Minister calls for ‘Panglong’ type conference

Friday, 29 June 2012 18:12 Hinthani Sangkhlaburi (Mizzima) – Aung Min, the vicechairman of the Union Peacemaking Working Committee, said the Burmese government would convene a conference similar to the “Panglong Conference” sometime before 2014. The minister mentioned the plan in a meeting with Burmese exiled groups in Mae Sot earlier this week. “He said the government would try to start it before...

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WLB calls for nationwide women’s convention

Friday, 29 June 2012 17:42 Phanida Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – The Women’s League of Burma (WLB) told a Burmese government peacemaking delegation on Thursday in Bangkok that it wanted to hold a nationwide women’s convention to discuss peace and reforms and the role of women in development. The government peace team led by Minister Aung Min and Women's League of Burma members met for the first time...

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Western nations donate health funds for women, children

Friday, 29 June 2012 15:19 Mizzima News Ministry of Health Burma logoA new US$ 300 million, five-year programme to benefit pregnant women and children in Burma has been assembled under the Three Millennium Development Goals Fund, to be administered by the government and the U.N.Seven donors who earlier provided $138 million to fight HIV and AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria under the Three Diseases...

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Floods hit western Rakhine State

Friday, 29 June 2012 14:21 Mizzima NewsAreas of three townships in Burma’s western Rakhine state, the site of dozens of camps for displaced persons, were flooded due to heavy rainfall over the last two days, local media reported on Friday.The flooding hit Buthidaung, Maungtaw and Kyauktaw townships and destroyed dozens of houses of local residents.The flood has forced local residents to evacuate to temporary shelters set up on high land. A landslide on May Yu mountain range road in Buthidaung and Maungtaw brought about a halt to transportation,...

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Suu Kyi not thinking about leading Burma – but she’s prepared

Friday, 29 June 2012 12:29 Mizzima NewsAung San Suu Kyi said she is prepared to lead Burma’s government in 2015 if her party wins the nationwide election, but working for the present is most important now, as she wrapped up events in Paris prior to returning home on Friday from a triumphant European tour which has firmly placed Burma’s needs on the international agenda. Aung San Suu Kyi speaks...

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Burma tightens control on press freedom: report

Friday, 29 June 2012 13:38 Mizzima NewsIn light of recent Burmese government statements and actions following media coverage of the unrest in Rakhine State, Reporters Without Borders (RWB), a freedom of the press watchdog, warned on Friday Burma is tightening restrictions on the press in spite of recent promises to end censorship. “Until now, the government has been relaxing its abusive control of...

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Rakhine State now stable, more aid needed: OCHA

Friday, 29 June 2012 13:09 Mizzima NewsThe overall security situation in Rakhine State is reported to be stable, although emergency rule and a curfew remain in place in six townships, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Estimates say the relief effort will continue for the next three months. Refugees from Burma Photo: UNHCR In a situation...

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Thai employers fear exodus of Burmese migrants

Friday, 29 June 2012 12:57 Mizzima NewsThe idea of Burmese migrant workers eventually returning to their home country as its economy improve  is setting off alarms in Thailand, which depends on Burmese migrant labour in many industrial sectors. Migrant workers repair a fishing net on a boat in Sattahip, in Thailand's Rayong Province. Thousands of Burmese work on Thai fishing boats and in...

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Burma’s time bomb

Friday, 29 June 2012 12:46 Myat Thu Pan(Opinion) – Industrialization has only barely begun yet an epidemic of land grabbing has already left thousands of farmers and landowners by the wayside in Burma. The lack of an effective judicial system is fanning the epidemic, and it is one of a host of serious issues that must be addressed before long-term progress can be made.It will not abate unless some urgent measures are taken by the government to curb unlawful confiscation by entrepreneurs and government departments. As Thein Sein’s government grapples...

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12 aid workers detained in Rakhine State

Friday, 29 June 2012 12:38 Mizzima NewsTwelve aid workers representing the United Nations and Doctors Without Borders (DWB) have been detained in Rakhine State during the past few weeks, the U.N. said in Geneva on Thursday. U.N. officials met with Burma’s foreign minister on Tuesday in Naypyitaw, the capital, to discuss the detentions.On June 16, Reuters news agency reported that police in Buthidaung Township for unknown reasons detained three U.N. staff, two from the U.N. refugee agency and one from the World Food Programme. All are Burmese nationals.On...

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France embraces Aung San Suu Kyi

Thursday, 28 June 2012 12:33 Mizzima News French government officials and citizens have embraced Burmese democracy advocate Aung San Suu Kyi, who is within days of returning home from her two-week European tour of five countries. In Paris on Wednesday, she was again feted and praised at elegant lunches and award ceremonies. “You are a woman of peace and love, and this is why Paris also loves you,”...

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U.S. investments in Burmese oil, gas discussed at hearings

Thursday, 28 June 2012 13:32 Mizzima NewsAllowing U.S. oil companies to invest in Burma’s rich off-shore oil and gas fields came up at the nomination hearing for Derek Mitchell to become the first U.S. ambassador to Burma since the early 1990s. Mitchell told senators at a Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Wednesday that no U.S. business sectors have been ruled out of participating in investing...

