The government is considering resuming aid to Myanmar, following the release of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the declared end of the junta rule, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned. (more…)

The second-highest diplomat at the Burmese Embassy in Washington has decided to defect and is seeking asylum in the United States. (more…)

Southeast Asia is to Australia what Latin America is to the US – vast, close, immensely important and almost completely unnoticed and unregarded by the domestic population, except as a tourist destination and a source of problems. Oh, and it’s generally badly handled by the government. (more…)

Germany’s federal commissioner for human rights policy, Markus Loening, recently visited Burma and published an article in The Financial Times in which he called upon European Union member states to enter into an “intelligent dialogue with all groups in Burmese society.” This sounds reasonable enough, as long as this call is not what we have seen behind closed diplomatic doors in internal EU member states’ consultations about right policies toward Burma. Calls for dialogue with “all groups in Burmese society” have unfortunately too often taken the form of an effort to undermine the role of Aung San Suu Kyi as the genuine leader of the Burmese democratic movement and as a legitimate representative of many of the aspirations of the vast majority in Burmese society. (more…)

Last week the Kachin Women’s Association Thailand reported that at least 18 women and girls were gang-raped by Burmese troops in Kachin state. In the same week, Germany’s federal commissioner for human rights policy, Markus Loening, published an article in the Financial Times (‘It is Time to Fine Tune Sanctions on Burma’, 20 June 2011) calling for sanctions on Burma to be relaxed. (more…)

(Interview) – Khin Ohn Mar, one of the exiled- based Burmese democracy leaders, took part in a “Community of Democracies” meeting in Lithuania on Thursday. Civil society representatives were invited under a special programme sponsored by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Mizzima interviewed Khin Ohn Mar on the Burmese issues she will discuss at the conference. (more…)

For a country that wants to be recognised as a great power it’s a strange, if not debilitating, paradox that we remain parochial, obsessed with ourselves and unconcerned with what’s happening around us. The bizarre bit is we’re not even curious. We simply don’t care. (more…)

The old era of military regime has ended and the new era of ‘civilian’ rule, with all its imperfections, has begun in Myanmar. (more…)

Now, Myanmar is on the correct path to genuine discipline-flourishing multiparty democracy in line with the State Constitution. (more…)

Vatican City – Troops in Myanmar are carrying out “ethnic cleansing” against the mainly Christian Kachin ethnic minority near the border with China, the missionary news agency Fides reported on Friday. (more…)

New clashes between the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and Burmese government troops took place on July 2nd and 3rd in different parts of Kachin State, despite efforts by both sides to negotiate a ceasefire on June 17 and 30th during meetings between representatives from the KIA and Burmese government. (more…)

A coalition of Myanmar dissident groups called on China to halt a series of dam projects it is building in the resource-rich Southeast Asian nation, the latest sign of rising hostility toward Chinese investment there. (more…)

The managing director of German weapons’ manufacturer Fritz Werner this week met with senior Burmese government figures, including those on EU sanctions lists, in Naypyidaw for what state media billed as “mutual” cooperation on ports and airports. (more…)

Moody’s lobbed a financial hand grenade into the global markets by predicting that between 8% to 12% of the loans extended by Chinese banks would eventually be nonperforming. This means that the borrower would not be able to repay back the loan. (more…)

Burma’s democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi on Tuesday welcomed Thailand’s election outcome, which paves the way for Yingluck Shinawatra to become the country’s first female prime minister. (more…)