Human rights violations committed by Burmese government troops in Lecha Constituency in Southern Shan State have been documented and sent to the cabinet of the new government by Sai Maung Tin, a Lower House MP from Lecha Township. (more…)

Children as young as 10 are being ordered to accompany Burmese army columns as they carry wounded troops through a volatile stretch of Shan state, locals report. (more…)

Bangkok – Thailand is a source, destination and transit country for tens of thousands of men, women and children who are subjected to forced labour and sexual abuse, according to the U.S. State Department. (more…)

BANGKOK, 19 August 2011 (IRIN) – Aid workers in Myanmar’s northern Kachin State have expressed concern over prospects for food security after recent fighting between government forces and the rebel Kachin Independence Army (KIA). (more…)

Chiang Mai – Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has spoken in support of Indian activist Anna Hazare’s campaign against corruption in India. (more…)

Bangkok – Corruption and poor law enforcement has undermined Thailand’s efforts to crack down on human trafficking, which remains rampant, a UN envoy said Friday. (more…)

Today, The Irrawaddy would like to express its strong support for those who have stood up to protect our namesake, the Irrawaddy River. This includes environmentalists, activists and politicians such as pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, all of whom have given voice to growing concerns about the fate of this mighty river, which is now facing an unprecedented threat in the form of ongoing dam projects in Kachin State. (more…)

Geneva – The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, Tomás Ojea Quintana, will launch his first fact-finding visit to Myanmar since February 2010. He will visit Yangon and Naypyitaw from 21 to 25 August, at the invitation of the Government. (more…)

The undersigned members of the European Burma Network call on the European Union to include the establishment of a UN Commission of Inquiry into war crimes and crimes against humanity in Burma, when it drafts the UN General Assembly resolution on Burma for 2011. (more…)

Today, on 19th August, we are celebrating the 33rd Anniversary of the Kachin Women’s Day. The Kachin Independence Women’s Association (KIWA) was established on August 19, 1978. Over the past (33) years from its establishment, the Kachin Women Association has been working for the advancement of women and children. (more…)

Nay Pyi Taw – The Government of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar today issued Announcement No. 1/2011 dated 18 August 2011. (more…)

Chiang Mai – A last-minute official invitation to attend a national-level workshop on economic development was delivered by hand to the home of Burma’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Friday. President Thein Sein will also attend the workshop to be held in Naypyitaw, the capital. (more…)

Yangon – Myanmar’s new government on Thursday called for peace talks with armed separatists along its borders with Thailand and China, the latest in a series of conciliatory gestures towards long-time opponents of the former military regime. (more…)

Teknaf, Bangladesh: Twelve Arakanese Rohingya were arrested by Bangladesh Border Guard (BGB) from Nazirpara Village in the Teknaf border area on August 13, while crossing the border illegally and trying to enter Bangladesh. Later, they were pushed back to Burma, said a local aide of BGB who declined to be named. (more…)

Land confiscations and other human rights violations have been reported in northern Shan State during the last few weeks since the start of the Shwe pipeline project to export gas and oil to China. (more…)

Chiang Mai – The National League for Democracy (NLD), which the new Burmese government has dissolved, has been delayed in presenting its legal-status case to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC). (more…)

Most Burmese exile groups were skeptical about an announcement by President Thein Sein on Wednesday that his government would allow dissidents to return to the country, but at least some welcomed the idea as something worth considering. (more…)

Enhanced role for opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is a positive development but Asean must remain cautious about the military’s motives (more…)

Where China Meets India: Burma and the New Crossroads of Asia. By Thant Myint-U. Faber and Faber; 358 pages; £20. To be published in America next month by Farrar, Straus and Giroux; $27. Buy from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk

FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT did not have much time for Burma or the Burmese. The sympathy he felt for Indian demands for independence from Britain did not extend to that other piece of the British Raj now known as Myanmar. In 1942 he wrote to Winston Churchill: “I wish you could put the whole bunch of them into a frying pan with a wall around it and let them stew in their own juice.” (more…)

Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar – President of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar U Thein Sein met officials from economic and social fields, associations and organizations at the Myanmar International Convention Centre in Zabuthiri here this afternoon. (more…)