Thursday, June 2nd, 2005


A growing number of people in Rangoon are expected to try to tune in to the Democratic Voice of Burma’s new television service this weekend as they attempt to overcome technical difficulties in receiving the new channel.
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Yangon: In a thinly veiled criticism of the United States, Myanmar’s military government has accused powerful countries of “bullying” smaller developing nations and pursuing a foreign policy that repeatedly fails.
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Yangon: Myanmar will join other members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in establishing a crime-related database system in 2006 to help fight crimes through exchange of such data, a local weekly reported Thursday.
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June 1: One of the close relatives of retired warlord Khun Sa is definitely on Rangoon’s distinguished roll call of bomb suspects, according to family friends:
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June 1: Maungdaw: Nasaka, or Border Security Force, in Arakan state, was reformed recently along
with 60 senior officials and 1850 junior level officials in the number 9 administrative region including 25 camps in Arakan state, according to a report of Nasaka department.
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Guwahati (Assam): It is now official. All North-East Indian states, bordering Burma, are in the high peril of drug abuse with an alarming rate of HIV infection and AIDS.
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June 1: Worsted at each onslaught on the besieged Shan border stronghold during the past three months, the pro-Rangoon United Wa State Amy is assembling its upcoming attack with millions of meth pills to lure its opponent’s underpaid fighters, according to an insider source:
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Singapore: Southeast Asian legislators urged Myanmar on Thursday to relinquish its chairmanship of ASEAN next year unless the country’s military rulers implement democratic reforms and free political prisoners.
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Jakarta: The road to democracy may be a fraught one, but for Myanmar’s pro- democracy activists, it is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.
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Manila: The Philippines remains “gravely concerned” over human rights in Burma amid calls that the military-ruled nation should yield the chairmanship of Asean when its turn comes next year, Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo said Wednesday.
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Thammasat University Council agreed to confer an honourary doctorate on Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi on June 19 to mark her 60th birthday, The Nation reports.
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Tokyo: Amnesty International called on Japan Thursday to abolish the death penalty and improve treatment of refugees and prisoners, saying its bid to join the UN Security Council put it under greater scrutiny.
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Burmese dissidents and activists are fearful of a new crackdown by the junta on people in Burma with connections to opposition groups in the outside world.
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