Naypyidaw, Burma — This “city of magnificent distances” sprawls on a pancake-flat plain four hours north of Burma’s largest city and former capital, Rangoon. On November 6, 2005, at a time apparently chosen by astrologers, Naypyidaw became the country’s new capital, and the first convoy of government workers was dispatched up the highway to the dusty city-in-progress. The official explanation for the move was that British-built Rangoon had become too congested.Some observers, however, suggested the move could be defensive, to forestall a feared attack on Rangoon by the U.S. Navy; others pointed out the long tradition of Burma’s rulers shifting the kingdom’s capital in order to cement (in the most literal sense) the legacy of their rule. (more…)

Nowadays the Burmese “sanctions” question is a hot topic. I have neither opposed nor supported Western sanctions because I believe it’s not the main reason for the problems of our motherland, including the bad economy.
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IN the last 10 months since its new civilian government came to power, Myanmar has impressed the world with its remarkable efforts to re-engage the international community after five decades under military rule.

The regime in Myanmar has freed scores of high-profile political prisoners including Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, opened peace talks with ethnic rebels and loosened controls on the media, to name but a few of the reforms. These actions have not gone unnoticed by the West. The European Union last week began relaxing its sanctions by lifting travel bans on top Myanmar officials, while the United States has been full of praise for the South-east Asian state’s baby steps in returning to democracy. (more…)

We must be ready to help the government if it tries to deliver its citizens a better future

FOR much of the past 50 years only a true optimist would have believed there were prospects for real change in Burma. For all that time the people of Burma have suffered repression. (more…)

ONE EVENING RECENTLY in Rangoon, my friend Ko Ye (not his real name) arrived at the apartment where I was staying, brandishing the latest issue of the weekly newspaper he runs. It was, he announced with great fanfare, a landmark edition: For the first time ever, government censors had allowed him to run a photo of Aung San Suu Kyi, the country’s most prominent dissident, on the cover. The edition also included other previously banned topics: political analysis of U.S. relations with Burma and an article about Martin Luther King that contained the taboo phrase “human rights” in the headline. “And here,” said Ko Ye, jabbing another headline, “is the first time I’ve been able to write about the 2.2 trillion kyat budget deficit. This is real news!” (more…)

The recent release of many high-profile political prisoners by the Burmese government has been hailed as a firm step on the country’s path towards democracy. (more…)

Yangon – Business is booming at the Golden Sea employment agency in downtown Yangon, but that doesn’t mean Myanmar’s long-stagnant economy is improving. Quite the opposite. (more…)

Rangoon—On the road to Mandalay, the Burmese military intelligence men and their thugs kicked him, beat him, put a hood over his head and threw him into a waiting truck. (more…)

As I write this, Burmese government troops are still staging attacks on the Kachin ethnic rebel group – even as the two sides have been trying to conduct negotiations in the Chinese city of Ruili, just over the border. The new Burmese president Thein Sein, an ex-general, has publicly ordered the army to stop its offensive twice (once in mid-December, and more recently last week). But the army has kept fighting. (more…)

As Myanmar’s rapid reform programme propels it from pariah to emerging market status, a new phrase has cropped up in conversations in tea shops in the city of Yangon: “Burma burn-out”. (more…)

Among the many tantalising questions surrounding Burma’s flirtation with democracy is this: might Kim Jong-un be enticed to try something similar in North Korea? (more…)

The long-awaited Human Rights Declaration by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations is expected to be finalized in the coming months, but human rights groups say the process has been surrounded in secrecy, raising concerns. The process also calls for the setting up of a human rights body.
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McConnell, the Senate’s leading Republican, called it “an emotional moment,” and said that both of them had probably thought “that we were never going to meet.” “It’s an incredible day,” he continued.

McConnell, who has long been one of the biggest supporters of Burmese democracy movement, also welcomed president Obama’s decision to restore full diplomatic relations with Burma last week. (That, of course, was in reaction to the Burmese government’s release of hundreds of political prisoners and its conclusion of a cease-fire agreement with the Karen ethnic rebel group.) The Senator said that he is also convinced that Burmese President Thein Sein is “a genuine reformer” after meeting with him in the capital of Naypyidaw. McConnell also hinted that sanctions on Burma could be eased or lifted following the April by-election, which Aung San Suu Kyi (known to the Burmese as “Daw Suu”) and her supporters are going to contest. (more…)

It’s not ridiculous to think that North Korea could take a page from Myanmar and make a shocking U-turn toward democracy.

For more than two decades, Myanmar was a pariah state ruled by military generals that suppressed political dissent, straitjacketed the media, persecuted ethnic minorities, and — despite resource riches — failed to improve its people’s living standards. The United States continuously sanctioned Myanmar and subjected it to regular rhetorical whippings in Congress. It was, for want of a better parallel, the North Korea of Southeast Asia. But the transformation of the past few months has been nothing short of remarkable. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s landmark visit late last year underscored the changes within Myanmar, and on Jan. 13, the United States restored full diplomatic ties with the country after it made good on its pledge to release a significant number of political prisoners and signed a cease-fire with ethnic Karen rebels. America’s breakthrough with Myanmar remains fragile; the government will have to meet other benchmarks such as abiding by the results of April’s parliamentary by-election. Still, this thaw raises the question: Could it ever happen in North Korea?
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When President Thein Sein pardoned over 300 political prisoners last week in Burma, CPJ reported that at least nine journalists were among those released. Since then, the exile-run Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) has announced that all of its jailed reporters, including a group of eight who had remained anonymous, are now free. (more…)

Bangkok – The release of more than 200 political prisoners and a tentative ceasefire with the rebel Karen National Union represent the latest of steps taken by Myanmar president Thein Sein’s government to improve its international image and assuage its many critics at home and abroad.
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From the AFPFL government led by U Nu to the SPDC regime led by Than Shwe, successive Burmese governments have cleverly manipulated the ethnic minorities by tricking and lying to them. And it is not going to be any different with Thein Sein’s government.
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The world, and especially the Burmese peoples, have seen many positive changes in their society over the past year. Now, in the light of these encouraging events, the world is beating a path to Myanmar’s [Burma's] doorstep. Some of those in the past have had rigorous negative opinions, ones they did not fail to share with all those around and about, and especially with those in policy positions. They wanted regime change as they believed there was little hope of progress under any military-dominated regime. (more…)

Iconic student leader Ko Ko Gyi was among hundreds of political prisoners released in a far-reaching amnesty on 13 January. The activist, a founder of the 88 Generation Students’ Group and a pivotal figure in both the 1988 and 2007 uprising, had spent four and a half years of a 65-year sentence in prison prior to his latest release. During that time he was tortured and suffered regular bouts of poor health. Prior to his arrest in August 2007 during the early stages of the uprising, he told reporters: “We paid the price with our families, our youth and our society. But we are satisfied with that sacrifice .” Now 50, he spoke to DVB about developments in Burma during his incarceration, and whether prison has sapped his drive to demand greater change in Burma.
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One sweltering day in August of last year, Burmese opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi arrived for the first time in the capital of her country. The city of Naypyidaw, inaugurated six years ago by Burma’s mercurial military rulers, is a supremely artificial creation, a place of vacant boulevards and echoing plazas built in the foothills some 200 miles away from the old capital of Rangoon. Rangoon is the city that Aung San Suu Kyi calls home, and it is there that she had spent 15 of the past 22 years under house arrest. (more…)