Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008

Daily Archive

Irrawaddy: Parties to register for election: junta – Wai Moe
Wed 2 Jul 2008 
Filed under: News, Inside Burma

Burma’s military junta will make an announcement in the coming months that all political parties must register in advance of the 2010 election, sources told The Irrawaddy. (more…)

 
Irrawaddy: 7,000 Laputta refugees told to return home – Saw Yan Naing
Wed 2 Jul 2008 
Filed under: News, Inside Burma

At least 7,000 cyclone survivors sheltering in three temporary camps in Laputta town, in the Irrawaddy delta, are under renewed pressure from the local authorities to return home, according to sources there. (more…)

 
Reuters: Burma steps up surveillance as protest dates loom – Aung Hla Tun
Wed 2 Jul 2008 
Filed under: News, Inside Burma

A small bomb at the offices of a pro-junta group in Burma has prompted the government to step up its surveillance of Buddhist monasteries and dissidents ahead of anniversaries that sometimes serve as flashpoints for dissent. (more…)

 
Mizzima News: ‘Warriors’ claim responsibility for Rangoon blast
Wed 2 Jul 2008 
Filed under: News, Inside Burma

A Burmese armed student rebel group, Vigorous Burmese Students Warrior (VBSW), on Tuesday claimed responsibility for the bomb blast on Monday in a suburban township in Burma’s former capital Rangoon. (more…)

 
Mizzima News: Censor board clerk demoted for allowing publication of poem – Nem Davies
Wed 2 Jul 2008 
Filed under: News, Inside Burma

Close on the heels of sacking the editor of Cherry magazine for publishing a poem, the Censor Board demoted its own senior clerk from the publishing license department on June 24, according to sources. (more…)

 
Democratic Voice of Burma: Damaged monastery forced to turn down students – Naw Say Phaw
Wed 2 Jul 2008 
Filed under: News, Inside Burma

The Sasana Rakhita monastery school for orphans in Rangoon’s South Okkalapa township has been unable to accept new students due to a lack of funding to repair damage caused by the cyclone in May. (more…)

 
Bangkok Post: Burma beefs up troop levels – Subin Kheunkaew
Wed 2 Jul 2008 
Filed under: News, On The Border

Burma has reinforced its troops in the disputed area of Doi Lang mountain, which an army source said might result from its ‘’misunderstanding'’ over a Thai military exercise in the border area. Since last week, more Burmese soldiers with heavy weapons have been deployed to the Doi Lang area, opposite Chiang Mai’s Mae Ai district. A 32-sq km area of land has sparked a row between Burma and Thailand, which have their own versions of border demarcation maps. (more…)

 
Democratic Voice of Burma: Flooding in Kachin state kills 5
Wed 2 Jul 2008 
Filed under: News, On The Border

Five people were killed when a creek in Kachin state’s Laizar region controlled by the Kachin Independence Organisation burst its banks last Saturday, according to locals. (more…)

 
Democratic Voice of Burma: Regime troops withdraw from KNLA stronghold – Naw Say Phaw
Wed 2 Jul 2008 
Filed under: News, On The Border

Troops from the Burmese military and Democratic Karen Buddhist Army withdrew from a Karen National Liberation Army stronghold yesterday, a day after attacking the area. (more…)

 
Agence France Presse: Cyclone takes toll on building boom in Myanmar capital
Wed 2 Jul 2008 
Filed under: News, Business / Trade

Two months after deadly Cyclone Nargis struck Myanmar, the military regime’s new capital is suffering the economic ripple effects, as construction crews leave to rebuild devastated towns. (more…)

 
Xinhua: More cyclone victims in Myanmar found infected with TB
Wed 2 Jul 2008 
Filed under: News, Health / AIDS

More cyclone victims in Myanmar have been found infected with tuberculosis (TB) in the aftermath of the storm disaster that stroke the country early last May, the local weekly 7-Day News reported Wednesday quoting the TB Program of the Medical Association. (more…)

 
Newsweek: Refugees from Burma strain U.S. – Ken Kusmer
Wed 2 Jul 2008 
Filed under: News, International

The modest apartment where Van Tin Lian Zathang, his wife, Biak, and their two daughters live sits in a tidy, sprawling complex of brick town houses that other refugees from Myanmar also call home. (more…)

 
Associated Press: Burma’s politics roiled, but junta grip firm – Denis D. Gray
Wed 2 Jul 2008 
Filed under: News, Opinion, Other

The cyclone that devastated Burma’s heartland has also roiled a political landscape dominated by the military for more than four decades. (more…)

 
Far Eastern Economic Report: All of Burma is a prison – Min Zin
Wed 2 Jul 2008 
Filed under: News, Opinion, Other

Much has been written about Cyclone Nargis and the failure of Burma’s military junta to respond adequately. But what of the hundreds of political prisoners held in Burma, many in areas devastated by the storm? When Cyclone Nargis ravaged Burma in the late night hours of May 2, it did not spare political prisoners. The notorious Insein prison, where hundreds of political prisoners (including my brother) are locked up, was one of the hardest hit places in Rangoon. (more…)