Last year, amid the death and debris in the wake of Cyclone Nargis, Burma got a new Constitution. Now people inside and outside the country are readying themselves for a general election of some sort, followed by the opening of a new Parliament, which is when the charter will take effect.
The ballot is expected in [...]
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Pinning hope on a hopeless constitution
September 18, 2009 · Leave a Comment
Tags: Burma · Myanmar · UN · UPI · constitution · dictatorship · human rights · military · other countries · politics
Six men, two years, Hinthada
July 24, 2009 · 2 Comments
Two years ago a court in Burma sentenced five farmers to four years’ jail for allegedly causing a public disturbance; a sixth man received eight years for two counts of the same offence. Tomorrow, on July 24, the five will have served half of their terms. In all likelihood, they will have to serve the [...]
Tags: Burma · Myanmar · UPI · courts · dictatorship · human rights · police · rule of law
Visit to UNDP ends in prison
April 3, 2009 · 1 Comment
Among the many people in Rangoon’s central jail who shouldn’t be there are a couple of journalists. These two did not write or say anything against the government. They didn’t do anything that constituted a threat to the army or its hold on power. Yet they were imprisoned on a charge of inciting others to [...]
Tags: Burma · Myanmar · UN · UPI · courts · dictatorship · human rights · military · police · rule of law
New Year posts
January 3, 2009 · Leave a Comment
While Rule of Lords is on break, here are some good posts and important news from around the Net over the last fortnight…
… on Thailand:
The red army at the gates of parliament (New Mandala)
2008 Blocklist Analysis: 1,303 new websites CENSORED! (FACT/Prachatai)
Those foreigners and their foreign publications (Bangkok Pundit)
PAD To Sell Golf Clubs, Plastic Handclappers To [...]
Unhappy Human Rights Day in Burma
December 13, 2008 · Leave a Comment
While governments and groups around the world made effusive statements and gave awards to mark the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on Dec. 10, the Asian Human Rights Commission struck a more somber note.
“The celebration,” the regional body said, “is a grim reminder that even after 60 years of the adoption [...]
Tags: Burma · Myanmar · UN · UPI · dictatorship · human rights · human rights groups
Life on the edge in eastern Burma
November 8, 2008 · 3 Comments
Over half-a-million people in eastern Burma are living in temporary dwellings, forced out of their villages as a result of fighting, insecurity and the whims of local army commanders. Around 100,000 are hiding in jungles, valleys and hills.
That is the latest assessment of the Thailand Burma Border Consortium, which brings international and local donors together [...]
Tags: Burma · Myanmar · UPI · army · human rights · military · poverty · protest
Food aid cut as crops fail in Irrawaddy delta
October 17, 2008 · 2 Comments
A week ago the United Nations humanitarian news agency ran a telling interview with a survivor of Cyclone Nargis, the storm that devastated Burma in May.
The interviewee, a 62-year-old farmer whose daughter-in-law and granddaughter were killed in the cyclone, said that although after the disaster some monks gave her paddy seed with which to replant [...]
Tags: Burma · Myanmar · UN · UPI · dictatorship · economy · human rights · poverty
Let us not praise coups
July 4, 2008 · 4 Comments
(ေနာက္ထပ္အာဏာသိမ္းမွဳေတြမလိုပါ)
An Oxford economics professor said in a recent Washington Post article that the best hope for either Burma or Zimbabwe is that military officers might overthrow their respective dictators and leap through a window of legitimacy held open by the free world.
“Rather than trying to freeze coups out of the international system, we should try [...]
Tags: Burma · Myanmar · Thailand · UPI · army · dictatorship · human rights · military · other countries · politics
Cyclone relief no laughing matter
June 6, 2008 · 8 Comments
On the night of June 4, a group of police officers came to a house in suburban Rangoon, searched it and took away one of the occupants. But the person they took is not a wanted robber, murderer or escapee. He is a comedian.
Although Zarganar (pictured above at left, with fellow actor and social activist [...]
Tags: Burma · Myanmar · UPI · constitution · dictatorship · human rights · police · poverty · protest · rule of law
Nargis can’t be exaggerated
May 31, 2008 · 4 Comments
Among the many responses to the unconscionable blockading of humanitarian assistance to victims of the cyclone that swept through Burma on May 10, perhaps the strangest, if not the most offensive, have been claims that journalists, diplomats and aid workers have exaggerated the death toll.
These sorts of charges invariably come up when large numbers of [...]
Tags: Burma · Myanmar · UPI · dictatorship · extrajudicial killing · human rights · journalism · other countries · poverty
What next for human rights abuse in Burma?
May 23, 2008 · 8 Comments
Burma’s military government has by now dramatically compounded the death and misery brought to its country with Cyclone Nargis. While carrying on with the same sort of games it has played against the global community for years, it has caused untold needless loss of life and greatly magnified people’s suffering today and tomorrow.
The regime has [...]
Tags: Burma · Myanmar · UN · UPI · army · dictatorship · economy · human rights · human rights groups · military · poverty
