Burma

The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners has said in a statement that Burma’s government is suppressing the country’s press in ways reminiscent of the country’s previous military dictatorship. The AAPP statement referred to the sentencing of five journalists from Unity Weekly to 10 years imprisonment for allegedly disclosing state secrets and the detainment of a further five journalists from Bi…

Five journalists from Burma’s Unity Journal have been sentenced to 10 years in prison for ‘disclosing state secrets,’ – Amnesty International warned that it was a “dark day for freedom of expression” in Burma. The five Unity Journal journalists were arrested between the 31st of January and the 1st of February following their involvement in an investigative report on an…

When three villagers from rural Myanmar visited Tokyo earlier this month they came equipped with an unusual itinerary. Rather than spend time exploring the city’s urban jungle, the first trip any of them made out of Southeast Asia was to hand-deliver a complaint letter to the obscure compliance department of Japan’s overseas aid coordinator, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).…

Thailand’s National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), has reached an agreement with the commander-in-chief of Burma’s military to repatriate the 120,000 refugees on the Thai Burma border. The agreement has alarmed human rights experts and has increased refugees concerns, with uncertainty as to exactly when and where the refugees will go and how their safety can be guaranteed. Head…

Mae Tao Clinic and the Burma Children Medical Fund, on the Thai Burma border, welcomed the arrival of more than 140 wheelchairs, donated for young children in need. The Burma Children Medical Fund organized the wheelchairs for the cross-border community with the help of several other organisations including Wheelchairs for Kids in Perth, Australia, Allied Pickfords Thailand, the Rotary Club…

As monsoon rains sweep across Burma from India, villagers in Karen State and along the Thai Burma border are prey to malaria. In the last 10 years, the fight against the malaria parasite has seen dramatic decreases in deaths. The World Health Organisation estimates that there has been a 42% reduction in mortality rates from the parasite in the last…

A legal appeal by the human rights advocacy group to make public details of the Britain’s training of Burma’s military has succeeded. The human rights advocacy group, Burma Campaign UK, said it had been notified by the British Ministry of Defence that they had won their appeal against a decision not to release details of training in which members of…

An estimated 38 million people are living with HIV globally. Half a million of those are in Thailand and a further 200,000 in Burma. Yet HIV is treated with harsh stigma in the two countries, where people suffer discrimination, are abused – some kill themselves. People from Burma and Thailand who had HIV spoke to Karen News of how they…

Burma’s election body, the Union Electoral Commission (UEC), has been accused of intimidating the opposition party, the National League for Democracy, after warning the NLD Chairwoman, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, of violating the country’s constitution at a political rally earlier this month. In a letter to the NLD, the UEC claimed that Chairwoman Aung San Suu Kyi had made…

Hundreds of young Karen people dressed in their traditional clothing file into a large open-air building in Karen State, a booming series of “hello… hello… hello…” tests a sound system stacked on the edge of a stage. The traditional dress sound system and stage are signs that the Karen Youth Organisation’s celebrated its 25th year in May, more than one…