Burma army

Chin refugees in India fleeing persecution in Burma are left to fend for themselves as the UNHCR and local organisations tasked with protecting them fall prey to a “culture of denial and victim-blaming,” says the Chin Human Rights Organisation. The Chin Human Rights Organisation (CHRO), a non-governmental human rights watchdog founded in 1995, has warned that hundreds of Chin refugee…

For villagers in southeastern Burma, a tentative 2012 ceasefire between ethnic Karen rebels and the government has yet to address an intractable threat that lurks along their trails, in their rice paddies and even dangling from branches – landmines and unexploded ordinance. Mine risk educator Pah Dah has spent the past six years traveling to remote villages in Karen State,…

At Mae Tao Clinic’s Prosthetic Department on the Thai-Burma border, the overwhelming majority of patients are land mine victims from Burma, human proof of the ongoing toll of more than six decades of armed conflict. 
Two men and a woman sit silent watching their new legs taking shape at Mae Tao Clinic’s prosthetic department. The two men and one woman…

A humanitarian worker from Free Burma Rangers (FBR) was shot and badly wounded on February 18 while working in Northern Karen State. Saw Shae Say, 25, who works as a video recorder with FBR, was shot while monitoring Burma Army troop movements near Luthaw Township, Papun District, in Karen National Union (KNU) territory, despite a ceasefire being in place. Karen…

The Democratic Karen Benevolent Army (DKBA) has invited villagers displaced by the Burma Army to stay with them. The DKBA has told villagers from the Tha-Mee-Lay village, Hle-Gu Township, to come and stay with them after the villagers were forced from their homes by the Burma Army on February 4. The displacement involved around 150 families – about 500 people…

The conflict, which has lasted for more than two years, has seen the displacement of an estimated 80,000 Kachin people and reports of human rights abuses continue to emerge. Free Burma Rangers, a humanitarian organization that delivers aid to displaced people, expressed concern over ongoing Burma Army attacks, including the alleged looting of a village in January by government forces.…

Even as Burma opens up to the world under President Thein Sein’s nominally civilian government, serious human rights abuses continue to occur, including sexual violence, extra-judicial killings and illegal arrest, says rights groups. On the first day of May 2012, ‘Ngwa Mi’ (not her real name), 48, hid alone in a church in the Kachin Town of Pang Wa, on…

Three soldiers from Burma Army Light Infantry Battalion 549 held seven Karen villagers hostage, demanding cash for their return, claims Free Burma Rangers, a humanitarian organization that delivers aid to displaced people. The incident is alleged to have took place on the 26th of January near Law Naw Village, Win Ye Township, Dooplaya District, Karen State. FBR said the villagers…

More than one hundred leaders from Burma’s ethnic armed resistance organizations gathered at Law Khee Lar, Karen State from January 20 to 24, 2014 to work out a plan for a proposed nationwide ceasefire agreement with the Burma government. The ethnic leaders met and discussed the future of Burma, including how to set up a federal army in the country.…

In an interview with Karen News, Nan Dah Eh Kler, Chairperson of the Karen Women Organization (KWO), argued that the Burma’s Government’s reform process was being undermined by a culture of impunity and sexual violence in the Burma Army. Referring to a report released by the Women’s League of Burma (WLB), which documented over 100 cases of sexual violence committed…