Yangon: At least two defense lawyers and a dozen crying relatives were turned away from Myanmar’s notorious Insein prison Tuesday, where special tribunals are under way for 300 people linked to the disbanded military intelligence services.
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Several informed sources in Rangoon reported that a high ranking military intelligence official died while detained in Insein Prison.
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Maungdaw: On January 19 the World Food Program, WFP, was robbed of a large amount of food aid in Maung Daw Township, a western Arakan border town, according to police sources.
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Beijing: One of China’s most-wanted drug barons, Ma Shunsu, has been arrested in Myanmar and handed over to Chinese authorities, state media reported Tuesday.
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New York: Eight druglords in Myanmar were charged in absentia in a US court Monday with operating one of the world’s largest heroin producing and trafficking groups in Southeast Asia’s notorious Golden Triangle area.
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Poppy seeds believed to be of Indian strain have been making a strong showing, say sources from the border.
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Two prominent Western names appear on the latest hit compiled by the Brussels-based International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, or ICFTU, of international trade and commercial interests maintaining business ties with Burma.
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Kunming: Yunnan, a multi-ethnic border province in southwest China, generated 1.05 billion US dollars in foreign trade value with the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) in 2004, representing a sustainable growth.
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Kuala Lumpur: The Malaysian government’s decision to arm some members of volunteer security groups for a crackdown on hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants next week is “dangerous”, a rights group warned Tuesday.
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February 2005: Bonnie Raitt on joining forces with 26 other major musicians (McCartney, Sting…) for Burma’s extraordinary freedom fighter
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January 23: Despite condemnation of their tactics by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s NLD, the radical Burmese pro-democracy group responsible for two hostage-taking events on Thai soil is once again resorting to violence, writes Maxmilian Wechsler
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Brussels: ICFTU Online: The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) today released a new report on business with Burma. The 28-page document, entitled “Doing Business with Burma”, concentrates on investment in and trade with Burma and shows how foreign business relationships with Burma – by large and small multinational companies – generate vast profits for the country’s military dictators.
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