Thein Sein Government

International rights groups, including Human Rights Watch and Burma Campaign UK, have criticised the EU for lifting its sanctions on Burma, saying that the move “undercuts” the impoverished country’s human rights progress. “The EU’s scrapping of targeted sanctions on Burma is premature and recklessly imperils human rights gains made so far,” said Lotte Leicht, EU director at HRW. On April…

The United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC) warned the European Union that it was too early to lift sanctions on Burma. The UNFC hit out at the EU after foreign ministers from 27 European countries met in Luxembourg on April 22 and decided to lift all sanctions on Burma, except its embargo on arms. The UNFC vice-chairman Padoh Saw David Tharckapaw…

More than 200 Burmans based in Australia staged protest against the president of Burma, U TheinSein during his visit in Australia from News Zealand on March 13. Saw Kyaw Kwi, an Australian based Karen News reporter said protesters demonstrated in front of the Governor-General’s house in Canberra for two hours before continuing to country’s parliament to protest further. with an…

Since last years signed cease-fire agreement between the government and the Karen National Union, the Burma border town of Myawaddy has been awash with government officials, leaders of various armed groups and business people. The most recent high-level delegations to visit the border town were the Karen National Union, including its chairperson, General Saw Mutu Say Poe, who met with…

Despite the lifting of sanctions, experts predict that Burma’s long-term economic outlook is full of risks for potential investors, as military-linked companies continue to hold sway over the economy. It is boom time for Burma. The impoverished but resource rich country, once isolated under a military dictatorship, has seen a series of political reforms under its President U Thien Sien…

Civil society groups voiced their disappointment that the government ministers appointed to its Peace Committee failed to address many of the questions that representatives from 64 community-based-organisations brought to a meeting held at the Myanmar Peace Centre on Sunday. Nan Thandar Aung, a representative from the Karen Women Action Group (KWAG) who was at the meeting, spoke to Karen News.…

Two of Burma’s most significant opposition alliances have united to condemn the government’s escalation of the Kachin conflict and criticize the ceasefire it announced on Saturday. The United Nationalities Federal Council and The National Council of the Union of Burma have released statements condemning President U Thein Sien’s government’s war in Kachin State as a step backward in achieving peace…

President U Thein Sein invitated a Karen National Union delegation to Naypyidaw to meet with key government ministers, including the vice president Sai Mauk Kham and the military chief, Vice-Senior General Min Aung Hlaing. The KNU delegation led by General Mutu Say Poe, the KNU chairman, met for two days, from the 5th to the of 6th January, with President…

The Karen Women Action Group, a community-based women’s group working out of Rangoon gave its approval for the issues the Karen National Union raised in its meeting with the government and its key ministers, including the president and the head of the country’s army. Naw Susana Hla Hla Soe, director of KWAG spoke to Karen News. “We are pleased to…

Karen National Union leaders left today from the Thai-Burma border to travel to Naypyidaw to meet with President Thein Sein to discuss war in ethnic areas. The KNU Supreme Headquarters issued a statement confirming the trip and said they had received an invitation from President U Thein Sein. A number of the KNU’s newly elected leaders left from their border…