Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's pages

General Than Shwe, the man who heads Myanmar’s ruling junta, probably knows the election his country plans to hold is unlikely to change its pariah status in the West. With Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi barred from running, the vote has already been derided in many capitals as a staged-managed sham intended to further entrench the military government.

But the General arrived Tuesday in Beijing for an official visit secure in the knowledge that China, one of Myanmar’s biggest trading partners and few allies, is far more interested in the stability of its southern neighbour than in seeing ...

ONE OF the Burmese junta’s top generals, Than Shwe, arrived in China yesterday to underline the good relations between the two Asian neighbours. The visit has turned a spotlight on China’s controversial policy of non-interference in the domestic policies of states considered pariahs by most of the world.

Human rights groups have repeatedly criticized China for propping up dictatorial and corrupt nations, mostly in Africa, but also in Asia.

China argues it is merely offering no-strings aid where other countries will not go, and says its policy of non-interference in any country’s internal affairs is welcomed by many nations.

Meeting ...

The title says it all. In its quest to pursue its global aims, China is keeping India tied to the pole by needling her in a geopolitical bind while maintaining a straight face. The discussions in various posts over the last week brought out Chinese dynamics in Pakistan, Burma and Nepal. This post also brings in the Sri Lankan narrative. Apparently, the two regional heavy weights are busy shadow boxing in South Asia with India kind of getting bitten by a China phobia. In strategic circles, Chindia is a four-letter word.

60 years on, there is nothing to show for ...

Burma’s elections are shaping up to be the detestable sham the dictatorship’s sternest critics have warned. Unlike those held – and then callously ignored – in 1990, no credible opposition is running. Aung San Suu Kyi, whose National League for Democracy won the 1990 poll, is a prisoner after spending 15 of the past 21 years under arrest. She is barred from participating.

Not satisfied with the quarter of parliamentary seats reserved for the military, dozens of officers retired last week so they could contest “civilian” seats. Philip Crowley, a US assistant secretary of state, accurately said of this mockery: ...

For all its boasting that elections due to be held on November 7th will usher in a new era of democracy for Burma, it appears the military junta that controls the country is keen to ensure there are few independent observers on hand as possible when the election is actually held.

Over the last 10 days there have been a series of reports that the authorities there are tightening visa restrictions and threatening to expel aid workers who have been helping in the recovery of Cyclone Nargis.

Government officials have been visiting aid organisations and asking for information about the ...

Seventeen farmers from Kachin State in northern Burma are taking their  fight over land seized in the Hukawng Valley “tiger reserve” by a  junta-linked tycoon to the state’s ...


New Delhi (Mizzima) – Seventeen farmers from Kachin State in northern Burma are taking their fight over land seized in the Hukawng Valley “tiger reserve” by a junta-linked tycoon to the state’s Supreme Court tomorrow.

The farmers, among 148 from five villages in the valley who protested in June against land confiscations by the Yuzana Company run by junta crony Htay Myint, lodged a plea for compensation with the court in ...

THE EVIDENCE against Burma's junta has been piling up for many years. Thousands upon thousands of girls and women raped as a tactic of war by the Burmese army; children press-ganged to serve as porters; 3,500 villages burned to the ground in recent years; millions of people forced from their homes -- these are some of the crimes against humanity sponsored by the generals who rule their Southeast Asian nation of 50 million people.

Now, by deciding to support a United Nations commission of inquiry into these misdeeds, the Obama administration has acknowledged the weight of the evidence and has ...

In his Aug. 21 op-ed, "Hold off on Burma," David I. Steinberg argued that a United Nations commission of inquiry into war crimes in Burma will only salve Western consciences and do the Burmese people no good. He worries that an inquiry "will hinder negotiations and relations" with the "new government" that will be elected later this year, so the United States should instead "hold off."

In fact, the government will not be new; the military will control 25 percent of legislative seats as well as key ministries. More ominously, the military will be constitutionally immune from civilian control and ...

The United States decided this week to support the creation of a United Nations commission of inquiry into the Burmese military regime's crimes  against humanity and war crimes. That human rights violations have occurred is clear, and many have noted that the Burmese junta's restrictions on its upcoming elections make it all but certain the generals will retain power. The real dilemma is whether it is better to express moral outrage at these offenses or to hold off, presuming the possibility of eventual change under a new government.

The options for nation states to express moral outrage are well established: ...

The democracy icon Daw Aung San Suu Kyi marked her 65th birthday Saturday locked in her dilapidated lakeside compound as calls for her freedom erupted around the world. 

President Barack Obama and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon demanded Suu Kyi's release in statements echoed at rallies and prayer vigils. Supporters threw a birthday party at the suburban Yangon home of a fellow opposition member. It was attended by more than 300 people but not the guest of honor.

Holding candles and yellow roses, they lit a birthday cake with 65 candles and released 65 doves into the sky while chanting, "Long ...

Nobel laureate and Burmese democracy advocate Aung San Suu Kyi turned 65 today. She has spent 15 of the last 21 years in prison or under house arrest. There is no end to her, or her nation's, agony in sight.

Burma, renamed Myanmar by the junta, won its independence after World War II. But popular independence leader Gen. Aung San -- Suu Kyi's father -- was assassinated and the new government failed to provide political autonomy to Burma's many ethnic groups, triggering a war which continues to this day.

The military seized power in 1961. Since then only the names ...