Articles

Around 2,000 people participated in a traditional Karen wrist tying ceremony in Kawkareik township on August 7. “This white thread tying ceremony [wrist tying ceremony] is as much a part of the Karen national character as our language, literature, customs and culture. We are holding [the ceremony] this year as a way of preserving the tradition. We will continue to…

Amid efforts to entice more ethnic armed groups into the fold of the nationwide ceasefire agreement, the Karen National Union shared its peace process experiences with the Karenni National Progressive Party at a meeting in Thailand last week. The KNU is one of the eight initial signatories to the nationwide ceasefire agreement and has promoted the pact at peace meetings.…

Education reform activist and champion of migrant education U Naing Naing Tun passed away on August 2 in Thailand, according to his colleagues. He suffered a heart attack and died in the Mae Sot Hospital. He was 47. “His death is a big loss. I’m very saddened,” said Mahn Shwe Hnin, headmaster of the Children’s Development Center and a close…

As more cases of influenza (H1N1) are confirmed in several different locations in Burma including the former capital, Rangoon, Karen State Health Department officials have informed residents not to be overly frightened by the deadly flu. Doctor Kyaw Swar Myint, the Deputy Chief of the State Department of Public Health, made the call in a speech delivered at the World…

The Karen Teacher Working Group (KTWG) ran a short training for parents of schoolchildren in its effort to raise awareness to get them involved in their children’s education. On the 31st of July, two teachers from the KTWG’s Mobile Teacher Training provided a short training course to parents of school children in Chaw Tho Khee (Kyout Hpyar) village, Kyaik Hto…

Local Karen National Union officials and aid workers are trying to drum up last-minute support for a shelter of internally displaced persons, before it runs out of funding in September. Over 70 representatives from 10 border-based Karen State civil society groups attended a meeting on July 30 to discuss how to keep the Ei Tu Hta shelter open. “We agreed…

Burma’s clampdown on the country’s journalists continues with the arrest of Myanmar Now’s editor, Ko Swe Win by police at Rangoon Airport on Sunday. Ko Swe Win was taken into custody by police while waiting to board a flight to Bangkok, Thailand. It is reported by Frontier Magazine that Swe Win’s arrest is linked to a “defamation complaint filed by…

General Saw Ka Sel Doh, a Karen resistance fighter who joined the Karen Nation Union’s armed wing in the first months of its existence in 1947, has passed away. Gen. Saw Ka Sel Doh, 92, died in Mae Sot Hospital, this morning, on July 31, after months of declining health and hospitalization on July 24, according to his grandson Saw…

Schools have been closed and nearly 900 people have been evacuated from a town in southern Kayin (Karen) State due to severe flooding, according to a local administrator. “Kwin Gyi Stream, Kyate Stream, and Haung Tharaw River have flooded. The water level rose to around four feet in Kyaikdon due to the overflowing water from the mountain on July 26th,”…

A Mon State official has pledged K16 million (US$11,800) for a traditional Karen wrist trying ceremony, an event celebrating Karen culture and unity. “We are emphasizing development, and trying our best to support tradition and culture,” said Saw Myint Khine, Mon State’s Karen Affairs Minister. The annual wrist tying ceremony is celebrated on the full moon day of Wagaung (the…