A human rights activist and two friends arrested last weekend by Burmese military authorities and charged with possessing unauthorized VCD’s, tapes and a Kachin language political book titled “Lang Ji U E Pyen Yu Su” all reportedly produced by exiled Burmese human rights groups remain in custody in Myitkyina, according to one detainee’s family.
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The military authorities in Chin state, Burma reportedly engaged ten students of Malar primary school, Malar village, transporting army rations.
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August 17: Heavy monsoon rains have flooded out hundreds of villages and transportations routes along the Jine and Zami rivers between Mon and Karen States.
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August 15: Inland waterway and highway connecting Mizoram state, India and Paletwa, Chin state, Burma will be on course soon, reports the Aizawl Post, Mizoram local paper. (more…)

August 16: Part two of this two-part article examines the implications of the delay in adopting a human rights policy given the inheritance of Unocal holdings in Burma and Alien Tort Claims Act cases.
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August 17: The Burmese government is set to invest US $700 million in a 1,230-hectare industrial zone at Thilawa Port, 25 kilometers south of Rangoon, according to local journal The Voice.
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August 17: Rangoon: US President George Bush signed into law in July a congressional decision to extend sanctions on imports from Burma by another year. (more…)

Former Indonesian foreign minister Ali Alatas arrived in Rangoon as a special envoy of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to promote the UN’s reformed policies on the world’s poor countries.
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The Burmese military government arrested 17 ethnic Karen in Irrawaddy Division, Ein-me Township, in early July on suspicion that they assisted a Karen rebel group in carrying out the deadly May 7 bombings in Rangoon, a spokesperson for the opposition National League for Democracy said today.
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August 17: More than three years after the regime was condemned by the international community for condoning sexual violence following the publication of License to Rape by the Shan Women’s Action Network, the Burma Army has yet to stop using sexual abuse as a weapon of war, reports border-based Lahu National Development Organization.
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