Burma’s ruling generals have targeted Buddhist monks as they seek to silence dissent following September’s protests. On a recent trip to the city of Mandalay, reporter Reena Sethi was given rare access to a monastery. (more…)

Indonesia’s Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono said forcing Myanmar to hold elections wouldn’t reduce the role of the military, even as the United Nations asked the ruling junta to agree to a timetable for political change. (more…)

George Yeo, Singapore’s foreign minister, has compared next week’s annual summit of the Association of South East Asian Nations, to be held in the city-state, to a family gathering. If so, it will be an acrimonious one. (more…)

Rambo has become a nihilist.
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The United Nations special envoy to Myanmar said Tuesday that the situation there was “qualitatively different” from the way it was in the aftermath of September’s brutal crackdown on protesters, but that the authorities had still showed no willingness to free the pro-democracy leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. (more…)

Burma’s military junta arrested three more activists Wednesday, witnesses said, surging ahead with a crackdown even as it hosted a UN human rights investigator and insisted that all arrests had stopped.
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U.N. human rights envoy Sergio Paulo Pinheiro was disturbed by Myanmar’s arrest of prominent labor activist Su Su Nway as he met junta officials, a U.N. official said on Wednesday.
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The victims of the brutal suppression of September’s demonstrations should not be forgotten if dialogue does take place between the Burmese regime and the opposition, National League for Democracy spokesman Nyan Win told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday.
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A new pro-junta campaign currently underway in Rangoon and on state-run Web sites promotes an anti-US, Western media stance and labels demonstrators as stooges.
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Rangoon – While Burma’s brutal crackdown has generated headlines around the world, a media blackout inside the country means very few people know whether there has been any political progress.
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Myanmar’s ruling junta is in control after recent bloody unrest and will take more action against those who violate the law, the country’s deputy defence chief said Wednesday.
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Canada will impose “the toughest sanctions in the world” on Myanmar, also known as Burma, to further isolate its military junta after September’s violent crackdown on protesters, Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier announced Wednesday.
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Though Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont will be signing at least 13 documents at nine summits, including the Asean forum in Singapore next week, he knows the Burma issue will be on the top of the agenda.
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Myanmar is facing a fresh scolding from ASEAN summit host Singapore but ties between the two nations run deep, with the city-state acting as doctor and alleged banker to the junta’s ageing generals.
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The need for a tripartite initiative between the United Nations (UN), Bangladesh and Burma to resolve the Rohingya refugee problem has been stressed by the Advisor on Foreign Affairs to the Bangladesh Caretaker government, Dr Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury.
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Burmese students in Thailand who staged an anti-regime demonstration in Bangkok fear they face reprisals after Burma’s embassy in the Thai capital refused to renew the passport of one of them.
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A sharply divided UN Security Council deliberated on events in Burma on Tuesday following a briefing by Ibrahim Gambari, the special UN envoy, on his five-day visit to the country last week, in which he noted there were positive developments, but bottlenecks remained in moving towards a national reconciliation process.
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Myanmar was sharply criticised for its forced labour practices at the International Labour Organisation on Wednesday.
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Believe it or not, Aung San Suu Kyi has prolonged the lifespan of Burma’s repressive junta.
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The abandoned former campuses of Yangon and Mandalay universities, at one time leading institutions of higher learning in Asia and which produced distinguished Myanmarese from all walks of life, typically symbolize the state of things in Myanmar today. A country rich in natural resources and intellect has degenerated into economically poor and intellectually mediocre through misrule and ill-conceived social engineering
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