Karen

On August 12th, Naw Ohn Hla, a Karen activist, and some leaders of the Karen Youth Network in Yangon led a group of about 100 people to hold a ceremony commemorating the 69th Karen Martyr’s Day in downtown Yangon. This was after the government refused to give them permission to hold the commemoration ceremony in a church or a monastery.…

Burma’s government has come under scrutiny for arresting three Karen for organizing a peaceful community ceremony and to use the word ‘Martyrs’. The event was to commemorate the 69th Karen Martyr’s Day held in Rangoon on August 12. The three organizers, Karen Women Union, chairperson, Naw Ohn Hla, Saw Albert Cho and S’ Thein Zaw Min were charged under section…

On World Refugee Day, 2019, the Karen Peace Support Network (KPSN) issued a statement calling on the European Union, United Kingdom and other donors to support refugees and IDPs in eastern Burma and Thailand. With the peace building process stalled and without any guaranteed political solutions, it is impossible for the refugees and displaced people to return to their original…

This year’s World Refugee Day Today is marked with a global call for people to #StepWithRefugees. On the Thai-Burma border, refugees who recently returned to their homeland are concerned how to make a living and look after their families. Since 2016, and encouraged by recent political changes in Burma, 729 people from the nine refugee camps on the Thai Burma…

Hundreds of Karen representatives from 56 different groups gathered to strengthen Karen customary land management systems at a seminar held at Lay Wah, Karen State from May 29 to 30, 2019. The Kaw Customary Land Seminar was attended by 519 people including representatives from local community and civil society, donors, INGOs, political parties, and officers of the Karen National Union.…

Long-time refugees on the Thai-Myanmar border face cuts in rations but say they cannot return to areas where fighting is ongoing. International aid for refugees and displaced people in camps on the Thai-Myanmar border has been slashed since Myanmar’s first supposedly democratic government was elected four years ago. The assumption underpinning this cut in funding was that conditions are, or…

2019 marks an important year for Karen armed struggle for self-autonomy in many ways. On January 31st, we will celebrate 70th anniversary of the Karen Revolution Day, a day when Karen people first launched their armed movement against the government of Burma in 1949 for an autonomous state. This year celebration also marks an important moment in the unity of…

It is expected representatives from all Karen armed organizations will join the activities for the 70th Karen Revolution Day on January 31 in the Karen National Union’s Pa-An district, in Karen State. Local communities are excited with plans to hold a Karen traditional Don dance competition program at the event for the first time. Saw Tha Mawt Phaung (a.k.a Saw…

The 63rd Karen State Day annual ceremony was held in Hpa-An on 7 November. The event, which was run by the Karen State Government, was opened by U Aye Thar Aung, vice-chairman of the National Parliament. U Aye Thar Aung also made an inaugural speech at the ceremony. Present at the ceremony were Nai Thet Lwin (the Union Minister for…

Sayadaw U Thuzana, the controversial monk accused of helping the Burma military regime of engineering the devastating split that broke and caused irreparable damage to the Karen National Union in 1994, died in a Bangkok Hospital on Saturday. Saw Naung Bee, an associate and care giver to the Abbot told Karen News that the monk died on Saturday at 9:12am…