Articles

Despite the recent change of government, displaced Karen people hold little hope for justice while Myanmar’s military maintains its presence in ethnic lands. Monsoon rains drench the cluster of small bamboo huts clinging to the sides of the Salween River bank that separates Thailand from Myanmar. The 475 leaf-roofed huts are home to 3,356 Karen people that make up the…

The NLD’s ongoing narcotics crackdown has caught many drug addicts, but health experts say they should be treated as patients, not punished. YANGON (Myanmar Now) – Several young men were standing near the entrance of Thingangyun Hospital in central Yangon on a recent July morning, waiting impatiently for a fellow drug addict to exit the facility. They had just received…

Karen students from village schools in Kungyangone Township in the Rangoon Region are to be taught their mother language, but outside official school classes. The schools that Pwo [Plone] Karen will be taught are; Taitkyi, Zuklug, Tawjyaung, Wagauttaw, Mankaleit, Kayan, Hseikyi, Kamarpar and Naung Ngu villages. The decision to teach the ethnic language was reached at the Teaching Karen Language…

The winner of the 2015 Padoh Mahn Sha Young Leader Award, is Sa Shine, a youth educator from the Hpa-an Youth Network. Sa Shine was presented with the award at the 66th commemoration ceremony of the Karen Martyrs’ Day held at the Karen National Liberation Army’s 7th brigade headquarter on August 12, 2016. Saw Say Say Phan, one of the…

A lance corporal and platoon commander from the Karen National Union’s Kawkareik police force was attacked and killed by a man wielding a sword. The killing of the police officer took place in Ang Pha Lay village in southern Kawkareik, around 2pm on August 8, 2016. The police officer, Saw Khin Shwe, 52 was returning from Ang Pha Gyi Station,…

The delay in the National Electrification Project (NEP) has caused villagers to doubt it will become a reality, but they are worried that the second installment they paid for is now lost. The National Electrification Project is a joint venture by the World Bank and the Department of Rural Development that was supposed to deliver electricity to villages by late…

Patients from Mae Ra Ma Luang Refugee Camp in the Thai Northern Province of Mae Hong Song were injured when the referral car carrying them was hit by a falling tree on a road, 50 kilometers away from Mae Sariang Town. The accident took place on August 4 as the pickup truck carrying the referred patients was returning from Mae…

Fighting between troops from the Border Guard Force and renegade soldiers from the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army this week wounded four villagers. The armed clash took place between Kawt Nwe and Tadangu village near the new Kawkariek-Myawaddy Asia Highway on August 4. The breakaway DKBA troops were led by Lieutenant Na Ma Kyar and the BGF soldiers were from battalion…

In an effort to foster trust in the country’s peace building and in future political movements, ethnic youth from all over Burma formed an alliance at their latest conference. The National Ethnic Youth Conference was held from July 27 to August 1 in Panglong, Lwelin Township in southern Shan State. A Burma ethnic youth alliance comprised of 26 ethnic groups…

A new report by the Karen Human Rights Group has documented the insecurity and mistrust ethnic women have to Burmese authorities following decades of armed conflict. The report, entitled Hidden Strengths, Hidden Struggles, catalogues some of the main concerns ethnic women have as they go about their daily lives, including fears over personal security, sexual violence, land confiscation and access…