CHIBA – Four families from Myanmar arrived Friday night in Tokyo on a pilot U.N. refugee resettlement program introduced in fiscal 2010. The families are from ethnic minorities in Myanmar and had been living in a refugee camp in Thailand, across the border. After a 180-day vocational and Japanese...

Nine out of 10 refugees on the Thai-Burma border would prefer to resettle in third countries or stay in Thailand instead of being repatriated to Burma, according to a recent survey by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. More than 120,000 refugees have been living outside Burma in camps on the ...

Advocacy groups claim government’s mining decision derailing country’s democratic progress. The Molo Women Mining Watch Network (MWMWN) and the Karenni Civil Society Network (KCSN) today strongly condemned the government of Burma’s decision to grant mining contracts inside Karenni State, an ongoing...

The head of Burma’s military met with members of the Karen armed resistance in the country’s capital to discuss how the ceasefire between the two could be progressed. The meeting is seen by ethnic leaders as a move by the government to acknowledge the Karen National Union (KNU) as a necessary com...

The Karen National Union (KNU) is ready to sign a nationwide ceasefire agreement, according to one of its most prominent central executive committee members, Mahn Nyein Maung, who spoke to DVB in an interview on Monday. “The KNU is looking to find solutions to all political issues through a natio...

Myanmar’s government and the political wing of the country’s armed ethnic Kachin rebels resumed peace talks Tuesday, with Naypyidaw expressing optimism they would lead to a permanent cessation of hostilities resulting in an overall nationwide cease-fire and political dialogue with ethnic groups. ...

Myanmar's president pardoned 56 political prisoners Tuesday, an amnesty apparently timed to highlight the government's reforms ahead of a regional summit as well as important negotiations with a rebel group at home. President Thein Sein ordered the prisoners' release just ahead of a forum in Brun...

The Myanmar government and the rebel Kachin Independent Organization (KIO) have agreed to work together towards nationwide ceasefire and lay foundation for political dialogue. After three days of peace talks in Myitgyina, capital of northernmost Kachin state, the two sides reached a seven-point a...

9 October 2013 – An independent United Nations human rights expert today welcomed the latest release of political prisoners in Myanmar, while also voicing concern over ongoing arrests of activists and conditions attached to arrests. A presidential amnesty decree on 8 October resulted in the relea...

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will meet with Myanmar President to discuss the human rights situation in his country as it assumes the chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) for 2014, a top official said here on Thursday. Myanmar symbolically took over the ASEAN Chairmanshi...