AIPMC Statement on Current Military Offensive and Rights Abuse by the Myanmar Army in Ethnic Areas

Monitor recent rape cases, reject Myanmar’s bid to chair ASEAN and cut financial lifelines for despots, AIPMC urges ASEAN

The ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus (AIPMC) is deeply concerned about atrocities against civilians following Myanmar Army offensives against ethnic armed groups in Shan State and Kachin State in Myanmar, notably sexual violence against women and girls, including gang-rape by order of high level officials […]

Local Communities Launch Campaign against Thai Coal Mine and Power Plant in Eastern Shan State

Impacted communities today launched a campaign to oppose plans by Thai investors to develop a coal mine and power plant in conflict-ridden eastern Shan State […]

Save Mong Kok from Coal

The Italian-Thai Power Company has entered into agreements with the Burmese military regime to develop an open-pit coal mine and power plant at Mong Kok in eastern Shan State, to export both coal and power to Thailand […]

Burma Army gives rapists free rein in northern Shan State offensive

The Burma Army is clearly authorizing rape as a terror tactic in its offensive against the Shan State Army-North (SSA-N), according to information documented by the Shan Women’s Action Network (SWAN) and the Shan Human Rights Foundation (SHRF) […]

Ethnic Areas Update: Burma Heads Toward Civil War

In hostilities that began in February, the Tatmadaw rebuked longstanding ceasefire agreements with the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) and the Shan State Army – North (SSA-N). In May and June, Tatmadaw attacks in Southern Kachin State and Northern and Southern Shan State escalated […]

Energy-hungry China winces as civil war unfolds in Burma

Heavy fighting over the past week close to Burma’s northern border will concern Beijing, who told visiting Burmese President Thein Sein last month that stability along the volatile frontier must be made a priority of the new government. Hundreds of millions of dollars in overland trade passes through several official crossings along the border each year; millions more is smuggled by timber merchants, drug mules and human trafficking rackets. The value of maintaining the unimpeded flow of trade is crucial to both Burma and China’s developing southern Yunnan province […]

Hydropower Dams Fuelling Conflict in Burma

Recent fighting near the Dapein and Shweli hydropower dams in northern Burma shows how the buildup of Burma Army troops to secure deeply unpopular Chinese dam projects is fuelling conflict.

Fighting broke out between the Burma Army and the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) last week at the Dapein No. 1 and 2 dams, which are being constructed by China’s state-owned Datang Company […]

Monopoly Tea Farms

A new briefer on the tea farming crisis in Northern Shan State where the majority of ethnic Palaung people reside. The briefer highlights the monopoly in the tea leaf business by local tea factories, and how the decline in tea price effects the farmer population.

Because of this monopoly, the main source of income of the Ta’ang people is in crisis, and the local population is facing economic, social, educational and health problems. This briefer explains how the residents cannot balance the high price of rice and other basic food with the income earned from their tea farms […]

The Collapse of Tea Market, Plunges Tea Farmers into Crisis

Ta’ang (Palaung) Working Group has revealed and released a briefing paper on the huge economic crisis that Ta’ang people are facing in 2011 due to the decline of tea prices and the collapse of the tea market […]

Ordered Out: The Costs of Building Burma’s Upper Paunglaung Dam

A group of European and Chinese investors is currently building a dam to power Burma’s military capital which will force 8,000 mostly indigenous people from their homes by October this year. The forced relocation will leave villagers destitute: each household must tear down their home and abandon their farm fields […]