Yangon, Myanmar — Aung San Suu Kyi’s opposition party refused to take its new seats in parliament Monday because of a dispute over one word in the lawmakers’ oath, but party officials said the issue would be overcome soon and the Southeast Asian nation’s president also said a revision was possible. (more…)

A proposal for the rewording of the admission oath is likely to be discussed by a meeting of the Union Parliament this week, according to prominent MPs from both houses.

Phone Myint Aung, an independent MP of the Upper House, told The Irrawaddy on Monday that, “I’ve heard that the oath rewording will be proposed by MPs in the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw [Union Parliament] tomorrow morning.” (more…)

Burma’s President Thein Sein said on Monday he had no plans to change the Burmese parliamentary oath of office, according to several widely distributed press reports by Japanese news media on Monday.

However, Ko Ko, the chairman of the Yangon Media Group, who attended the press conference held in Tokyo, told Mizzima those reports were not accurate, and the president did not say the oath could not be changed. (more…)

A number of commentators last week noted more news coverage of Kachin State in the state-run Burmese press, especially an editorial that blamed Kachin “hard-liners” for blocking progress in the on-going peace negotiations between the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) and the government.

“Eternal peace in Kachin State is still a pipe dream for the nationalities there due to some hardline leaders in spite of three rounds of peace talks between the union level peace making group and the KIO,” said an editorial in The New Light of Myanmar this week.
(more…)

The Burmese government has re-nominated some 59 new military representatives to Parliament under the authority of the Union Election Commission. The Parliament reconvened on Monday.

Of the 59 new military representatives, who were not elected by the public, 39 are in the House of Representatives (Lower House) and 20 in the House of Nationalities (Upper House), according to an article in the official state-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper on Monday. (more…)

Flying in from Norway two days after the United Ntionalities Federal Council (UNFC) declaration it was ready to meet him, Naypyitaw chief negotiator U Aung Min met only one of its members, Karenni National Progress Party (KNPP) on Saturday, 21 April.

He had also missed seeing the Restoration Council of Shan State / Shan State Army (RCSS/SSA) with which he had made his first break in December. “But he had called us from the airport to say hello and that he was looking forward to meeting us again next month,” said the SSA’s Brig-Gen Pawng Kherh, who had headed the second delegation on 12 January to hold the Union Level talks in Taunggyi.
(more…)

THE government plans to amend a law concerning the registration of local and international non-government organisations, a presidential adviser revealed last week.

“The current law for [registration of] NGOs will be amended following a proposal from a member of parliament,” adviser Dr Nay Zin Latt said last week. “The government wants to increase cooperation with NGOs … [and] intends to loosen restrictions gradually.”
(more…)

International donors are jumping at the chance to aid people inside Myanmar as sanctions ease. But refugees just outside the country are on the losing end.

Mae Sot, Thailand – The European Union joined the rest of the West today, loosening trade sanctions against Myanmar (Burma) as a reward for all of its recent reforms. The easing sanctions are widely seen as another positive step for the country.
(more…)

Burmese human trafficking victims after the raid on the Thai fishing boat on Friday. (Photo: Kyaw Thaung)
Twenty Burmese migrants were rescued when the fishing boat they were forced to work on was raided by the Thai authorities and human rights activists in Chonburi Province, south of Bangkok.

Kyaw Thaung, an spokesperson for the Burmese Association in Thailand (BAT) who was involved in the raid, said that the group was rescued at 3 am on Friday following a tip from one of the victims. (more…)

Yangon, Myanmar — Looking across a sea of young workers perched behind rows of buzzing sewing machines, factory owner Myint Soe has one main hope for Monday’s suspension of European sanctions on Myanmar — the restoration of some of the 80,000 garment industry jobs lost here over the past 10 years. (more…)

Singapore — Myanmar must implement difficult reforms as it faces a surge of investment that threatens to destabilize its economy, the Asian Development Bank said Monday.

This month’s devaluation of Myanmar’s currency is a “very positive step” but the country has a “very long way to go” after decades of political and economic isolation, ADB Managing Director Rajat Nag said. (more…)

Luxembourg – European Union foreign ministers in Luxembourg today agreed to suspend sanctions against Myanmar/Burma for one year, based on wide-ranging democratic reforms over the past year and democratic elections April 1.

The foreign ministers welcomed the willingness of President U Thein Sein’s government “to address environmental risks, in particular those related to deforestation and the loss of biodiversity.” (more…)

India stands to gain a lot from Myanmar walking away from China’s embrace and turning democratic. As the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is visiting Myanmar next month, there is a lot to reconsider in the two countries’ relationship.

Very few observers in India and indeed across the world could have predicted the sudden change of course by the ruling military junta in Myanmar and its new-found love for democracy. Now, of course, it seems that democracy is on an irreversible course in Myanmar, particularly after the recent by-elections, which clearly brought out the overwhelming support for Aung San Suu Kyi and her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD). (more…)

United Nations — U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says he plans to visit Myanmar this weekend because there is “an unprecedented opportunity” to help promote its transition to democracy at this “critical moment.”

Ban announced the trip after meeting Monday with the Group of Friends of Myanmar, which includes Western nations pushing for human rights reforms and the country’s Asian trading partners. (more…)

News of Myanmar’s exiled media returning home has excited the community of dissidents and media activists around the world. With the Arab Spring and increasing democratization in various parts of the world, journalists who fled many other countries for an extended period of time are also returning home.
(more…)