Last Updated: Wed, 13 Oct 2010 10:39:00 +1100
The Thai prime minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva, says he was unable to bridge differences between Burmese rulers and the international community in talks with the junta over next month’s general elections.
Mr Abhisit has just returned from a one-day visit to Burma where he spoke with Burmese Prime Minister Thein Sein.
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Tue Sep 14, 4:01 pm ET
YANGON (AFP) – Myanmar’s election body has confirmed the abolition of detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s party along with nine others ahead of November elections, state media reported Tuesday.
Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy is one of five parties forcibly dissolved after failing to apply to continue their activities, state media announced, quoting the Union Election Commission. Continue reading →
By TIME REPORTER / RANGOON
Kaung Myint Htut was just 15 years old when he says Burma’s military intelligence dragged him blindfolded from his home in Rangoon for the third time. It was December 1990, six months after the junta had failed to recognize a landslide election victory by Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD). Like many young students, Kaung Myint Htut had been unable to contain his objections to the political oppression of the military regime, prompting him to become a student leader involved in regular strikes and demonstrations. “They got mad at me,” he says, recalling how his interrogators advised him to abandon politics between beatings. “But I couldn’t quit.” Continue reading →
BEIJING: China rolled out the red carpet this week not only for Burma’s dictator, General Than Shwe but, more surprisingly, a lower level delegation from the White House.
General Than Shwe thanked his ”most important friendly neighbour” for supporting his coming elections, which China says will boost democracy and some Western nations have decried as a sham to entrench military rule. Continue reading →
BY A WSJ STAFF REPORTER
Myanmar’s leader received a warm welcome in meetings with top Chinese officials in what analysts said was an effort to shore up China’s support before Myanmar’s first major election in 20 years.
Although many details of Gen. Than Shwe’s trip weren’t disclosed, it included meetings Thursday with the head of China’s legislature and Premier Wen Jiabao. He also is expected to visit the World Expo in Shanghai and the manufacturing center of Shenzhen. Continue reading →
By The Associated Press (CP)
Myanmar state media warned politicians and foreign media Friday not to misrepresent a recent deadly “drunken brawl” between soldiers and youths as a backlash against the military.
Two young men were shot and killed Sept. 4 when soldiers opened fire on a group of youths during scuffles that followed a traffic accident, the New Light of Myanmar reported Friday. The clash occurred in the city of Bago, about 50 miles (80 kilometres) north of Yangon. Continue reading →
• Japanese economy grew by just 0.1% in second quarter
• Figures seen as ‘symbolic’ shift in world power
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A production line worker at a Shanghai factory. Photograph: Eugene Hoshiko/AP
China overtook Japan as the world’s second-largest economy during the second quarter of this year, marking another milestone in the country’s transformation from impoverished communist state to economic superpower. Continue reading →
Elections a Blueprint for Continued Military Rule
(New York, August 13, 2010) – The national elections announced by Burma’s military government for November 7 are designed to further entrench military rule with a civilian facade, Human Rights Watch said today. The United Nations, the Association for Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and concerned governments should seize Burma’s announcement of the first elections in more than 20 years to exert greater scrutiny over a deeply flawed process and press for the release of more than 2,000 political prisoners. Continue reading →
One of Burma’s biggest political parties has threatened to pull out of this year’s long-awaited elections if there are signs of foul play by the ruling military in the run-up.
The Union Democracy Party or UDP is considered one of the frontrunners in the opposition camp. Continue reading →
Mark Watson and Josie Long among stars supporting Amnesty International campaign to free jailed Burmese comedian
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Joshua Kurlantzick, Fellow for Southeast Asia
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August 3, 2010
After taking office in 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama decided to use Myanmar (formerly known as Burma) as his Asian experiment in reversing Bush administration policy. As it did with Iran and Sudan, the Obama administration engaged with Myanmar’s junta, although it did not push to end sanctions Congress passed in the late 1990s in response to massive human rights abuses. Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell has made two trips to Myanmar over the past year to try to spur dialogue about critical issues like the upcoming national elections, which will probably take place in late fall. They would be Myanmar’s first since the 1990 polls won by the party of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, though the military never allowed that party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), to take its seats. Continue reading →
Posted By David E. Hoffman 
Tuesday, June 8, 2010 – 7:08 PM
A former Army major has courageously parted the curtains on what looks like secret efforts at missile and nuclear activity in Burma. Sai Thein Win delivered to a dissident group, the Democratic Voice of Burma, a fascinating cache of color photographs and personal recollections that reinforce the suspicion that the generals who run the country have launched a primitive quest for nuclear weapons. Continue reading →
(AP) June 4 2010
Sai Thein Win has suggested that Burma is mining uranium (AP) Sai Thein Win has suggested that Burma is mining uranium Richard Lloyd Parry, Asia Editor The Burmese Government is attempting to build nuclear weapons and long-range missiles, according to a military defector who smuggled photographs and documents of secret nuclear equipment out of the isolated dictatorship. Continue reading →
