Articles

Fighting between Karen soldiers and Burma Army troops broke out in Papun District last week killing one and wounding one Burma Army soldier. Sources from the Karen National Union’s Papun district office confirmed to Karen News that soldiers from a Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) 5th Brigade unit clashed with a Burma Army patrol. The Burma Army troops were based…

Mu Mu, 28, stirs thin soup inside her small, two-roomed bamboo house on the Thai-Burma border, and speaks of the day the Burma Army soldiers came to her village a more than a decade ago. “The soldiers used us as [forced] porters. They would come to our village, Mae Ta Waw, and arrest men and women. They kept coming back…

More than 20 Karen lawyers from all over Burma held an initial meeting in Rangoon last week to discuss the founding of a lawyer network that would provide legal assistance to the Karen community facing legal issues related to human rights, women’s right and land disputes. The Karen lawyers’ meeting was hosted at the office of the Karen Women Empowerment…

As monsoon rains sweep across Burma from India, villagers in Karen State and along the Thai Burma border are prey to malaria. In the last 10 years, the fight against the malaria parasite has seen dramatic decreases in deaths. The World Health Organisation estimates that there has been a 42% reduction in mortality rates from the parasite in the last…

A legal appeal by the human rights advocacy group to make public details of the Britain’s training of Burma’s military has succeeded. The human rights advocacy group, Burma Campaign UK, said it had been notified by the British Ministry of Defence that they had won their appeal against a decision not to release details of training in which members of…

An estimated 38 million people are living with HIV globally. Half a million of those are in Thailand and a further 200,000 in Burma. Yet HIV is treated with harsh stigma in the two countries, where people suffer discrimination, are abused – some kill themselves. People from Burma and Thailand who had HIV spoke to Karen News of how they…

Ma Ohn Kyi, 44, leans on one foot against a wall inside Mae Tao Clinic on the Thai Burma border. “It took three days by car and one month’s wages to get here,” she says, “it will cost another month’s wages to get back home when I am better.” What should have been a routine operation to fix a broken…

A new clinic that will provide free primary health care to villagers in Kawkareik Township is at its final construction stage and will soon be ready to receive patients. The clinic is being built in Nan Shwe Mone village, Kawkareik Township under the initiative of the Karen National Union, will give free treatment and healthcare services to villagers from rural…

Officials from the pro-democracy National League for Democracy party (NLD), on its first day of its signature campaign at Three Pagoda Pass Town in Kyain Seikgyi, collected more than 1,000 signatures supporting changes to Article 436 of Burma’s controversial 2008 Constitution. U Myo Aung, Deputy Director of the NLD in the Three Pagoda Pass Town spoke to Karen News about…

General Tamla Baw, one of the most respected Karen leaders has died. General Tamla Baw passed away on Thursday June 26, at 9.24pm in the Thai border town of Mae Saraing. General Tamla Baw was a man of deeds and spent his life fighting for freedom, democracy and self-determination for Karen people, and for all the people of Burma. General…