In the month of January, the Burmese government successfully concluded some form of ceasefire agreement with the Shan State Army-North (SSA-North) and the Karen National Union (KNU), but was unable to do so with the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and New Mon State Party (NMSP). (more…)

A new draft of the media law was briefly introduced by Press Scrutiny and Registration Board Director Tint Swe during the inaugural media workshop held in Rangoon’s Inya Lake Hotel on Monday, said the CEO of a journal in the city. (more…)

Exiled Burmese lawyers are among voices to demand an end to the draconian Unlawful Association Act in Burma, which has been used for decades by the regime to jail a sizeable cross-section of the country’s opposition movement. (more…)

Singapore — Myanmar Monday signed an agreement with Singapore seeking the financial centre’s help as the country emerges from political and economic isolation after decades of military rule. (more…)

Bangkok – Myanmar saw a 26-per-cent jump in international arrivals last year and is facing a hotel room shortage in 2012 if business continues to boom, industry officials said Monday. (more…)

Davos, Switzerland — Myanmar’s government said Saturday it planned to offer eight-year tax exemptions to foreign investors as Western companies “rushed” to build ties with the one-time international pariah. (more…)

NAYPYITAW, Myanmar (Reuters) – Myanmar will keep natural gas from new projects beyond 2013 for domestic consumption, a shift of policy aimed at powering its development, the country’s energy minister said on Friday. (more…)

Yangon – Property agent Kyaw Saw leafs through a thick pile of real-estate listings in Myanmar’s faded commercial capital, Yangon.
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Jakarta – Myanmar has agreed to sell up to 200,000 tons of rice a year to Indonesia under an agreement recently signed by the two parties to take effect in February, according to an industry association. (more…)

Geneva – The United Nations’s special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, Tomas Ojea Quintana, said Monday he would be visiting the country as of Tuesday to review the regime’s commitment to reform. (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…)

Millions of residents of western Myanmar have been stripped of citizenship and basic human rights. Will Suu Kyi help?

This article is the first in a series by Ambassador Akbar Ahmed, a former Pakistani high commissioner to the UK, exploring how a litany of volatile centre/periphery conflicts with deep historical roots were interpreted after 9/11 in the new global paradigm of anti-terrorism – with profound and often violent consequences. Incorporating in-depth case studies from Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, Ambassador Ahmed will ultimately argue that the inability for Muslim and non-Muslim states alike to either incorporate minority groups into a liberal and tolerant society or resolve the “centre vs periphery” conflict is emblematic of a systemic failure of the modern state – a breakdown which, more often than not, leads to widespread violence and destruction. The violence generated from these conflicts will become the focus, in the remainder of the 21st century, of all those dealing with issues of national integration, law and order, human rights and justice.

Washington, DC – The image of a smiling Daw Aung San Suu Kyi receiving flowers from her supporters is a powerful message of freedom and optimism in Myanmar, the symbol of democracy in a country which has known nothing but authoritarian oppression for decades. (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 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…)

New Delhi – As many as 918 political prisoners may still be locked up in Burmese prisons, but an accurate list of the number is still incomplete, say groups working on the political prisoner issue. (more…)

The head of Burma’s notorious censorship board, the Press Scrutiny and Registration Division (PSRD), summoned the editors of a number of Rangoon-based journals to his office on Wednesday to remind them that they still have to follow the board’s rules until a new media law is enacted. (more…)

Burmese soldiers have been withdrawn from conflict zones in Kachin state as both sides push for ceasefire talks, but reports from nearby Shan state suggest extra battalions have been deployed to guard the lucrative China-backed Shwe pipeline. (more…)

IMPHAL, India – Thrown face down in an open drain by a grenade blast, Maisnam Ratan’s bloodied corpse was the latest reminder of the lingering insurgency in India’s isolated, far-eastern state of Manipur, which elects a state legislature Saturday. (more…)

Yangon – Myanmar must liberalise its foreign exchange controls or it will struggle to carry through economic reforms, one of the country’s central bank directors has warned. (more…)

Partisan squabbling has hobbled the business of government in Washington, but on one foreign policy issue at least, Democrats and Republicans appear willing to set aside their differences and get things done. It is Burma. (more…)