The International Committee of the Red Cross has firmly restated its intention to stay in Burma after a meeting between the group’s resident representative, Pierre-André Conod, and government officials on December 8.
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Military dictatorship in Burma today is by far worse than feudalism which existed in Shan State , said a statement released by the Pa-O People’s Liberation Organization (PPLO) on the 57th feudalism resistance day of Pa-O today. (more…)

Military exercises spread over nine days in Wai Maw, Kachin State, northern Burma is on the anvil by the Burmese military machine.
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Chiang Mai: Authorities and traders are worried about a spillover from the latest clash between Burmese troops and Shan State Army fighters near Tachilek, opposite Chiang Rai’s Mae Sai district.
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Billionaire US philanthropist George Soros has appealed for Indonesia to support a UN resolution against the military junta in Myanmar.

Speaking in front of the Indonesian parliamentary caucus on Myanmar, Soros said they should pressure the government to step up diplomatic efforts for freedom in Myanmar.

“It is very frustrating, you have a junta that is clearly difficult to influence because they do not care what other parts of the world would think,” he said.

“In this case I am in line with (President George W.) Bush’s policy,” he said, referring to Washington’s trade and investment bans on Myanmar in protest at the regime’s dismal human rights record and refusal to adopt democratic reforms.

Soros said Myanmar would benefit economically from a more democratic government as the country was “sitting on (rich) natural resources, particularly gas, which can be a good flow of money.”

The Indonesian parliamentary caucus on Myanmar is part of an Association of Southeast Asian Nations initiative to advocate human rights and democratic reform in Myanmar.

Myanmar said in November that a UN resolution against the junta would “destroy the peace” and accused the Security Council of trying to interfere in its domestic affairs.

Indonesia will take up its two-year seat on the UN Security Council in January 2007.

The outgoing US ambassador to the UN, John Bolton, said in November that he would introduce a draft Security Council resolution lambasting Myanmar’s military junta as a “threat” to regional peace and security.

Hungarian-born Soros is the chairman of the Open Society Institute, which aims to shape public policy to promote democratic governance, human rights and economic, legal and social reform.

Another boat carrying Rohingyas from Burma landed in southern Thailand on Tuesday amid reports that further vessels were on their way. The boat, with 66 men and boys on board, was the second to arrive at Thailand’s coastal Phang Nga province this month, and a third is reported to have made landfall in the same region in late November.
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International human rights have been relegated by the Foreign Office, the Conservatives’ commission on human rights has said.
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Reporters without Borders (RSF) on Tuesday named jailed Myanmar journalist Win Tin Journalist of the Year, the group announced.
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Burma has been ranked the worst human rights violator in the world, out of
18 countries assessed by the UK Conservative Party’s Human Rights Commission this year.
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