<p>Renewed efforts by the United Wa State Army&rsquo;s Hong Pang conglomerate, backed by the SAC regime, to push through construction of two factories on confiscated land near Tachileik, a kilometer from the Thai border, are being strongly opposed by local communities, who want their farmland returned and fear far-reaching polluting impacts.</p>

<p>36 Shan community organizations and individuals issued a statement on Monday (13 July) in support of the protest in Kyaukme township in northern Shan State on 10 July, demanding justice for the villagers who were wounded, torture, and killed by the Burmese Army and call for the charges against protest leaders to be dropped as well as for the international community to pressure the Burmese government to take action against the Burma Army for their ongoing crimes against ethnic minorities.</p>

<p>Shan community groups has held a press conference in Bangkok today to raise concerns about secretive preparation to dam the Salween river in war-torn northern Shan State to export hydropower to China.</p> <p>Over the past few months China’s state-owned Hydrochina has been moving ahead with plans to build the 1,200 megawatt Naung Pha dam in one of Shan State’s most contested areas, where there is ongoing fighting between the Burma Army and ethnic armed groups west of the dam site and a tenuous ceasefire with the heavily armed United Wa State Army to the east. &nbsp;</p>

<p>On December 12, 2014, Burma Army troops from LIB 573 shot and killed a 32-year-old mentally ill villager, Sai Sarm Tip, at his house in front of his parents, in the village of Wan Tinn, in Murng Yawng, eastern Shan State. The troops had surrounded the house, ordered Sai Sarm Tip to come out, then shot him as he stepped outside.&nbsp;</p>

<p>The Shan Human Rights Foundation is gravely concerned at fresh widespread atrocities by the Burma Army against civilians in Tangyan, northern Shan State, and is calling on the international community to hold the Burmese government accountable for these abuses.</p> <p></p>

<p>Numbers of villagers fleeing Burma Army atrocities have soared to over 30,000 during recent intensified attacks against the Shan State Army North (SSA-N), causing a dire humanitarian crisis in northern Shan State.</p>