BACKGROUND
The Pa-O ethic group number approximately 2 million people, dispersed mainly around
Shan
State,
Kayah
State,
Karen
State and Mon
State. Further to ceasefires signed in 1991 and 1994 with the SLORC / SPDC, the two main opposition groups, the Pa-O National Organisation (PNO) and the Shan State Nationalities Peoples Liberation Organisation (SSNPLO), both based in Southern Shan State, have been unable to provide effective and coherent support and protection for Pa-O communities. The vast majority of Pa-O remain extremely poor, with very limited access to basic education and healthcare.
Pa-O young people are rarely offered the opportunity to progress beyond 10th standard education, and many are forced to cut short their schooling for economic reasons. Pa-O communities receive minimal assistance for education from the central government, and schools only exist due to local support.
Cohesion among the Pa-O community is fragile. Civil society structures are almost non-existent. The ceasefire groups that claim to represent the people, and partially administer them, are weak, and prone to corruption and instability, further undermining community cooperation. The lack of education in the population, and the urgent priority to produce enough food to survive, hinders the development of community structures to improve circumstances. The minority status of Pa-O communities in their areas further contributes to their marginalisation. They are harassed both by SPDC forces stationed in their areas, and by other ethnic armed groups. Such harassment includes the forced appropriation of food and other property, forced labour, forced conscription, forced military porterage, and various kinds of extortion. Only recently in Shan State Pa-O villages have been burned and villagers kidnapped by ethnic armed groups.
