PHR Issues Report Documenting Massacre in Burma; Calls for Immediate Investigation

PHR today released a report detailing the organized attacks against Muslims that took place in central Burma in late March and resulted in the killing of at least 20 children and four teachers. The report provides evidence that state authorities, who idly stood by watching the events unfold, are complicit in these crimes. The rights group also issued policy recommendations [...]

Myanmar Must Avert Further Humanitarian Disaster as Cyclone Approaches

Heavy monsoon rains and a tropical cyclone threaten the lives of tens of thousands of displaced persons in western Myanmar unless the authorities immediately step up efforts to protect them, Amnesty International said. More than 140,000 individuals – mostly from the Rohingya Muslim minority [...]

Burma: Telecoms Risk Complicity in Surveillance, Censorship

International telecommunications companies risk being linked to human rights abuses if they enter the Burmese market before adequate protections are in place, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today. Burma’s human rights reforms thus far have been inadequate, including in the Internet [...]

Burma: New Doubts About Pace of Reforms

The United States should use the upcoming visit by Burma’s president to ask tough questions about the slowing pace of human rights reforms and insist on implementation of past commitments, Human Rights Watch said today. President Barack Obama is hosting a visit to Washington [...]

Congressman Crowley Introduces Measure to Renew Sanctions on Burma, With Focus on Gem Imports

Today, Rep. Joe Crowley (D-Queens, the Bronx) introduced the renewal of the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act, legislation that continues the ban on imports from Burma, particularly gems. “I remain very concerned about human rights violations in Burma, including violence against ethnic nationalities, the use of rape as a weapon of war [...]

Refugee return must be voluntary, insists UNHCR

As international funding for the refugee camps in Thailand starts to decline, UN refugee officials have repeated assurances that any return to Myanmar must be voluntary, based on each individual’s informed decision, and must take place in safety and dignity [...]

Forced to Flee, Women from Burma Now Pressured to Return

Working outside Burma for positive changes inside is a fundamental and imperative aspect of effective documentation and campaigning. But now, many members of the exile community — including staff of Women’s League of Burma and other women’s organizations [...]

Uncertainty clouds Myanmar refugee plan: NGO

More than 160,000 Myanmar refugees living in border areas in Thailand are reportedly set to return home but information about their resettlement in their homeland remains murky, NGOs say.

The Thai and Myanmar governments are working with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in preparing to resettle 3200 refugee households from nine camps in Thailand near the border [...]

Will Myanmar’s War Refugees be Forced Home Against their Will?

They can’t live like this forever. Many of the 160,000 refugees evading conflict in eastern Myanmar inhabit a purgatory of thatch-roofed shanties across the river border in Thailand. Life in the United Nations-monitored camps is dreary and monotonous [...]