The Chiang Mai-based managing editor of Mizzima News Agency, U Sein Win, on the prospect of daily papers and his organisation’s plans to return to Myanmar (more…)

A number of Burma’s political prisoners who were recently released told The Irrawaddy that conditions inside the prisons were deplorable until 1999 when the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) became involved. Many, however, expressed dissatisfaction with the physical environment and said that conditions varied in prisons across the country. (more…)

Naypyidaw, Burma – Since Thein Sein took office as Burma’s president nine months ago, the country’s famous opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has been freed from house arrest, political prisoners have been released and the United States has normalized bilateral relations with Burma, also known as Myanmar. This week, Sein granted The Post’s Lally Weymouth his first interview with a foreign journalist. Excerpts: (more…)

88-Generation Student leader Jimmy, aka Kyaw Min Yu, who was arrested in 2007 for staging a protest against a price rise in fuel and commodities, was released on Friday from Shan State Taunggyi Prison. His wife Nilar Thein, also an 88-Generation Student leader, was released from Tharyarwaddy Prison. Their daughter Phyu Chi Nay Min was four months old when they were arrested. She is now 5. Mizzima reporter Phanida interviewed Jimmy about the new Burmese government, ethnic affairs, the future of the 88-Generation Students as a political party and other matters. (more…)

Colonel Saw Lwin (aka) Htay Aung, the joint-secretary of the Kayan New Land Party (KNLP), was freed under the recent presidential commutation order. He was held in Obo Prison in Mandalay. In 2007, Colonel Saw Lwin was arrested after the seizure of illegal weapons and goods and sentenced to 10 years in prison. Mizzima correspondent Kyaw Kha talks to him about the events leading to his arrest, and his views on peace talks and the new political atmosphere.
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88-Generation Students met with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Wednesday to talk about their statement: “The Attitude of 88-Generation Students on the current political atmosphere and landscape” issued on December 5. The group will not run candidates elections until all political prisoners are released. Suu Kyi and former army captain Win Htein of the National League for Democracy (NLD) attended the meeting. 88-Generation Students included Soe Tun, Tun Myint Aung, Sanchaung Ko Ko Gyi, Mi Mi Lwin, Nu Nu Aung and others. Mizzima reporter Tun Tun talks with Tun Myint Aung about the current political landscape, the by-election, Parliament, ethnic issues and the group’s future plans. (more…)

Ashin Pyinna Thiha is a prominent Buddhist monk and the abbot of a monastery in Kyeemyindine Township in Rangoon, which has recently become a popular venue for political events. The 47-member Maha Nayaka Sangha Council, Burma’s official state council of Buddhist monks, had previously banned him from giving Dhamma talks for one year. In September, he spoke at the Mandalay office of Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD), where he called for national unity and emancipation from fear under Burma’s new nominally-democratic government. A recorded video of the event spread among the Burmese public, and apparently citing this video, the Maha Nayaka Sangha Council issued a statement saying that the abbot was “disobedient” within the monk community and was to be evicted from his monastery. The news of Ashin Pyinna Thiha’s potential humiliation sent shockwaves across Rangoon and supporters have gathered at his monastery to show their concern. He still remains in his monastery and has sent a letter of apology to the council asking that it reverse its decision. (more…)

In March 2010, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights in Burma, (more…)

General Gun Maw, 46, is the Kachin Independence Army’s (KIA) vice chief of staff and heads the Foreign Affairs Department of the KIA’s political wing, the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO). He was interviewed by Edith Mirante, of Project Maje, in the besieged town of Laiza on November 21, a week before the KIO met with Burmese government representatives in China. (more…)

Office of the Press Secretary: Grand Hyatt, Bali, Indonesia

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Just to give you a bit of background — this comes after many months of engagement between the United States and Burma, which we can speak to. (more…)

Harn Yawnghwe, the executive director of the Brussels-based Euro-Burma Office (EBO) and one of Burma’s most prominent exiles, recently ended his first visit to his native country in nearly half a century. The experience was, he said, eye-opening: Contrary to the misgivings that many exiles still have about recent moves toward political reform in Burma, most people he spoke to in the country said they were overwhelmingly positive about the situation developing under President Thein Sein’s administration. (more…)

Rangoon, Burma – Remarks by Michael H. Posner, Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor; and Derek Mitchell Special Representative and Policy Coordinator for Burma (more…)

The leadership of the National League for Democracy (NLD) has said party leaders will meet very soon to consider re-registering as a political party. On April 29, 2009, the NLD declared that it would take part in elections only if all political prisoners were released, the undemocratic principles in the 2008 Constitution were amended, and international groups monitored the election. The NLD boycotted the November 2010 general election because those conditions were not met. Mizzima reporter Ko Pauk interviewed WinTin, a central executive member and a co-founder of the NLD, on whether the NLD requirements are still valid. (more…)

‘’We can see the way clear ahead more than we have ever been able to.’ (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…)

Last week, one of Burmese President Thein Sein’s political advisers, Ko Ko Hlaing, told Radio Sweden  that Burma has only around 600 political prisoners—a figure much smaller than the more widely accepted estimate of around 2,000 (of whom some 220 were freed last week). The Irrawaddy contacted Ko Ko Hlaing to ask him about this disparity, and for his response to critics who say that the relatively small number of political prisoners released suggests that recent moves toward reform are losing steam. (more…)

Jakarta – While democracy is relatively new in Myanmar, the progress has been heartening, with the general election and the release of the country’s democracy icon, Aung San Suu Kyi, last year. Last week, the Myanmar government released hundreds of political prisoners with thousands more to come. Norwegian State Secretary Espen Barth Eide visited Myanmar last week to meet Myanmar leaders and Suu Kyi. After his visit to Myanmar, Eide stopped in Jakarta to meet with Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa and the House of Representatives. The Jakarta Post’s Tifa Asrianti talked with Eide about democracy in Myanmar and how Indonesia and other countries could help. Below are excerpts from the interview: (more…)

Mizzima correspondent Kyaw Kha talked by telephone with Burmese comedian Zarganar, who was released from Myitkyina Prison and arrived back at his home in Rangoon on Wednesday. (more…)

New Delhi – The 32nd General Assembly of the Asean Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA) held in Phnom Penh promoted Burma from an observer status to a full AIPA member. Fourteen Burmese MPs including seven MPs from the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party attended the one-week conference that ended on Saturday. (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…)