Articles

News that authorities in Karen State are planning to crack down on drivers using unlicensed vehicles is causing a great deal of worry among the state’s car owners. Most of the vehicles being driven in Karen State are unlicensed for travel interstate and there is an acknowledgement between drivers and authorities that this is allowed as along as these vehicles…

Karen people spread all over the world celebrated Karen New Year Day on January 10, 2016. Karen in Burma, on the border gathered at a wide variety of places to welcome the New Year. Celebration took place in Shwe Kokko, Rangoon and Hpa-an, where the former, President U Thein Sein attended. Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the National League…

A major Burma ethnic political alliance claims that the government’s peace convention will fail. The alliance said in a statement that convention, part of the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement, is scheduled to start on January 12, is unlikely to lead to a genuine democratic federal union for the country. The United Nationalities Alliance (UNA), composed of eight ethnic political parties made…

Deprived of vital health services and ravaged by years of civil war, one devoted abbot is providing forgotten rural communities with much-needed relief By Phil Thornton The muscular arm of a saffron-clad monk, propped against the wall of a bamboo hut, draws air pictures to illustrate why his community is in desperate need of an ambulance. The arm belongs to…

Of three new union level committees set up after the ceasefire agreement was signed, only three out of 96 members are women. None are from the government. YANGON (Myanmar Now) – Women have been consistently excluded from Myanmar’s peace negotiations and their continued absence could undermine the success of the talks aimed at ending long-running ethnic conflicts that have displaced…

A teenage boy, 17 from Mae La camp committed suicide on December 22 at his house in Zone A-2, it was the second suicide case in a month. Saw Ah Kine, the section leader of Zone A confirmed to Karen News that the boy often complained of not wanting to live anymore. “The boy have been telling his grandma for…

As the world celebrates Christmas, villagers in northern Burma have fled their their homes in fear Burma Army attacks. Burma Army offensives are underway in northern Shan State, with reports of a village being torched and civilians being used as forced labourers and guides. The Shan Human Rights Foundation, an ethnic community based organisation monitoring human rights abuses in Shan…

A humanitarian aid organisation said that Burma Army offensives during October and November have displaced more than 10,000 civilians,. The Free Burma Rangers, delivers medical aid and monitors conflict areas inside Burma, recorded 92 new armed clashes in parts of Northern Shan and Western Kachin State over the last two months, including attacks by Government aircraft, heavy artillery, and armoured…

YANGON (Myanmar Now) — When Myanmar’s current parliament first convened in 2011 following a flawed general election, most observers and opposition members expected it to be a rubber stamp for the army and the newly installed civilian government of ex-generals. As with so much of Myanmar’s democratic transition, its performance has been a surprise. Lawmakers soon began to actively debate,…

Six men have been charged over printing a 2016 calendar which used the term Rohingya, leading to condemnation from a prominent human rights organisation. The calendar, printed in November of this year, referred to Rohingya as an ethnic group of Burma, and was printed in three languages – Burmese, English and Arabic. In all several hundred copies of the calendar…