Myanmar – News Stories About Myanmar - Page 16

3,000 Detained in Burma, by Junta's Count

Oct 17, 2007 9:01 AM CDT

3,000 Detained in Burma, by Junta's Count

Japan cuts aid, China supports UN diplomat

(Newser) - Burma’s military regime imprisoned roughly 3,000 people in last month’s crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, the state-run newspaper announced today. Over 500 are still in custody, and more are being arrested each day. “Those who should be released will be,” the paper said. Meanwhile international outrage...

Burma's Blood Rubies Lift Junta

Oct 16, 2007 9:42 PM CDT

Burma's Blood Rubies Lift Junta

Sale of gems supports the junta's brutality

(Newser) - Precious Burmese rubies account for 90% of the world's supply, and fund that nation's brutal military junta, according to Der Spiegel. Though some dealers maintain that ruby sales support the opposition, the German paper reports that profits instead go straight to the junta's coffers. Not only that, but gem miners...

Burma Protests a 'Success,' Says Buddhist Leader

Oct 14, 2007 7:07 PM CDT

Burma Protests a 'Success,' Says Buddhist Leader

Famed anti-Vietnam agitator supports monks on US tour

(Newser) - Revered Buddhist spokesman Thich Nhat Hanh, famed for enlisting Martin Luther King's help against the Vietnam War, is supporting his spiritual brethren in Burma on a US tour. The monks' struggle against Burma is "already a success," he told Time, "because if monks are imprisoned or have...

Burma Nabs Top Dissidents

Oct 13, 2007 10:02 AM CDT

Burma Nabs Top Dissidents

(Newser) - Myanmar’s rulers have arrested just about every major dissident at large, the BBC reports. The junta rounded up three more prominent figures, among them Htay Kywe, who had been in hiding. He was a leader not only of the recent protests but of the 1988 uprising as well. Amnesty...

Council Upbraids Myanmar Junta

Oct 11, 2007 4:50 PM CDT

Council Upbraids Myanmar Junta

China doesn't block UN panel's stance

(Newser) - The UN Security Council unanimously condemned the Myanmar junta's violent suppression of pro-democracy protests in an official policy statement today, demanding the prompt release of all political prisoners and serious negotiations with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The council's first official action on Myanmar highlights a shift by China,...

Myanmar Junta: 'You Are No Longer Monks'

Oct 11, 2007 12:09 PM CDT

Myanmar Junta: 'You Are No Longer Monks'

Prisoners recount abject conditions after peaceful protests

(Newser) - Buddhist monks rounded up in protests in Myanmar faced torturous conditions, a recent detainee told Reuters. During days of interrogation, monks were beaten and denied medical treatment, water, and toilets. Prisoners were stripped of their iconic robes. “You are no longer a monk,” a guard told the prisoner,...

First Lady to Junta: Free Burma

Oct 10, 2007 12:23 PM CDT

First Lady to Junta: Free Burma

Laura Bush blasts 'friendless regime' in Journal piece

(Newser) - The recent violent crackdown on peaceful protests in Burma have left the military regime friendless in the international community and reviled by its people, Laura Bush writes in the Wall Street Journal. The junta “must immediately stop their terror campaigns against their own people,” she writes, and then...

Suu Kyi Rejects Conditions, Won't Meet Junta

Oct 9, 2007 1:19 PM CDT

Suu Kyi Rejects Conditions, Won't Meet Junta

Opposition leader rejects talk conditions

(Newser) - Aung San Suu Kyi will not meet with Burma's ruling junta, which insists that she soften her anti-regime position as a condition of scheduling talks. The opposition leader said in a statement today she will accept no conditions, the Guardian reports: “The success of a dialogue is based on...

Burma Confiscates Phones, Computers to Silence News

Oct 9, 2007 4:06 AM CDT

Burma Confiscates Phones, Computers to Silence News

Authorities move to shut down last lines of communication to outside world

(Newser) - The Burmese government is cutting the last lines of communication with the outside world, confiscating satellite phones and computers that reporters and bloggers were using to spread news of the violent repression of pro-democracy protests. Officials even demanded to see permits for satellite phones at a United Nations office. Authorities...

Junta Cremates Protesters

Oct 7, 2007 5:05 PM CDT

Junta Cremates Protesters

Crackdown carries on, as soldiers arrest more activists and the wounded are refused treatment

(Newser) - Burma's army is burning the bodies of activists in secret cremations, hiding their true death count forever, the Sunday Times reports. Locals near Rangoon report trucks are driving by a crematorium at night as smoke rises constantly from its chimneys. Rumors of victims burnt alive have swept the city, but...

