Articles

Local people affected by the construction of Thailand’s and Burma’s Dawei-Kanchanaburi road link in Southern Burma have rejected to be involved in a ‘public consultative meeting’ to approve the last stage of an environmental impact assessment report. A villager from Kaw Htee Klo (Tha Byut Chaung) told Karen News that surveyors from the Environmental Research Institute of Chulalongkorn University headed…

The Burma government opened today, ‘Htee Kee’ in Southern Burma, a new border trading post between Thailand and Burma. Htee Kee is a border checkpoint crossing Kanchanaburi province of Thailand and Burma’s Myitta Sub-Township in the Tanintharyi region. The Dawei-Kanchanaburi road link passes through Htee Kee. The opening ceremony of the Htee Kee border trading post was done by Burma’s…

A new trading entry between Thailand and Burma was opened this week that links both countries on their southern borders. The new trade crossing links SingKhorn in Thailand’s southern provinces of Prachuap Khiri Khan with Mawhtaung a large town in Burma’s Myeik district. Senior officials from the Karen National Union joined with Burma government ministers and Thai officials at the…

A soldier from the government’s controlled Border Guard Force (BGF) is alleged to have repeatedly fired his gun at a boat loaded with cement bags at a tax gate on the River Moei on the Thai-Burma Border. The incident happened on May 7 at tax gate 14 and involved a soldier from the BGF’s Battalion 1021st that is based in…

A Karenni community based organization has accused the Burma government’s regulation for schools of being to expensive for villagers to comply with. The Kayan New Generation Youths (KNGY) working on educational development inside Kayah (Karenni) State said the Ministry of Education should reduce its standard on school sizes. The KNGY’s chairman, Khon Bi Htoo, told Karen News that the Ministry…

Officials from the Karen National Union’s (KNU) Brigade 5 said that a 15-year-old boy taken as a army recruit by the Lay Poe Htar village track leader in April was released on May 2. Colonel Saw Kler Do from the KNU’s Brigade 5 District said that Saw Pa Log, a Lay Poe Htar village track leader, ordered his followers to…

A heavy artillery offensive by the Burma Army against a Shan armed group resulted in residents of nine villages being evacuated. Local sources told Karen News that following the Burma Army’s artillery bombardment on May 9 the Restoration Council of Shan State/Shan State Army’s (RCSS/SAA) abandoned its camp at Nan Khan Township, Northern Shan State. The RCSS/SAA’s spokesperson Major Sai…

A labor activist was jailed for seven years and six months, after being falsely accused of illegally cutting down trees, Burma Campaign UK, a human rights group that focuses on Burma, said. Myint Soe was arrested in March and sentenced to prison after being accused of cutting down eucalyptus trees on land owned by a paper company named Shwe Than…

Myint Kanpon residents aim to increase the numbers of teachers at the government primary school in Myint Kanpon, Dawei Township, Tenasserim Division. Saw Chit Chit, a Myint Kanpon villager, explains. “In our village, there is only one teacher that is nominated by the Government. Two more teachers are nominated by the village and paid for by subsidies of 50,000 kyat…

Land confiscation of property belonging to villagers by developers and government officials in Tenasserim Division has become a complicated issue for the Karen National Union (KNU) during its peace-building process with the Burma government. Ber Baw Lor, a Karen village in southern Burma, is an example where the entire population was displaced, and its residents now living in a makeshift…