Another ethnic ceasefire group participating in the National Convention will hand in its arms to government officials on Friday, it was officially reported in Shan State on Thursday.
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April 25: Project will “completely undermine all progress on improving its reputation and expose it to a wave of lawsuits, bad publicity, and shareholder anger”
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European Union Foreign Ministers have confirmed for another year their sanctions on the military regime in Burma/Myanmar.
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Yangon: Myanmar Foreign Minister U Nyan Win left here Wednesday for Beijing to begin his four-day visit to China, aimed at promoting traditional and friendly ties between the two countries.
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Singapore: The Philippines may have to assume the rotating chairmanship of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) for 2006 after all in lieu of military-ruled Myanmar.
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Junta forces continue to pound Shan bases

Mae Hong Son: Burmese troops will not be allowed to use Thai territory for a rear attack on the Shan State Army (SSA) base near the border, the Third Army commander said yesterday.
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Mareeba doctor Martin Panter has caused international shockwaves with his revelations that Burma is using chemical weapons against its own people.
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A group of Shan elders that had taken Burma’s politics by storm with their declaration of independence and claim of having formed an interim government of the Federated Shan States on 17 April met yesterday with Shan youth active in northern Thailand.
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April 25: New Mon State Party issued a public statement after the Shan declared independence one week ago.
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Fighting between United Wa State Army forces and the Shan State Army-South reached a new pitch on Tuesday, claiming the lives of five Shan soldiers and an unconfirmed number of Wa troops.
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April 26: It has been learned that Ko Tin Aye Kyu, a long-term political prisoner also known as Poet Maung Hmaing Lwin, who had been unjustly detained since 1989, was released from Mandalay Jail this morning.
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Yangon: Myanmar’s military junta blamed ethnic rebels on Wednesday for a bomb blast in a busy market in the central city of Mandalay which killed two women and injured another 15 people.
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Fredericksburg, Virginia: This month the UN Commission on Human Rights issued its latest, now annual, condemnation of ongoing rights violations in Myanmar, highlighting in particular the continued detention of Aung San Suu Kyi, general secretary of the National League for Democracy, and her deputy, Tin Oo, who have been held under house arrest since they were attacked in May 2003.
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April 25: New Delhi: Burmese refugees in New Delhi today held a demonstration urging the visiting United Nations chief, Mr. Kofi Annan, to put pressure on Burma for early democratisation of the country.

The UN Secretary General, who has just attended a weekend Afro-Asia summit in Jakarta, begins his official four-day trip to India today.

The demonstration, held at Jantar Mantar Park here, urged Mr. Annan to look at the condition of the refugees, who have fled Burma to escape the gross human rights violation by the military junta, and to make use of all possible power to restore human rights and democracy in the country.

Tens of thousands of people have fled their motherland to the neighbouring countries of Thailand, India, Bangladesh and China since Burma went into the iron grip of military rulers in 1962.

With slogans–”Military rule, Down down”, ” We need Human Rights”, “We need Refugee Rights” and ” Kofi Annan, Help Refugees”–nearly two hundred demonstrators held a rally, denouncing the military junta and urging the UN chief to rescue the Burmese refugees from their plight.

In a memorandum to the UN chief, the organisers narrated the miseries of the Burmese refugees, living in New Delhi, because of dissimilarity of culture, customs and tradition with the Indian society, and sought his intervention for a third country settlement of the problem.

The memorandum, a copy of which was also submitted to the office of the Indian Prime Minister, urged Mr. Annan to implore upon India and other neighbouring countries to build pressure on the Burmese Military junta to bring in the long promised democratic reforms.

Mr. Annan’s trip, which will feature meetings with President APJ Kalam, Prime Minister Man Mohan Singh and Minister of External Affairs K Natwar Singh, will end on Thursday. During his visit, India is likely to press for its case for a permanent seat in the UN Security Council.

Prior to his India visit, the UN Secretary General had met Burma’s paramount military leader, Than Shwe, on the sidelines of the Afro-Asian summit in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta and called for release of the jailed Nobel Peace Laureate, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, and implementation of democratic reforms.

“I did raise the question of Aung San Suu Kyi and the NLD and the fact that it was vitally important that all people…be able to organize themselves and exercise their individual rights,” the Reuters quoted him as saying.

Mr. Annan also expressed his hopes that General Than Shwe would get his message and react positively to his suggestions.

Washington: Southeast Asia has emerged as the global center for drug resistant malaria and is fuelling illicit trade in counterfeit drugs used to fight the disease killing one million people every year, officials said Monday.
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Singapore: Human rights activists called on Southeast Asian governments on Tuesday to crack down on sex tourism and child trafficking, saying the problem was becoming more rampant.
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Ha Long City: The 11th ASEAN Economic Ministers (AEM) Retreat Meeting kicked off here on Tuesday, bringing together economic ministers and representatives from 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations ( ASEAN) and the block’s General Secretary Ong Keng Yong.
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A parliamentary motion to discuss calls for reform in military-ruled Burma, which is to be debated this Thursday, has been shelved.
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Yangon: Myanmar’s (Burma’s) trade surplus with Thailand amounted to 716 million dollars in 2004, when total bilateral trade reached almost 2 billion dollars, Thai officials said on Tuesday.
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Customs officers in Thailand’s border district of Mae Sai in the northern province of Chiang Rai have expanded the number of trade checkpoints in a bid to reverse a 40 percent decline in border trade with Myanmar.
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