Burma

People in the eastern Burma town of Kyain Seikgyi have welcomed a joint health campaign program by government and international malaria experts to combat malaria in the their area in Karen State. The township hospital director, Dr.Maung Maung Lwin, confirmed to Karen News that Population Services International-Myanmar (PSI), a global health non-government organization based in Burma is carrying out anti-malaria…

Yesterday a gas explosion at the Andaman Seafood Company factory in Ranong, Southern Thailand, injured 27 Burmese migrant workers and two Thai workers. A woman Burmese translator at Ranong Hospital said women workers wounded in the explosion were sent to the hospital in Ranong on the Thai Burma border – three of the woman is still receiving treatment at the…

According to Mae Tao Clinic medical staff, seasonal illness amongst children on the Thailand-Burma border coming to the clinic for help has more than doubled since last month. Naw May Soe, the child health coordinator at the Mae Tao Clinic said that in June, 40 children came to their department seeking treatment, in the first two weeks of July staff…

The Thailand based Human Rights Education Institute of Burma said they will meet in the near future with the Myanmar Human Right Commission after being invited to do so recently by Railways Minister, Aung Min. U Aung Myo Min, the HREIB director told Karen News. “Myanmar still has a bad reputation in regard to human right abuses and needs to…

Burma’s President, U Thein Sein, granted an amnesty on Tuesday that saw the release of 24 political prisoners out of a total of 80 prisoners who were freed. Ko Tate Naing, secretary of the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma) based on the Thai-Burma, confirmed the release of political prisoners to Karen News. “According to our latest source list, there…

A Karen woman activist claims that the authorities in Burma are watching her every step despite recent efforts for democratic reform and building peace with ethnic groups. Naw Ohn Hla, a former political prisoner and a former member of the National League for Democracy – a major opposition political party led by Aung San Suu Kyi, spoke to Karen News…

The Karen National Union and Burma government held further peace talks in the Thai border town of Mae Sot yesterday. The government delegation led by Railway Minister, U Aung Min, met with KNU representatives to discuss and reinforce the agreements they made in earlier meetings. The six member KNU delegation was led by its general secretary, Naw Zipporah Sein, and…

Last week Thai officials and advocates from a migrant worker rights group held a public meeting to tell workers from Burma what their rights and protection was provided by Thailand’s labor laws. Migrant worker rights groups said that the official public talk was an important step towards making sure workers understood their rights while employed in Thailand. It was the…

Mon politicians and civil society groups claim information on national identity cards has denied them a getting a representative into Parliament. The Mon Literature and Culture Committee (Yangon) wants corrected what they claim is the wrong ethnicity information on national identity cards and the household registration papers of Mon people in the Yangon Region. Nai Min Thaung Shin, Chairman of…

Burma’s deadly legacy due to decades of civil conflict undercuts the impoverished country’s reform process. In Eastern Burma, villagers are increasingly unwilling to leave their homes from fear of walking on a landmine, or of being coerced into becoming human minesweepers for the Burma Army. A humanitarian NGO, the Karen Human Rights Group, has released a report documenting the challenges…