Articles

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…

Land prices in the Hpa-an industrial zone have skyrocketed since it was set up in 2011. Today the price has tripled. The industrial zone located along the Hpa-an to Hlaing Bwe Highway has also cause land prices in the nearby villages of Mae Baung, Taung Ka Lay and Htee Poe Klo to soar to triple what it was last year.…

A school bus with dozens of Burmese migrant children was involved in a collision with a truck. A three-month old baby was killed in the incident and 30 people taken to local hospitals. A media statement from the non-government organization Help Without Frontiers, claimed the bus was “hit from behind by a speeding truck as the school bus was on…

Villagers in Tenasserim Division want the local Karen National Union to revoke permission given to a coalmine that villagers claim is polluting their waterways and damaging their plantations. Paw Klo villagers, from east of Tavoy in Southern Burma, demand the Karen National Union (KNU) resolves the conflict between the coal mining company and the villagers and revoke their permission to…

Burma’s parliament, controlled by the military backed Union Solidarity and Development Party, voted against a proposal to form a Ministry to administrate ethnic affairs at a regional level has dismayed ethnic MPs. A proposal to form a Ministry of Ethnic Affair at the union level that was proposed by U Kyaw Din (a) U Htay Reh of Kayah [Karenni] State…

Villagers in the Kwingalay claim gold mining companies have taken over lands that they used for cultivation. Villagers allege that a Burmese, Thai and Chinese company based in Rangoon is overseeing contract gold mining projects in Karen National Union controlled areas, near Kwingalay village in Thaton Township, Mon State. Villagers say officials from the Karen National Union’s armed wing, the…

District police and officials arrested people working at a gambling facility in Myawaddy, Karen State, and then burnt the casino. The raid took place last weekend. The illegal casino was located in Section 4, near the Vow pagoda, was ordered to be destroyed by the Myawaddy District chairman, U Than Shwe and District police officer, U Aung Myint. A Myawaddy…

A new report – Losing Ground – by the Karen Human Rights Group documenting the land grabs by the Burma Army in Karen State was released this week in Bangkok at the Foreign Correspondent’s Club of Thailand. The report highlights cases of the Burma Army taking land in areas of Karen State, even though a ceasefire agreement was signed between…