Briefing
In 2011, Myanmar astonished the international community with a series of political openings that led even U.S. President Barack Obama to see “flickers of progress” in the country. The approval by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit last November of Myanmar’s bid to chair the regional bloc in 2014 and the historic visit of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to the country seem to have launched a regional race for gaining a “special relationship” with the Myanmar authorities, themselves eager to attract new foreign investment. But it is doubtful that increased economic involvement with neighboring countries will strengthen Myanmar’s nascent democracy.
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Yangon, Burma – Burma began releasing some prisoners on Tuesday, but activists and relatives said a government clemency fell short of national reconciliation promises and showed that political prisoners may remain behind bars for a long time.
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In almost any other community from Moscow to Washington, it would have been just another public Chanukah menorah-lighting ceremony providing an opportunity for the local government and Jewish community to showcase their strong ties.

But in Myanmar, where the government has been run by a military junta and the Jewish community numbers just a handful of families, the occasion last week of a public Chanukah lighting ceremony involving government officials was remarkable. (more…)

Activists and Myanmar’s opposition expressed frustration on Tuesday after an order to cut jail terms for all inmates appeared to fall far short of hopes for an amnesty for political detainees.

Around 300 people gathered outside Yangon’s notorious Insein prison on Tuesday as prisoners, including women carrying children, emerged from the jail following an order to reduce most sentences. (more…)

Yangon – Myanmar’s state media, known for its dogged support of the country’s former military junta, on Tuesday celebrated 2011 as the year the previous “authoritarian” regime ended. Government mouthpiece the New Light of Myanmar said that last year, when a new nominally-civilian government took power and implemented a series of reform gestures, was a “transition period from the old era to the new one”.
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Yangon, — Despite concerns by Amnesty International, Myanmar’s Human Rights Commission gave the notorious Insein Prison a clean bill of health, except for being overcrowded.

A delegation of eight commission members, including its chairman, visited Insein as well as two other prisons to investigate reports by Amnesty International that recent hunger strikers claimed they lived in “dog cells” and were deprived of water.
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One of the most compelling appeals for the release of Burma’s remaining political prisoners comes from a little girl whose parents are serving sentences of more than 100 years behind bars.

The three-year-old toddler, Phyu Naychi, is the “star” of a powerful documentary film, “Into the Current,” on the fate of up to 1,500 “prisoners of conscience” still in prisons in Burma.
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A film festival featuring Burma’s leading artists and dissidents will test the regime’s commitment to reform. Wei Mar reports

Burma’s democracy movement leader Aung San Suu Kyi, film director Min Htin Ko Ko Gyi, and former political prisoner and comedian Maung Thura aka Zarganar are pushing the boundaries of prevalent state censorship in the Arts of Freedom Film Festival in Rangoon, which began on 31 December will continue to 4 Jan.
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In 2007 a fuel price hike sparked nation-wide protests. Petrol prices in Burma rose by a third on Sunday, a move that was not formally announced by the government.

The price of a gallon of petrol rose from 2,500 kyat ($3.15, £2.03) to 3,350 kyat, reports from Burma said.
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Rangoon — When it opens its doors once a month, the British Club in Rangoon is normally packed with diplomats, NGO workers and English teachers buying drinks on an old-style chit.

But since the long-isolated government recently launched political and economic reforms, a new group of people is propping up the bar at the club in Burma’s former capital: western investors.
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Rangoon – A Burmese telecommunications company on Tuesday announced plans to sell mobile telephone cards for 5,000 kyats (6 dollars), a hundred times cheaper than those currently available.

“At the first we will sell 1 million 3G SIM Cards for only 5,000 kyats, possibly in the first week of March,” said Lwin Naing Oo, chairman of Shwe Pyi Tagon Co Ltd.
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Last year saw some of the biggest political developments in Southeast Asia in decades. Burma finally seemed poised for real change, while Thailand continued to move closer to the brink of self-immolation, as political in-fighting worsened. The United States, China, and Association of Southeast Asian nations continued to raise the stakes in the South China Sea, to a point where, now, it seems unlikely anyone can back off their claims and truly sit down at the table to negotiate some kind of agreement. Singapore had its most competitive election in generations, while in Malaysia massive street protests have clearly rattled the government. Even smaller states faced political turmoil: Papua New Guinea went for weeks with two prime ministers – and the potential for civil strife – before the situation was resolved. (more…)

Along with a plethora of voices from U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to eager international investors, the International Crisis Group has praised Myanmar’s tentative steps towards democracy over the past year. In a new report, the group is including Myanmar among the countries whose internal conflicts could see significant progress in 2012, even as other violence-prone nations – including Syria, Afghanistan and Pakistan – deteriorate further. (more…)

Waterloo, Iowa — As the ethnic makeup of Black Hawk County changes, so does the diversity of the business climate.

About a year-and-a-half after the first Burmese refugees came to Waterloo for work, the first Burmese business has opened its doors.
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The common denominator of these three men are cruelty, brutality, ruthlessness, and secrecy that had set-up a tyranny which simultaneously oppressed and starved its people to an almost unique degree to sustain their own regime. All of them have directly or indirectly killed from 1-5 to 2 million of its own citizens.
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