UN

The Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG) raised their concerns to the United Nations Special Human Rights Rapporteur, Mr. Tomas Ojea Quintana that now is not the time to repatriate Karen refugees back to Burma. KHRG told Mr Quintana that the Burma’s military still has a “shoot on sight” order in place in Karen State that affects people living in internally…

In a speech to the UN Security Council a prominent community based human rights organization has expressed concern over the lack of transparency and accountability surrounding Burma’s reform process. Burma’s government, led by ex-general Thein Sein, recently passed an ‘action plan’ to end the use of child soldiers in the military by 2014 – when the country is set to…

Tomas Ojea Quintana, the UN special rapporteur for human rights in Burma, released a statement last week that highlighted the challenges facing the impoverished country. He cautiously stated that the West should be encouraged by recent gestures of reform “there has been a continuing wave of reforms in Myanmar, the speed and breadth of which has surprised many international observers…

In recent months the Burma Army has increased its attacks on ethnic people. The Burma Army has been accused of rape, forced labor and firing artillery shells indiscriminately into villages. The ethnic protests against the government’s military offensives have spread to neighboring countries. In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, more than 300 people of ethnic nationalities from Burma staged a protest in…

The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in a press statement released yesterday said he was encouraged by a meeting on 19 August between President Thein Sein and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the banned national League for Democracy. The meeting between the Ms Suu Kyi and President Thein Sein was the second in recent weeks. It came about…

The ethnic people of Burma are having a hard time. Burma Army soldiers are targeting women in the Kachin and Shan State for rape. Villagers are used as forced labour for the Burma Army. Development projects mean forced relocation and slave labour. Half a million ethnic people are displaced in eastern Burma. Village schools have been burnt, health care is…

Karen National Union (KNU) officials issued a statement opposing local or foreign investment in eastern Burma and urged Thai authorities to abandon any plans for the repatriation of tens of thousands of Karen refugees living in camps along the border. KNU officials met for three days last month for a unity conference at an undisclosed location in eastern Burma. Representatives…