United Nations – Amid criticism of the election laws propounded by Burmese military leader Than Shwe, at the UN on March 25 the Group of Friends of the Secretary General on Myanmar will meet, Inner City Press has learned. (more…)

So far, March has been a bad month for those countries and so-called Burma experts who advocate for a softer line with Burma’s generals.  First were the admissions by the US that its engagement policy was going nowhere; then came the publication of election laws in Burma that don’t give the slightest concession to calls that elections this year be free and fair; and finally the recommendations by the UN special rapporteur on Burma that there be a UN Commission of Inquiry into war crimes and crimes against humanity being committed by the dictatorship. The true nature of Than Shwe and the general’s around him has been revealed again. (more…)

New York – The United Nations should not delay the setting up of an international inquiry to address possible war crimes and crimes against humanity in Burma, Human Rights Watch said today. On March 15, the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, Tomas Ojea Quintana, presented his progress report on human rights in Burma for debate at the Human Rights Council in Geneva. (more…)

The availability of the national identity card has become easy from this month with the immigration department of the Burmese military junta issuing them without the usual fuss in Kalemyo, Sagaing division western Burma. (more…)

Hundreds of men, women and children thronged the sand bank of Salween river in the boat-stop area of E-tu Hta temporary Karen Refugee Camp. They came together on March 14 to observe the International Day of Action for Rivers and to protest against dam projects on the Salween. (more…)

Nay Pyi Taw – Chairman of the State Peace and Development Council of the Union of Myanmar Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services Senior General Than Shwe received Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn of the Kingdom of Thailand who was on a goodwill private visit in Nay Pyi Taw at Zeyathiri Beikman here at 12.30 p.m. today. (more…)

DOHA — Demand in China is stoking a black market in neighbouring Myanmar in tiger-bone wine, leopard skins, bear bile and other products made from endangered species, a report released on Tuesday said. (more…)

Chiang Mai – A section of Members of Parliament of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries, appalled at the anti-democratic nature of the Burmese junta’s electoral laws, have urged their respective governments not to accept it. (more…)

BANGKOK: Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva hopes to meet pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, but the Myanmar military regime has yet to agree to that, The Straits Times has learnt. (more…)

Myanmar’s military government broke its promise to democratize by barring opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from upcoming elections, the Philippines said Monday, urging Southeast Asian countries to push the junta to rescind a slate of new elections laws. (more…)

United States Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell gave an understated assessment of the Obama administration’s Burma policy last week, characterizing the lack of positive results from engagement with the junta as “not what we hoped for.” His admission came as the junta denied his recent request to visit the country and announced deeply problematic new regulations for upcoming elections. “Smart power,” it seems, has run headlong into the street-wise tactics of the hard men in Naypyidaw. (more…)

The bus from Inle Lake, a popular tourist destination in eastern Myanmar, follows a potholed road – sometimes dirt, sometimes paved – through the mountains on the way to Mandalay. Karaoke music videos with Burmese script play on the TV. Two ladies in front of us spit into plastic bags and periodically heave while a kid behind us sings along with the video. Outside the bus it’s dark, minus the made-in-China florescent lights, powered by small generators, which give the landscape a post-apocalyptic feel. (more…)

Repeated calls for assurances that the upcoming elections will be free and inclusive have gone unheeded as the new laws make clear the regime’s absolute lack of commitment to democratic principles to ensure free, fair and inclusive elections. (more…)

You are invited to attend a public forum on “Myanmar/Burma – Domestic Developments and International Responses” on March 22nd. The forum will bring together voices from inside as well as outside Myanmar to consider the import of current developments such as the election law and the reported sell off of state properties.  The forum will also consider the U.S. policy of conditional engagement and other international approaches to the government in Naypyidaw and assess their prospects of influencing events. (more…)

“I am appalled and saddened that Aung San Suu Kyi’s appeal against the sentence imposed by the regime has been denied. That failed appeal is sadly no surprise. From start to end, the sole purpose of this show trial has been to prevent Daw Suu Kyi from taking part in elections…. while she is kept out of political life and while over 2100 other prisoners of conscience remain incarcerated, the regime’s elections will not gain recognition nor international legitimacy.” – Gordon Brown, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Bangkok – The Myanmar opposition party of Aung San Suu Kyi will decide in two weeks whether to re-register under new election laws that force their detained leader out of the party, a spokesman said on Monday. (more…)

Yangon—A number of dissidents opposed to Myanmar’s harsh military regime plan to challenge the government in elections expected this year, even as new rules force many of the country’s best-known activists to sit on the sidelines. (more…)

Bangkok — Myanmar’s junta has embarked on a flurry of privatisations of state firms, raising questions about whether it is reforming the economy or trying to take profits before 2010 elections. (more…)

Dhaka – The price of rice is spiraling in some places in Arakan state in southern Burma from March 10, after local people learnt that over 25,000 tons of Burmese rice will be exported to Bangladesh this year. (more…)

Nay Pyi Taw – Minister for Health Dr Kyaw Myint received Chairman Mr Phillippe Allen of Three Diseases Fund Board Mission and party at the Ministry here today. (more…)