Articles

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…

A new trading entry between Thailand and Burma was opened this week that links both countries on their southern borders. The new trade crossing links SingKhorn in Thailand’s southern provinces of Prachuap Khiri Khan with Mawhtaung a large town in Burma’s Myeik district. Senior officials from the Karen National Union joined with Burma government ministers and Thai officials at the…

A soldier from the government’s controlled Border Guard Force (BGF) is alleged to have repeatedly fired his gun at a boat loaded with cement bags at a tax gate on the River Moei on the Thai-Burma Border. The incident happened on May 7 at tax gate 14 and involved a soldier from the BGF’s Battalion 1021st that is based in…

A Karenni community based organization has accused the Burma government’s regulation for schools of being to expensive for villagers to comply with. The Kayan New Generation Youths (KNGY) working on educational development inside Kayah (Karenni) State said the Ministry of Education should reduce its standard on school sizes. The KNGY’s chairman, Khon Bi Htoo, told Karen News that the Ministry…

Officials from the Karen National Union’s (KNU) Brigade 5 said that a 15-year-old boy taken as a army recruit by the Lay Poe Htar village track leader in April was released on May 2. Colonel Saw Kler Do from the KNU’s Brigade 5 District said that Saw Pa Log, a Lay Poe Htar village track leader, ordered his followers to…