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Burmese gov't minister visits Mae Sot clinic

Thursday, 28 June 2012 13:27 Mizzima NewsBurmese minister Aung Min visited the Mae Tao Clinic in the border town of Mae Sot, Thailand, on Wednesday, during a tour to meet with 14 border groups and to discuss peace and reconciliation.Clinic director Dr. Cynthia Maung told the Karen News it was the first visit by a Burmese government official to the clinic, and she hoped it could lead to improvement of health services on the border. The clinic treats up to 140,000 people a year.“There are many issues that we need to work on together for the...

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Burma suspends taxes on some agricultural items

Thursday, 28 June 2012 15:59 Mizzima News Burma’s commercial tax on import of some agriculture-related items and domestic sales has been suspended for a period of nine months, state-run media said on Thursday. A farmer and his ox plough a field in the Bagan temple ruins in central Burma. Photo: Mizzima Agricultural items exempted include fertilizer, pesticide, farm equipment and machinery,...

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Burma’s banking landscape changing fast

Thursday, 28 June 2012 14:47 Mizzima News The total number of foreign bank offices in Burma now stands at 20, following the country’s rapid move to integrate with the international community. Krungthai Bank of Thailand is the most recent bank to make the move, and Siam Commercial Bank is planning to open a local office, say reports. The Irrawaddy Bank on Bayintnaung Road in Rangoon. Photo: Mizzima In...

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Burma pledges to end use of child soldiers

Thursday, 28 June 2012 13:21 Mizzima NewsBurma will enforce a law against child soldiers and allow the U.N. access to military units to check for underage recruits, the U.N. said on Wednesday, following the signing of an agreement in Naypyitaw, the capital. A child soldier wears the Burmese Army shoulder patch of the 707th Artillery Operations Command based in Kyaukpadaung, Mandalay Division,...

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Webb calls for U.S. to drop ban on Burmese imports

Thursday, 28 June 2012 13:12 Mizzima NewsU.S. Sen. Jim Webb said the U.S should “implement the decisions that have been announced and continue to ease additional sanctions, such as the ban on imports” from Burma, during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on the nomination Ambassador Derek Mitchell to be ambassador to Burma on Wednesday. Webb said he expected Mitchell to be confirmed by...

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British lawmakers hear testimony on Rakhine State unrest

Thursday, 28 June 2012 12:59 Mizzima NewsRohingya in Burma are being systematically persecuted by the government and denied basic human rights, the president of the Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK (BROUK) told the British All Party Parliamentary Group for Democracy in Burma on Wednesday.BROUK President Tun Khin, along with Benedict Rogers, the East Asia Team Leader of Christian Solidarity Worldwide and Chris Lewa of the Arakan Project, described the situation of Rohingyas in Rakhine State at a meeting of British lawmakers chaired by Baroness...

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Ethnic alliance rejects Rohingya as non-Burmese

Thursday, 28 June 2012 12:49 Mizzima News A group of eight ethnic parties allied with Burma’s opposition movement said in a statement it does not consider Rohingya as a fellow ethnic minority. The statement supported a position the group adopted in 2005, according to a report on the Radio Free Asia website on Wednesday. “‘Rohingya’ is not to be recognized as a nationality,” said a statement by...

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Burma’s banking landscape changing fast

Thursday, 28 June 2012 14:47 Mizzima News The total number of foreign bank offices in Burma now stands at 20, following the country’s rapid move to integrate with the international community. Krungthai Bank of Thailand is the most recent bank to make the move, and Siam Commercial Bank is planning to open a local office, say reports. In the past six months, rapid changes have reshaped the banking...

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Suu Kyi calls for more democracy and development

Wednesday, 27 June 2012 11:44 Mizzima News French President Francois Hollande told Burma’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi upon here arrival on Tuesday that France supported “all actors” in Burma’s rapid democratic reforms, and Suu Kyi repeated her European tour themes that development cannot be substituted for democracy. At a joint press conference, she said, “We need democracy as well as economic...

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Indonesia cement company plans Burma plant

Wednesday, 27 June 2012 16:45 Mizzima NewsAn Indonesian company will build a US$ 159 million cement plant in Burma with up to 1 million tonnes capacity a year, officials announced on Tuesday.PT Semen Gresik, Indonesia's biggest cement maker, will build the plant next year, chief executive Dwi Soetjipto said, according to domestic Indonesia media. A facility of the PT Semen Gresik Indonesia company...

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Creating wealth in 21st century Burma

Wednesday, 27 June 2012 15:36 Joseph Ball (Book Review) – In 1925, U.S. President Calvin Coolidge quipped, “The business of America is business.” And while he went on in the same speech to qualify the social parameters of the statement, it is the simple mantra of ‘business, business, business’ that is memorialized. Initial policies by Burma’s government following the unrest of the late 1980s...

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Chinese companies back poppy-alternative crops in Burma

Wednesday, 27 June 2012 15:18 Mizzima NewsThe number of Chinese companies investing to develop alternative crops to poppy growing in the Golden Triangle has risen from 42 to 180 since 2005, with total financial investment up to 1 billion yuan ($157 million) during that time, according to a Chinese official.Yang Jun, the deputy director of overseas poppy substitution development for Yunnan Province's...

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Photo News - June 2012

French President Francois Hollande welcomes Aung San Suu Kyi to Elysee Palace on Tuesday, June 26, 2012. Suu Kyi called for more democratic reforms and international aid designed to improve the lot of Burmese citizens. Photo: Presidency of the Republic - L.Blevennec / C.Alix / P.Segrette Aung San Suu Kyi and French President Francois Hollande inside Elysee Palace. The president said France...

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