By Mark Inkey, Guest Contributor

Burma was not one of the 115 countries to sign up to the UN Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative (PSVI) launched by William Hague at the UN General Assembly on 24 September 2013. Despite Burma’s refusal to sign the initiative the British Government will still pay to train soldiers from the Burmese Army, which is accused of using rape as a weapon and child soldiers. Other countries with even worse records than Burma’s on sexual violence, such as the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sierra Leone signed up to the initiative.

By Peter O’Neil, Vancouver Sun

Canadian companies willing to take risks have potential to reap rewards, says trade minister

UN News Centre

8 October 2013 – Citing the negative impact of the inter-communal clashes in Myanmar’s Rakhine state on children in the region, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) today urged all parties to put an end to the violence.

“In the name of Myanmar’s children, now is the time for this violence to end,” said Bertrand Bainvel, UNICEF Representative in Yangon. “Hate messages and inflammatory propaganda just perpetuate the cycle of violence, and it is children who suffer.”

Rakhine state has been the site of inter-communal violence since June 2012, with clashes between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims, which eventually led the Government to declare a state of emergency there. Some 75,000 people were uprooted in the first wave of riots and another 36,000 were displaced by a second wave of unrest in October last year.

By Pitman (AP)

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Brunei (AP) — Just a few years ago Myanmar was an isolated dictatorship that embarrassed the Association of Southeast Asian Nations with its dismal human rights record. Now it’s poised to take over leadership of the 10-nation bloc for the first time — a move critics say may be premature given conflicts at home that have left hundreds dead and hundreds of thousands more displaced.

The appointment of Myanmar to ASEAN’s chairmanship is meant to reward the former pariah’s transformation since its military junta turned over power to an elected government two years ago, and some are hopeful that putting the spotlight on Myanmar will serve as further incentive for reform.

But Myanmar still has a long way to go. Last week, smoke and flames rose once again from the twisted wreckage of charred Muslim homes and mosques ransacked by machete-wielding Buddhist mobs, this time in Thandwe in western Rakhine state, where five people were killed — one of them a 94-year-old Muslim woman who was too frail to flee.

Global Times

Myanmar’s ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) Saturday warned of grave danger and bad consequences if the 2008 constitution is abolished and redrawn.

The country and the people will suffer the consequences arising from the move, said an announcement of the party’s Constitution Amendment Committee.

Myanmar’s parliament set up a 109-member Constitution Review Joint Committee in July with the deputy speaker of the Union Parliament as chairman, and it is represented proportionally by parliament members of both Houses, political parties, military MPs and individuals.

By Dr. Maung Zarni

“We (Buddhist sons of the Land) are here to burn down the houses of all Muslim (Kalar or “niggers”), and remove these ‘guests’ from our soil.

You brothers, in our security forces, are invited to join us in this national defense, the defense of our Buddhist faith!”

A scene of “Buddhist” mob carrying an official tri-color government flag (adopted in 2010), marching to a targeted Muslim villages, being stopped by the local troops, who are NOT really empowered by Naypyidaw Thein Sein’s government to use force, if necessary, to prevent any organized mass atrocities against the Muslims of all ethnic backgrounds.

This is definitely Hotel Rwanda.

South Asia Revealed

New Zealand has reaffirmed to continue providing aid to Myanmar’s democratization process, official media reported Saturday.

It was pledged by visiting Speaker of the House of Representatives of New Zealand David Carter when he called on Myanmar President U Thein Sein at the Presidential Palace in Nay Pyi Taw Friday.

U Thein Sein thanked New Zealand’s constant support for Myanmar ‘s reform and stance in the international arena.