Two Years On, Kachin People Push for Genuine and Just Peace

On Sunday, 9 June, sixty Kachin community organizations and Burma campaign groups in 21 countries around the world took part in a Global Day of Action today to mark the 2nd anniversary of resumed fighting between the Burma Army and the Kachin Independence Army that broke a 17-year ceasefire. Read the statement by these groups here.

Simultaneously in Rangoon, eighteen organizations came together and held a briefing that included the background and political and economic reasons for the conflict throughout the country and in Kachin State, as well as the current humanitarian crisis in camps for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). There was an emotional appeal from two IDP women to end the fighting and a sharing of the Burman perspective from our coordinator on the Buddhist Burman superiority complex that underlines ethnic conflict throughout the country. The briefing was attended by Rangoon-based diplomats, international non-governmental organizations and civil society organizations. See photos from the briefing here […]

Hundreds Demand Probe of Burmese Mine Crackdown Five Months On

Hundreds of villagers held a protest Monday to back their persistent calls for a government probe into a harsh crackdown on protesters against a controversial China-backed copper mine in northern Burma’s Sagaing division that left more than 100 injured and was strongly condemned by rights groups.

More than 500 people marched from Ton village in Sagaing to the office of the Letpadaung mine developer, demanding an end to the project and calling on authorities to prosecute those responsible for a Nov. 29 pre-dawn raid […]

Hundreds Protest Pipeline in Burma’s Rakhine State

Hundreds of residents protested Thursday against a China-backed petroleum pipeline project in western Burma’s Rakhine state over inadequate compensation and demands that the project developer provide better transportation infrastructure and higher salaries for local workers.

Around 400 people gathered to protest the Shwe Gas Project in Maday Island off the coast of Kyaukpyu town in the Bay of Bengal, also complaining that the project had polluted rivers which fishermen in the area had depended on for their catch […]

Hundreds Resume Letpadaung Mine Protest

More than 300 farmers in northern Burma’s Sagaing Division have resumed their protests against a controversial Chinese-backed copper mine, saying they will refuse compensation and continue to push for the mine’s complete closure.

“No matter how much compensation they give, we won’t accept it, because all we want is for the mine to be shut down completely,” said one of the farmers from the Letpadaung area near Monywa […]

Fate of Salween Dams Remains Unclear

Some 2,000 internally displaced people and villagers from the Wei Gyi area gathered on March 14 by the Salween riverbank to protest continued plans to construct six hydroelectric dams on the river.

The ceremony, which included prayer services by a Buddhist monk and a Christian pastor, was also attended by community leaders from Dawei, who themselves are resisting massive development projects in their area […]

Letpadaung Report Does Not Address Concerns, Places Security Forces Above the Law

This week the much anticipated report of the Letpadaung investigation commission, appointed by President Thein Sein and chaired by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, was finally released. The report acknowledges that the mine lacks strong environmental protection measures and would not create more jobs for local people. It also recognizes that farmers were forcibly evicted from their land to make way for the project. However the report says the copper mine project “should not be unilaterally stopped.” This recommendation deeply disappointed local farmers and activists who angrily rejected the commission’s report while the Wanbao Company welcomed it.

After the release of the report, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi visited the villages affected by the project to explain the findings of the commission. She called for the communities to stop opposing the project and accept compensation for their lost land. “We have asked the company to first give jobs to our people and second to maintain a healthy environment, according to international standards, and third to provide education and health care for the people,” Daw Aung San Suu Kyi said in a speech in Salingyi Township. But she was confronted by protesters who feel that the report does not acknowledge their demands […]

Burma Still Requires the UN Human Rights Council’s Attention

This week 22 organizations from Burma released a statement calling on the 22nd Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council to maintain its resolution on the situation of human rights in Burma under item 4 as “Human rights situations that require the Council’s attention” and to renew the full mandate of the Special Rapporteur Tomás Ojea Quintana. Serious human rights challenges that require the Council’s attention remain as the events of this week illustrate.

Border Security Forces in Arakan State allegedly raped 13 young Rohingya women. This highlights the serious remaining issues of the rampant culture of impunity for security forces and the Burma Army and the decades-long discrimination against the Rohingya organized and perpetuated by the government.

In Kachin State, despite ceasefire talks, fighting continued this week making more and more victims on the civilian side […]

Rangoon Car Dealers Protest Eviction from Hanthawady Market

Used-car dealers opposed to local government efforts to shut down Burma’s largest car-trading market held protests on Friday after municipal authorities sealed off the compound.

On Feb. 16, the Yangon City Development Committee (YCDC) ordered all businesses at the Hanthawady car-trading market to relocate by the end of February. The market sits on an 8.6-acre plot of land owned by the YCDC, which is planning to set up a housing project there […]

Burmese Mine Activists Hold Hunger Strike

More than two dozen villagers staged a hunger strike in northern Burma Thursday over the lack of progress in an official investigation into the feasibility of a controversial Chinese-backed copper mine they say has occupied their land and is polluting the area.

The 26 representatives of 26 villages situated around the site of the Letpadaung copper mine project at Sarlingyi township in Burma’s Sagaing division said the fast was also to protest inaction against police who launched a brutal crackdown on protesters at the site exactly three months ago […]

Land Protest Leaves One Dead, Dozens Injured

One policeman is dead and dozens of police and protesters were injured following clashes that broke out on Tuesday over efforts to end a demonstration by farmers demanding the return of confiscated farmland.

According to local officials in Maubin Township, Irrawaddy Division, 27 police and 15 farmers were injured in the melee that erupted after police moved in to break up the protest at around 6 pm on Tuesday […]