Articles

The Karen community’s in the Yangon and Irrawaddy divisions are to form a new political party, known as the Karen National Party (KNP). Initial plans to establish the party were put in place in 2013. Karen representatives met this week at Ta-Kwun-Dine village, Kyauk-Kone Township in the Irrawaddy division. The meeting was to form an executive committee of 14 members…

A new bridge over the Hong-Tha-Yaw River is to be built connecting Hlaing Kweh and Mae Tha Yaw, in Kawkareik Township. Construction of the bridge started in the first week of January 2014. The iron bridge will be 280 meters long and 7 meters wide, and it is estimated that it will take three years to construct. U Tin Hlaing…

General Mutu Say Poe, chairperson of the Karen National Union (KNU) in a speech addressed to all Karen people to mark the 65th Karen Revolution Day, called for a peaceful solution to the civil war that it has fought for the last six decades. Thousands of Karen people made their way from Thailand, from overseas and within Burma to sites…

The Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) and the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army (DKBA) will hold a joint Military Parade for the first time to mark the 65th anniversary of the Karen Revolution Day on Friday January 31. Saw Moshay, the DKBA’s deputy chief-of-staff told Karen News that the joint parade would be held at the KNLA’s 7th Brigade headquarters that…

In a show of unity and strength representatives from 17 armed resistance groups met in Karen State to discuss a nationwide ceasefire agreement for Burma. The ethnic armed groups released a statement claiming the conference that ran over five days from 20 to 25 January and held at Law Khee Lar, Karen State was a success. The ethnic armed group…

Refugees on the Thai Burma border are furious over what they perceive as ‘bias’ in the United Nations High Commission for Refugees resettlement program. Refugees from Nu Poe Camp, based in Thailand’s Tak’s province, on the Thai-Burma border, marched in protest, claiming that there was discrimination in UNHCR’s third country resettlement program. Around 150 refugees took place in the January…

The National League for Democracy has hit the campaign early in an attempt to overturn Burma’s contentious National Constitution that effectively bars its leader, Aung San Suu Kyi from the country’s presidency. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, Chairperson of the National Leaugue of Democracy (NLD) party, called for the support of ethnic groups in her push for constitutional reform, in…

An international human rights organization urged the Burma government to immediately stop attacks and abuses against Rohingya Muslims in the country’s Rakhine State. In an interview with Karen News, Matthew Smith, the executive director of the international human rights group Fortify Rights stressed that Burma’s government should immediately stop its persecution of the country’s Muslim community. “The local authorities are…

In what is bad news for the 130,000 refugees living on the Thai Burma border, the Thailand’s Meteorological Department has forecast that the country’s cold weather is to continue into late January. The deputy director of Thailand’s Department of Disease Control, Mr Oparg Karankawinpong, confirmed on Thursday for reporters, that as many as 63 people in 24 provinces have died…

In an interview with Karen News, Nan Dah Eh Kler, Chairperson of the Karen Women Organization (KWO), argued that the Burma’s Government’s reform process was being undermined by a culture of impunity and sexual violence in the Burma Army. Referring to a report released by the Women’s League of Burma (WLB), which documented over 100 cases of sexual violence committed…