Articles

Thai Burma border based Karen groups meet to discuss broad collaboration on a diverse set of issues, including emergency response and how to best represent the cross-border Karen community Karen Community Based Organizations (KCBO) based along the Thai-Burma border met on Monday February 17 – laying down four key principles with the aim of working together. Saw Eh Htoo Soe,…

Kayin People’s Party’s youth chairperson Saw Win Kyaw traveled to Norway this week to meet with Karen community groups living overseas. Saw Win Kyaw told Karen News that he is using the opportunity to share the KPP’s plans and to keep overseas community members up to date on developments within Burma. “I plan to go there to lay down the…

A major dam and highway project in Shan State is destroying the livelihoods of locals, displacing people from dozens of villages, leading to heavy militarization in the area and contaminating water supplies, according to a human rights group. Shan Human Rights Foundation (SHRF) has expressed grave concerns over the impacts on locals of Burma’s first dam project to span the…

The Geba ethnic group currently incorrectly classified as a Karenni ethnic sub-group by the government has called on the government and relevant officials to correct their identity in the coming 2014 census, as the group recognized itself as Karen. The call was made in a statement released by representatives of the Geba ethnic group after a conference held on February…

The Mae Fah Luang Foundation has begun conducting surveys at Mae Ra Moe [Mae Rama Luang] and Mae La Oon refugee camps in Mae Hong Song province to gauge resident opinions on where they hope to live in the future. More than 70 MFLF-trained refugees started gathering data on February 3 as part of a month-long project to assess how…

The Burma government and a Thai company have agreed to pay compensation to farmers for damaging or taking their land while building the Asian Highway network link between Myawaddy and Kawkareik in Karen State. Saw Maw Htoo, Chairperson of the Karen National Union Kawkareik Township office, told Karen News that the KNU, Burma government, and company representatives held a meeting…

Karen leaders have met to discuss the classification of the Karen people in the upcoming national census. Padoh Saw Maw Htoo, chairperson of KNU in Kawkareik Township said in an interview with Karen News, that the KNU held a forum on February 10th to discuss the forthcoming census. “We called on the village heads and urged them at the meeting…

The Democratic Karen Benevolent Army (DKBA) has invited villagers displaced by the Burma Army to stay with them. The DKBA has told villagers from the Tha-Mee-Lay village, Hle-Gu Township, to come and stay with them after the villagers were forced from their homes by the Burma Army on February 4. The displacement involved around 150 families – about 500 people…

General Saw Lah Pwe, head of the Democratic Karen Benovelant Army (DKBA), is recovering from what is thought to be throat cancer in a hospital in Singapore, a DKBA commander confirmed to Karen News. DKBA Tactical Commander General Saw San Aung said that General Saw Lah Pwe’s condition had improved, but that he needed to go through a further “four…

The Karen National Union’s (KNU) Vice-Chairperson, Padoh Naw Zipporah Sein, urged Karen people to recall the four founding objectives of their struggle. Padoh Naw Zipporah Sein was speaking at a ceremony marking the 66-years since the Karen held a massive march in Rangoon to demand equal rights from Burma’s government, then newly independent from the British. “Today is one of…