One of Burma’s major ethnic ceasefire groups – United Wa State Army (UWSA) – has acknowledged it has failed over the past two decades to achieve its primary objective of gaining autonomy for all Wa inhabited regions.
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The scarcity of food in rat-infested Chin State in western Burma, is likely to escalate during the monsoons, according to a relief group in exile. (more…)

Students in Mon State lead a bandana campaign to protest rule by Burma’s military government during last week’s water festival. According to a protest organizer, over a thousand bandanas bearing the slogan, in English, “No free, no happy” were distributed in three townships. (more…)

The military government’s move to introduce the first professional football league in Burma may be a political tactic linked to the 2010 national elections, according to observers in Rangoon. (more…)

Khin Shwe, 37, lost her prized pig and dozens of ducks and chickens valued at over US$300 in Cyclone Nargis, which left some 140,000 people dead or missing nearly a year ago.  “All I have are these two hens,” the mother-of-five told IRIN, pointing to the two birds (purchased after selling her son’s jeans) on the floor of her makeshift hut. (more…)

Police have told opposition party members who were attacked by a mob led by a government official that their assailants will not be arrested because government authorities have not permissed them to do so. (more…)

Burma to Benefit from China Aid Package

Burma is one of three countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) to benefit from a Chinese financial package designed to reboot regional growth in the wake of the global slump. (more…)

Myanmar’s Prime Minister Thein Sein Sunday expressed thanks for the help the Chinese government has offered to Myanmar and hoped more Chinese entrepreneurs would make investment in Myanmar.  Thein Sein made the comments during his visit in Xiamen, capital city of southeast China’s Fujian Province, from April 18 to 20.
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A well known Chinese tycoon, Lau Ying with business interests in northern Burma is resuming import of timber to China from Burma’s northern Kachin State since last month, said local sources.
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Global Fund – the main multilateral donor for health programs combatting HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria – is facing a 4-billion-dollar budget shortfall next year, the fund’s executive director said Monday. “We are facing a financial crisis,” Global Fund executive director Michel Kazatchkine said. “We estimate our funding gap in 2010 to be somewhere around 4 billion.” (more…)

China, saying it wishes to see political stability in Burma, is tantamount to paying lip-service as it does not care for genuine change because its stands to gain with the military junta in the seat of power, a Sino-Burmese observer said.
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Recently, US President Obama has been extending an olive branch to the “axis of evil” and “outposts of tyranny” so loudly condemned by his predecessor, George W. Bush.   (more…)

When President Obama was elected, I was filled with hope that America would regain the moral standing to aid those who are impoverished and oppressed around the world. I have since rejoiced to see him reversing the most obnoxious policies of the Bush administration — by ending torture, announcing the closure of the detention camp at Guantanamo Bay and engaging the world on climate change, to name just a few. But there is another issue on which America’s moral leadership is desperately needed, and here, it must be acknowledged, President Bush was on the side of the angels: the struggle for human rights and justice in Burma. (more…)

Next week, the National League for Democracy (NLD), Burma’s leading political party, which has its legitimacy through a landslide victory in the 1990 election, plans to hold a national-level special meeting. The party executive, those NLD members who were successful in the 1990 election, senior members and representatives of the women’s and youth sections of the party from throughout the country have been invited to attend. (more…)

A leader of the New Mon State Party (NMSP), an ethnic armed rebel group that has a ceasefire agreement with Burma’s ruling junta, was assassinated on Saturday by an unidentified gunman, party sources said. (more…)