The embattled Shan State Progress Party / Shan State Army (SSPP/SSA), for the third time since the military campaign against it began in March, has been contacted by Burmese authorities to negotiate for peace, according to SSA sources. (more…)

An advisor to President Thein Sein, Dr Nay Zin Latt has said the government is to form a national-level, independent human rights committee to handle human rights issues in the country, but doubts remain about a future body’s autonomy. (more…)

Nay Pyi Taw – Human Rights Special Rapporteur Mr Thomas Ojea Quintana on his tour from 21 to 25 August separately met Pyithu Hluttaw Speaker Thura U Shwe Mann, Amyotha Hluttaw Speaker U Khin Aung Myint, Union Chief Justice U Tun Tun Oo, Chairman of the Union Election Commission U Tin Aye, Union Minister for Home Affairs Lt-Gen Ko Ko, Union Minister for Defence Maj-Gen Hla Min,Union Minister for Foreign Affairs U Wunna Maung Lwin, Union Minister for Labour and for Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement U Aung Kyi, Union Attorney-General Dr Tun Shin and Deputy Chief of the Myanmar Police Force Police Brig-Gen Zaw Win. (more…)

THREE PAGODAS PASS, Thailand—One kilogram of deer meat costs 250 baht (US $8.30), while bear meat is 200 baht ($6.60) a kilo. For a more economical family meal, you have the option of pangolin, otherwise known as the scaly anteater; its grisly meat retails for just 150 baht ($5) a kilo. Skinned squirrels sell for 60 baht ($2) each. (more…)

Out of the total estimated demand of around $470 million for micro?credit in the rural segment of the Myanmar economy, currently only 10 percent is being met, said UNDP Resident Representative Akbar Usmani at a workshop in Yangon recently. (more…)

New Delhi – Japan will accept the first batch of Burmese refugees from Umpiem refugee camp, the second largest refugee camp on the Thai-Burmese border, in September 2013. (more…)

US street artist Shepard Fairey has created a poster for Luc Besson’s new film, The Lady, about Burmese pro-democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi, (more…)

Bangkok – Rare overtures by Myanmar’s reclusive, authoritarian rulers toward liberalization and reform suggest change could be afoot in the isolated nation. (more…)

As Burma’s president, former general Thein Sein, acknowledges that the country’s economy is struggling under the weight of multiple challenges, the question that is foremost on many minds right now is how his government will restructure a foreign-exchange regime that is fast becoming his administration’s most pressing problem. (more…)

Chiang Mai – When Myanmar President Thein Sein made his ground-breaking March 30 inaugural address, where the former military general made an unprecedented call for good governance and counter-corruption reforms, the text of the speech was lifted from an op-ed published a month before in the local The Voice weekly newspaper. (more…)

Yangon – The new Myanmar government’s human rights challenges remain despite recent steps towards rapprochement with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the United Nations human rights envoy for the country said Thursday. (more…)

Leaders of Burma’s opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) urged UN envoy Tomas Ojea Quintana to help them secure their party’s existence, and addressed the Depayin Massacre of 2003 during their meeting in Rangoon on Thursday, said party spokesman Nyan Win. (more…)

Despite Burmese President Thein Sein’s recent call for peace talks, deadly clashes continue to flare between government forces and armed ethnic Kachin rebels in the country’s troubled north. (more…)

Chiang Mai – Pro-democracy lawyers whose licenses have been revoked are preparing to apply to renew their license with the help of the National League for Democracy. (more…)

Surapong Kongchantuk, vice chairman of the Thai National Human Rights Commission’s sub-committee on ethnic minorities, the stateless, migrant workers and displaced persons, has said now is not yet the right time to repatriate refugees from Burma. (more…)

Yangon – Foreign firms that win a tender in Myanmar to develop 18 new onshore oil and gas blocks will be required to set up joint ventures with local companies, a senior Energy Ministry official said on Thursday. (more…)

The United Nations has warned that about 12-million people across the world have no citizenship of any country and consequently suffer from a denial of basic human rights. (more…)

The country’s democrats have higher aspirations than the junta’s small moves at poverty alleviation. (more…)

In the unmarked offices of Burma Lawyers’ Council in the Thai border town of Mae Sot, Saw Htun is laughing. The source of this 36-year-old labour rights advisor’s amusement is the idea that Burmese migrant workers might soon be earning 300 baht a day – set to become Thailand’s minimum wage if Yingluck Shinawatra’s newly elected government gets its way. “This won’t apply to Burmese workers,” he says. “They don’t have the ability to make Yingluck Shinawatra prime minister. Thai workers do.” Given that migrant workers in Mae Sot are lucky if they make even two-thirds of Tak province’s current minimum wage of 162 baht, you can forgive Saw Htun the cynicism. (more…)

I have just concluded my five-day mission to Myanmar – my fourth visit to the country since I was appointed in March 2008 and my first since February 2010. I would like to thank the Government of Myanmar for its invitation and hospitality, and for the cooperation and flexibility shown during my visit. (more…)