Activists gathered outside the Japanese foreign ministry in Tokyo at the weekend to protest the visit of a top Burmese government official, echoing warnings from Human Rights Watch that Japan should prioritise dialogue on political prisoners in Burma over that of business. (more…)

Six decades ago, Burma’s first premier, U Nu, described all Southeast Asian countries as “houses on stilts,” telling Time magazine that “As the wind blows, they go to and fro like this.” (more…)

Though welcoming the recent changes in Burma, Rudd again urged greater political freedom and security for opposition figures and parties, as well as peaceful negotiated settlements to ethnic conflicts. However, Rudd also needs to call for the release of the remaining political prisoners. (more…)

FOR MANY YEARS advocates of engagement with Burma’s dictators have argued that economic sanctions, which are intended to promote democratic change in that Southeast Asian nation, could boomerang by forcing the regime into China’s welcoming arms. Even advocates of sanctions, like this page, have acknowledged the risk, since China’s Communist Party has no qualms about dealing with dictators and is hungry for Burma’s natural resources and its access to the Andaman Sea. (more…)

Numen, in her 30s, is a Kachin from Burma. (more…)

SPEAKING to a packed audience at the Australian Club in Yangon on the 15th of October, British Academy Award-winning actress, Emma Thompson charmed an enthralled Myanmar audience with her humour and warmth at a panel-discussion on “Women, Feminism and Myanmar’s Future”. (more…)

Su Su Nway, a rights activist for farmers, workers and child soliders in Burma, was recently released from a 12-year prison sentence in the presidential amnesty. She served a long period of time in solitary confinement. She was in Insein, Kalay and Khamti prisons. While she was in solitary confinement, she urged the authorities to improve prison conditions. Mizzima talked to her after her release about her experiences and current issues. (more…)

The bitter conflict engulfing Kachin state has escalated in the last two days, with claims from the rebel Kachin Independence Army (KIA) that on Wednesday alone it clashed on 12 separate occasions with Burmese forces. (more…)

Beijing – China and Myanmar should keep their word to implement joint projects, China’s premier was quoted as telling a top official from the country’s southern neighbour, hinting at unresolved differences over a Chinese-backed dam. (more…)

Kuala Lumpur — Myanmar plans to send troops to attend nine of 16 military courses offered by the Malaysian Armed Forces, including the Armed Forces Staff College. (more…)

Bangkok – Thailand battled to protect the capital Bangkok from being swamped by water on Friday, with canals full to the brim after devastating floods across the region that sources in neighboring Myanmar said had killed at least 100 people there. (more…)

Kuala Lumpur – Malaysia’s opposition and rights groups on Friday stepped up calls for the government to drop a plan to send home some of the Myanmar citizens who have been detained for immigration offences. (more…)

United Nations – The U.N. expert who assesses the human rights situation in North Korea is calling upon the government to urgently begin releasing the estimated 200,000 political prisoners in the country’s jails. Meanwhile, his counterpart who monitors Burma said that despite many positive developments, ongoing and serious human rights issues remain to be addressed there. (more…)

As economies and societies all around them have flourished, two countries have been strikingly left out of the East Asian boom of the past generation: North Korea and Myanmar. The strategic importance, internal miseries and governing oddities of North Korea are obvious and frequently in the news. Myanmar, by contrast, is rarely mentioned. When it does appear, it is usually as the object of some new calamity — like the 2008 cyclone that killed over 100,000 people, many of them perishing after Myanmar’s benighted military rulers refused outside aid — or as the setting for dramas involving Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize winner whose party triumphed in the 1990 national elections but who has spent most of the years since then under house arrest. (more…)

The India-Myanmar relationship has been enriched by nine visits at the VVIP level in the past decade. The latest visit was by President Thein Sein who heads a more representative government than all his predecessors except one, namely Premier U Nu. This fact alone imbued Thein Sein’s visit with special significance, but there are other factors too. A holistic assessment of his dialogue in Delhi requires a critical look both at the bilateral and regional dimensions.
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Outside of Burma, some foreign diplomats and scholars have said that President Thein Sein is a genuine reformist and have compared him to the likes of Gorbachev. But while the initial steps taken by his new government have been welcome, Thein Sein is finding it is easier to convince foreign governments and observers than his own Burmese people that those steps will lead to real reform in the future. (more…)

Since the hero of Burma’s independence, General Aung San, was assassinated on July 19, 1947, every successive Burmese government has failed to honour the Panglong Agreement of the same year, which promised self-determination, democracy, federalism and equality for Burma’s ethnic minorities. After ethnic minorities did not receive the rights promised in the Panglong Agreement, several groups instigated revolution against the Burmese government. More than six decades later the country remains mired in civil war. Yet, despite the duration of the conflicts, anti-war demonstrations have failed to materialize. (more…)

Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) is deeply concerned by reports that the Burma Army are directly attacking churches in Kachin State, beating pastors and church members, setting homes alight and raping, torturing and killing civilians. (more…)

Licences for satellite television receivers are likely to be issued again in Burma following a six-year ban claimed at the time by observers to be an attempt to control the flow of information into the country. (more…)

Imphal: Manipur Governor Gurbachan Jagat said on Wednesday that activities of several militant groups in the valley areas of the state have been checked to a great extent by intensified counter-insurgency operations. (more…)