The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office in New Delhi said on Friday that the US $ 5,00,000 that has been contributed by the government of Japan for the year 2005, comes at an opportune moment, as it will help increase support for Burmese refugees in India.
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On July 27, Burma had to forgo the alphabetical rotating chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Some see it as a softening of Burma’s repressive stance leading to democratic reforms.
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August 4: Human Rights Education Institute of Burma is to launch a new internet website promoting Burma rights and democracy.
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Monday August 8th, 2005
6pm – 9pm
Location: Chiang Mai, Thailand
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Sunday 7 August, 2005
1-5pm
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
At the Student Christian Centre
(located at foot of Hua-chang Bridge, near Asia Hotel on Phyathai Road)
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The 17th anniversary of Burma’s 1988 democracy uprising is likely to be marked in a subdued manner within Burma next Monday, although exile groups are planning special commemoration events.
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Burma’s private press is facing increasing government pressure to actively support state policies, journalists in Rangoon say, in what has been described as a “serious threat” to the future of the country’s already severely restricted media.
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A top UN official warned on Friday that Burma is threatened with a humanitarian crisis, charging that the junta has failed to address the burgeoning problem by imposing restrictions on international aid agencies in the country.
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Bangkok: Myanmar’s military junta has agreed to lift an “export” tax on local food the World Food Programme buys to distribute internally, but other policies are impeding efforts to ease hunger, the U.N. agency said on Friday.
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August 8: The ILO, and a Burmese labour organization, FTUB, were the main target of criticisms in a Burmese military sponsored “mass meeting” in Akyab, on July 30th.
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Famine in Burmese villages along the Burma-Bangladesh border has been averted due to the smuggling of rice from Bangladesh.
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August 4: One-third of all children in Myanmar suffer from malnutrition – a serious risk to the future of a country whose development has long been stalled by political deadlock – a U.N. official said Friday.
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New Delhi: The government is planning to dump the option of routing the Myanmar-India gas pipeline via Bangladesh. It is instead looking at two alternatives: importing gas from Myanmar in compressed form via ships or routing the pipeline through the north-eastern corridor of the country.
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Commodity prices in Rangoon have gone up at least 10% during the past week probably due to the skyrocketing fuel prices, according to sources coming to the border:
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