How the World Dropped the Ball on Burma

Oct 7, 2007 11:33 AM CDT

How the World Dropped the Ball on Burma

And how we can pick it back up

(Newser) - International policy on Myanmar is at an impasse because the world went two different ways on the military junta—the US chose isolation while its neighbors chose constructive engagement—and both strategies failed. The country has gone from “antidemocratic embarrassment and humanitarian disaster” to “serious threat” to security,...

World Pressure Bears Down
on Burma

Oct 6, 2007 10:36 AM CDT

World Pressure Bears Down on Burma

Protesters around globe stage protests as US weighs sanctions

(Newser) - Protesters around the world staged a series of rallies today to protest Burma's crackdown on dissent and show support for the nation's monks. The protests began in New Zealand and were to continue in big cities throughout the world at noon local time, the BBC reported. The US and other...

UN Envoy Sees Hopeful Signs
in Burma

Oct 5, 2007 6:56 PM CDT

UN Envoy Sees Hopeful Signs in Burma

Junta's overtures to dissident Suu Kyi 'historic opportunity'

(Newser) - The UN's envoy to Burma told the Security Council today that a proposed meeting between the country's military leader and detained activist Aung San Suu Kyi was a "historic opportunity"—but only a first step toward ending mistrust that contributed to the government's recent crackdown. The US ambassador...

Facebook Users Hook Up—With Fellow Burmese Monk Backers

Oct 5, 2007 1:50 PM CDT

Facebook Users Hook Up—With Fellow Burmese Monk Backers

300K mobilize through social networking site

(Newser) - Mammoth networking site Facebook is triggering a massive mobilization of protesters around the world who will hit the streets this weekend in support of the Burmese monks, Wired writes. Nearly 300,000 people have joined the Facebook group "Support the Monks' Protest" since a story on the movement broke...

Envoy Leaves Burma After Talks

Oct 2, 2007 9:32 AM CDT

Envoy Leaves Burma After Talks

Warned junta against quelling protests, met Suu Kyi this morning

(Newser) - UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari left Burma today after meeting with a top general and a second meeting with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, released from house arrest for the talks. Gambari, who was attempting to open dialog between the military junta and dissidents whose protests were brutally suppressed last...

Hunt's On for Burma's
Hero Bloggers

Oct 1, 2007 9:14 AM CDT

Hunt's On for Burma's Hero Bloggers

Cyber dissidents on the lam

(Newser) - Burmese bloggers whose accounts and photos of the Saffron Revolution and the brutal crackdown by the military dictatorship riveted the world last week are now being hunted by authorities, reports the Times of London. With the Internet shut down and the streets swarming with troops, the bloggers have gone underground.

UN Burma
Envoy Meets
Activist Leader

Sep 30, 2007 11:06 AM CDT

UN Burma Envoy Meets Activist Leader

Suu Kyi freed briefly from 12-year house arrest for key sitdown

(Newser) - The United Nations' envoy to Burma met briefly today with pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi to discuss the violent crackdown on anti-government demonstrations, reports AP. The UN representative first met with leaders of the military junta, which continued to lock down the nation's largest cities in the wake of ...

UN Envoy Lands in Myanmar

Sep 29, 2007 6:42 AM CDT

UN Envoy Lands in Myanmar

Regime restores internet links but standoff with protesters continues

(Newser) - Troops faced off with several hundred pro-democracy protesters again today in central Yangon as a UN envoy arrived in Myanmar to try to persuade military rulers to negotiate peacefully with demonstrators. There were scattered reports of violence, but no gunfire. With soldiers stationed on every corner and shopping malls, grocery...

Website Exposes Burma Brutality

Sep 27, 2007 2:43 PM CDT

Website Exposes Burma Brutality

Expat portal describes unreported police savagery

(Newser) - Eyewitness accounts posted on a Burmese expat site offer rare details of Myanmar's brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protesters. One post today described an early-morning raid on a monastery where soldiers broke down the gate with a truck, and attacked monks, along with women and children in their care, with bamboo...

9 Killed in Burmese Crackdown

Sep 27, 2007 12:04 PM CDT

9 Killed in Burmese Crackdown

Japanese reporter among dead as troops scatter protesters

(Newser) - Burmese troop forcibly scattered some 70,000 protesters for a second day today, with gunfire claiming the lives of at least nine—even as leaders around the world called for restraint. One of the dead is reportedly a Japanese photographer, spawning fears that the junta is targeting journalists to prevent...