October 25: As Aung San Suu Kyi marks her 10th year of detention, Thailand should support a more proactive approach. Aung San Suu Kyi must be a lady of steel to tolerate the combined 10 years of detention by the military junta in Rangoon. The junta hopes that she will simply languish in house arrest and everything will be fine, because nobody will remember her.
(more…)

In cruel solitude, denied visitors or even a telephone, a frail woman marks ten years as the political prisoner of a vicious and illegitimate military dictatorship.
(more…)

Democracy activists are calling on the UN Security Council to take action against the Burmese Government as Aung San Suu Kyi, the country’s imprisoned opposition leader, completes a total of ten years in detention today.
(more…)

October 21: Canada on Friday condemned Myanmar’s detention of Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel peace laureate and opposition democracy leader held under house arrest for 10 years, and demanded her immediate and unconditional release.
(more…)

October 21: The absence of an all-inclusive process of democratization and national reconciliation in Myanmar is exacerbating the suffering of the country’s people, Secretary-General Kofi Annan says in a new report which calls on the authorities to take steps to rectify the situation.
(more…)

About 130 people including lawmakers, human rights advocates and representatives of non-government organisations in the Philippines have signed a statement urging the Philippines government to support efforts to have Burma included on the United Nations Security Council agenda.
(more…)

Putrajaya: Thorny issues such as violence in southern Thailand and democratic reform in Myanmar have been left off the agenda of December’s ASEAN summit although leaders can raise them on the sidelines, Malaysia said Monday.
(more…)

October 23: Myanmar has handed two suspected traffickers to China after seizing almost 500 kilograms (1,100 pounds) of heroin in the country’s second biggest drugs bust, the government said on Sunday.

Speaking at a rare press conference in the capital, Myanmar police force chief Brigadier General Khin Yee, said 494 kilograms (1,093 pounds) of the drug were seized in the eastern state of Shan on September 10.

“Because of the cooperation of Myanmar, China, Laos and Thailand, Han Yu Won and his colleague Li Phu So, alias Ah So, were seized by the Laos police force on September 22, before they went to Vietnam,” Khin Yee said.

The men, who fled to Laos, were deported to Myanmar from Vientiane on September 28. Myanmar authorities then deported the men to China on October 2, Khin Yee added.

Myanmar Home Affairs Minister Maung Oo said the heroin was brought to Myanmar from China, but was destined for Thailand.

Han Yu Won, 35, was from China’s Yunnan province, Khin Yee said. Li Phu So was a Chinese whom Khin Yee said was living near the Myanmar-China border.

At least 84 Myanmar people were arrested in connection with the bust, but Khin Yee did not say if any had been charged, or released.

A Western diplomat in Yangon said the United Wa State Army was directly involved in the shipment, and many of their members were arrested in the raid, which came after a stand-off lasting at least 90 minutes.

The bust is the second largest in Myanmar’s history after a haul of 592 kilograms of heroin worth 74 million dollars in 2004.

Yangon: Nearly 13,000 cases of dengue fever (DF) occurred in Myanmar so far this year, a sharp increase from last year’s 6,000, the local Myanmar Times reported Monday.
(more…)

More than 600 Burmese refugees along the Thai-Burma border have begun interviewing today for possible resettlement in the US, Finland, New Zealand and Norway, said the head of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees office in Mae Hong Son, northern Thailand.
(more…)

October 23: Myanmar’s military government is allegedly preparing to build a secret nuclear project near the western slope of the Shan Hills, some 42 miles from the central Myanmarese city of Mandalay, according to an independent website.
(more…)

The International Labor Organization’s already frosty relationship with Burma’s ruling military government has reached a critical point, sources within the organization say, raising concerns the organization may not have a long-term future in the country.
(more…)

October 23: Yangon: Transport costs in Myanmar skyrocketed this week after the junta raised the official price of fuel eight-fold, sending commuters scrambling onto decaying trains for cheaper rides.
(more…)

Rangoon: The day after a small bomb exploded outside Traders Hotel in central Rangoon staff and business people in the neighborhood spoke reluctantly and in hushed tones about this latest display of opposition to the regime.
(more…)

Yangon: Myanmar’s pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi on Monday marked what her supporters said is a total of 10 years in detention, as campaigners overseas pushed the United Nations to take strong action.
(more…)