A senior member of her party’s National Executive Committee told The Daily Telegraph its 43 new MPs will not take up their seats until the government withdraws an oath they must swear to ‘safeguard’ the constitution.
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Does Daw Aung San Suu Kyi dare travel abroad yet? Would her departure create a flash point for reactionary generals to roll back recent reforms in Myanmar and block her return? And if she does take the risk, where will she go first? (more…)

Stray dogs scurry across the fairway, the greens have seen better days and a civil war rages just 10 miles away. But here in the conflict-torn hills of northern Myanmar, the Laiza Golf Club (est. 2006) remains open for business. (more…)

An editorial in the official state-run newspaper ticked off significant progress made by the Burmese government over the course of the just ended Burmese calendar year.
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Burma’s largest ethnic army marked their founding with dance performances and sporting competitions in the United Wa State Army’s Mongpawk township.

San Khun, deputy director of the UWSA’s External Relations Department said the group was marking 23 years of ‘peace building’ while a military parade is scheduled to take place today. (more…)

Interfax quoted Mr Mikhail Myasnikovich Belarusian Prime Minister said while meeting with Myanmar’s Energy Minister Mr Than Htay in Minsk that Belarus and Myanmar are working up a decision on creating joint projects in the oil and gas sector. (more…)

Burma’s health care system has been compromised after years of inadequate funding and is unable to provide adequate health care to the public, the Burmese Minister of Health, in a weeklong visit to John Hopkins University in the U.S., said this week. (more…)

Does the Association of Southeast Asian Nations want to sustain its relevance and be a credible player in international politics? Does it want to develop the ability to respond to potential challenges faced individually or collectively by its members?
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The U.S. Treasury on Tuesday relaxed sanctions on Myanmar to permit financial transactions to support certain humanitarian and development projects in the country as it moves ahead with democratic reforms after decades of military rule.
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“This will be followed by the India-Japan-US trilateral dialogue in Tokyo April 23. The inaugural dialogue, which had upset Beijing, was held in December last year in Washington. ”

Against the backdrop of tensions in South China Sea and the recent defiant rocket launch by North Korea, India and the US Tuesday will hold a dialogue on issues related to East Asia, part of a string of interactions that seeks to impart a fresh momentum to India-US ties.
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David Cameron has just returned from Burma, or Myanmar, the first-ever visit by a British Prime Minister. Burma is one of the most repressed states in the world. It is also one of the poorest. Do these two facts have anything to do with each other? The degree of repression may be easing. What of the degree of poverty? (more…)

Mr Cameron, it must be said, is no slouch: in announcing that sanctions on Burma are to be not lifted but “suspended”, he succeeded in saving everyone’s face while at the same time throwing almost everyone off balance. (more…)

Protesters outside the US Consulate in Chiang Mai urge US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to take a firm stand on human rights before her visit to Myanmar last December.
Aung San Suu Kyi’s victory in Myanmar’s recent parliamentary by-elections has been hailed internationally as evidence of substantial political change in the country. (more…)