Karen News

The Phan Foundation has officially announced its acceptance of nominees for the 7th annual Padoh Mahn Sha Young Leader Award – the closing date is on January 31, 2015. The Padoh Mahn Sha Young Leader Award is given annually to Karen community workers who work in health, education, social or cultural areas. According to the Foundation’s criteria, nominees should be…

A group of unknown gunmen shot and killed a captain and a driver of the Karen National Liberation Army on 11 December while they were traveling by car on the Dawei –Ye road near the southern Burmese Township of Ye Byu in Tanintharyi Division. The KNLA soldiers were from a KNU 4th Brigade battalion. Padoh Saw Eh Na, joint secretary…

A report released by the Karenni Civil Society Network (KCSN) has claimed that the Norwegian led Myanmar Peace Support Initiative (MPSI) is putting the security of returning internally displaced persons (IDPs) at risk by placing them in areas under Burma Army control. The MPSI is a Norwegian led “international initiative to support peace in Burma through development and humanitarian assistance.…

Villagers are planning to seek compensation from the KNU and state government for land confiscated by developers for a palm oil plantation project in Tanintharyi Division. Saw Poe San, one of the petition leaders from the Southern Youth Organization, told Karen News. “Villagers did not get any compensation. No-one informed the villagers that their fields would be cleared for the…

The vice president of the Karen People’s Party, Saw Say Wah, told Karen News that its party will be running candidates in more than 60 constituencies in the Irrawaddy Division in the 2015 Election. “In the meeting we held in late November, we nominated and selected our party’s representatives to run for seats in Burma’s Union Parliament. At the same…

With the support of the US Embassy in Myanmar, a two-year English Access Micro scholarship Program was recently launched in Hpa-an. The opening ceremony took place at Thumaydarama Kyartawya School in Hpa-an on December 04, 2014. Local teachers pleased with the new scholarship said that the project would help local children to learn English. “The purpose of this training course…

The Karen National Union (KNU) told Karen News that the Burmese Defense Minister, General Min Aung Hlaing said they would be revising sections of the country’s 2008 Constitution. A KNU leader claims that General Min Aung Hlaing said during a meeting with KNU officials that the government was considering revising the Constitution but would do it in its own time.…

Dr Cynthia founder of the Mae Tao Clinic on the Thai Burma border that provides free health care to as many 140,000 refugees and migrant workers from Burma each year celebrated her 55th birthday on Saturday 6 December by planting the same number of trees and called on the international community to continue funding border projects. Dr Cynthia’s Mae Tao…

The human rights advocacy group, Burma Campaign UK, has called on David Cameron’s government to support a UN Commission of Inquiry into violations of international law in Burma, amid concerns that the country’s reform process under President U Thein Sein has stalled. “Burma Campaign UK believes that European Union sanctions on Burma were lifted prematurely, without the EU’s own human…

An official delegation team from the Thai Ministry of Education paid a visit to a Mae Sot migrant school located on the Thai border to learn about the situation of migrant education. The six member-delegation-team led by Mr. Keeransat Sithisan from an office under the Minister of Education came to Mae Sot on November 27 and visited Children Development Center…