Articles

An estimated 38 million people are living with HIV globally. Half a million of those are in Thailand and a further 200,000 in Burma. Yet HIV is treated with harsh stigma in the two countries, where people suffer discrimination, are abused – some kill themselves. People from Burma and Thailand who had HIV spoke to Karen News of how they…

Ma Ohn Kyi, 44, leans on one foot against a wall inside Mae Tao Clinic on the Thai Burma border. “It took three days by car and one month’s wages to get here,” she says, “it will cost another month’s wages to get back home when I am better.” What should have been a routine operation to fix a broken…

A new clinic that will provide free primary health care to villagers in Kawkareik Township is at its final construction stage and will soon be ready to receive patients. The clinic is being built in Nan Shwe Mone village, Kawkareik Township under the initiative of the Karen National Union, will give free treatment and healthcare services to villagers from rural…

Officials from the pro-democracy National League for Democracy party (NLD), on its first day of its signature campaign at Three Pagoda Pass Town in Kyain Seikgyi, collected more than 1,000 signatures supporting changes to Article 436 of Burma’s controversial 2008 Constitution. U Myo Aung, Deputy Director of the NLD in the Three Pagoda Pass Town spoke to Karen News about…

General Tamla Baw, one of the most respected Karen leaders has died. General Tamla Baw passed away on Thursday June 26, at 9.24pm in the Thai border town of Mae Saraing. General Tamla Baw was a man of deeds and spent his life fighting for freedom, democracy and self-determination for Karen people, and for all the people of Burma. General…

The Mae Tao Clinic on the Thai Burma that provides free healthcare to migrant workers and people from Burma, claims it seen a fall in the number of patients because of a lack in freedom of travel since the Thai military coup of May 22. The head of the in-patients registration department, Ko Aung Myo, said the average rate of…

The majority of Karen State based political parties are willing to accept proposed offer put up by the Union Election Commission of Burma (EUC) of providing political parties with land for office space and five vehicles tax-free import permits. The Election Commission’s proposal is now waiting on approval from the country’s President, U Sein Thein. The Union Election Commission submitted…

A team of UN experts has added their weight to growing calls for Burma’s government to scrap proposed contentious legislation that would restrict religious freedoms. In a joint statement released Friday, 20th June, the UN experts – on freedom of religion, minority issues and human rights in Burma – maintained that the draft bill made religious conversion more difficult and…

The Karen political party, the Phalon-Sawaw Democratic Party (PSDP), has stated its opposition to the proportional representation (PR) voting system, which was endorsed by Burma’s parliament on June 11 this year. The PSDP claimed that the new voting process would needlessly complicate the political system for the upcoming 2015 national elections. The PSDP’s chairperson Mahn Aung Pyi Soe spoke to…

Human rights experts and religious leaders have warned that Burma’s proposed religion laws, regarding conversion and inter-religious marriage, violate fundamental human rights and will further fuel “intolerance and hatred” against the country’s ethnic and religious minorities. Two proposed laws that have been granted endorsement from Burma’s president, represent a direct threat to the country’s ethnic and religious minorities, human rights…