Justice for the Killing of Journalist by Burma Army Must be Found

News of the murder of a journalist by the Burma Army while being held in custody should send shockwaves across the country and beyond, but sadly it is not much of a surprise for those who are aware of the abusive nature of the most powerful institution in Burma. What will transpire next will be a clear indicator of the Government’s will to pursue justice and end the impunity that the Burma Army has enjoyed for so long. Not many are optimistic.

Aung Kyaw Naing, also known as Ko Par Gyi, was a freelance journalist covering the recent clashes in eastern Burma between the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army (DKBA) and the Burma Army and its’ proxy Border Guard Force (BGF). After visiting Kyaikmayaw, Mon State, the scene of heavy clashes in September 2014, Ko Par Gyi went missing. His wife, Ma Than Dar, began to search for him and held a press conference on 21 October in Rangoon stating that he was being held in custody by the Burma Army and demanded his immediate release. Just a few days later, a statement was issued to the Myanmar Press Council (Interim) by an aide to commander-in-chief of the armed forces, Min Aung Hlaing, that detailed Ko Par Gyi’s death while in custody. The statement claims that Ko Par Gyi was a captain for the Klohtoobaw Karen Organization (KKO), the political wing of the DKBA, and was shot dead while trying to escape. The DKBA has denied that Ko Par Gyi was indeed a member of their organization […]

Journalist Killed in Military Custody in Burma

Bangkok, October 24, 2014–Burma’s army shot dead freelance reporter Aung Kyaw Naing while the journalist was in military custody, according to news reports. The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the journalist’s killing, the first in Burma since 2007[…]

ဒုတိယ/ဗိုလ္မွဴးႀကီး ေစာဆန္းေအာင္အား တာ၀န္မွရုတ္သိမ္းၿပီး တပ္ဖြဲ႕မွ ထုတ္ပယ္ျခင္း

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) […]

New Burma Army offensive in Karen State linked to Salween dam plans

Salween Watch is gravely concerned at the recent escalation of fighting and displacement in Karen state, Burma/Myanmar, which is linked to plans by the Burma Army to clear the way for the planned Hut Gyi Dam on the Salween […]

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 […]