Karen News

Censuses are a starting point to order society. Benedict Anderson writes in his iconic essay Census, Map, Museum, that British colonial census-makers were known to ‘agglomerate, disaggregate, recombine and intermix identity categories’, and that ‘the politically powerful identity categories always lead the list’. The real innovation was ‘not in the construction of ethnic-racial classifications, but rather in their systematic quantification’.…

In an exclusive interview with Karen News, the Secretary of the Karen Women’s Organization (KWO), a community based organisation representing more than 49,000 women including refugees in Thailand and internally displaced persons inside Burma, said that ethnic women were second-class citizens in their own country. “We are not only ignored, we are being abused and victimized. The peace talks don’t…

Karen political and community groups representing Karen communities from across Burma will hold a Karen National Convention in 2014 to discuss the cooperation between Karen armed organisations and political parties in ensuring there is unity going into the future. The Karen Unity and Peace Committee (KUPC) held a meeting on April 10 in Pyin Oo Lwin that led to the…

Residents of Mi Kayin village, Hpa-an, Karen State, are once again united to oppose a proposed cement factory planned to be built near their village by the Myanmar Ji Dong Cement Company Limited. Saw Nyan Win, a Mi Kayin villager said in an interview with Karen News that residents are planning to take their opposition to the proposal to build…

Villagers celebrating the New Year Water festival ended up in hospital after eating special fragrant rice. More than 200 villagers from Paw Baw Kho village, in Myawaddy Township, Karen State were admitted to Myawaddy Hospital’s intensive care unit suffering from food poisoning. The mass poisoning happened after villagers ate specially prepared fragrant rice (Thingyan rice) served at the Myanmar New…

Human rights organisations and ethnic political groups have called for an international investigation into systematic sexual abuses committed by the Burma Army, noting that reports of rape continue to emerge three years after reformist President Thein Sein’s administration took power. The Kachin National Oganisation, a political party from Kachin State, called for an international investigation and alleged it had documented…

During this year’s Songkran (water festival) celebrations Thailand again witnessed carnage on the road. Road deaths and injuries caused by a deadly combination of driving while under the influence of alcohol pushed the number of people killed to by Wednesday 15 April to 248 and injuries to 2643. The New Year celebrations saw people killed on the roads in both…

Mae Sot children and adults ride pickup trucks engaged in water battles as they circle the town centre. Mae Sot on the Thai-Burma border is home to tens of thousands of migrant workers from Burma who also celebrated the Songkran water festival (known in Burma as Thingyan). Songkran – Thailand’s New Year celebration – is perhaps the country’s most visible…

Burma Army soldiers from Light Infantry Battalion 515 have allegedly stabbed and robbed a villager in Shan State on the 23rd of March. Shan Human Rights Foundation said that the victim, a 46 year-old villager, was handing out invitation letters for his son’s ordination ceremony when two Burma Army soldiers held him at knife point and badly beat him. “The…

The Burma Army attacked the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) positions on Thursday 10 April. The 10-hour Burma Army offensive took place in the La Gat Yang and Man Win areas on the Kachin-Shan border. A report released by a humanitarian organization, the Burma Free Rangers, documents that, “Burma Army soldiers from Military Operation Command (MOC) 16, Division 88, and Light…