Articles

Recent fighting between a breakaway Border Guard Force faction and a group under the control of the Burma Army drove more than 130 villagers in Hlaingbwe Township region from their homes. The villagers are now seeking temporary safety along the Thai Burma border. The fighting in Hlaingbwe Township area is the latest in a series of clashes between the two…

Forcibly recruited, Maung Lwin Soe served 10 years before he escaped from the Burma army. He tells Karen News reporter, Chamu, his story. In 2002, Maung Lwin Soe (not real name) from Bo Ga Lay town, in the Irrawaddy Delta visited his aunt who lived in Rangoon. When he arrived in Rangoon he was stopped by a plainclothes officer and…

Residents of Mae Ra Ma Luang refugee camp in northern Thailand are bracing themselves against further flooding that has already swamped 400 houses, made 2,000 people homeless, destroyed 2,000 sacks of rice and hundreds of bags of other essential foodstuffs. Heavy monsoon rains lashed the north of Thailand last week and earlier this week breaking the banks of the Mae…

August heavy monsoon rains have been lashing the northern area along the Thai Burma border. The constant deluge broke the banks of Mae Sariang River in Mae Hong Song province after the constant pressure from the floodwaters. This had a devastating effect on Mae Ra Ma Luang refugee camp. Hundreds of refugees were evacuated when flooding swamped their houses. Mae…

Farmers in the Nyaungliebin District of Karen State say the combination of severe weather that destroyed most of their crops and an out-of-control Burma Army stealing their foodstocks and livestock means many people now face starvation. Chamu reports. Villagers in Mone Township, Nyaungliebin District, Karen State, from both the lowland and the highland areas, are facing food scarcity. Unseasonable rains…

Fighting between Border Guard Force factions forced 14 village schools in Hlaingbwe Township area to close. The fighting erupted after breakaway fighters and Border Guard Force soldiers loyal to the Burma Army clashed. The renegade faction unhappy with demands and controls exerted on the BGF by the Burma Army, reformed under their old flag – the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army.…

Last week a researcher from the Karen Human Rights Group witnessed villagers in the Palu area been used as forced labor by the Burma Army. The KHRG eye-witness account comes on the back of other reports of forced labor occurring in other areas of Karen State in recent months. In June as many as 400 villagers in Kyaukgyi Township were…

The Karen National Union has issued a warning to rogue companies operating in Karen areas that if they exploit local people, destroy the environment they will be forced to leave and take their business elsewhere. The KNU’s general secretary, Naw Zipporah Sein, said. “Any company that does not get KNU official permission and confiscates land belonging to villagers will be…

Yesterday Italian-Thai company workers were evacuated back to Thailand to escape fighting between Karen fighters and Burma army soldiers near their camp base. A Karen National Liberation Army source told Karen News, that on the morning of the 28 July KNLA fighter from Brigade 4 torched a temporary Burma Army camp on the Kanchanaburi-Tavoy highway. The Italian-Thai Company camp, known…

Amid much fanfare the new Burma education minister announced in April this year that all compulsory primary education would be free in the academic year 2011 to 2012. Parents in Karen State say it is now July and so far the much-lauded free education has yet to materalize as promised. A mother of students attending Pa-an Town high school told…