In most Ta’ang villages in Northern Shan state, the Burmese military and TNLA fight almost every day and the Ta’ang people feel unsafe. On 22nd November, 2014, the Burmese military group LID (77), Battalion under the command of Brigade (IB) No. (106) and TNLA IB (256) fought in Kyautme division, Namhsan Township, Pasari village and […]
Ta’ang Cultures Day 2006,
Most of young and middle aged people from the villages in Namhsan Township of Northern Shan State go to work in poppy fields during the tea harvesting season. “Men go to work at poppy fields mostly. When we work on poppy farms, two to three people work together. This way is suitable and also not so bad for us” […]
Drug users, including youth and old men, have increased every year in Namhsan, Kutekai, Namkham and Man Ton Townships. Apart from Northern Shan State in Moegoke Township and Namsan(South), Kalaw and Yetsout in Southern Shan State have also increased. Drug addiction leads to many problems in families. More and more families in these areas are upset about the increased drug use. “There […]
People in the norther Shan state are frustrated and are struggling with their livelihoods because of the low tea price of the 2013 picking season. At the beginning of Shwepioo (tea picking season), green tea leaves per viss are only 900 Kyat and dry tea is 2500/3000 kyat per viss in Namhsan. However dry tea […]
Serious fighting took place from 4-10am on April 8th, 2013 between the Pan Say people’s militia, the Burmese military and the Ta’ang National Liberation Front (TNLA) in the Palaung region of the Northern Shan State. The TNLA battalion (112) destroyed three opium cultivation sites in the Pan Say region in the Namkham Township, Northern Shan […]
Worsening conflict and abuses by Burmese government troops in northern Shan State have displaced over 2,000 Paling villagers from fifteen villages in three townships since March 2011. About 1,000, mainly women and children, remain in three IDP settlements in Mantong and Namkham township, facing serious shortages of food and medicine; most of the rest have […]
This report documents how women in the Palaung area are affected by domestic violence and gender discrimination. Survey results collected by PWO show that almost all respondents had experienced or seen physical violence within families in their community, and that physical violence is occurring with alarming frequency, in many cases on an almost daily basis. […]
Introduction In 2006, PWO released its Poisoned Flowers report detailing the impacts of spiralling drug addiction on Palaung women in Burma’s northern Shan State. After the publication of Poisoned Flowers, the situation in the Palaung community deteriorated further. PWO began researching the surge in opium cultivation in regime-controlled areas of Burma, releasing our Poisoned Hills […]
Opium cultivation surging in constituency of Burma’s new ruling party October-25- 2011 A new briefing paper by the Palaung Women’s Organization (PWO) exposes a dramatic increase in opium cultivation in Burma’s northern Shan State in the constituency of a drug lord elected into the new military-backed parliament. Still Poisoned, a follow-up to PWO’s 2010 Poisoned […]