Articles

More than 100 villagers and Kachin based civil society groups held a prayer service to stop the Myit Sone Dam project on the Irrawaddy River and for displaced villagers to return home in Myitkyina, Kachin State last week. Sha Khaung Tan Gon, a representative of the Kachin civil society groups and who participated in the prayer service held on International…

More than 200 Burmans based in Australia staged protest against the president of Burma, U TheinSein during his visit in Australia from News Zealand on March 13. Saw Kyaw Kwi, an Australian based Karen News reporter said protesters demonstrated in front of the Governor-General’s house in Canberra for two hours before continuing to country’s parliament to protest further. with an…

An environmentalist advocate, the Love Salween Group, issued a statement yesterday condemning government officials for denying a request by villagers to hold a prayer service on the Salween River on International Day of Action for Rivers on March 14, 2013. The Love Salween Group, a Karenni community-based-organization asked permission of local government official to hold a prayer service at Wan…

Karen National Union officials in the Tenasserim Township, Southern Burma are concerned that a coalmine will pollute local waterways posing a health hazard to villagers in the area. Officials of the local branch of the Karen National Union (KNU) are concerned that a Thai company that left its coal mining operation without covering it up risks poisoning water sources used…

For the first time, Karen artists from all over Burma got together in Rangoon and held an art exhibition of painting and sculptures about Karen peoples’ daily lives. The art exhibition will run in Rangoon from March 15 to 21, 2013. The exhibition was organized by the Karen Diary Art Group and brings together 37 Karen artists from around Burma,…

A Karenni environmental group claims that the Burma government blockaded their attempt to join in a protest prayer against the damming of the Salween River last week. Karenni environmentalists from the ‘Love Salween Group’ claim hundreds of Karenni villagers from Pasaung, Loikaw and Ywathit were blocked and denied passage by Burmese authorities to join with other protesters gathering for a…

Burma News International (BNI) launched the book Deciphering Myanmar’s Peace Process: A Reference Guide on Monday 18 March at the Bangkok based, Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand. The 184-page book presents key aspects of the country’s 60-year civil war, including the fundamental causes, the Burma’s government’s peace plan and who the key stakeholders are – including ethnic armed groups and…

Earlier this week thousands of Karen people turned out to protest over plans to dam the Salween River. As many as 2,000 internally displaced people and villagers from the Wei Gyi area gathered on the banks of the Salween to mark the International Day of Action for Rivers and Against Dams at Ei Htu Hta Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp.…

Burmese migrant workers from a garment factory in the Thai border town of Mae Sot were threatened and then sacked by their employer earlier this week over a salary dispute. The 18 migrant workers were working at the ‘Two Dragons’ [as known among Burmese migrant worker] garment factory in Mae Sot, Tak Province and were sacked on March 10 by…

Conflicts over land have increase since last year’s ceasefire signed between the Karen National Union and the government as ‘development projects’ multiply. In a recent incident villagers claim that the village chief from Mayan Tapin village, Tontay Township, failed to mediate on land disputes between two villagers – Saw Pa Way and U Mya Thein. U Mya Thein is alleged…