Among the various shock reports released yesterday to mark World Refugee Day (namely the UN’s announcement of a global 15 percent rise in refugees) was a slightly different take on the fate of those forced to flee their countries. The Paris-based media watchdog Reporters Without Borders published a eulogy to the hundreds of refugees who work as journalists in exile, launching information missiles back into their homeland where governments consider them an enemy of the state. (more…)

It was strange to be the first high-ranking European to visit Burma since the country’s supposed democratic breakthrough. Since November’s flawed elections we have been trying to steer the country towards democracy, yet no one I met seemed to know who was in charge. Was the “old man” – the supposedly retired military dictator Than Shwe – still pulling the strings? Big pictures of the Junta’s former strongman hog public spaces apparently because the Burmese are afraid to take them down. Eight months after large crowds cheered the release from house arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi, the dissident Nobel laureate, there is still confusion in this small but politically sensitive Asian nation. (more…)

Fierce fighting in Kachin state adds to speculation that widespread civil war may not be far off in Burma. Three separate insurgencies and the potential for more to break out threaten the country’s internal and border security. Also at risk are the small gains in economic and social development in the country’s border regions that have been made since the beginning of the ceasefires two decades ago.
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The last 10 days saw the breakdown of the ceasefire between Burmese generals and the Kachin minority, one of modern Burma’s founding ethnic communities. But it’s important not to view this primarily through prism of ethnicity—emphatically, the generals are equal opportunity oppressors who discriminate not on the basis of ethnicity or religious faith, but in terms of their personal and institutional interests. (more…)

The Kachin Women’s Association Thailand (KWAT) is demanding an immediate end to the Burmese military regime’s widespread use of sexual violence in their offensive against the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) in northern Burma. (more…)

New Delhi – Young activists in Rangoon distributed posters, pamphlets and mailed letters on Thursday urging the government to immediately release all political prisoners in four townships in the Rangoon Region. (more…)

Refugees by the hundreds from Katsu Yang village located between Waingmaw Township and Laiza headquarters of the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) have sought refuge in a Buddhist monastery in Waingmaw Township, said residents. (more…)

A prominent Burmese hip hop artist is set to join a splinter group of the opposition National Democratic Force founded by the party’s one-time leader, Thein Nyunt. (more…)

Mray Bon: Several villagers in the three villages hardest hit by Cyclone Giri in Arakan State have been facing starvation since the beginning of this month after they lost the opportunity to work at sea due to bad weather, according to many reports from the area. (more…)

Having fled their home country to escape oppression, what is to become of the thousands of Burmese refugees in Thailand? (more…)

Bangladesh has signed a deal with US energy giant ConocoPhillips to explore for gas in disputed waters off its coast despite local opposition and the risk of regional tension, an official said Thursday. (more…)

New Delhi – Indian Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna will visit Burma on Monday, according to the Indian Embassy in Rangoon. A senior official from the embassy said that details of the visit were not yet known. (more…)

Brussels — A high-level European Union team is heading to Myanmar for exploratory talks with the country’s new authorities, a senior EU diplomat said Friday. (more…)

The US Ambassador to the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) said that the US will continue working with its allies at the UN to seek the establishment of a UN Commission of Inquiry (CoI) on Burma, according to a statement issued on Wednesday by the US Mission to Geneva. (more…)

Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is to be awarded the freedom of the city of Newcastle later. (more…)

Jakarta – The ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus – AIPMC strongly condemns the decision by the Myanmar government to dispatch heavily armed troops into Kachin State and the concomitant outbreak of fighting, which brings an end to seventeen years of ceasefire between the government and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA). (more…)

In a bid to encourage desertion in the Burmese Army, the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) has welcomed willing Burmese soldiers to join the KIA, in a statement today. (more…)

Not only in downtown but also in suburban areas, Yangon City Development Committee is removing street vendors from their roadside. (more…)

Bangkok – More than 10,000 people in northern Myanmar have fled fighting between government troops and an ethnic minority group’s militia, and are living in temporary camps near the Chinese border as refugees, members of the minority group said Thursday. (more…)

Bangkok – Myanmar ethnic minority rebels on Thursday appealed for China to help end a deadly standoff with government troops as Beijing called for calm after people fled across the countries’ shared border. (more…)