Yangon: Myanmar is preparing for the Thursday opening of a world Buddhist summit undaunted by a boycott called by its main sponsor because of an upheaval prompted by the sacking of the military regime’s premier.
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Gen Bo MyaThe long-serving deputy chairman and commander-in-chief of the Karen National Union, or KNU, Gen Bo Mya, has retired for health reasons, a KNU source reported Wednesday.
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Thirteen members of Burma’s main opposition National League for Democracy, or NLD, were arrested by local police officers on Monday, a senior NLD member said today.

The NLD members in Bogalay, Irrawaddy Division, were arrested for organizing a ceremony to mark the 84th anniversary of National Day in their home town, according to NLD spokesperson U Lwin. He said they were all being held in Phyapon Prison.

The 10th waning day of the Burmese month of Tazaungmone is marked as Burmese National Day. It commemorates a student bycott of Rangoon University that took place in 1920. This year, the day falls on December 6.

“They are likely to be sent to court soon. NLD lawyers went to the township to defend the case,” said U Lwin.

Meanwhile London-based human rights group Amnesty International urged Burma to release all prisoners of conscience immediately and unconditionally and put an end to abuses in the administration of justice.

The Burmese government released 9,248 inmates from jail last month. That number included about 40 political prisoners.

Amnesty International this year said more than 1,350 political prisoners are detained in Burmese prisons. Burma has never admitted to holding political prisoners.

Dhaka: The Bangladesh Army and local security forces last week seized another several hauls of illegal arms in the regions bordering Burma during a joint operation, said an official report.
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Kuala Lumpur: Malaysia will launch a nationwide operation in January to rid the country of more than one million illegal migrant workers, a junior minister said Wednesday.
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Kunming: A highway linking China’s southwest border province of Yunnan with the neighboring country of Myanmar will be upgraded soon, so as to further boost exchanges between China and the southeast Asia, local government sources said. An agreement for renovating the highway which extends south from the Zhangfeng Town of Longchuan county, Yunnan, to Bhamo, a port in northern
Myanmar, has been signed at Rangoon, Myanmar’s capital, recently by the Longchuan government and the Ministry of Construction of Myanmar, the Longchuan government said.
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Thousands of members of an ethnic group in eastern Burma with a strong Christian population are hiding in the jungle after their villages were attacked by army battalions carrying out a government plan described by human-rights watchers as systematic genocide of minorities.
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Bangkok (IPS): The baffling question remains – one that
seems to indicate that the facade of unity within the region’s premier regional grouping, the Association of South-east Asian Nations (ASEAN), over member Burma seems to be unraveling.
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December 7: The rise in ASEAN’s constructive cooperation with Burma is due to the government’s pursuit of a market economic system and its “democratic goal”, an article in a Rangoon daily has said. The article defended the government’s gradual approach of introducing a multi-party system only after a strong economy is flourishing, and criticized “internal political parties’” call for sanctions. The following is the text of the article by Aung Moe San entitled: “Tatmadaw government’s steadfast objective of market economy and democracy”; published in English by Burmese newspaper The New Light of Myanmar web site on 7 December
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