One of Burma’s most prominent armed ethnic groups has made a final deadline day decision to reject the junta’s request to transform into a Border Guard Force. (more…)

ILLEGAL immigrants to Thailand have accused officials in the border town of Ranong of selling them by the boatload to people-smugglers and engaging in the sexual enslavement of young women. (more…)

Political opposition groups say the country’s first national elections in 20 years are nothing more than an elaborate pretence designed to ease power from the ruling military dictatorship to its civilian proxy, the Union Solidarity Development Party. (more…)

Chiang Mai – At least 40 child soldiers have joined the ranks of the Burmese regime’s new border forces, after a number of Democratic Karen Buddhist Army battalions this month came under junta command, a fellow soldier revealed today. (more…)

The Burmese government will launch attacks on two ethnic armies in Burma’s volatile border regions if they continue to refuse to transform into border militias. (more…)

For the first time during its sixteen year old ceasefire agreement with the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), the Burmese army said it wants the KIO to disarm. That information came on August 22, after a series of meetings between the two sides, according to sources close to the KIO. (more…)

Shan human rights organisations on Tuesday accused the Burmese government of carrying out a sinister agenda aimed at wiping out rebel armies and strengthen its grip on the country’s ethnic nationalities in the name of development. (more…)

Mae Rama Luang Camp, Thailand — The weary, weather-beaten refugee, gently cradling his sleeping son, gazes at the ceiling, bites his lips, but can’t hold back the tears. (more…)

Rachel Bentley flicks through some photographs on her laptop, stopping at one of a young woman with careworn features. (more…)

It was at the age of 20 that John first learned the rules to sing-along-karaoke contests. “Until then I’d never had the opportunity to attend parties or have fun. This was a new feeling — [a feeling of] freedom. Freedom to have fun without anyone looking over my shoulder,” the 24- year-old Naga Burmese says. John recounts how he had been pleasantly surprised by the idea of a new world and a new beginning, once he had crossed the Burmese border to enter the north eastern Indian state of Nagaland, where he attended school. (more…)

Chiang Mai –  A wave of officers and soldiers from battalions of the junta-allied Democratic Karen Buddhist Army have joined a rebel brigade that has rejected the junta’s offer – in effect a demand – for it to bring its troops under Burmese Army command within a special border force in eastern Burma, according to Karen officers. (more…)

Mae Sot — After a meeting last week between Thai and Burmese officials failed to resolve the impasse over Burma’s decision to close the border crossing at Mae Sot, Thailand, it appears that businessmen, traders and migrant workers will have to continue their anxious wait for the border to reopen. (more…)

Bangkok – The United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in Burma has met with human rights groups and former political prisoners during a visit to Thailand. The information he gathered from the meetings is expected to be part of a report to the United Nations. (more…)

Ranong, Thailand – A few months after crossing illegally from Myanmar into Thailand, former political prisoner Aung found out he was HIV positive. (more…)

Phyo Min Thein, the chairman of the Union Democracy Party, recently announced his resignation, saying that the military regime-sponsored 2010 election would not be free and fair. Among the 40 political parties currently registered with the Union Election Commission (EC), the UDP chairman was the first party leader to resign. Phyo Miin Thein, 41, took part in the 1988 uprising. He was arrested in 1990 and released in 2005. Irrawaddy reporter Ko Htwe interviewed Phyo Min Thein about his resignation and the planned election. (more…)

Yangon – A month-long closure of the Thai-Myanmar border to trade has caused a shortage of consumer items such as televisions and refrigerators in Yangon, media reports said Sunday. (more…)

Thailand’s Mae Hong Son province in cooperation with the Thai Army based along the Thai-Burma border has opened Doi Tai Leng, a base camp located on the Thai side of the border near the headquarters of anti-Naypyitaw Shan State Army (SSA) ‘South’.
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Lampang, Thailand — Veterinarians were treating the latest land mine victim from the Thai-Myanmar border Thursday, a 22-year-old female elephant whose foot was severely wounded by the explosion. (more…)

Washington — A community-based maternal health delivery program has dramatically increased access to maternal health care for internally displaced women in eastern Burma, say American researchers. (more…)

MAE LA CAMP, Thailand — Hla Hla Aye wept as she recalled leaving her son behind when she fled Myanmar a few weeks ago — with three other children, she and her husband couldn’t carry them all to safety. (more…)