displacement

Despite the recent change of government, displaced Karen people hold little hope for justice while Myanmar’s military maintains its presence in ethnic lands. Monsoon rains drench the cluster of small bamboo huts clinging to the sides of the Salween River bank that separates Thailand from Myanmar. The 475 leaf-roofed huts are home to 3,356 Karen people that make up the…

Mae Tao Clinic located in the Thai border town of Mae Sot in Tak Province officially moved to a new purposed built hospital in an effort to keep providing care to people from Burma unable to access the country’s failed healthcare system. Dr. Cynthia Maung, the founder and director of Mae Tao clinic told reporters at the new clinic’s opening…

Funding for thousands of displaced Karen people living at Ei Tu Hta IDP camp face a daunting future as funding will stop in September 2017. Karen News is led to understand that the funding for basic food assistance for the displaced Karen people living at the IDP camp will end. Ei Tu Hta camp, located on the bank of the…

As the world celebrates Christmas, villagers in northern Burma have fled their their homes in fear Burma Army attacks. Burma Army offensives are underway in northern Shan State, with reports of a village being torched and civilians being used as forced labourers and guides. The Shan Human Rights Foundation, an ethnic community based organisation monitoring human rights abuses in Shan…

A humanitarian aid organisation said that Burma Army offensives during October and November have displaced more than 10,000 civilians,. The Free Burma Rangers, delivers medical aid and monitors conflict areas inside Burma, recorded 92 new armed clashes in parts of Northern Shan and Western Kachin State over the last two months, including attacks by Government aircraft, heavy artillery, and armoured…

Burma’s Government is engaged in the illegal displacement of thousands of its own citizens, a leading human rights organization has concluded. The New York based Physicians for Human Rights collected evidence of 8,000 people being relocated against their will to make way for dam projects in Shan State. One example cited in the report was the Upper Paunglaung dam, which…

Karen community-based-organizations have come to the aid of civilians displaced by fighting between government troops and the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army (DKBA) in Kawkareik Township. The Karen CBO’s have set up a committee to coordinate the assistance for the displaced people. The committee composed of nine members which includes Saw Lay Kway Doo, as negotiation official, Ko Aung San Oo…

Recent fighting between the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army and Government troops displaced more than 1,000 people from their homes, left them stranded and in urgent need of assistance for food, shelter and other basic items. The villagers fled their homes to avoid being caught in the conflict that started on July 2nd on the Myawaddy-Kawkariek Asia Highway. Today, three weeks…

The Dawei Special Economic Zone is threatening local peoples’ way of life, according to a report by the Tavoyan Women’s Union. The DSEZ, a joint venture of Thailand and Burma, has faced controversy since it’s inception with local and international human rights organisations expressing concerns over the project’s affect on the lives of people living in the zone. According to…

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).…