FROM THE DVB NEWSROOM Lao Special Envoy discusses Five-Point Consensus with regime  The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Special Envoy, Alounkeo Kittikhoun, discussed the Five-Point...

Seven Red Shan villagers were said to have been abducted by the Kachin Independent Army (KIA) on 11 March in Bhamo district, according to the Shan Ethnic Affairs Organisation.

A Shan rights group claims that the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) is still detaining 17 Red Shan villagers said to have been released on 20 December. According to the Shan Ethnic Affairs Organisation (SEAO), only four of the villagers have returned home, leaving the rest unaccounted for.

A local government official tells DVB that 26 ehnic Shan villagers who had been abducted by the Kachin Independence Army in Mansi township have been released by the rebel group.

The Kachin Independence Army (KIA) has denied allegations by the Taileng (Red Shan) Nationalities Development Party (TNDP) that dozens of ethnic Red Shan villagers were abducted by KIA troops in northern Burma’s Kachin state.

Naw Aye Aye Hlaing of the Rangoon-based NGO Women Can Do It Myanmar discusses the need for changes in women’s roles in Burmese society.