China’s rapid gain in influence in the Asia Pacific region ranges so broadly that it can be measured at the extremes, in countries as divergent as rich and distant Australia and impoverished but strategically important Myanmar.
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August 30: A group of democracy activists in exile from Burma are embarking on a “Long March and Hunger Strike for Freedom and Democracy in Burma.”  The over 160-mile long march which will originate from “Grafton Peace Pagoda”
in Grafton, north of Albany, New York, will begin on 1 September 2004 and end 16 days later before the United Nations in New York where heads of states and foreign ministers will be gathering at the end of September.
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Shan State Peace Council, a joint set-up of Shan ceasefire groups, ended its 2-week long Third Congress on Monday, 23 August, according to ceasefire sources.
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The New Mon State Party remains optimistic with its cease-fire policy with the junta despite it being sidelined at National Convention according to President Nai Htin.
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August 26: U Soe Myint, the chairman of Thakayta Township, Rangoon NLD is released from Myingyan prison on 25 August.
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A total of 45 more members of some anti-government armed groups in Myanmar have laid down arms in the last two months, The New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported Friday.
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Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has accused Burma and Bangladesh of fueling insurgency in northeast India.
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Even though Indian enforcment agencies have claimed that drug trafficking along the Indo-Burma border has been slowing as a result of their strict policing vigils, frequent seizures of heroin in Assam and the bordering areas of Nagaland in northeast India have raised questions concerning this claim.
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Karachi: The Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) will organise a single country exhibition in Rangoon.
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Bangkok: Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has defended a proposed 1.2 billion baht (S$49.6 million) soft loan to Myanmar which could benefit his family’s telecommunications empire.
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The Mekong River Commission (MRC) Secretariat is proposing increased technical cooperation with China and Myanmar as part of its Water Utilization Program, a source from Laos said on Thursday.
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Three Burma-based ethnic groups have requested for membership in the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization, once known as “The Shadow UN”, according to its most recent report.
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Jakarta: Indonesia today rejected any compromise solution to the row between Southeast Asian countries and Europe over Burma that would result in Rangoon regime leaders failing to attend an upcoming summit.
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Paris: A new diplomatic spat between Britain and France has developed over an invitation to Burma to attend a joint Europe-Asia forum in October.
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Cox’s Bazar, August 25:Nasaka (Burmese Border Security Force) abducted two, Bangladesh nationals from inside Bangladesh land territorial boundary, according to our correspondent from border area.
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September 22: As the world’s fastest-growing market for tropical timber, China has made efforts to protect its own endangered forests by imposing a nationwide ban on logging in 1998. But there is mounting evidence that China has merely exported this problem to other Asian countries, where escalating Chinese demand has resulted in excessive and illegal logging.
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The Senate committee on foreign affairs will summon representatives from the Export-Import Bank of Thailand (Exim) and Shin Satellite to explain the Bt600-million soft loan to fund Burma’s broadband Internet project.
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The Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) summit scheduled for October in Vietnam should go ahead despite a dispute over Myanmar’s participation, Dutch Foreign Minister Bernard Bot said here.
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The Burma Campaign UK, which protests against human rights abuses by the Burmese government, has branded Rolls Royce a ‘dirty’ company for doing business with a Burmese airline.
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The media seem to be making a great deal of fuss about the approval of the Exim Bank’s loan of some Bt600 million to the Burmese government for them to purchase satellite services from Shin Satellite. Whether the loan is appropriate or not is indeed a matter for Thailand and for our Exim bank in particular.
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