Kachin

Humanitarian groups say displaced refugees living in temporary camps in Kachin State are in desperate need for better shelter as the monsoon season nears. Fighting between the Burma Army and the Kachin Independent Army continues forcing more villagers into camps and increasing demands on the limited resources available. Moon Nay Li, a coordinator with the Kachin Women’s Association explained that…

Political reforms under President Thein Sein’s military-backed government threaten to be overshadowed by a major conflict in the country’s northernmost state. Post Views: 607

British Prime Minister David Cameron’s visit to Burma this week is the highest-level visit by a Western leader to the strife-torn country since United States secretary-of-state Hillary Clinton briefly visited in November last year. But despite reforms that have so far taken place, including allowing the leading opposition party, the NLD, to compete in April’s by-elections, human rights abuses are…

An ethnic Kachin leader, Dr. Htu Jar, will compete in Burma’s by-election scheduled for April 1st as an independent candidate. Dr. Htu Jar said he would run as individual representative as he had failed to get his proposed party registered for Burma’s national elections held in November 2010. “I don’t plan to form a party. Last year, I tried to…

To avoid being sent to the frontline, Burma Army officers are allegedly paying people who are HIV/AIDS positive to be tested and admitted to Mingaladon Military Hospital under the officer’s names in order to be excused military duty. A HIV/AIDS positive person who had been paid to be tested and admitted to hospital under a Burma Army captain’s name spoke…

Burma Army soldiers in Khapara village, Mansi Township in Kachin State, killed a Kachin mother while she was breastfeeding her three-week-old baby. The woman’s husband said soldiers came to where his family was hiding and stabbed his wife Daw Swan Kar Ryeh Taung’s to death. The woman’s grief-stricken husband said, Burma Army soldiers operating in the area, fatally stabbed Daw…

The Kachin Independence Army denied accusations made in Burma’s state run media that they had been involved in killing civilians. Lan Nan, a senior spokesperson for the KIA spoke to Karen News. “All statements made by the [Burma] government are totally false. The real culprit is the Burma Army who shelled from Khaung Phu village on the Irrawaddy River to…