March 12: Yangon: Win Tin, Myanmar’s most prominent prisoner of conscience after Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, turned 75 Saturday while still languishing in prison, amid international calls for his release.

(more…)

An article that appeared in several Burmese weekly publications this week claimed that the trial of detained ethnic Shan leaders is “lawful.” The article, written under the nom-de-plume Tein-Ta-Marn (A Cloud Messenger), appeared after reports surfaced earlier in March that detained ethnic leaders had been denied legal access.

(more…)

March 11: The Ethnic Nationalities Council, or ENC, a Burmese opposition group based in Thailand, urged the Burmese military government to adopt their propositions as a means to reach a political solution, according to a statement released by the ENC on last Saturday.

(more…)

March 13: Yangon: Myanmar police have launched their first national crackdown on the sale of illegal foreign movies, mainly pornographic films which they say contribute to a rise in sex crimes, the Myanmar Times reported.

(more…)

March 12: Rangoon residents have been extremely interested at the appearance of a dancing peacock in front of Rangoon University Convocation Hall on 9 March (Burmese students adopted the dancing peacock as their symbol during the struggles for Burma’s independence from British rule). Many people, curious about the phenomenon, are flocking into the university to obtain some answers.

(more…)

March 12: On 11 March, the media controlled by Burma’s military junta SPDC State Peace and Development Council started to officially address Maj-Gen Myint Swe, commander of Rangoon Military Command, as chief of Defence Services Military Security.

(more…)

March 11: It has been learned that five members of the veteran politicians group, formed with those who participated in Burma’s struggle for independence, held a meeting for almost two hours with the NLD National League for Democracy Central Executive Committee on 11 March at the NLD HQ on Shwegondaing Road in Rangoon.

(more…)

Sangkhalaburi: The President of New Mon State Party, Nai Htin passed away on March 14 in Moulmein, the capital of Mon State, southern Burma. He was 85 years old.

(more…)

Yangon: Myanmar’s military government has barred foreign firms from onshore oil and gas exploration and production, opting to reserve the operations for state enterprises, the Myanmar Times reported Monday.

(more…)

March 21: Despite U.S. sanctions, Southeast Asia’s outcast is stumbling along. But its neighbors are ambivalent.

(more…)

A priority for the new foreign minister is to forge a greater understanding of the government’s handling of human rights issues with the local and international media.

(more…)

March 13: The Association of Southeast Asian Nation’s constructive engagement with Myanmar’s junta has been a failure, said an exiled member of Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy-Liberated Area.

(more…)

Geneva: The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on Monday urged world leaders and organisations to be less picky about whose rights they supported, particularly in Sudan’s strife-torn Darfur region.

(more…)