In accepting his Nobel Peace Prize today, President Obama must walk a tightrope between honoring his policy of seeking a dialogue with repressive regimes and trumpeting the ideals of freedom embodied by such past Nobel laureates as Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama. (more…)

The Fiance of Burmese-American activist Nyi Nyi Aung describes hearing of how he was snatched on a visit back to his homeland, then tortured ahead of his trial. (more…)

Some NLD members are voicing cautious optimism about negotiations between the Burmese junta and Aung San Suu Kyi, following the third meeting in three months between her and the junta’s liaison officer, Aung Kyi, on Wednesday. (more…)

Today is International Human Rights Day. This year, the Burmese military regime, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), continued to commit widespread and systematic human rights abuses against its own people with total impunity. Military offensives against ethnic nationalities in Eastern Burma’s Shan and Karen states forced 37,000 civilians to flee to China and more than 6000 to Thailand in the past six months alone. (more…)

From the hills outside Mandalay, Burma’s second city, the vista resembles a postcard of Asian serenity. Monks climb stone steps to a hillside shrine, where local men and women leave offerings of flowers and fruit. But the placid scene conceals one of the most repressive states in the world–a state that the Obama administration has decided may be more worthy of American friendship than American threats. (more…)

Tokyo and Washington, DC – Tokyo-based “BurmaInfo,” “People’s Forum on Burma,” and Washington, DC-based “U.S. Campaign for Burma” today welcome the call of 442Members of Parliament (MPs) around the world to the United Nations Security Council to establish a Commission of Inquiry to investigate crimes against humanity and other war crimes in Burma, as well as to impose a global arms embargo on Burma’s military regime. (more…)

Rangoon, Burma December 10, 2009 marks the 61st anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. On this auspicious day, on behalf of the people of Burma who have been oppressed and brutalized by the successive military regime since 1962, we, the All Burma Monks’ Alliance, 88 Generation Students, and All Burma Federation of Student Unions, submit the following message to the attention of the United Nations and the international community: (more…)

Bangkok – Burma’s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has met a government minister in Rangoon in the third such meeting since the beginning of October. (more…)

New Delhi – A senior official of the United Nations, Dr. Ajay Chhibber during a five-day visit to Burma reiterated the World Body’s commitment to support ongoing and future development programmes aimed at the upliftment of the poor and the needy. (more…)

Burmese troops are abducting villagers near to the Burma-Bangladesh border and forcing them to work on the construction of a border fence, an Arakan local has reported. (more…)

Maungdaw: About 600 Burmese soldiers from Military Operation Planning Bureau, or Sakhaka, 15 based in Buthidaung, 80 miles north of Arakan’s capital Sittwe, arrived on the western Burmese border in the early morning on Tuesday to resume the fence construction that had been postponed for the rainy season, report local residents and other officials on the border. (more…)

Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh: The European Union (EU) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) inked an agreement to improve the living standards of registered Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh yesterday, according to sources. (more…)

Twenty eight Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), who had been hiding in the jungles for many years, in an effort to avoid the Burmese Army, fled to the Thai-Burma border earlier this month. Prior to going into hiding, they used to live in villages in Karenni State’s district no. 2. (more…)

Chiang Mai, Thailand – Countries in the Mekong region have indeed opened their borders and former foes become friends, but several of them are still ruled by authoritarian governments that put limits on media and other freedoms. (more…)

Bangkok —Speaking at a dinner talk on Tuesday night, city governor M.R. Sukhumbhand Paribatra said that Thailand’s already-precarious stability faces an additional spoiler across the border in Burma. (more…)

Singapore — There are no signs of progress towards democratic change in Myanmar despite Washington’s decision to hold direct talks with the country’s military rulers, a senior US diplomat said Wednesday. (more…)

Burma is one of the countries worst affected by extreme weather resulting from climate change, according to a new report that assesses the impact of global warming over a period of nearly two decades. (more…)

The British government should lead the way in condemning Burma’s brutal repression of its own people, say Caroline Cox and Benedict Rogers. (more…)

The Burmese military junta thrives on a cycle of corruption, which has spread its tentacles to all the government’s civil sectors as well, said locals. (more…)

These days, local political groups and foreign media are found hand in glove making various comments on the open letter Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has delivered to the Head of State. In particular, very repeatedly, they are suggesting that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s offer be honoured, and criticizing that it was not proper the offer had not been responded yet. Apparently, they are putting pressure on our country to shape itself into one to the liking of the West Bloc, by chopping and changing about the case. (more…)