laos”, Document de Travail n deg. 17, Department des Sciences de la Population et du Developpment, Universite de Louvain, 69p.

2002 “Politique de sedentarisation et relations interethniques: les termes de la question fonciere au Laos” Cahiers d’Anthropologie du Droit (Karthala)(1): 189-236

Goudineau, Yves (Eds).
1996 Resettlement and Social Characteristics of New Villages, Basic needs for resettlemed communities in the Lao PDR, An ORSTOM Survey. Vol.1 and 2. Supported by UNESCO and UNDP.

Goudineau, Yves and O. Evrard
2004 Planned resettlement, unexpected migrations and cultural trauma – The political management of rural mobility and interethnic relationships in Laos.

Keulers, P. and S. Soukshaleun
1999 L’evolution historique des relations de pouvoir entre les autorities centrals et les autorities locales dans la RDP Lao. UNDP, Public Administration Project, Lao/92/006 and 506.

Lytleton, Chris
2004 Market Bound – Relocation and Disjunction in Northwest Laos. Paper presented at the Health and Migration Workshop. Singapore 22-24 September 2003.

Phannavong, Somlith
2002 A Presentation on the (Draft) Resettlement Policy in Lao PDR. Regional Workshop ADB Headquarters, 18-22 February 2002, STEA, Department of Environment.

Pholsena, Vatthana
2003 Inclusion of Minorities in Public Life in Laos, Thailand and Vietnam, Commission on Human Rights, Sub-Commission on Promotion and Protection of Human Rights Working Group on Minorities, Ninth session 12-16 May 2003 E/CN.4/Sub.2/AC.5/2003/WP.11

Romagny, Laurent & Daviau, Steeve
2003 Synthesis of reports on resettlement in Long district, Luang Namtha province, Lao PDR, Action Contre La Faim mission in Lao PDR, 40p.

Page 26

Romagny, Laurent
2004 Resettlement : An alternative for upland development ? Action Contre La Faim PDR 16p.

Stuart-Fox, Martin
2004 Politics and Reform in the Lao PDR. Political Economy of Development. Working Paper No. 1, Program on Civil Society and Governance. The College of William and Mary Williamsburg, VA 23187

Vandergeest, Peter
2004 Land to some tillers : resettlement-induced displacement in Lao PDR. International Social Science Journal vol. 55 (1) p. 47-56d

Government of Laos
1994 Resolution on Rural Development, (Unofficial Translation-Not to be Quoted)

1998 The Rural Development Programme 1998-2002, The Focal Site Strategy, Outline of an Approach Programme Support and Investment Requirements. Government Document, Sixth Round Table Follow-Up Meeting, Vientiane, May 13, 1998

1999 Resettlement Policy for all projects in Lao PDR. Draft.

National Assembly
2003 La loi de l’Administration Locale de la Republique democratiquePopulaire Lao Assemblee National, Ndeg 03/AN. Vientiane, le 21 Octobre 2003. Un-official translation.
State Planning Committee
1996 1996-2000 Socio-Economic Development Plans. Adopted by the 9th Ordinary Session of the National Assembly, IIIrd Legislature, 28 September to 11 October, 1996

State Planning Committee and Leading Committee for Rural Development
1998 Supported by UNDP Project Lao/95/004. National Rural Development
Programme 1996 to 2000, Lao PDR Volumen I. Main Document

2001 Political Repiort. VII Party Congress presented by Khamtay Siphandonel 2 March

Rural Development Programme1998-2002 : Outline of an Approach., Programme Support and Investment Requirements. Government Documente. Sixth Round Table Follow up Meeting, Vientiane. May 13, 1998.

Lao Upland Development Project
1991 Technical paper on resettlement and land rights, version provisoire et anonyme, financements Banque Mondiale, support techniques des gouvernements francais et australien, suivi du project par Acil Australia Ltd/ Scott & Furphy Ltd & International Development support services Ltd, 27p.

STEA
2003 National Policy on Resettlement and Compensation (Draft), submitted to PMO Feb 2003, ADB TA 3746-LAO, Capacity Building for Environment and Social Management in Energy and Transport Sectors.

Multilateral

ADB’s Regional Technical Assistance in Involuntary Resettlement Policy RESETTLEMENT NEWS, Hari Mohan Mathur, Editor NO. 3 July 2002

ADB’s Regional Technical Assistance in Involuntary Resettlement Policy Regional Workshop on National Resettlement Policy Enhancement and Capacity Building for more information contact Sussana K Price: skprice@...

ADB
1998 Resettlement Policy. Sekong-Semnam and Namtheun River Basins Hydropower Study. Initial Environment Examination. Sir William Halcro and Partners Ltd., in association with EPDC Int., Japan and MK Centennial, USA

World Bank, Key Concepts Resettlement World Bank (World Bank Website)

Attapeu

ADRA
Project Bore Well Data October 1998 to Sept 2001 – Phase 1
Year 1 Report Data (October 2001-September 2002). Well Construction.
Year 2 Report Data (October 2002-September 2003). Annex 2 : Community
Dialogue
Year 3 Report Data (October 2003-September 2004). Annex 2. Water Quality testing results.

Page 27

Chazee, Laurent
1990 Province d’Attapeu, mongraphie provinciale et etude de districts et villages. PNUD.

Drew, Roger
2003 Final Evaluation of the Attapeu Primary Health Care Project. Laos. Health Unlimited.

FAO, IUCN, LARREC
2003 The role and nutritional value of aquatic resources in the livelihood of rural people. A participatory assessment in Attapeu province, La PDR. RAP publication 2003/11

Health Unlimited
Baseline Survey on Reproductive Health, Attapeu Province.

