Burma’s military junta is carrying out a policy of “Burmanization” in areas under its control, using land confiscation and intermarriage, sometimes by force, to dilute ethnic identities, according to a new report by three exiled ethnic groups released on Tuesday. (more…)

Local environmentalists, up in arms against the Burmese military junta have accused it of destroying the ecology of Kachin State where its forests, rivers and land are being severely damaged. (more…)

Candidates of the Union Solidarity Development Association (USDA), in Chin State , Burma , are being backed financially as well as with manpower by the SPDC government, for the forthcoming 2010 general elections. (more…)

About 200 trucks brimming over with timber from Burma’s northern Kachin State are ready to move tonight to Tengchong in China’s southwestern Yunnan province after crossing the Sino-Burma border, said local sources. (more…)

The Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria will provide another chance to Burma to reapply for financial assistance. (more…)

A Malaysian government proposal to double the levy on companies employing foreign labor will hit Burmese migrant workers hard, according to Rangoon employment agencies. (more…)

Diplomats and analysts are championing a new approach to Burma that would involve “smart sanctions” and a measure of engagement in the wake of the Obama administration’s acknowledgment of the failure of existing policy towards the country’s military regime. (more…)

The European Commission is ready to provide more aid to Myanmar but the hermitic South-East Asian country must open up to dialogue with donors on the needed development assistance, a senior European aid official said Tuesday. (more…)

A global petition campaign to free Myanmar’s political prisoners has secured 253,524 signatures to date, pro-democracy groups announced Tuesday. (more…)

After a lapse of six years, the Bali Process returned to the forefront when the Third Regional Ministerial Conference on People Smuggling, Trafficking in Persons and Related Transnational Crimes was convened last week on the Indonesian resort island. Do not let this long and tedious conference name confuse you. This round of the Bali Process was aimed at tackling the exodus of Rohingya boat people from Burma, which made news headlines in January and put Thailand under the world’s microscope for its treatment of refugees. (more…)

The Burmese people respect their monks more than their government, but some suspect the monks have been infiltrated by informers. (more…)

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.
(more…)

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.
(more…)

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.
(more…)