Articles

International health organisations estimate southeastern Burma’s health infrastructure as one of the regions worst with as many as 400,000 people displaced there. Karen villagers deprived of health care for decades are hoping that following a series of meetings between officials from the Karen Department of Health and Welfare and the government’s Health Directorate for Karen State, plans to deliver the…

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe should make improving human rights in Burma a key priority during his visit to the country , the New York based Human Rights Watch said in a statement released to coincide with Mr Abe’s visit. Mr Abe’s three-day visit to Burma, started on May 24th and will be the first by a Japanese leader in…

Following three days of discussion representatives from organizations working on refugee issues along the Thai-Burma border, refugee representatives, civil society groups, political leaders agreed that the current situation in Burma is not safe for refugees to return. Over 40 representatives including the United Nation High Commission on Refugee, Refugee Camps Committees, The Border Consortium, Karen National Union, Thai official from…

A Burmese migrant labour activist organization had been awarded the International Labour Rights Award for its contribution to the labour rights movement and exposing work-related rights violations. The International Labour Rights Forum (ILRF) jointly honoured the Burmese Migrant Workers Network (MWRN), based in Bangkok, and Thailand’s State Enterprises Workers’ Relations Confederation (SERC) for their “groundbreaking” efforts. In a statement released…

Saw Albert, the field director of the Karen Human Rights Group, in an exclusive interview with Karen News, said that since Burma’s 2010 election, changes in the government’s administration has allowed a lot of business and development projects to come into the country that are stealing land from ethnic villagers’. “Many people think that Burma has opened up and the…

Karen musicians from across Burma and performing under the name the Klo and Kweh Music Team arrived in Canada for series of performances this month. The nine member Klo and Kweh Music Team now touring Canada includes the respected and well know players Winston, Win Htwe, Bo Tauk, Boy, Stephen and singers Marvelous, Smaller, Linda and Hackett. The music team…

Burma’s President U Thein Sein arrived in Washington on Saturday and met with United States President Barack Obama today (Thai time) amidst criticism’s from international human rights groups that the Burmese’s government has failed to carry out its reforms promises made late last year. John Sifton, Asia advocacy director at the New York based Human Rights Watch said in a…

Villagers living along the Salween River claim that the Thai energy authority are moving ahead with plans to build a dam at the Hat Gyi site. Villagers in the area said that the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) have put up water level measurement posts on the Salween River bank at the proposed dam site. Local sources alleged that…

Local people affected by the construction of Thailand’s and Burma’s Dawei-Kanchanaburi road link in Southern Burma have rejected to be involved in a ‘public consultative meeting’ to approve the last stage of an environmental impact assessment report. A villager from Kaw Htee Klo (Tha Byut Chaung) told Karen News that surveyors from the Environmental Research Institute of Chulalongkorn University headed…

The Burma government opened today, ‘Htee Kee’ in Southern Burma, a new border trading post between Thailand and Burma. Htee Kee is a border checkpoint crossing Kanchanaburi province of Thailand and Burma’s Myitta Sub-Township in the Tanintharyi region. The Dawei-Kanchanaburi road link passes through Htee Kee. The opening ceremony of the Htee Kee border trading post was done by Burma’s…