Provincial Health Servicies, Attapeu Profile, (July 23, 2003)

International River Network
1999 Power Struggle, The Impact of Hydr-Development in Laos.

World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), IUCN
Initial Assessment of Social and Economical Factors Affecting Biodiversity Conservation Efforts in the Forest of the Lower Mekong Ecoregion Complex

WFP Village Database for Dakcheung, Kalum, Phouvong and Sanxay district including population, households, and GPS data.

World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Lao Project Office.
2001 Benchmark Cocioeconomic Data Report for the Central Annamites Priority Ecoregion, Vientiane, Lao PDR

Committee of Planning and Investments for Strategic SocioEconomic Development Plan up to 2020

Attapeu Province, Committee of Planning and Cooperation Statistics concerning population, household and village level.

Attapeu Province, Committee of Planning and Cooperation, Strategic Plan for Development of Cash Crops from now up to 2005

Attapeu Province, MCTPC Department Statistic on road in Attapeu up to 2002-2003.

Attapeu Province, PAFO, Basic Data for Attapeu Province.

Oudomxay

UNDP-Rural Development Program Formulation Program
1996 Socio-economic Profile of Oudomxay Province, Lao PDR : Province Profiles Series No. 1, November 1996

Chazee, Laurent
1991 Monographie de la pronince d’Oudomxay, PNUD, Vientiane.

ESCAPE
1996 Meeting on Participatory Planning of Rural Infrastructure, Situation Analysis of Oudomxay province (Item 4 (b) of the agenda). Information paper No. 2. June 1996.

Page 28

Mounier, B.
1996 Oudomxay, in Y. Goudineau, ORSTOM Resettlement and Social Characteristics of New Villages, Tome 2, p.59

GAA
2004 Community Based Rural Development Project for Conservation of the Nam Beng / Nam Mau and Nam Phak Watersheds, Oudomxay Province, Annual Progress Report 02-04.

IRAP Laos
1996 District Accesibility Profile » Meuang Nga Oudomxay Provinc3e, MCTCP/UNDP/ILO, Project LAO/95/001, Rural Access Planning and Infrastructure for Basic Needs, Transport Planning Unit of MTCPC. 18 pages.

Nicolay, Harald &Lasay Nounanthasing
2004 Evaluation of Rural Development Project (Draft without Annexes). Community-Based Rural Development Project for Sustainable Food Security in Nga & Xay Districts, Oudomxay Province, Lao PDR. Project Evaluation. LAO 1014-01

Luang Namtha and Oudomxay

CRWRC
2003 Project Proposal. Small-scal e Irrigation Rehabilitation project in 2003

2004 Small-scale Irrigation Rehabilitation project, Vieng Pou Kha District, Luang Namtha Province, Annual Report CFGB #1803

CRWRC
2004 12/2 –21/5 2004

European Union
2002 Micro Porjects Development through Local Communities, LAO/RELEX/1999/0030, Initial Plan of Activities, Project Management Unit, April 2002

Evrard, Oliver
1996 Les nouveaux villages de la province de Luang Namtha, Expertise ORSTOM / PNUD SAT 1/96. Annexes

Goudineau, Yves (Eds)
1996 Resettlement and Social Characteristics of New Villages, Basic needs for resettled communities in the Lao PDR, An ORSTOM survey. Vol. 1 and 2. Supported by UNESCO and UNDP.

Maunsell, Lahmeyer International
2004 Power System Development Plan – Vol A : Main Report.
Robichaud, W., Clive W. Marsh, Sangthong Southammakoth, Sirivanh Khounthikoummane
2001 National Review of the National Protected Area System in Lao PDR. Lao Swedish Forestry Programme, Division of Forest Resources Conservation (Department of Forestry) IUCN-The World Conservation Union.

Strassen, Carina Zur
2003 Lahu Changing Value System : Meaning, Concepts and perspectives, In Landscape and Diversity : Indigenous Knowledge, Sustaining Livelihood and Resources Governance in Montane Southeast Asia.

Government Docs in Lao Script
NA

Page 29

Maps

ADB Location Map Houyxay – Boten Road Construction Project

Orientation Map ADB Road Section Affected Villages, Road No. 3, ADB Section.

Orientation Map Thai Road Section Affected Villages, Road No. 3, ADB Section.

Orientation Map Chinese Road Section Affected Villages, Road No. 3, ADB Section.

CRWRCd
EU Vieng Poukha, District 12 Target Villages

Sekong

International River Network
1999 Power Struggle. The Impact of Hydro-Development in Laos.

Lao PRD – National Poverty Eradication Programme (NPEP). A Comprehensive Approach to Growth and Development. Eight Round Table Meeting, September 2003

Navajas. Hugo Bounsouane Phomsoupha, Michiyo Kakegawa
2001 Final Evaluation Report. LAO/98/G82. Sekong Indigenous Peoples Delopment Programme, SIP- DEV.

UNDP
1991 Rapport de la mission du PNUD/DTCD pour une etude socio-economique du district de Dakcheung (du 25 novembre au 6 december 1991. Project LAO/86/015.

WFP
?? Village Database for Dakcheung, Kalum, Phouvong and Sanxay district including population, households, and GPS data.

World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Lao Project Office
2001 Benchmark Socio-economic Data Report for the Central Annanmites Priority Ecoregion. Vientiane, Lao PDR.

World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), IUCN
Initial Assessment of Social and Economical Factors Affecting Biodiversity Conservation Efforts in the Forest of the Lower Mekong Ecoregion Complex.

Collected documents in Lao Language

2004. Sekong Province Health Department, budget planning 2002-2004

Sekong Province Health Department 5 years Plan 2006-2010

Sekong Province Health Department Financial Plan 2006 – 2010

Sekong Province, MCTPC Department: 5 years Plan for Government Investment.

End