Laiza, Burma – The sharp sound of loading and unloading weapons and the barked orders of the sergeant-major cut through the mountains of northern Burma as the young cadets are put through their morning drills. (more…)

Seoul — Hyundai Heavy Industries said it signed a 1.4 billion dollar deal Tuesday with another South Korean firm to develop a huge natural gasfield in military-ruled Myanmar. (more…)

Burmese police and Thai authorities discussed on Monday how to cooperate effectively in combating the drugs trade in the Golden Triangle area, following an attack by traffickers that killed at least 10 Burmese police officers. (more…)

Dissident Burmese monks could face more repression from the regime that could resemble the 1980 crackdown under the late dictator Ne Win’s campaign under the motto “Purification of Sasana [religion].” (more…)

Bangkok – The Thai government should swiftly act to end police abuse and discriminatory laws and policies against migrant workers and their families, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today. The February deadline for more than a million migrant workers to enter the “nationality verification” process or face immediate deportation creates the risk of further abuses and should be postponed until it can be carried out in a fair manner. (more…)

Military authorities fear repeat of 2007 when monks led ‘Saffron Uprising’ (more…)

News journals in Burma have been barred from carrying news about the Feb.19 press conference of Tomas Ojea Quintana, the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar (Burma), sources said. (more…)

Rangoon — The pro-junta Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) will spend more than 12 billion kyat (US $12 million) this year to implement public utilities and services in Rangoon, according to Rangoon mayor Brig-Gen Aung Thein Lin. (more…)

The Burmese military junta has adopted a new tactic for forced labour in Arakan State to avoid pressure from the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the international community, said a teacher from Buthidaung. (more…)

Bangkok – A visit by a UN rights envoy to Myanmar has yielded little progress ahead of elections, experts say, in the latest setback for the world body’s efforts in the military-ruled nation. (more…)

Bangkok – A United Nations envoy has expressed deep concern about the persecution of Myanmar’s Muslims by the authorities. “There is no doubt that there is severe discrimination of Muslims,” the UN special rapporteur for human rights in Myanmar, Tomas Ojea Quintana, said after visiting the west of the country where Muslims are concentrated. (more…)

Bangkok — Dao, a migrant worker from Burma, is struggling to make a decision that could affect not only her but her family as well. “There are many things to worry about,” sighed the Shan state native who works in the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai. (more…)

Up to one thousand detained migrants, mainly Burmese, in a Malaysian camp are on hunger strike and demanding access to the UN refugee agency amidst severe overcrowding. (more…)

Nyi Nyi Aung has been sentenced to three years hard labor for political crimes. (more…)

Burma’s military junta puts on a show of democracy, freeing one opposition figure while many others languish in prison, and contriving to set up front parties to compete in what can only be a sham poll, Simon Roughneen comments for ISN Security Watch. (more…)

Amnesty International’s February 2010 report “The Repression of Ethnic Minority activists in Myanmar” reveals that there are real reasons to fear that the 2010 elections in Myanmar will intensify the already severe repression of political critics, in particular those from the country’s large and diverse population of ethnic minorities. The report covers the two-year period from August 2007, six months before the government announced that it would stage national elections, through July 2009.  It draws on testimonies and information provided by or about some 700 members of ethnic minorities who faced human rights violations as a result of their actual – or sometimes, merely perceived—opposition to the Myanmar government or its policies. (more…)

“Despite anticipation of landmark elections this year, I have not received any indication that the military government is willing to release all prisoners of conscience…Without full participation of the people including the 2200 prisoners of conscience and the environment that allows the parties to engage in the range of electoral activities, the elections to be held will not be credible.” – Tomas Ojea Quintana, UN Human Rights Special Rapporteur

Yangon – A UN envoy said Friday he “deeply regretted” that Myanmar’s ruling junta had refused to let him meet democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and called for her immediate release ahead of elections this year. (more…)

Yangon – A Myanmar prison court sentenced a Buddhist abbot to seven years in prison, an opposition source said Friday, as a UN rights envoy wrapped up a visit to the military-ruled nation. (more…)

Kutu Palong – Hundreds of children flock at the site of a stranger in the Kutu Palong makeshift camp in southeastern Bangladesh, near the border with Burma. Some are wearing salvaged clothes; mostly, they are naked. “Hello, how are you?” they shout, repeating the one phrase they have picked up from the few aid workers that have gained permission from the Bangladesh authorities to enter the unregistered camp. (more…)