Articles

Karen News reporters investigate persistent rumours that a dam site is being prepared for construction in Southern Burma. The site, on the Tenasserim River, is causing concern among villagers in the area who claim that a Thai company has been surveying the area and plans to build a hydro-power dam on the river that means villagers will be evicted and…

The desertion, in April of a 1,000 Border Guard Force soldiers from under the control of the Burma Army has given a huge boost to other Karen armed groups. Karen News reporter Saw K’ Shee has just returned from interviewing the renegade BGF leader, Major Saw Beeh at his undisclosed jungle headquarters. The former BGF fighters are well organised. They…

Humanitarian groups accuse Burmese government soldiers of committing war crimes against ‘convict porters’ used in frontline conditions A joint report by the New York based Human Rights Watch and the Thai Burma border based Karen Human Rights Group – “Dead Men Walking: Convict Porters on the Front Lines in Eastern Burma” was released today in Bangkok at the Foreign Correspondents…

Karen National Liberation Army sources confirmed their fighters killed two Burma army soldiers and wounded four others in an ambush on the Kler Day road, Karen State on 2 July. The sources said the dead included a Burma army battalion commander Major Eh Hser Hser, office manager of KNLA Brigade 7 told Karen News that their soldiers ambushed Burma army…

Residents of Hlaingbwe Town are still fighting floodwaters that swamped central Karen State last month. Town people say flooding caused by heavy rains broke the banks of the Hlaingbwe River in late June, putting many residential areas under water. Government officials say the amount of aid allocated for victims is not enough. A civil servant working in Hlaingbwe town told…

Threats from Burma army have forced more than 30 farmers in the Papun district of Karen state to abandon their farms and plantations. The villagers from Bu Tho Township sought help from the Karen National Union after the Burma army forced villagers to carry army supplies. A statement released by the KNU alleges the Burma army Light Infantry Brigade 214…

Following a spate of attacks by unknown gunmen and bombers against a businessman with links to the Burma army and other military target in and around Three Pagoda Pass Town, authorities have increased security and the number of checkpoints in the area. Residents say checkpoints are manned 24 hours and army presence in the town is now highly visible. A…

Heavy rains battering eastern Burma have destroyed many rice farms cultivated by displaced Karen people. Humanitarian groups on the Thai Burma border say these people will face a food crisis at the next harvest. Naw Iris, a coordinator with the Committee of Internally Displaced Karen People (CIDKP) overseeing the Pa-an and Doo Pla Ya Districts spoke to Karen News about…

The Burma government has repeatedly denied the use of forced labor to international organisations, but villagers from Dweh Loe township in Papun district say the Burma army has forced men, women and including children, some as young as 11 to porter rations for their troops. In March 2010, in his report to the UN Human Rights Council, Tomas Ojea Quintana,…

Since July 2010, Burma’s military regime has insisted on keeping the Myawaddy-Mae Sot border checkpoint closed in retaliation for what it claims was the unofficial construction of a concrete embankment on the Thai side. A year has almost passed and the border crossing between Mae Sot and Myawaddy is still closed. In spite of rumours that it would open after…