development project

The Karen National Union is outraged that media reports said it had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the with the government to construct a hydro-power dam as untrue. The KNU issued a denial after Karen communities inside Burma and overseas, incensed by the reports, lashed out at the ethnic political organization for giving the go-ahead for the government to…

Government officials have stopped a Karen community group from holding a conference to discuss the impact of development projects on local communities. Youth Circle (YC), a civil society group working on youth and social issues had planned to release the findings of a report at a three-day conference it had organized in Hpa-an, Karen State last week. State government officials…

In an open letter to the Karen National Union Chairperson General Mutu Sae Poe, on Saturday 29 August 2015, a coalition of international based Karen groups accused the KNU leader that by attending the Burma government’s opening ceremony of the Asian Highway as a ‘special guest’ he would be adding a veneer that would allow the government to ignore recent…

Land confiscation in Karen state has continues to increase according to a new report from the Karen Human Rights Group. The KHRG report titled, “With only our voices, what can we do?” was released on July 15 in the Thai border town of Mae Sot. The report documents the increased land confiscation by government officials and the Burma Army and…

The Karen Peace Support Network (KPSN) released a statement that said that fighting between the DKBA and government army during July on the Asia Highway had damaged recent peace initiatives. The newly built Asia Highway connects Myawaddy and Kawkareik in Karen state and saw fierce fighting between the Burma Army and the DKBA over security for the road. The KPSN…

A Thai construction company began their works on a second Maesot-Myawaddy Friendship Bridge project on the Thai side of the border in early June. Local residents on the Thai side of the River Moei that separates Burma from Thailand said large earth moving machinery began leveling the ground, surveyors measured land while concrete workers started on the bridge supports. A…

Villagers in Karen State have lodged a protest to their local land registration office against applications by companies and investors to take community land for development projects. The villagers from Minekan, Hpa-an Township, submitted an letter to the township land registration office on May 27 protesting that applications for permits to grow long-term crops in unclaimed forest land was owned…

Karen villagers whose lands were taken by companies to build a hydropower dam are angry and now want their lands returned. The villagers from the Palet Wa region in Thandaung Township lost their homes and land to a hydro-power dam in Htantabin Township are protesting and demanding their lands are returned from the companies. More than a 100 villagers and…

Villagers from Kunhing on the upper Salween River are strongly opposed to the Mong Ton Dam project that they say will destroy their way of life. The villagers released a statement on the 30th April listing their opposition to the damming of the Salween. “Our  ‘thousand island’ Kunhing township,  is one  of  the 16 townships  that will  be  flooded by the…

The Australian Snowy Mountains Engineering Corporation’s (SMEC) cancelled its plans to hold a public meeting to discuss the Mong Ton mega-dam on the Salween River after hearing that hundreds of villagers were going to hold a protest against the dam. The Shan Human Rights Foundation said in statement released to the media said that a public meeting planned by the…