Council on Foreign Relations (Free subscription) | yesterday
Joshua Kurlantzick questions the Obama administration's re-engagement of Burma, pointing out that in the past "the Burmese regime has softened just enough to win concessions, before reverting to its natural state."
The Liberal Curmudgeon (Free subscription) | 11/30/2009
One of the most consistent signs of an authoritarian regime is its treatment of human rights activists. Aung San Suu Kyi , pro-democracy campaigner and 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner, has been detained for more than 11 of the past 19 years by the Burmese regime. Huang Qi , Chinese dissident who tried to help parents protesting after thousands of children died in schools too shoddily...
The Guardian (Free subscription) | 11/25/2009
... repeat of the window dressing, so often seen before, that is designed to obscure the reality of a regime conducting business as usual. The optimists point to recent engagement by the US, and nascent dialogue between Aung San Suu Kyi and the Burmese regime. Aung San Suu Kyi has recently written to Senior General Than Shwe offering to meet him to discuss how they can work together...
UN Dispatch (Free subscription) | 11/16/2009
... Since taking office, the Obama administration has increased the U.S.'s engagement with the Burmese regime. Senator Jim Webb (D-WV) visited earlier this year. The senior U.S. envoy to Southeast Asia recently met with Suu Kyi and high ranking government officials. REPRIEVE FOR BERLUSCONI Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's tax fraud trial has been postponed until January so that...
Times Online (Free subscription) | 11/13/2009
Schoolchildren cheered and waved flags of both countries as the motorcade inched through the narrow streets of the central Buddhist pilgrimage city of Kandy — but, away from the spectacle, exiled monks forced to flee the repressive Burmese regime expressed anger over the visit and warned Colombo that its increasingly close relations with the regime would raise international concern...
The Observer (Free subscription) | 11/09/2009
Foreign ministry diplomat says jailed opposition leader will be allowed to organiser her party for next year's elections Burma's opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, may soon be released so she can play a role in next year's election, a senior Burmese diplomat has said. "There is a plan to release her soon ... so she can organise her party," Min Lwin, a director-general in the foreign...
Mail & Guardian (Free subscription) | 11/10/2009
... South-east Asian Nations (Asean) and the US.In a break with George Bush's policy of isolating the Burmese regime, Barack Obama has decided on a policy of engagment with the junta. Last week the US assistant secretary of state for east Asia, Kurt Campbell, and his deputy, Scott Marciel, became the most senior American officials to visit Burma since since 1995, when Madeleine Albright...
PalaungNLD (Free subscription) | 11/07/2009
... I think he will fall short of the expectations of the new US administration," retired Burmese diplomat Thakin Chan Htun told Reuters. "We can't expect any tangible immediate results ... Than Shwe is the one who makes all the decisions on all important policy issues." State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said yesterday that the trip, the most senior-level of its kind in 14...
BURMA DIGEST (Free subscription) | 11/05/2009
... promote the culture of the Karen, a culture which is being systematically destroyed as part of the Burmese regime’s policy of ethnic cleansing, and to promote human rights. In meeting its objectives, the Foundation will, in particular, focus on young people, encouraging and supporting a new generation of grassroots activists who will work to help their people. THE AWARD Each year...
