Articles

Earlier this July, 157 refugees more from camps along the Thai-Burma border returned to Burma. This was the fourth group officially to voluntarily return facilitated by UNHCR and government officials from Burma and Thailand. As with previous returnees, the new group went to the Kyauk Lone Gyi reception center located in the Burma border town Myawaddy and welcomed by government…

On World Refugee Day, 2019, the Karen Peace Support Network (KPSN) issued a statement calling on the European Union, United Kingdom and other donors to support refugees and IDPs in eastern Burma and Thailand. With the peace building process stalled and without any guaranteed political solutions, it is impossible for the refugees and displaced people to return to their original…

This year’s World Refugee Day Today is marked with a global call for people to #StepWithRefugees. On the Thai-Burma border, refugees who recently returned to their homeland are concerned how to make a living and look after their families. Since 2016, and encouraged by recent political changes in Burma, 729 people from the nine refugee camps on the Thai Burma…

Hundreds of Karen representatives from 56 different groups gathered to strengthen Karen customary land management systems at a seminar held at Lay Wah, Karen State from May 29 to 30, 2019. The Kaw Customary Land Seminar was attended by 519 people including representatives from local community and civil society, donors, INGOs, political parties, and officers of the Karen National Union.…

The two Myanmar based Reuters journalists, Wa Lone, 33, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 29, charged under and jailed for breaking the country’s Official Secrets Act were released from prison after spending 500 days behind bars. The two journalists convicted in September 2018 and sentenced to seven years in jail for what human rights group denounced as a set-up. Phil Robertson,…

Long-time refugees on the Thai-Myanmar border face cuts in rations but say they cannot return to areas where fighting is ongoing. International aid for refugees and displaced people in camps on the Thai-Myanmar border has been slashed since Myanmar’s first supposedly democratic government was elected four years ago. The assumption underpinning this cut in funding was that conditions are, or…

The Karen Organization of America have sent an open letter calling for the United States to sanction General Min Aung Hlaing, Burma’s Commander-in-Chief for abuses and crimes committed against ethnic people. The KOA sent the letter endorsed by its 22 member organizations to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Senators on April 24 calling for sanctions against Senior General…

Naw Ohn Hla, a land right and political activist together with four colleagues were arrested in Myawaddy after a protest over a controversial housing project on April 22, 2019. Naw Ohn Hla was arrested while traveling to Yangon on the night of April 22 after she joined with residents of the Shwe Mya Sandi Housing Project to protest the lost…

The proposal to expand the Taungalay new town housing project in Sanpree village tract, Hpa-An Township got the green light from the State Parliament on April 3. The proposal by U Than Naing, State Minister of Project, Finance and Municipal was raised during the first day of the 10th regular parliament session on April 1st, 2019. Minister U Than Naing…

The Burma Army, ignoring the concerns and objections of both the Karen National Union and local villagers, are planning to move ahead with plans to build road in Kyaukgyi Township of Eastern Bago Region. Despite local residents and the Karen National Union’s rejection of its plans to build the road, the Burma Army have secured government funding for its ‘local…