Well aware that humanitarian assistance can often go awry, the democracy movement has fought long and hard to ensure that aid to Burma is delivered in an accountable and transparent manner that does not entrench the Burmese government, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC).
(more…)

President Arroyo in Davos clearly expressed what people who cannot stand the human-rights abuses being committed by the military junta of Burma feel. Unfortunately, Vietnam disagrees with her. So does China.
(more…)

A strong supporter of detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has filed a defamation suit against more than 120 editors and publishers of local journals which printed personal attacks against her, including linking her to a pimp.
(more…)

Thousands of people have written letters addressed to Myanmar’s military leader, Senior General Than Shwe, to complain about the harsh conditions in the country, activists said Monday.
(more…)

Myanmar’s detained democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi was in good health when her doctor and a dentist visited her last week, a source close to her family and her political party said Monday. “We heard her doctor took a dentist to see her last Thursday for treatment,” said Nyan Win, a spokesman for her National League for Democracy party. “Her doctor sees her once a month for a routine checkup,” he added.
(more…)

The commander of the Karen National Union 7th Brigade, Brig-Gen Htain Maung, is apparently following through with plans to move the brigade’s headquarters while also surveying regions to designate as “peace areas.”
(more…)

A major military crackdown by Myanmar has sent Indian separatists fleeing and left a growing death toll, a rebel leader told AFP on Monday.
(more…)

In the scramble for Myanmar’s natural gas, Moe Myint runs the only company managed by Myanmar nationals that has got a toehold in an area that could boast some of the biggest reserves in Southeast Asia.MPRL E and P Ltd, registered in the British Virgin Islands but run by Myanmar nationals, last week edged out other international competitors to sign a deal for the rights to explore oil and gas off Myanmar’s western coast.
(more…)

The Myanmar energy authority is likely to grant an offshore block to a Malaysian company for oil and gas exploration and production, the English-language Myanmar Times reported Sunday.
(more…)

Nearly 200 Burmese activists in Malaysia on Monday gathered at the Chinese and Russian embassies in Kuala Lumpur to protest the two countries for their veto of a UN Security Council resolution on Burma earlier this month.
(more…)

Malaysian authorities detained 176 suspected illegal immigrants from Myanmar who set up their own village and passed themselves off as U.N.-recognized refugees, an official said Monday. District enforcement workers and civilian volunteers on Sunday raided the immigrants’ settlement, which comprised scores of tents, bathrooms and a volleyball court on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, said Suhaimi Ghazali, a state legislator for the central district of Dengkil.
(more…)

The City City Sessions Court, Kolkata today framed charges against 34 Arakanese and Karen rebels, who were arrested in Andaman and Nicobar Islands in 1998 by the Indian Navy.
(more…)

Myanmar released about 370 of its customs officials Friday, after they were detained last year as part of the ruling military junta’s anti-corruption campaign, a detainee’s relative said.
(more…)

Burma’s poet laureate Tin Moe is dead, and Burmese people at home and abroad are still sending condolences and holding ceremonies in Thailand, Japan, South Korea, Europe and California, where he died last Monday.
(more…)

The supreme commander of the Thai military, Boonsang Niumpradit, flew to Burma for the day today to discuss cooperation between the two countries on anti-narcotics efforts.
(more…)

The Central Committee of the Karen National Union has dismissed a Karen faction’s attempts to reach a ceasefire agreement with the Burmese military junta, as “against Karen interests”.
(more…)

International health experts meeting in Bangkok have called for greater efforts to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases prevalent in border areas of Burma.
(more…)

The Burmese Football Federation has denied allegations of match fixing by the Burmese football team in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Football Championship, 2007.
(more…)

The United Kingdom will lobby and continue to push for a Security Council resolution on Burma, UK Foreign Office Minister Ian McCartney said.
(more…)

January 25: A controversial vote shows how far the country’s foreign policy has changed
(more…)