Articles

Elected representatives from Karen State held an open discussion this weekend, the first such public interaction organized since the politicians took office. Around 100 people attended the event at No. 3 Basic Education Sub-High School in Hpa’an on December 9, including the state’s Mon and Bamar Ethnic Affairs Ministers, MPs, and local residents. “We are meeting with the public to…

Karen State farmers have had enough of a silt-clogged stream preventing them from utilizing around 100 acres of paddy field for the past five years, according to a village administrator. With patience wearing thin, the residents of Taung Dee Village want their stream dredged and the upstream ditches removed. “The stream has been silted up for around five years. Rice…

A statue of Karen ethnic icon Saw Ba U Gyi will find temporary shelter in the Karen National Union (KNU)’s Kyain Seikgyi township office, after official objections were raised to its public installation. The Karen New Year’s Day Organizing Committee originally planned to erect the statue in Payathonzu, also known as Three Pagoda Pass, on the 80th Karen New Year’s…

The Mae Tao Clinic will continue to provide healthcare services along the Thai-Burma border despite cuts in international aid, the clinic’s founder, Dr Cynthia Maung, said at a celebration for her 58th birthday on December 6. “We will have to face many challenges in the future, under the current political transition. The Mae Tao Clinic will continue to exist as…

Villagers from the Lun Nya Mountain area sent a petition to the Karen State Chief Minister on November 22 to protest companies quarrying rock on Lun Nya Mountain, in Hpa-an township, Karen State. Saw Khite Khite, director at Lun Nya Mountain’s Environment Conservation Committee, said that the purpose of the petition was to get the state government to take legal…

A Mon State-based environmental group this week slammed the government for allegedly extending a private company’s mineral exploration license in spite of widespread local objections to tapping in to the mountain’s resources. The Min Lwin Mountain Environmental Conservation Committee said they only recently discovered that the Thaton Township’s deputy administrator extended Phyu Min Tun Company’s permission for mineral exploration and…

Local Karen communities’ plans to raise a statue of their hero and martyr, Saw Ba U Gyi, was objected to by Burma Army commanders in the Three Pagoda Pass town of Win Yay Township, Dooplaya District. Committee members in charge of the Karen New Year celebration in Win Yay [Wor Ray] Township said that the army commanders in the area…

Migrant workers in Thailand are advised to get their status legalized while there is still time to do so. Burma labor activists urged migrant workers to get the necessary legal documents during the three-month period of suspension of the Thai law on illegal migrant workers. U Moe Kyoe, director of Joint Action Committee for Burma Affairs (JACBA), told Karen News…

They only just received official recognition earlier this month, but in a matter of weeks, a Karen sepak takraw team will be playing their first international match, in Thailand. At the 32nd King’s Cup Sepak Takraw Championship in Thailand the New Zealand men’s national sepak takraw team will compete in the doubles category. “I don’t dare to expect a lot…

Refugees from Burma are finding it difficult to stay, difficult to go home. In Thailand, funding cuts to refugee camps have left over 100,000 displaced people from Burma to choose between trying to survive in deteriorating conditions and returning to a country not ready to receive them. The refugees are spread throughout 9 camps perched on Thailand’s southwest border with…