The human rights and humanitarian crisis in Arakan State, western Burma, was highlighted today in the British Parliament at a meeting chaired by Baroness Kinnock, Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Democracy in Burma.
Speakers included Benedict Rogers, East Asia Team Leader at Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), Maung Tun Khin, President of the Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK, and Chris Lewa of the Arakan Project […]
• • •Allow Humanitarian Agencies Unfettered Access
Several thousand ethnic Kachin refugees from Burma are isolated in Yunnan, China, where they are at risk of return to a conflict zone and lack needed humanitarian aid. The Chinese government should immediately provide temporary protection and allow United Nations and humanitarian agencies unhindered access to Kachin refugees in Yunnan who have fled wartime abuses in Burma […]
• • •As the situation in northern Rakhine State remains very tense, Myanmar authorities should ensure full and unfettered humanitarian access to displaced people, and conduct an independent and impartial investigation into recent communal violence, Amnesty International said in a statement today […]
• • •“The recent humanitarian crisis in Kachin state and the worsening sectarian violence in Arakan clearly illustrate that despite the perceived democratic reforms, human rights violations continue to thrive in Burma. Today, we offer this birthday candle for Daw Aung San Suu Kyi to give a light of hope to the peoples of Arakan and Kachin who still live in darkness” […]
• • •The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has expanded distributions of emergency food supplies to thousands of people displaced by inter-communal violence in Myanmar’s Northern Rakhine State. In a remote region, short of basic infrastructure, WFP moved early to reach those affected and will scale up operations further in the coming days […]
• • •Following the sudden escalation of violence some 10 days ago, the situation in Myanmar’s Rakhine state remains tense. The efforts of Myanmar authorities to restore law and order are continuing. There are, however, reports of sporadic incidents and violence.
According to initial government estimates, at least 48,000 people have been displaced by the violence that erupted last week. We expect this number to continue to grow as further information becomes available […]
• • •Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) today welcomed Aung San Suu Kyi’s arrival in the United Kingdom and urged the British government to heed her call for increased aid to Burmese refugees along the Thailand-Burma border, which was made in her Nobel Peace Prize Lecture in Oslo on 16 June […]
• • •Burma Campaign UK today called on Andrew Mitchell, Secretary of State for International Development, to respond to Aung San Suu Kyi’s call in her Nobel Peace Prize speech for increased funding for refugees from Burma by doubling funding for the Thailand Burma Border Consortium (TBBC), which provides food and shelter to the refugees […]
• • •From June 5-7, 2012, over sixty people, including local democratically-elected development committee leaders, representing about 7,000 villagers from 23 villages in two townships, met at the Karen State-Thai border to discuss the current peace negotiation process between the Karen National Union (KNU) and the government. The purpose of the forum, facilitated by Karen civil society, was to allow input by Karen farmers and other community-based groups into the current peace process and publicly share this with all relevant stakeholders […]
• • •Around 40 people staged a protest at the Burmese Embassy in Bangkok today to criticize the ongoing armed conflict and humanitarian crisis in Kachin State. The protesters, members of the Kachin community in Bangkok and representatives from the Overseas National Students of Burma, read out a statement and the text of a letter addressed to President Thein Sein calling for an end to the crisis situation […]
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