A number of junta-backed local militia chiefs, notorious among local people as drug dealers in Shan State North’s Kutkhai, Muse and Namkham townships, have been handpicked by the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) to contest in the 7 November polls, according to election watchers on the Sino-Burma border. (more…)

United Nations — UN chief Ban Ki-moon has warned Asian nations that their credibility could suffer if they do not take a tougher line with the Myanmar junta ahead of a national election in November. (more…)

Washington — US President Barack Obama on Friday urged the Burmese leadership to embark on a process of national reconciliation by releasing all political prisoners, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. (more…)

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Brian Cowen’s Irish government has joined a growing list of Eurpoean Union and other countries voicing support for a UN inquiry into crimes against humanity and war crimes committed by Burma’s ruling junta.   (more…)

Websites belonging to exiled Burmese media organisations have been hit with cyber-attacks on the anniversary of the September 2007 uprising. (more…)

Chittagong, Bangladesh: A Rohingya delegation from the Burmese Rohingya Orgnisation UK (BROUK) made a presentation on human rights abuses committed by the Burmese regime against the Rohingya community in northern Arakan, Burma in the 15th United Nation Human Rights session in Geneva on September 22, according to Khurshid Ahmed, Joint Secretary of BROUK. (more…)

The United States reaches out to the Burmese government as the country prepares for its upcoming national elections. (more…)

On the third anniversary of the violent suppression of the “Saffron Revolution,” the international community should consider taking immediate concerted and focused actions to secure the human rights, dignity and future of Burma’s 54 million people. (more…)

The National League for Democracy (NLD) won a landslide in the 1990 election in Burma, taking 392 out of the total 492 seats available. The military junta refused to accept the election result, which led to violence and political unrest in the country. On November 7 this year, the Burmese people will be able to cast their first vote in 20 years. However, the story of reviving political freedom in Burma is not as rosy as it seems. (more…)

For some, those saffron-thronged vistas of Rangoon three years ago lead to a remote hillside of a refugee camp on the Thai-Burma border. (more…)

Junta militias: the new drug lords in Burma
10.30 am Wednesday September 29, 2010
Admission Free
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Burma’s detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is on a voters’ list for the first general election in 20 years, eyewitnesses have told the BBC. (more…)

Yangon – Myanmar’s second largest pro-junta party was planning to field 990 candidates in the upcoming November 7 polls, almost ten times as many the largest pro-democracy party, sources said Friday. (more…)

US diplomats on Tuesday met with officials from Burma’s three main opposition parties in Rangoon as complaints of surveillance by Burmese intelligence emerge. (more…)

Washington—US President Barack Obama will raise the issue of Burma during his meeting on Friday with leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and impress upon them the need for Burma to have a free and fair election, the White House said Thursday. (more…)

The military regime running Burma must allow for a “more inclusive” political system, such as allowing the participation of jailed opposition leader Aung Sang Suu Kyi, after disputed elections are held in November, Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said in an interview Thursday evening. (more…)

London — Amnesty International urged Myanmar to free all political prisoners Thursday ahead of elections in November, as it marked three years since a deadly crackdown on protests led by Buddhist monks. (more…)

For our sake as well as theirs, America must start assisting the brave opponents of the Burmese junta. (more…)

The international community has never paid proper attention to what happens in ethnic areas of Burma. The Burmese army’s attacks against civilians – even the shooting and killing women and babies, and the mortar bombing of schoolchildren in Karen state – are ignored by media and diplomats. The focus is almost exclusively on what happens in Rangoon, and what happens with Aung San Suu Kyi. (more…)

The military junta in Burma has set Nov 7 as the day for the ‘general election’ in the military-ruled country in South-East Asia. It is also widely expected that the military junta will effectively remain in absolute power after the election as the opposition is in disarray and split into those who are willing to give the ‘election’ a try and those who have decided that it is too meaningless for it to be entertained. (more…)