The Federal Political Negotiation and Consultative Committee releases a statement reiterating the ethnic armed coalition’s intention to join the upcoming third iteration of the government-led 21st Century Panglong Conference, if the bloc is officially invited to do so.
About one-fifth of Burma’s political parties have raised their collective voice in opposition to matters both foreign and domestic, chiding UK lawmakers for what they deem undue criticism of the crisis in Rakhine State and panning proposed amendments to legislation on protesting that has been scrutinised for years.
Energy Environment Lead Story News
Locals and civil society organisations in Karen State are pushing back against plans for a coal-fired power plant in Hpa-an Township, where the project still has the blessing of the state’s leading official.
Electricity Energy Lead Story Natural resources News
Coal would be one of the quickest ways to ramp up power generation, but the option is unpopular in Burma.
State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi will meet with seven allied ethnic armed groups that are not signatory to the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) on the sidelines of the ongoing 21st Century Panglong Conference in the capital on Friday, a government official has confirmed.
Electricity Environment Lead Story News
Burma looks to hike the planned share of hydropower in its energy mix at the cost of polluting coal as it tries to attract foreign investment.
Conflict Lead Story Natural resources News
A new report alleges that a recent Burmese army offensive in Shan State was linked to coal-mining operations opposed by local people.
Lead Story Natural resources News
Residents of Tigyit in Shan State say a nearby coal project continues to endanger their health.
A US$2.3 billion coal-fired power plant is set to be built in Mon State under a new deal between the Toyo-Thai Corporation and Burma’s Ministry of Electric Power. The 1,280-megawatt[…]
Lead Story Migrants Issues News
Three Burmese migrants injured in a coal mine blast in Malaysia’s Sarawak State have been carried by helicopter to another hospital and their condition is improving.
Thailand’s Ratchaburi Electricity Generating Pcl has signed an agreement to co-invest in a US$5.2 billion coal power plant in Burma. Three other companies that will also invest in the project[…]
A 300 megawatt coal power plant is soon to be built in Thaung Khng village, 40 km south of Rangoon, local media reported on Sunday. Eleven Media cited project officials[…]
Environment Ethnic issues Lead Story News
Several civil society groups in Mon State have united in opposition to a proposed coal-fired power plant.
The Andaman coastal town of Myeik is home to farmers, fishermen and shrimp paste workers; they say a 50-MW coal power plant will adversely affect their livelihoods and their health.
A group of local activists and politicians in Shan state’s Kengtung township are preparing a petition against a Thai-owned coal mining project, which they say will cause widespread social and environmental problems.
Democratic Party-Myanmar is asking authorities in Tenasserim division to prevent a coal plant from opening, which the party says poses a danger to residents’ health
Residents of Thailand’s Ranong, opposite from Kawthaung town where plant is being built, also fear increasing levels of pollution
Environmental groups demand impact assessments be carried out as bare minimum for existing and future energy projects in Burma
Report warns that Burma’s largest coal mine in Shan state is causing health problems and displacement of nearby communities
Sept 17, 2009 (DVB), A coalition of political parties that won votes in the 1990 elections in Burma has struggled to provide a viable opposition threat due to government oppression,[…]
Mar 24, 2009 (DVB), Burmese political coalition group the Forum for Democracy in Burma has stated that it opposes the planned 2010 elections and will educate Burmese people about the[…]
On the evening of Feb 25, security forces forcibly cracked down on the residents in Tamwe Township, Yangon, while the residents were protesting against the newly appointed ward administrator by[…]
One more victim died due to the lethal crackdown by the military in the Feb 20 Mandalay shipyard protest. 26-year-old carpenter Ko Yarzar Aung from Mandalay had been shot in[…]
Negotiators gathered on Wednesday to kick off Burma’s latest round of high-level peace talks, ostensibly furthering a process that has bogged down amid ongoing conflict in the country’s border regions.
Foreign Affairs Lead Story News
Jailed Malaysian reformist Anwar Ibrahim was granted a full pardon on Wednesday and walked out of a hospital in Kuala Lumpur just a week after his alliance scored a shock victory in a general election.
Foreign Affairs Lead Story News
Mahathir Mohamad was sworn in as Malaysia’s seventh prime minister on Thursday after a stunning election comeback, defeating the coalition that has ruled the nation for six decades since independence from Britain.
ASEAN Foreign Affairs Lead Story News
Malaysia’s general election on Wednesday will be an extraordinary contest, pitting a 92-year-old former authoritarian leader and a jailed reformist he fell out with 20 years ago against a prime minister who has been mired in a multi-billion-dollar scandal.
More than 150 civil society organisations have released a statement condemning Burma’s judiciary for handing down a two-year prison sentence to former child soldier Aung Ko Htwe.
Although a coalition of civil society organisations agrees with military-aligned parliamentarians in opposing proposed changes to Burma’s Peaceful Assembly and Procession Law, the CSOs say they have no plans to cooperate with those MPs in ongoing resistance to the amendments.
A member of the government’s Peace Commission says the United Wa State Army and the National Democratic Alliance Army, the latter also known as the “Mongla group,” accept the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement, an accord that the two influential ethnic armed groups had previously spurned.
