Chiang Mai – Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi said on Tuesday that people should work for a better Burma without thinking it’s a sacrifice or in a spirit of revenge. (more…)

Four days of heavy shelling by Burmese troops against Kachin forces in the country’s northeast has prompted the rebel group to relocate non-combatants to safer areas and send all its soldiers to the frontline. (more…)

Chiang Mai, Thailand — Sexual violence and torture against ethnic communities are on the rise in northern Myanmar, a rights official said from Thailand. (more…)

Seeking to expand their economic cooperation and broad-base their trade basket, India and Myanmar on Tuesday agreed to set a $3 billion trade target to be achieved by 2015 from the existing $1.5 billion. (more…)

The United Wa State Army (UWSA) has reportedly been destroying many acres of poppy plantations in its controlled areas in Shan State East’s Mongton township, opposite Thailand’s Chiangmai province, saying anyone who complain about its action will be placed under custody, according to local sources. (more…)

Washington — A petition by thousands of Americans on Monday urged the United States to press for a UN-led probe into alleged crimes against humanity in Myanmar, saying the country needs accountability to move ahead. (more…)

Washington — As UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon prepares to hold a meeting of his “Group of Friends on Burma” on Tuesday to discuss the current situation in the country, the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) is calling on the world body to take a more active role in resolving its armed conflicts. (more…)

Lifting sanctions has to be linked to democracy. (more…)

Four years ago, as columns of burgundy-robed monks marched peacefully through Burma’s commercial capital Rangoon, security forces opened fire, slaughtering at least 31 people, arresting thousands more and extinguishing hopes that the ruling junta was receptive to political reform. On September 26, dozens of Burmese again gathered at a Buddhist pagoda in Rangoon to mark the fourth anniversary of the crushed protest movement. This time, however, the heavy, tropical air did not crackle with gunfire. Mass arrests did not ensue. Although some protesters were stopped from participating in other parts of town, those gathered at the holy Sule pagoda staged a peaceful gathering before security personnel eventually dispersed them. Some demonstrators were wearing bright-yellow T-shirts demanding the release of Burma’s political prisoners. Others sported shirts that opposed the construction of a Chinese-built dam in the country’s northern Kachin state that critics contend will destroy the environment, even as most of the future electricity will be sent to China’s neighboring Yunnan province. (more…)

“Myanmar: Major Reform Underway,” a report released on Sept. 22 by the International Crisis Group (ICG or the Crisis Group), the world’s best known think tank on crises, brims with hope, optimism and future possibilities. (more…)

During the unprecedented uprising in 1988, the monks, laity, students and other people of Burma, by sacrificing lives, blood and sweat, demanded human rights and democracy for the country and the people. It is now 23 years since the National League for Democracy (NLD) was formed according to the Political Parties Registration Act to fulfill those aspirations of the people. (more…)

Washington, DC – Question: Can you please provide a read-out of Assistant Secretary Campbell’s meeting with Burmese Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin? (more…)

On Monday, around 200 protesters peacefully marched in downtown Rangoon to mark the fourth anniversary of the Saffron Revolution. Naw Ohn Hla, a leading female activist who in the past took part in Tuesday gatherings at Shwedagon Pagoda to pray for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, and who continues to pray for political prisoners still behind bars, was one of the organizers of this rare public commemoration of the events of September 2007, when the Burmese authorities violently cracked down on Buddhist monks. (more…)

In 2000, the hip-hop group Acid, of which the popular Burmese rapper Zayar Thaw was a part, released Burma’s first hip-hop album. Despite predictions of failure by many in the Burmese music industry the album stayed at number one on the Burmese charts for more than two months. (more…)

Yangon – Hundreds marched in Yangon Monday to mark the 4th anniversary of an army crackdown on a protest led by students and Buddhist monks in Myanmar. (more…)

Loi Tai Leng, Myanmar — The soldiers arrived unexpectedly in 15-year-old Sai Noom Mong’s village in eastern Myanmar with a brutal message: Leave your homes, they told hundreds of startled residents, or we’ll burn them to the ground. (more…)

The civil war in northern Burma intensified over the last four days as heavy fighting between government troops and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) raged across northern Shan State from Friday morning. (more…)

Chiang Mai – Human rights activists are reporting an increased incidence of rape against Kachin women in areas of recent military attacks by government forces in northern Myanmar. (more…)

Japan plans to jointly develop rare earth metals and other natural resources with Myanmar as it attempts to diversify its supply chain for the minerals, which are used in a slew high-tech goods, sources close to the matter said Sunday. (more…)

Chiang Mai – The Burmese Central Bank has given a green light for banks to begin offering installment loans under a “hire-purchase system” to private citizens in cooperation with commercial companies and banks. (more…)