The Burmese military junta sentenced three ethnic Kachin student leaders to one year in a forced labor camp which doubles as a prison on charges of being involved in a ‘racial movement’ in Mon Ywa University in Sagaing Division in northern Burma in September, said Kachin student sources. (more…)

Authorities in Bago division’s Nyaunglebin district have been forcing farmers to grow sunflowers and threatening to confiscate lands of those who refuse to comply, according to locals. (more…)

Chief Justice U Aung Toe met with division, districts and townships judges of Yangon Division at Supreme Court (Yangon) yesterday. (more…)

Murder, suicide and torture among gamblers has been rising steadily with the opening of Chinese-owned casinos along the Sino-Burma border meant to earn money in the shortest possible time by Burma’s ethnic insurgents’
ceasefire groups, said border sources. (more…)

Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz Alsaud, Chairman of Kingdom Holding Company (KHC) received at his office in Riyadh His Excellency Khin Zaw Win, Ambassador of Myanmar to Saudi Arabia. The meeting was attended by Ms. Nahla Alanbar, Personal Assistant to HRH the Chairman. (more…)

The World Association of Newspapers condemned the crackdown on freedom of expression in Burma, in a press statement released on Monday. (more…)

Political observers and leaders of opposition and ethnic groups in Burma said they would like to see UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon return to the country to push for political reform, even as they expressed doubts about his chances of persuading the ruling junta to change its ways. (more…)

In Burma the people are afraid of their rulers – and the rulers are so afraid of the people that they hide from them in a crazy capital city hundreds of miles from anywhere. The only open opposition comes from a lonely woman in a besieged villa and a troupe of comedians in a tiny back-street theatre, who are forbidden to tell jokes in their native language. (more…)

Since 2003, many political events and diplomatic initiatives in connection with Burma have proved that the military regime still basks in its well-calculated isolationism. Willing to go “back to the old habits” inherited from the autarchic and strictly controlled Ne Win regime (1962-1988) as well as the Burmese kings traditions, this policy of “isolationism without isolation” was clearly illustrated by the entrenchment in Naypyidaw initiated in 2005, the careful courting of regional powers – especially China, India and Russia – and the way the SPDC has somehow “survived” the September 2007 and May 2008 crises and external pressure it was the object. Given the international community’s inability to exert any credible and concrete leverage over it, it has somehow contorted its position. (more…)

Washington, DC – On behalf of the Women’s League of Burma, thank you. It is a great honor to receive the Madeleine K. Albright Grant from NDI. We see this award as international recognition of our work to empower women to participate in political decision-making. It affirms the importance of our efforts for the restoration of democracy in Burma. Your support has rekindled our strength to continue the struggle. We are deeply honored to share this occasion with Archbishop Desmond M. Tutu who serves as a source of inspiration to our democracy movement. (more…)

Burma Campaign UK has published a list of 170 companies that directly or indirectly help to finance the military junta ruling Burma. (more…)