Karen News

David Tharckabaw, head of the Karen National Unions Alliance Affairs, in an exclusive interview with Karen News, explains why he is opposed to the current Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement that he believes will deliver little for the majority of ethnic people and only benefit a few people. Mr Tharckabaw said he was not against a nationwide ceasefire that was in the…

Local residents said mortars and gunfire exploded yesterday morning on the new Myawaddy-Kawkariek Asia Highway. A Karen soldier stationed close to the area and who heard the shooting said. “The explosions sounded like three mortars and four or five shots of small guns. It lasted for about 10 minutes. The shooting seems be from the hillside close to the road…

In early August, 18 young Karen and Karenni teenage refugees who had resettled to the Salt Lake City in the US, returned to the Mae La refugee camps on Thai border where they were born. The boys were on a trip to attend a World Scout Jamboree in Yamaguchi, Japan and to Thailand and Burma to visit their birthplace. The…

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…

The Burma Army was quick to replace its South-Eastern Division Commander, following his failure to prevent the recent closure of the Asia Highway due to fighting between the DKBA and government troops. Major General Tin Maung Win was replaced by Brigadier General Myo Win attached to the Military Operation Command 19. A security specialist based on Thai-Burma border who requested…

Karen community-based organizations have issued media statements raising concerns about the recent decision of the Karen National Union to sign a Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement with the Burma government. The Karen Peace Support Network (KNSP), a coalition of community based groups and the International Karen Organization (IKO) both sent open letters to KNU expressing their alarm that it had taken the…

Major General Nerdah Bo Mya, head of the Karen National Defence Organisation in an exclusive interview with Karen News said that moves to sign a nationwide Ceasefire Agreement is worthless unless all ethnic armed groups are included. General Nerdah stressed that peace must be based on equality and justice and that a nationwide ceasefire is worthless unless there is a…

Shan community representatives presented 23,717 signatures opposing the construction of plans to dams the Salween River to the Australian company doing the environmental and social impact assessments (EIA/SIA) for the Mong Ton dam in southern Shan State. The Shan community representatives delivered their petition to the Snowy Mountains Engineering Corporation (SMEC) offices in Yangon. The Mong Ton dam is the…

The ethnic armed organizations representatives have reached the end of the nationwide ceasefire agreement process following a three-day meeting in the Thai Northern city of Chiang Mai. The meeting held from August 21 to 24 resulted in the appointment of a new delegation of eight members to meet with President U Thein Sein and General Min Aung Hlaing in Nay…

Burma’s Parliament has passed controversial laws regulating religion and marriage, amid concern from human rights organisations that the laws further isolate minorities. “Parliament has not only shown disregard for basic human rights norms, but turned up the heat on Burma’s tense inter-communal relations and potentially put an already fragile transition at risk, with landmark elections right around the corner,” Phil…