This briefing paper analyzes the available information about the controversial Shwe Kokko “New City” project, a giant Macao-style casino complex being built on indigenous Karen territory at the Thai-Burma border, about ten miles north of Myawaddy.
The giant Shwe Kokko project makes a mockery of the current peace process. The Burma Army have no right to sell off a vast tract of contested Karen territory to foreign speculators before a peace accord has been reached and a new federal constitution actualized, granting local communities rights to decide over their own lands and resources.