Burma’s military junta angrily dismissed two recent US government reports critical of its human rights record as unfounded and politically motivated.
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/ 22 February 2009
More than a dozen ”prisoners of conscience”, including five Buddhist monks arrested in 2003, have been freed in military-ruled Burma
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/ 20 February 2009
Burma’s military government will release more than 6 300 prisoners to allow them to take part in elections next year, state media said on Friday.
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/ 2 February 2009
Detained Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi met United Nations special envoy Ibrahim Gambari on Monday.
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/ 30 January 2009
Burma’s junta stepped into the Rohingya crisis on Friday, denying any of the people washing up in Thailand, India and Indonesia were from its soil.
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/ 26 December 2008
With tents still serving as homes and schools seven months after Cyclone Nargis lashed Burma, survivors are struggling to rebuild their lives.
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/ 23 December 2008
Access to maternal healthcare in eastern Burma is inadequate and most expectant mothers suffer from poor nutrition, anaemia and malaria.
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/ 6 December 2008
International frustration with Burma’s military government is growing, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said on Friday.
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/ 21 November 2008
A secret court in military-ruled Burma sentenced popular comedian and activist Zarganar to 45 years in prison on Friday.
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/ 11 November 2008
Burna’s military junta sentenced at least 11 dissidents involved in monk-led protests last year to 65 years in jail on Tuesday.
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/ 7 November 2008
One month after Cyclone Nargis swept away his home and four children, Myint Oo returned to a makeshift tarpaulin shelter in his obliterated village.
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/ 2 November 2008
Six months after Cyclone Nargis slammed into army-ruled Burma, killing more than 130 000 people, many continue to rely on handouts to stay alive.
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/ 9 September 2008
With a population of more than 50-million, the country has become the world’s biggest prison camp. Pressure is building on the UN to act.
Emergency relief operations are winding down in Burma’s cyclone-struck delta, but aid workers say a return to normality is a long way off.
Rebuilding Burma’s cyclone-devastated south and bringing aid to millions will cost -billion over the next three years, the UN and Asean say.
Khin Nyo San dashes from her tent to a nearby shack in the desperate hope that a visitor from Rangoon might have news of her missing child.
More than 84 000 people died in last month’s deadly cyclone, while nearly 54 000 are still missing, a Burma official said on Tuesday.
Pro-junta thugs broke up a birthday rally by supporters of Burma democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi on Thursday.
Burma’s junta said on Wednesday that detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi deserved to be beaten for threatening national security.
The Burma military junta’s arrest of a popular comedian campaigning for victims of Cyclone Nargis is part of continuing serious human rights violations in the country, a United Nations investigator said on Monday.
Burma is forcing weak and hungry survivors of Cyclone Nargis to move back to flattened villages and in some cases refusing aid unless rebuilding work is done, Amnesty International said.
Having survived the cyclone, the struggle now is for survival. First there is the scramble for fresh water, with long lines all over Rangoon to buy it by the bucketload at three times the price it was before the cyclone. Then there is the hunt for shelter among the debris in a city where more homes are now without roofs than with them.
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/ 6 December 2005
Myanmar’s ruling generals on Monday opened a round of talks on drafting a new Constitution and steering the isolated country toward what the junta calls ”disciplined democracy”. ”This is the first step in the transition to democracy, and it is the most crucial step. Genuine and disciplined democracy — there is no other way, this is the way,” said Lieutenant General Thein Sein.
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/ 28 November 2005
Myanmar’s military junta has extended pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s house arrest by six months, a Home Ministry official said on Monday. ”She was officially informed on the evening of Sunday, November 27,” said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
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/ 8 November 2005
The decision by Myanmar’s military rulers to move the administrative capital to a secret mountain compound was as sudden as it was inexplicable, leaving observers wondering on Tuesday why the already reclusive junta is pushing itself deeper into isolation.
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/ 13 October 2005
In prose and poetry, Myanmar’s ruling junta has launched scathing attacks on two distinguished human rights advocates, Czech ex-president Vaclav Havel and retired South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who both recently compiled a report critical of the military regime.
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/ 28 September 2005
An enigmatic smile appears on his wrinkled face and his faded eyes shine brightly as his fingers caress the ivory keys of the one musical instrument he truly loves, his piano. The melodious music which comes out grabs the attention of those nearby.
Aung San Suu Kyi’s supporters plan protests around the world to mark her 60th birthday on Sunday, demonstrating outside Myanmar’s embassies in a dozen countries to demand her release from two years’ house arrest. Suu Kyi will only be able to hear of the protests on her short-wave radio, one of the few links she has with the outside world.
Military-ruled Myanmar has imposed a blackout on the news of casualties from the recent bomb blasts after official reports of 11 dead, but evidence mounted on Monday that the toll is substantially higher. Senior Thai officials in Bangkok on Monday said 21 people, all Myanmar nationals, were killed in the blasts.
A United Nations (UN) special envoy arrived in Myanmar on Friday to demand the release of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, reported to have been injured in a clash that prompted her detention and a crackdown on her party.
Myanmar’s generals insist that pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is safe and unhurt following a bloody clash involving her supporters, but they won’t reveal where she’s being detained or how long she’ll be held — despite concerns raised by world leaders and the United Nations.