Karen State

More than 20 Karen lawyers from all over Burma held an initial meeting in Rangoon last week to discuss the founding of a lawyer network that would provide legal assistance to the Karen community facing legal issues related to human rights, women’s right and land disputes. The Karen lawyers’ meeting was hosted at the office of the Karen Women Empowerment…

The majority of Karen State based political parties are willing to accept proposed offer put up by the Union Election Commission of Burma (EUC) of providing political parties with land for office space and five vehicles tax-free import permits. The Election Commission’s proposal is now waiting on approval from the country’s President, U Sein Thein. The Union Election Commission submitted…

The Karen political party, the Phalon-Sawaw Democratic Party (PSDP), has stated its opposition to the proportional representation (PR) voting system, which was endorsed by Burma’s parliament on June 11 this year. The PSDP claimed that the new voting process would needlessly complicate the political system for the upcoming 2015 national elections. The PSDP’s chairperson Mahn Aung Pyi Soe spoke to…

On June 5, 2014, the Karen Environmental and Social Action Network (KESAN) organised an event commemorating the World Environment Day in one of the indigenous Karen areas on the Salween River in Mutraw District (Papun) in Burma. A total of 200 people, including students, youth, parents, teachers and community leaders, attended. The Karen people traditionally rely on the surrounding environment…

Naw Bway Paw looks out of her windowless thatched bamboo home in Hlaing Bwe Township, Karen State, and remembers the day in 1996 when the Burma Army came and took her land. Naw Bway Paw in a video interview with Karen News describes how she lost her ancestral home and lands. “One day a soldier arrived at my home in…

The parents of students at Taungkalay High School, in Hpa-an, have expressed concerns that they have to pay fees for their children despite the government promising that state schools – from primary to secondary level – would provide free registration and textbooks for study. Taungkalay High School opened on June 2, but before school started, on May 25, students about…

Hundreds of young Karen people dressed in their traditional clothing file into a large open-air building in Karen State, a booming series of “hello… hello… hello…” tests a sound system stacked on the edge of a stage. The traditional dress sound system and stage are signs that the Karen Youth Organisation’s celebrated its 25th year in May, more than one…

Giving the opening address at the 10th Karen Unity Seminar, the Karen National Union’s chairperson, Saw Mutu Sae Po called all the attending Karen representatives to work towards what he called ‘unity in diversity’. General Mutu Sae Po welcome the wide variety of Karen groups attending the event before saying. “We are divided in many ways and means…this disunity is…

A Karen National Union official urged a visiting Japanese Member of Parliament when planning development project for Karen State that there is an urgent need to consult and involve the KNU. Padoh Aung Win Shwe, head of the KNU Foreign Affair Department informed a Japanese Member of Parliament that his government needed to involve the KNU as well as the…

Government officials and local Karen National Union officials have decided to let villagers decide if a cement factory is to be built in their area. Following strong opposition by the villagers against the proposed cement factory planned for the Mi Kayin village area, Hpa-an, Karen State, the KNU and government officials told a public meeting that it was now up…