Agence France-Presse

Afghanistan’s first and only female provincial governor and an aid worker from Myanmar’s Kachin minority are among the winners of this year’s prestigious Ramon Magsaysay awards, the award foundation said Wednesday.

The Manila-based Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation, named after a popular Filipino president who was killed in a plane crash, was established in 1957 to honour people or groups who change communities in Asia for the better.

Both Habiba Sarabi, governor of the Afghan province of Bamyan, and Myanmar aid worker Lahpai Seng Raw did not allow their minority origins to stop them from empowering other people, said the foundation.

The 55-year-old member of the minority Hazara group was recognised for promoting education and women’s rights despite working in an impoverished and war-torn environment, it said.

Burmese both across the country and abroad celebrated the Martyrs’ Day on July 19. The anniversary marks one of the most important days in Burma’s history. Sixty-six years ago the country’s father of independence Gen. Aung San was assassinated along with his eight cabinet members. It’s a day that no Burmese can ever forget because it became a pivotal point in the country’s history.

The assassination that followed country’s independence from Britain was followed by civil wars that continue until this present-day. The root of these problems could be characterized in the failure of Burman leaders to implement the Panglong Agreement inked by Gen. Aung San and various ethnic leaders. If the agreement had come to fruition it would have given the ethnic groups federalism.

Likewise, July 19 is also memorable day in the history of the Mon national revolution. Mon armed resistance began in the middle of 1948 just after the country received independence. The Mon People Front (MPF) resisted for 10 years before exchanging their arms for peace under the former Prime Minster U Nu government on July 19, 1958.

By Paula J. Dobriansky

In some respects, the challenges to democracy-building in Myanmar are greater than those in Egypt and Turkey

 After five decades of brutal military rule, hopeful signs have emerged in Myanmar. The military has partially opened up the political system and released Aung San Suu Kyi, the iconic leader of the country’s democracy movement, after 15 years of house arrest. Since September 2011, ceasefire agreements have been signed with 11 ethnic groups, contributing to national political reconciliation.

Yet, ending the military’s dominance is just one challenge. The daunting task is constructing a durable democracy in a country with limited civil society traditions and a complex ethnic and religious mix. The difficulty is underscored by the experiences of other multi-ethnic and multi-religious societies that have struggled to build democratic institutions after overthrowing a military dictatorship, with democratically elected leaders disregarding the rule of law.

by Todd Pitman
AP

MEIKHTILA, MYANMAR – Their bones are scattered in blackened patches of earth across a hillside overlooking the wrecked Islamic boarding school they once called home.

Smashed fragments of skulls rest atop the dirt. A shattered jaw cradles half a set of teeth. And among the remains lie the sharpened bamboo staves attackers used to beat dozens of people to the ground before drowning their still-twitching bodies in gasoline and burning them alive.

The mobs that March morning were Buddhists enraged by the killing of a monk. The victims were Muslims who had nothing to do with it — students and teachers from a prestigious Islamic school in central Myanmar who were so close to being saved.

In the last hours of their lives, police had been dispatched to rescue them from a burning compound surrounded by swarms of angry men. And when they emerged cowering, hands atop their heads, they only had to make it to four police trucks waiting on the road above.

It wasn’t far to go — just one hill.

Xinhua

Myanmar’s government and parliamentary peace making group met at the Myanmar Peace Center here Sunday to discuss the current peace process.

The rare joint meeting was participated by Speaker of House of Representatives (Lower House) USwe Mann, Chairperson of the House’s Committee for Rule of Law and Tranquility Aung San Suu Kyi and Vice Chairman of the Central Peace Making Work Committee U Aung Min, who is also Minister at the Presidential Office.

It was also the first time for opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to be involved in the government’s peace talks.

Special Adviser to the Myanmar Peace Center U Hla Maung Shwe quoted Aung San Suu Kyi as saying that Myanmar should make use of the international assistance extended to the peace process, and attach importance to the judicial and rule of law affairs in the peace building.