SWAN Denounces Burma Army Build-up and Rape in Central Shan State

SWAN strongly denounces the Burma Army build-up around the Shan ceasefire area in Ke See township, central Shan State, which led to the rape of a young disabled woman on the eve of the November 7 election.

Since November 3, more than 1,000 new troops have been deployed from other parts of Shan State to areas adjacent to territory of the Shan State Army-North (SSA-N) First Brigade […]

New Rail Link to Eastern Shan State Spells War Escalation

Shan rights groups today launched a campaign against the new Mong Nai-Kengtung railway, denouncing it an expansion of the Burmese regime’s war apparatus in Shan State. In recent months the regime has accelerated construction of the planned 361-km railway, the first rail link across the Salween River to eastern Shan State. The Shan Women’s Action Network (SWAN) and Shan Human Rights Foundation (SHRF) have documented how thousands of acres of farmlands have been confiscated along the route. Farmers complaining have been told the railroad is an “army project” and threatened with prison[…]

Burma: The Current State of Women in Conflict Areas – A Shadow Report to the 22nd Session of CEDAW

The report focuses on education, health, State-perpetrated violence against women, and poverty, particularly as these issues relate to women in Burma’s rural conflict areas.

Burma’s ruling military regime, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), in its various incarnations, has controlled the country since 1962. One of the SPDC’s chief preoccupations since it seized power has been to maintain “national unity and solidarity,” which it has attempted to accomplish through force […]