The Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, has spent 13 years under house arrest in Myanmar. This week, the Burmese junta is likely to extend her detention for up to five years under the trumped-up charge of allowing a visitor into her compound. (more…)

While the world concentrates on the trial of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi for violating the terms of her house arrest, another drama is playing out on Myanmar’s northern border with China. Here the junta is bullying ethnic ceasefire groups into transforming their armies into border guard militias in a move that threatens to plunge the north back into civil war. Beijing is avoiding involvement in the Suu Kyi drama, but in northern Myanmar, it has no choice. (more…)

CASE 47/2009 sounds mundane enough. But, as this case unfolds, the future of a nation is in the balance. The number is the file reference of Aung San Suu Kyi’s trial in Insein Prison in Rangoon, which started on May 18. The entire world knows the charges are trumped up and that the military regime is simply seeking to find a neat means of locking up the democracy leader again. (more…)

As an exile supporting the democracy movement, led by Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, in my homeland, Burma, I have placed faith and confidence in the international community to help end the tyranny of the military regime. Many countries in the world, including the United States, the European Union, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), China, India, Japan, Canada, Australia and Korea have been involved in addressing the situation in Burma with different levels of interest, influence and responsibility. We appreciate those efforts, but the time has come to re-evaluate how best to collectively engage the international community to push for freedom in Burma. (more…)

As the trial of famed dissident Aung San Suu Kyi continues in this crumbling, monsoon-soaked city, residents are privately expressing anger and dismay over the proceedings. But they are giving little indication they intend to challenge the trial’s outcome or launch the kind of widespread protests that Myanmar has witnessed in the past. (more…)

During his visit to Vietnam, Mr. Hirofumi Nakasone, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan, held a meeting with Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Union of Myanmar U Nyan Win on May 25 (Mon) at 2:15 p.m. (4:15 p.m. JST) for about 35 minutes. The summary of the meeting is as follows. (more…)

The Elders – a group of eminent global leaders founded by Nelson Mandela – have repeated their call for the release of their fellow Elder Aung San Suu Kyi as her latest 6-year period of house arrest is due to expire. (more…)

Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese opposition leader, told a court today that she had no prior knowledge of an American man’s plan to visit her home in Rangoon and had not broken the terms of her house arrest. (more…)

Myanmar officially ended Aung San Suu Kyi’s six-year house arrest Tuesday – but she remains in jail facing charges over an incident in which a US man swam to her house, her party said. (more…)

Lawyers for Myanmar pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi said they will call the detained deputy leader of her opposition political party as a witness at her trial. (more…)

Government accusations that a bomb found on a train heading towards Burma’s capital is the work of opposition groups was an attempt to weaken anti-government movements, said a member of the accused group. (more…)

Rape of women by Burmese soldiers in Kachin state is common, and could be part of a campaign of ethnic cleansing by the Burmese army, a group investigating human rights abuses in northern Burma has found. (more…)

Cyclone Aila ripped through the Burma-Bangladesh border area, accompanied by heavy rains and raised river tide levels, burst mud embankments, flooded homes, and destroyed houses, schools in Maungdaw yesterday, a local elder said. (more…)

South-East Asia’s main political grouping has failed in its efforts to make Myanmar more democratic and should consider expelling it, as well as imposing limited sanctions, a Singaporean politician said Tuesday. (more…)

Thailand has denied interfering in Burma’s affairs with its demand as the chair of Asean for the junta to release opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Mrs Suu Kyi has entered a plea of not guilty to charges of violating her house arrest rules. (more…)

Asian and European foreign ministers condemned North Korea’s nuclear test on Tuesday, and urged Myanmar to free detainees and lift political restrictions as Aung San Suu Kyi defended herself in a controversial trial. (more…)

An Indian Member of Parliament and activists on Tuesday echoed the international outcry for the release of Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, facing a trial in Rangoon’s Insein prison. (more…)

The U.N. Security Council on Friday called for the release of all political prisoners in Myanmar including Aung San Suu Kyi and expressed concern at the “political impact” of the pro-democracy leader’s trial. (more…)

A petition with 600,000 signatures in support of the release of all political prisoners in Burma has been sent to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, accordingly to the Campaign Committee of the Free Burma’s Political Prisoners (CCFBPP). (more…)

The decision by Burma’s government to put Aung San Suu Kyi, the opposition leader and Nobel Peace laureate, on trial has chilled relations with some of the ruling military junta’s traditional allies and made it less like likely that international sanctions against the nation will be eased, according to U.S., European and Asian officials. (more…)