The Burmese military junta has been interrogating political prisoners since early June about their opinions of the upcoming election and their intentions for future political activity, according to the families of political prisoners. (more…)

The Wa army in northeastern Burma will one day have to join with the ruling military government because a country with more than one army is unacceptable, the junta has warned the group. (more…)

Brussels – Burmese migrants hoping to return to their homeland after elections this year should be given retraining first, Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya says. (more…)

Events have conspired to create a shortfall in funding for a prominent Thailand border aid group, meaning that food supplies to Burmese refugees in camps along the border is to be reduced. (more…)

Burmese authorities will double the airport tax for foreigners and increase it six times for Burmese citizens, two months after a new visa on-arrival was unveiled to boost tourism. (more…)

Yangon – In northeastern Shan State, opium farmers have a special welcome for visitors. (more…)

New Delhi – Burmese activists in Australia are not expecting any big foreign policy shifts on Burma, they said, after Julia Gillard was sworn in as the country’s first woman prime minister, vowing to bring changes to the government on the domestic front. (more…)

BANGKOK – Elections slated for later this year in Myanmar seem increasingly unlikely to democratically empower the country’s various ethnic minority groups, which combined account for over 30% of the population. (more…)

Chiang Mai – When Myanmar military dictator General Ne Win was still alive, foreign pundits often postulated that the country would change for the better once he passed from the scene. The country would still be ruled by the military, they predicted, but by a younger generation of more reform-minded officers that would bring Myanmar, also known as Burma, out of the Dark Ages. (more…)

Date: 27 June 2010 (Sunday)
Time: 1 pm to 5 pm.
Venue: Aoyama Gakuin University, Building No. (6), Shubuya 4?4?25, Tokyo, Japan (opposite of UN office) (more…)

North Korean-made truck-mounted multiple launch rocket systems have been reportedly set up at Burmese army bases in northern, eastern and central Burma, according to military sources. (more…)

New Delhi – Aspiring trade unionists had their request to form a national industrial and farm workers union flatly rejected yesterday by police carrying the response from junta leader Senior General Than Shwe, according to the workers’ representatives. (more…)

Burma’s minority Muslim population will be issued with identification cards and allowed to freely travel the country if they make the right vote in elections, the party headed by Burma’s prime minster has reportedly said. (more…)

Latest reports say that the ruling Burmese military junta had told the United Wa State Army (UWSA) during a meeting in Panghsang on 22 June, that its Border Guard Force (BGF) programme will be discussed after the new government is formed, according to sources close to the Wa leadership. (more…)

One of China’s biggest weapons manufacturers is to begin developing a copper mine in central Burma after agreeing to terms with the Burmese government earlier this month. (more…)

Bangkok— Drug seizures and cultivation have surged in Myanmar, a UN expert said Thursday, particularly in areas where ethnic rebels are coming under increased pressure from the junta ahead of rare elections. (more…)

Chiang Mai – US Senator John Kerry’s assistant Robin Lerner met senior members of the National League for Democracy on Tuesday to discuss the party’s stance on upcoming national elections, NLD spokesman Nyan Win told Mizzima. (more…)

The Burmese politicians, who were eager to run in the incoming elections hoping a political space, were in for a big shock when they saw the ‘Election Commission’s Directive No.2/2010 dated 21 June, 2010′ in the state’s daily papers. The analysts view the junta’s poll process as ‘Entanglements’ for there will be more and more complicated regulations before the unknown election date. (more…)

Later this year, Burma is expected to hold its first multi-party elections for twenty years. We look back at the country’s turbulent and oppressive history. (more…)

Yangon — Members of political parties contesting Myanmar’s first elections in two decades will be banned from marching, waving flags and chanting to garner support, under rules announced Wednesday. (more…)