Burma

Ahead of the new NLD-dominated assembly, six newly elected MPs from five ethnic parties speak about their aspirations, what alliances they will form, and what drives them. YANGON (Myanmar Now) – The faces of Myanmar’s new Parliament, when it convenes in Napyitaw on February 1, will be almost unrecognisable when compared to the previous assembly. Few old faces have clung…

A human rights advocacy groups called for caution as Burma’s government released 52 political prisoners, stating that the situation is like a “revolving door” with hundreds still awaiting trial and fresh arrests. Burma’s government released 52 political prisoners this week. Yet human rights organisation Burma Campaign UK urged caution as political dissidents keep getting arrested. Burma Campaign UK referred to…

Lives in limbo for over four years, many hope the new government will prioritise peace in Kachin so they could go home MYITKYINA, Myanmar (Myanmar Now) – For more than six months in 2011, Ywe Ja refused to leave her home in Myanmar’s Kachin State despite heavy fighting around her village. It was where she was born, and she had…

News that authorities in Karen State are planning to crack down on drivers using unlicensed vehicles is causing a great deal of worry among the state’s car owners. Most of the vehicles being driven in Karen State are unlicensed for travel interstate and there is an acknowledgement between drivers and authorities that this is allowed as along as these vehicles…

Deprived of vital health services and ravaged by years of civil war, one devoted abbot is providing forgotten rural communities with much-needed relief By Phil Thornton The muscular arm of a saffron-clad monk, propped against the wall of a bamboo hut, draws air pictures to illustrate why his community is in desperate need of an ambulance. The arm belongs to…

YANGON (Myanmar Now) — When Myanmar’s current parliament first convened in 2011 following a flawed general election, most observers and opposition members expected it to be a rubber stamp for the army and the newly installed civilian government of ex-generals. As with so much of Myanmar’s democratic transition, its performance has been a surprise. Lawmakers soon began to actively debate,…

Six men have been charged over printing a 2016 calendar which used the term Rohingya, leading to condemnation from a prominent human rights organisation. The calendar, printed in November of this year, referred to Rohingya as an ethnic group of Burma, and was printed in three languages – Burmese, English and Arabic. In all several hundred copies of the calendar…

Major General Nerdah Bo Mya, head of the Karen National Defence Organisation, congratulated the National League for Democracy for its winning performance in the national elections on November 8th, 2015. “We welcome a victory that wins Aung San Suu Kyi and the NLD government. Under a democratic government it will be easier for ethnic people to achieve our goals.” General…

Although the official results of the November 8th election have not been announced, the National League for Democracy candidates running for seats in Myawaddy District are confident they have won. U Sein Bo, the NLD, Myawaddy district chairperson, and a House of Representative or Pyithu Hluttaw candidate spoke to Karen News of his confidence that had only to wait on…

The people of Burma will vote in the country’s national elections on Sunday November 8. In the build-up to the election international onlookers were concerned that a National League for Democracy (NLD) candidate was stabbed with a machete at a campaign event in Yangon, many citizens had been removed from voter lists, religious intolerance in Rakhine State and that many…