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Monsoon rains earlier this week caused landslides and destroyed four refugee houses at Karenni Refugee Camp 2 located on the Mae Sariang River, Mae Hong Son Province on the Thai-Burma Border. The camp officer-in-chief, U San Hla, told Karen News there were no injuries or deaths caused by the flooding. “After the heavy rains, the flood waters washed away the…

Burmese refugees in Umphiem camp in the northern Thai province of Tak have the chance to resettle to Japan in 2012. Saw Wah Htee, the chairman of the Umphiem refugee camp committee, spoke to Karen News and said the Japanese government representatives and officials from the United Nation High Commission for Refugee visited the camp in July and meet with…

Villagers in the east of Tavoy, southern Burma claim authorities have ignored their complaints against a Thai company and a Burma government joint venture mining operation that has been polluting their drinking water for a decade. A local villager from the affected area (who did not want to be named for his security) said. “I could no longer use water…

The Border Guard Force based in Myaing Gyi Ngu area has ordered nine villages in Hlaingbwe Township, Karen State to relocate to Myaing Gyi Ngu in mid-August, according sources in the area. Captain Pha Nwee and Saw Htun Hlaing, BGF advisory board members, issued the orders to relocate nine villages to the Myaing Gyi Ngu. The orders affected the following…

Villagers who witnessed two civilians killed last week say Burma Army soldiers on a search and kill mission fired indiscriminately into a jungle hiding site killing the two civilians in Southern Burma, on August 21. A local Karen National Union source from Mergui-Tavoy District (Tenasserim Division) told Karen News that soldiers from Light Infantry Battalion 555, led by Commander Zaw…

“I was asked to speak at the 61st Karen Martyrs’ Day commemoration ceremony. Karen people came together to pay homage to their men, women and in some cases children, who had given their lives for their people. Emotions were high. Nearly all Karen people have lost someone they have loved in the struggle against the Burma military regime. At one…

The heavy monsoon rains hammered the north of Thailand in early and middle August, breaking the banks of the Mae Sariang River in Mae Hong Song province and flooding two refugee camps and nearby villages. The floodwaters destroyed 400 houses in the camps, made 2,000 people homeless, destroyed 2,000 sacks of rice and hundreds of bags of other essential foodstuffs.…

Burmese and Thai researchers speaking at a conference last week in Bangkok fear that the Dawei Special Industrial Zone planned for southern Burma will have severe negative impacts on thousands of local people as well as the environmental. The 4th International Conference on Human Rights and Human Development held on the 19th of August at Chulalongkorn University featured papers on…

The Karen National Union issued a statement claiming more than 80 Border Guard Force soldiers had joined their forces in 1st and 7th Brigade in recent weeks. The BGF was a strategy used by the Burma government to unarm, reduce the number of soldiers in the armed ceasefire groups and bring them under the direct control of the Burma Army.…

Farmers in Pago (Pegu) area have lost their farmlands to floods caused by heavy rain that has devastated the area since mid July. It is estimated that over a thousand acres of farmlands affected by the floodwaters are unable to be worked on. The heavy rain caused the Pago River to overflow its banks with water levels reaching a record…