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A statement released by members of the different Karen armed groups laid out plans for the major Karen armed organisations to form a united Karen force, the Kawthoolei Armed Forces (KAF). The statement spoke on behalf of the four major Karen armed organisations, the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), the Karen National Defence Organisation (KNDO), the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army…

An environmental coalition of civil society groups group has issued a statement claiming that recent armed conflict in Karen State is linked to the Burma government’s plans to dam the Salween River. Salween Watch said it was “gravely concerned at the recent escalation of fighting and displacement in Karen state, Burma/Myanmar, which is linked to plans by the Burma Army…

An artillery shell killed four and wounded nine civilians travelling on the Myawaddy – Kawkareik road – a major trading route from Thailand. An unidentified armed group is believed to have fired the shell that landed in front of a shop at Ale Bo Tae on Saturday, October 11. A police officer in Kawkareik Township, who asked to remain anonymous,…

Fighting occurred between the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army and Burma Army on October 10, forcing Karen villagers to flee. The latest armed clashes broke out at around 10am between the DKBA and the government’s army at Kaung Mu village in Kawkareik Township. Sources from the DKBA’s liaison office in Kawkareik said that the fighting lasted about an hour. The fighting…

The Kachin Women’s Association Thailand, a community based human rights organisation, has claimed that the Burma Army and government backed militias are enabling a drug crisis in Kachin State. “Where the Burma Army has seized former Kachin Independence Army territories, it has allowed its allies to expand control over these areas. Overturning KIA anti-drug policies which had limited poppy cultivation,…

An international human rights organisation has warned that a draft plan by the Burma government to tackle violence in Rakhine State would entrench discrimination and be counterproductive to peace. Human Rights Watch said in a statement that the government’s draft plan failed to recognise the term ‘Rohingya,’ instead referring to ‘Bengalis.’ HRW said that this was “an inaccurate and derogatory…

Human Rights Watch has called on the World Bank Group to pressure Burma’s government to stop ongoing human rights abuses. The New York based human rights organisation acknowledged that Burma had undergone significant reforms since a flawed 2011 election propelled a nominally civilian government into power, led by President and ex-general U Thein Sein. Yet HRW also warned that despite…

Access to education in Karen State has been compromised by lack of accessible schools, poverty, war, displacement, and low wages for teachers – conditions made worse by a decades-long lack of government funding. Fighting to survive against successive brutal military dictatorships in Burma since 1949, the Karen people formed their own education system, completely separate from the central government. Burma’s…

The Karen Women’s Organisation has criticized the decision by the Karen National Union to suspend its membership from the United Nationalities Federal Council last month, claiming the decision was made without proper consultation with the Karen community. Speaking exclusively to Karen News, Naw K’nyaw Paw, Secretary of the KWO, said that the decision came as a surprise to many Karen…

Aung Naing was six years old when he moved to Nu Poe refugee camp in Thailand, leaving conflict-wracked Karen State, in Eastern Burma. Sitting down in the small compound on the outskirts of Chiang Mai that has been his home for the last 15 months, Aung Naing recalls those first years in the camp. “My mother and father had gone…