The Sangai Express / Agencies

New Delhi, September 21 2013 : India has close relations with Myanmar on several fronts in-cluding security, energy secu- rity and food security but both sides have “some remaining boundary issues” for which a solution is being worked out, a top official said on Friday.

Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty, secretary, economic relations, in the ministry of external affairs, said India’s relations with Myanmar is strategic gi-ven their shared land boun- dary in India’s northeast and the Bay of Bengal.

While both sides have ink-ed an MoU on border area development, “we do have some remaining boundary issues where there are problems of identifying where construc-tion can be done or cannot be done …

AFP

YANGON — Activists praised Myanmar authorities Saturday for allowing a peace march through Yangon calling for an end to the nation’s civil conflicts, after several people were charged for rallying without permission last year.

Around 300 people joined the colourful International Day of Peace rally through the city — the majority wearing blue t-shirts printed with anti-war slogans — with just a handful of police watching the event.

“The government needs to listen the voice of the people. I think they are beginning to acknowledge that responsibility,” organiser Moe Thway, of Generation Wave, said referring to the granting of permission for the march.

Global Times

Written by Kachin News Group  

Maj-Gen Tun Tun Naung, commander of Burma Army Northern Regional Military Command, conceded yesterday that government soldiers interrogated Rev. Ram Mai in early September, according to Kachin Baptist Convention (KBC). Rev. Ram Mai, a pastor in Kachin’s Putao district, was allegedly detained along with several other villagers and tortured during questioning.

The reverend is free now, said commander Tun Tun Naung in a conference call yesterday to KBC General Secretary Rev. Dr. Hkalam Samsun and Rev. Kum Awng, secretary of Myitkyina Kachin Baptist Association.

KNG News – Kachin News Group

Over the last several weeks hundreds of Burma army troops have been deployed to the Pangwa area to reinforce pro-government border guard force (BGF) units, according to one former member of the militia that didn’t want their name used for security concerns.

The area in in northeastern Kachin state is major trade point between Burma and China. Pangwa used to be the longstanding capital of the now defunct New Democratic Army-Kachin (NDA-K); a ceasefire group led by Zahkung Ting Ying (also spelled Za Khun Ting Ring). But in 2009 the NDA-K de-banded when its army of about 1,000 troops was absorbed into the BGF.

Written by Kachin News Group

Burmese government soldiers purportedly robbed the entire alms collection of Kachin Baptist Church in Nhka Ga village, where fighting between government forces and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) has been ongoing since Aug. 28, according to aid workers stationed in the village.

The sources said that an estimated 1,000,000 Kyat (US$1,041) was confiscated by Burmese soldiers of Infantry Battalion No. 138, during an incident in early September that involved the detention and violent interrogation of both clergy and civilians.

IRIN

MEIKTILA, 20 September 2013 (IRIN) – Close to 4,000 people in Meiktila remain displaced as residents of this otherwise quiet Burmese university town mark the six-month anniversary of one of Myanmar’s worst incidents of sectarian violence in decades.

“We’re desperate to learn when we can return to our homes,” Yee Yee Win, a 40-year-old Muslim woman, told IRIN as she prepared dinner for her seven-member family in an overcrowded camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs). The camp is set up within the grounds of the local water authorities and houses some 870 residents.

“We don’t want to live in this camp any longer. We want to go back as soon as possible,” her husband, Than Win, jumped in.

By NYEIN NYEIN / THE IRRAWADDY

Burma’s police and farmers in Naypyidaw’s Popathiri Township clashed early Thursday morning when police raided homes of residents, who are demanding they be allowed to return to farmland confiscated by the Ministry of Information (MOI).

Trespassing charges have been filed against six leaders of the residents, who are now in hiding. The six escaped arrest as angry residents of Weigyi village detained almost 30 police officers and allegedly injured seven police.