Burma army

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.…

In a rare statement read out on the national state-controlled television last week, Burma’s government urged ethnic groups engaged in armed conflict to contact regional governments to start the process for ceasefire talks. Saw Khar Su Nyar reports. Naing Han Tha, secretary general, of the newly formed ethnic armed groups alliance, United Nationalities Federal Council, said the Burma government would…

The Karen National Union denied reports in Burma’s state controlled newspapers that claimed that on August 8 an attack by Karen fighters had wounded two children in Karen state. Major Saw Kler Doh, an office manager with the Karen National Liberation Army in Brigade 5, based in the Papun District blamed the incident on the Burma Army. Major Saw Kler…

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…

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…

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…

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…

Reports this week from Kachin and Shan States confirm rape is still being used as a tactic by the Burma Army to demoralise and terrorise ethnic communities. Shirley Seng, a spokeswomen working with the Kachin Women’s Association Thailand, told Karen News that since June 9, Burma army soldiers have raped 32 women. “No woman is safe from these soldiers. In…

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…

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…