Myanmar Must End Its Policy of Segregation in Rakhine State: ASEAN’s Inability to Act Points to Institutional Failures

The Myanmar government’s policy of segregating Muslim and Buddhist communities in Rakhine State is compounding a humanitarian crisis there, while ASEAN’s failure to positively influence the situation points to continued institutional failures in the regional grouping, the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus (AIPMC) said today […]

Campaigners Criticise “Premature” Burma Debt Cancellation

$5.9 billion to be written-off and new loans to military dictatorship to begin.

Western countries, in a body called the Paris Club, have agreed to cancel 50 per cent of the debt owed to them by Burma. The World Bank and Asian Development Bank have also agreed to start lending to the Burmese government again. The move comes after the Burmese government signed-up to a set of IMF economic conditions earlier this month […]

Statement to the Chinese Consulate, Chiang Mai

Since the resumption of conflict between the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and the Burmese government army in June 2011, it has been the government which has been one-sidedly launching offensives for the past 19 months. This has caused over 100,000 Kachin people, including women and children, to flee their homes and seek safe shelter elsewhere […]

Statement to the US Consulate, Chiang Mai

Since the resumption of conflict between the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and the Burmese government army in June 2011, it has been the government which has been one-sidedly launching offensives for the past 19 months. This has caused over 100,000 Kachin people, including women and children, to flee their homes and seek safe shelter elsewhere […]

Ongoing Conflict in Burma’s Kachin State

The United States is deeply concerned by ongoing violence in Burma’s Kachin State. Despite the Burmese government’s announcement that a ceasefire was to take effect on January 19, media and NGO reports indicate that the Burmese Army continues a military offensive in the vicinity of the Kachin Independence Army headquarters in Laiza […]

BURMA: Villager and Monk Brutally and Bizarrely Tortured for a Week to Confess to Rape and Murder

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received extensive information about the case of a young man and a monk whom police accused of raping and murdering a young woman and tortured brutally for a week in 2010 in order to force a confession with which to convict the two. Despite the retraction of the confession in court, the judge convicted the two men and omitted any reference to the alleged torture from the verdict. For the last two years the two have languished in prison. They have now appealed to the president for their release […]

EU Should Re-Introduce Visa Ban on Military

We, the undersigned members and observers of the European Burma Network, condemn the ongoing attacks on the Kachin people and call on the international community to put pressure on President Thein Sein and the Burmese Army to immediately end the military offensive in Northern Burma and allow access to humanitarian aid for internally displaced persons […]

BURMA: Dossier of Cases From Kachin State Released

The Asian Human Rights Commission on Monday released a special dossier of recent cases of arrest, detention, torture and extortion carried out by Burma military and police personnel in Kachin State.

The 36 cases from 2012 have all been conducted under the Unlawful Associations Act, 1908, a draconian colonial-era statute under which contact with groups that the government identifies as “unlawful” constitutes a criminal offence. The cases in the 69-page dossier have all been brought against people for alleged contact with the Kachin Independence Army […]

Urgent Call on ASEAN to Help Halt Intensifying Conflict in Kachin State in Burma

We are movements and organizations calling on the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) to add its voice and heed mounting international calls for an immediate stop to the continuing attacks on the Kachin people in Burma.

The Asia Pacific Solidarity Coalition (APSOC) and the signatories below urges all ASEAN governments to end its silence on the humanitarian challenges happening within its own backyard and compel the Burmese government to stand down and stop the violence it is perpetrating in Kachin state […]

Press Release on the Ceasefire Announcement at the Laja Yang by the Burmese Government on 18th January 2013

1). The Burmese army continues unjust military offensives in Laja Yang and other parts of Kachinland despite the Burmese government announcing a one-sided deceptive ceasefire applied only to Laja Yang area […]