Karen Armed Forces Statement on Reunification (ကရင္အမ်ဳိးသား လက္နက္ကိုင္ ေတာ္လွန္ေရးတပ္ဖြဲ႔မ်ား ျပန္လည္ေပါင္းစည္းျခင္း သေဘာတူညီခ်က္)

1. In accordance with the wishes of the Karen people, we, the forces of KNLA, KNDO, DKBA and KNU/KNLA-PC have unanimously reunified as the (Kawthoolei Armed Forces – KAF) […]

Heavy Shelling during Renewed Burma Army Offensive Causes Civilian Deaths and Further Displacement of Hundreds in Central Shan State

Burma Army operations against the Shan State Progress Party/Shan State Army (a.k.a Shan State Army-North or SSA-N) in central Shan State since early October have caused widespread damage, loss of civilian lives, and further displacement of hundreds of villagers in Ke township […]

Replacing Impunity with Accountability

On September 21st, the body of Saw Ta Noh, a private in the Karen National Liberation Army’s (KNLA) 6th Brigade, was found in the Moei River, near Myawaddy, after having been arrested on September 16th by soldiers from Border Guard Force (BGF) Battalion #1022.Captain Hla Min […]

Silent Offensive: How Burma Army Strategies are Fuelling the Kachin Drug Crisis

Summary

This report, based on interviews with Kachin drug users, their family members, drug sellers, and community leaders in eight townships of northern Burma, paints a disturbing picture of the drug crisis in Kachin areas. It shows how the renewed conflict against the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) since June 2011 is fuelling drug production and worsening existing drug abuse among Kachin communities. […]

New report by Kachin Women’s Association Thailand: Burmese Military Strategies Fuelling Kachin Drug Crisis

A new report exposes how anti-insurgency strategies of the Burma Army are fuelling the drug crisis in Kachin areas, particularly since the renewal of conflict against the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) in 2011 […]

“Winds of Change” Blow a Gale of Human Rights Abuses

Burma’s Foreign Minister, Wunna Maung Lwin, gave a glowing report on the progress towards democracy and respect for human rights in Burma at the UN General Assembly (UNGA) yet given the deteriorating human rights situation on the ground, it is difficult not to view his words as a North Korean-esque sting in the tail.
Wunna Maung Lwin specifically requested that Burma be taken off the agenda of the Human Rights Council as well as the Third Committee of the UNGA, citing that “all major concerns related to human rights have been addressed to a larger extent in the new Myanmar.” Yet on closer inspection, this statement is preposterous, with the realities on the ground providing a striking contrast to these words.

Remarking on the peace process, the government is apparently “serious in its commitment” to making this work. The problem is that the government and the Burma Army say and do different things. As the government is making promises to ethnic armed groups, the Burma Army is still launching offensives in Kachin State and northern Shan State. Even with groups that have a ceasefire, the Burma Army continues its aggression, as seen in Kyeithi Township, Shan State over the weekend where it attacked Shan State Army – North positions yet again. Around 300 villagers have been forced to flee in this township alone in recent months due to attacks. This is emblematic of the current state of the peace process, where too much attention has been placed on the signing of a nationwide ceasefire agreement. Yet as recent clashes indicate, a ceasefire simply isn’t enough to rein in the Burma Army, and this state of affairs remains volatile, as the recent briefing paper produced by Burma Partnership explains […]

Michaungkan Protestors Stand Fast as Deadline Passes

As Saturday dawned, dozens of protestors from the Rangoon suburb of Michaungkan, who have been conducting a vigil outside Maha Bandula Park in the city centre to protest land grabs, were still occupying the public street despite a 3 October deadline ordered by local police to dismantle their camp and leave.

As Friday’s deadline struck, police did not appear at the protest site where many feared that force might once again be used to disperse the villagers […]

Arakanese Remembered Monk Revolution in Sittwe

The people of Burma remembered the monk revolution in various parts of the country. The Arakanese capital city of Sittwe also held the commemoration ceremony where 90 monks received donations from the devotees.

The 8th anniversary of monk revolution was jointly organized on 27 September by the Arakanese Young Monk Association (for maintaining discipline and welfare to the people), Youth Association of Mizzan Quarter (in Sittwe) and the students & youths of Mizzan Duarter […]

အမ်ဳိးသားဒီမိုကေရစီအဖြဲ႔ခ်ဳပ္ တည္ေထာင္ျခင္း (၂၆)ႏွစ္ေျမာက္ ႏွစ္ပတ္လည္ေန႔ ေၾကညာခ်က္အမွတ္-၁၀ / ၀၉ / ၂၀၁၄

SYCB’s Statement on the International Day of Peace

In order to immediately implement genuine peace in Burma, the students and youth wanting peace will organize a Peace Day Movement on the 21st of September 2014. This will be done in cooperation with local citizen from different ethnicities and together with community based organizations. This union of the civil society will through different activities carried out during the day create a foundation for long-lasting peace […]