Burmese army offensives in western Karen State have sent nearly 3,000 villagers fleeing into the jungle, according to a new report from relief organization Free Burma Rangers.
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March 13: A member of Christian evangelical church who wrote a letter to Burma’s military junta, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) chairman Gen Than Shwe urging him to end the persecution of his church, was arrested and detained at a police station in Pa-an, Karen State.
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Thousands of people in Burma’s Karenni State will be forced off their land if the planned construction of hydroelectric dams on the Salween River goes ahead, according to a new report.
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Worried Bangladesh authorities banned entry of livestock (poultry birds and products) from the Burma-Bangladesh border yesterday.
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The UNHCR in Dhaka has reduced the monthly subsistence allowance, or SA, by 50 percent for urban Burmese refugees in Bangladesh, said a notice from the Bangladesh UNHCR office.
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Burma’s population of more than 50 million people had by Tuesday
afternoon still not received official word of a bird flu scare in Mandalay, as samples
taken from dead birds arrived in Bangkok for further testing.
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Myanmar on Tuesday called for international help to tackle bird flu after the country confirmed its first case of the deadly H5N1 virus in poultry.
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The U.N. agriculture agency has provided emergency assistance to Myanmar after the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus was detected for the first time in the impoverished Southeast Asian country, an official said Tuesday.
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March 13: A group of human rights experts, including United Nations special rights rapporteur to Burma Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, sent a letter to the Burmese military on Saturday urging the release of political prisoner and journalist Win Tin.
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U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice slammed Myanmar’s human rights record on Tuesday, and said democratic nations needed to stand up for those living under oppression.
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