Aung San Suu Kyi’s pro-democracy party said Friday that Myanmar’s ruling generals were doing everything in their power to force a ‘Yes’ vote at a referendum on their proposed constitution next month. (more…)

The National League for Democracy has claimed its youth members are being singled out for government harassment in the crackdown on campaigns for a “No” vote in the national referendum. (more…)

Factory workers in Rangoon have been pressured by Industry (1) minister Aung Thaung to cast three “Yes” votes each in advance of the upcoming national referendum. (more…)

An active member of the junta-backed Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) was stabbed to death in Sittwe on Tuesday because of his aggressive campaigning for a “Yes” vote in the constitutional referendum, local residents said. (more…)

Many Mon villagers have not yet decided how they are going to vote on May 10 or know little or nothing about the referendum, according to a survey by The Irrawaddy. (more…)

The Burmese military junta authorities are hoodwinking and misleading people into supporting the draft constitution during the referendum on May 10. In Chin state, northwest of Burma, it is urging people to vote ‘Yes’ in the referendum ‘if they want democracy in the country,’ local residents said. (more…)

Junta authorities have provided temporary ID card to Chinese citizens presumably to get more support for the junta drafted constitution in the coming May referendum, according to sources from northern and eastern Shan State. (more…)

Giving details of the cross border arms smuggling and other cross border activities of the insurgents operating in Manipur like the existence of training camps, hideouts and transit routes in Myanmar, the Manipur government has hinted at coordinated joint operations by the Myanmar army and Indian security forces, as decided during a home secretary level talks between Myanmar and India. (more…)

A 15-member team of Myanmar Army has discussed with their Indian counterparts ways on further strengthening co-operation in areas of border management to check trafficking of narcotics and arms and movements of insurgents and anti-socials. (more…)

While Burma’s top brass continue to line their pockets with kickbacks and self-bestowed financial rewards, the country’s government is facing a burgeoning debt crisis. (more…)

Malaysia’s Astral Asia Bhd (AASB.KL: Quote, Profile, Research) has terminated a memorandum of understanding with two other companies to jointly cultivate 170,000 acres (68,000 hectares) of oil palm plantations in southern Myanmar, Astral said on Friday. (more…)

In the midst of hectic preparations for the ensuing referendum to approve the draft constitution in May, Burmese military junta’s Prime Minister Lt-Gen Thein Sein will make a two- day official visit to Thailand in end April. (more…)

The US Senate unanimously agreed Thursday to confer the Congressional Gold Medal on Myanmar’s democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, following a similar decision by the House of Representatives. (more…)

Berlin – Germany is to double its fee for entry visas from 30 to 60 euros (47 to 94 dollars) under legislation given final approval Friday in the Bundesrat or upper chamber of parliament in Berlin. Officials said the change reflected the increased costs of recording biometric data such as fingerprints at German missions abroad. EU residents and tourists from many western nations do not require visas to visit Germany. (more…)

When exploring the probable solution for the Union of Burma’s problems, any analysis based exclusively on the present political development is inconclusive. Burma has never been an ethnically and politically unified country since independence from the British in January 1948. (more…)

Last September, as the demonstrations in Burma were growing, I was on the India-Burma border visiting Burmese refugees. The stories I heard illustrate the horror occurring on a daily basis inside Burma. I met a man who had been arrested by the Burma Army, and hung upside down for an entire night, with soldiers beating him and banging his body against a pillar continuously. Another man was beaten so badly he is now paralyzed. Yet another described how in Burma’s prison camps, prisoners are shackled and chained, yoked like oxen and forced to plough fields. One refugee who’d been to the prison camps told how a group of prisoners who had attempted to escape were bound and hung above a fire, repeatedly stabbed, and then placed in a tub of salt water. (more…)

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The Burmese military junta authorities are hoodwinking and misleading people into supporting the draft constitution during the referendum on May 10. In Chin state, northwest of Burma, it is urging people to vote ‘Yes’ in the referendum ‘if they want democracy in the country,’ local residents said. (more…)