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The US special envoy and policy coordinator for Burma, Mr Derek Mitchell, urged the recently elected government to investigate human rights abuses reported in ethnic area as a first step for national reconciliation. After concluding his first trip to Burma, Mr Mitchell read out a press statement that stated he “affirmed the government on the importance of establishing a legitimate…

In a media statement released yesterday, the Karen National Union say they have reason to believe the Burma government and its armed militia, the Border Guard Force, plotted to smear the KNU as drug runners. The KNU were responding to media reports in Thai newspapers and on television that two men arrested by border patrol police and a village headman…

The Karen National Union said it had grave doubts that the Burma government’s recent declaration to European officials that it was wanted peace with ethnic groups was a blatant attempt to please the international community. Kristalina Georgieva, the European Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response, recently returned from Burma after a two-day humanitarian visit told reporters in…

Earlier this month Thai authorities in Tak province instructed Nu Po refugee camp officials to list all residents and sort them into three categories. Saw Thoo Lei Doh Soe, secretary of Nu Po camp committee said the instruction from the provincial Tak officials to the Thai administrators in the camp was to list refugees into the following three categories –…

The United States Special Envoy and Policy Coordinator for Burma, Derek Mitchell sees the current Burma political situation as a work-in-progress, according to the National League for Democracy. NLD spokesman U Ohn Kyaing said that Mr. Mitchell made that statement after meeting with members of NLD central executive committee and the Committee Representing People’s Parliament at Aung San Suu Kyi’s…

A severe influenza outbreak among school children in Si Poe Khee village, Pai Kyone Township last week has so far infected more than 40 children. Saw Mu Ka Paw, the Si Poe Khee school’s head master said many children were unable to attend school and people are worried the influenza will infect adults. “We don’t have any clinic in our…

In retaliation for a state controlled newspaper report that declared the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army was extinct, DKBA fighters attacked three different tollgates under the control of the Burma Army in Kawkareik Town, Karen State late last week. The attacks happened in the afternoon and were led by the DKBA’s Klo Htoo Wah unit and targeted the Burma Army’s Infantry…

A Democratic Karen Buddhist Army commander told Karen News that the breakaway DKBA factions that refused to give up their Karen identity and come under the direct control of the Burma Army by becoming members of the Border Guard Force have begun restructuring their political and military aims. The decision was taken at a meeting in August that involved all…

A Mon human rights group accused a cement company of confiscating land belonging to villagers without paying the owners adequate compensation for their land. Burma’s state run Kyaymon, newspaper reported last week that two more cement companies will be built near Kaw Pa Naw village in Kyaikmayaw Township, Mon State. The two private companies; John Company and PAC Link Trading…

The Burma government’s recently implemented Border Guard Force in Karen State continues to see its soldiers’ desert to join up with opposition forces. This week another 30 soldiers aligned themselves to the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army battalion in the Myaing Gyi Ngu area and led by Major Saw Beeh. Brigadier General Saw Jonny, the commander of the Karen National Union…