By Charlie Campbell

The wrinkled limestone karst landscape of the Thai-Burmese border is home to around 130,000 Burmese refugees. Many who fled decades of ethnic conflict have lost their lands, families and livelihoods, and countless children born in makeshift camps have neither set foot in the country of their parents’ birth nor speak their parents’ native tongue. While recent reforms in military-dominated Burma, officially known as Myanmar, have seen democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi elected to Parliament, as well as the suspension of Western sanctions and the release of political prisoners, the refugee quandary endures. A survey conducted last month attempted to determine how this fraught situation could be remedied — asking inhabitants of one camp if they wanted to return to Burma, resettle in third countries or stay permanently in Thailand. Results are still being tallied, but this barometer of opinion is largely a moot point, as there are no easy answers for victims of the world’s longest running civil war.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FORT WAYNE, Indiana — A Burmese woman who moved to Indiana in search of a better life for her family is struggling to raise money to bring home the body of a teenage son killed by a train in Ohio. Ka Te Za lost her 13-year-old son, Hu Sein, Sunday...

NNT BANGKOK, 8 August 2013 (NNT) – Norway and Thailand are joining hands providing educational opportunities to Burmese students, granting them 60 scholarships to study at Mahidol University. “Norwegian Scholarships on Capacity Building for Institutions in Myanmar” is...

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

“For Immediate Release”

Dear Mr. Speaker: (Dear Mr. President:)

I hereby report that I have issued an Executive Order (the “order”) pursuant to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) (IEEPA) and the Tom Lantos Block Burmese JADE (Junta’s Anti-Democratic Efforts) Act of 2008 (Public Law 110-286) (the “JADE Act”) that takes additional steps with respect to the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13047 of May 20, 1997, as modified in scope in Executive Order 13448 of October 18, 2007, and Executive Order 13619 of July 11, 2012, and relied upon for additional steps taken in Executive Order 13310 of July 28, 2003, Executive Order 13448 of October 18, 2007, Executive Order 13464 of April 30, 2008, and Executive Order 13619 of July 11, 2012.

By Nang Mya Nadi
DVB

Thai authorities in the last week have rounded up three leading members of a Burmese human trafficking gang responsible for selling hundreds of their fellow countrymen into slavery and murdering dozens of people.

According to the Burmese embassy in Bangkok’s labour attaché Naing Htun, combined forces from the Royal Thai Police and the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) nabbed the group’s leader Ko Myo last week after capturing one of his top aides on 31 July.

Another of the gang’s henchman was reportedly arrested on Tuesday, while officials continue to search for an unidentified Burmese national associated with the outfit.

Phuket Gazette

PHUKET: The Nine Armies’ War started in 1785 when the Burmese, taking advantage of internal strife and the overthrowing of King Taksin in Siam, invaded the country with forces numbering approximately 150,000 soldiers, divided into nine army groups.

One of those armies marched straight for Thalang, then the largest town in Phuket, and laid siege to it. During that time, the governor of Thalang and the only person who can organize the town’s defenses, passed away in the most untimely manner.

With the town in danger of being sacked, the governor’s wife, Lady Chan, along with her sister, Khun Mook, rallied the town’s fighting men and organized the defense of Thalang.