More than 500,000 displaced people in eastern Burma were living in relocation camps or in hiding at the end of 2004, according to a report issued by the Norwegian Refugee Council.“The military regime’s objective of increasing control over minority areas through a policy of forced assimilation and repression of autonomy movements has resulted in decades of conflict that has devastated the lives of hundreds of thousands of civilians,” said the report. (more…)

More than 500,000 displaced people in eastern Burma were living in relocation camps or in hiding at the end of 2004, according to a report issued by the Norwegian Refugee Council.

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It has been three years since the report ”License to Rape” exposed to the world how troops of the Burmese military regime have been committing systematic sexual violence against women in Shan state, one of the ethnic regions of Burma where civil war has been continuing for more than four decades. The report, by the Shan Human Rights Foundation and the Shan Women’s Action Network, documented the rape of more than 600 women by Burmese troops.

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The head of the Burma Office in Japan, Dr Min Nyo, charged Tuesday that a Japanese aid donation to Burma would have little chance of being used for the benefit of the Burmese people.  

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A former Burmese ambassador to China on Monday accused China and Russia of acting in their own interests at the UN Security Council meeting in New York. The two countries objected to a discussion on Burma’s military regime, raised by the US, because the issue was not on the official agenda.  

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Cambodian Information Minister Khieu Kanharith has voiced support for Aung San Suu Kyi as many world leaders have called for Myanmar’s opposition leader to be released on her 60th birthday this week. Khieu, who is also a spokesman of the Cambodian government, said “Cambodia is the first among ASEAN countries to ask Myanmar to elaborate on the issue”.  

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A coalition of rights groups on Tuesday urged Malaysia to release 68 Myanmar pro-democracy activists arrested last week outside the Myanmar embassy here for protesting the detention of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.  

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Migrant workers from Burma were the cheap labor that built Thai resorts where 2,000 foreign tourists died in the tsunami. Now, they’re rebuilding bungalows and hotels on this splendid beach to lure back tourists.  

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June 2: Cox’sbazar: Burmese military personals in western Burma are keeping a close watch on Onn kyunt Island, Known as St. Martin’s Island, in southern Bangladesh bordering Burma. The watch resulted from a rumour spreading in the border area that an American naval base is being built at Onn Kyunt Island.  

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A million-dollar tsunami warning system is to be built in Burma within three years, a semi-official newspaper reported on Sunday. The Myanmar Times quoted the head of Burma’s meteorology department, San Hla Thaw, as saying that the department will expand the existing communication network and generate public warnings at times of natural disaster.

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June 27: Responsible people and fund-providers for National Reconciliation Programme (NRP) in Burma met with exiled pro-democracy activists during a meeting at an unidentified location on the Thai-Burma border on 22 June.   (more…)

June 27: Residents of Pegu town, situated east of Burma’s capital, Rangoon, have been forced to launch town security patrols instead of soldiers and militias, according to the residents. The State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) township authorities force them to patrol “at least one time per month.  

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Army battalions under the Northeastern Region Command have been using brokers for conscripting people into the ranks as they were forced to recruit 72 new soldiers every year, said a local man.

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Whatever momentum was gained from the international calls to free Aung San Suu Kyi and to allow for democracy in Burma on the occasion of the opposition leader’s recent 60th birthday must be sustained at all costs.

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In Burma, democracy’s price can be life

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Repressive military regimes have ruled Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, for 43 years, suffocating the political process and inflicting poverty on a once-rich nation. The woman who should be leading the country, Aung San Suu Kyi, marked her 60th birthday last week; she has spent nearly 10 of the last 16 years in prison or under house arrest.

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Yangon: Japan has donated US$10.8 million ([euro]8.94 million) for a business and cultural exchange center, a scholarship fund and to help plant forests in military-ruled Myanmar, the Japanese Embassy said Monday.

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June 24: United Nations: The United States failed on Friday to put political repression in Myanmar on the U.N. Security Council’s agenda because Russia argued the issue was outside the council’s international peace and security mandate.

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New graduates from Naresuan University have urged the government to promote those who have knowledge of the Burmese and Cambodian languages, and use them to assist those alien workers to communicate more effectively with their employers.

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Kunming: Chinese companies have become the pillar of the current replacement planting scheme in “Golden Triangle” of Myanmar [Burma], Thailand and Laos, according to the National Narcotics Control Commission (NNCC).

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