Indonesia Arrests 2 for Myanmar embassy

Bomb Plot

Indonesia’s government announced on May 3 that it had foiled an alleged plot by Islamists to bomb the Myanmar e mbassy in j akarta. h ours later, former residence might be torn down by investors, but plans for renovation ultimately won out. Katha served as the inspiration for the fictional district of Kyauktada in Orwell’s 1934 novel “Burmese Days.”

10 More Newspapers Get License to Go Daily

hundreds of hardline Muslims gathered outside the mission to call for jihad in Myanmar over the country’s alleged persecution of Muslims. Two suspected militants were arrested the night before, and five homemade bombs were seized from a backpack they were carrying after authorities were tipped off about their whereabouts. Their interrogation led to a rented house where other explosive materials were found. A week later, Indonesia’s elite antiterrorism unit killed 7 other militants suspected of involvement in the plot.

registration and distribution of publications considered 11 applicants. Private dailies started publishing in Burma in April after a 45-year ban.

Number of IDPs in Myanmar Rises to 450,000: Report having signed ceasefires with Naypyitaw, there are some 250,000 protracted IDPs.

Dozens Dead after heavy Rains Lash Southern Shan State

Torrential downpours in southern Shan state caused a goldmine in Kalaw Township to collapse on May 2, killing at least 36 workers. Col. Zaw Win, a subcontractor at the mine in Shwe Min Phone village, told The Irrawaddy that another eight people were still missing several days after the incident. h eavy rainfall had also washed away around 170 buildings, including two schools, according to police reports. The mine, owned by Geo Asia Industry and Mining Company, employs more than 10,000 workers, around half of whom left the area after the disaster.

A house once lived in by British novelist George Orwell is set to be restored and reopened to attract tourists to the remote Sagaing r egion town of Katha. The long-neglected two-story building was home to Orwell when he served as an Indian Civil Service officer in Myanmar in the 1920s, during the era of British colonial rule, and is a popular destination for visitors who take cruises on the Ayeyarwady r iver, according to tour operators. In February, news spread that Orwell’s

Myanmar’s government gave 10 more private daily publications permission to hit the newsstands, state media reported on May 1, bumping the total number of daily private papers in the country to 24. The 10 new dailies include National Time Daily, Daily e leven News, Myanma Freedom Daily, The Nagani Daily, Dana Business Daily, Warazein Daily, Newswatch Daily, The Pyi Myanmar Daily, Myanmar Post Daily and the International herald Tribune, according to the state-run New Light of Myanmar, which said the government’s committee for

Internal conflict and communal violence displaced a further 166,000 people in Myanmar in 2012, bringing the total number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the country to “at least 450,000 people,” according to a global report released by the Internal Displaced Monitoring Centre. The report said inter-communal violence in rakhine State displaced 125,000 people, while the ethnic conflict in Kachin State, which escalated in late 2012, caused more than 75,000 civilians to flee. In southeastern Myanmar, where Kayin and Shan rebels groups have skirmished with government forces despite

Six Muslims Charged with Monk’s Murder

The district court of Meikhtila filed murder charges on May 6 against six Muslim men accused of killing a monk in the central Myanmar town in March. A lawyer for one of the men said that his client, Myat Ko Ko, had confessed to killing the Buddhist monk, U Thawbita, on March 20, amid communal riots sparked by an incident earlier in the day at a Muslim-owned gold shop. Meanwhile, another outbreak of communal violence in Okkan Township, Bago region, in late April led to the arrest of 39 people accused of destroying

Muslim-owned homes and businesses, while 10 ethnic r akhine Buddhists were sentenced to between nine months and three years’ imprisonment in connection with communal violence in rakhine State last year.

Shan Clashes Send Villagers Fleeing

More than 2,000 ethnic Shan civilians have fled their villages since fighting between Myanmar government troops and the Shan State Army-South (SSA-South) broke out in early May. Despite a ceasefire between the two sides, the clashes have intensified, forcing many to seek shelter in the town of Nam Kham and across the border in China. The Shan rebels accused the Myanmar army of breaking the ceasefire with a fresh offensive in Naw Kham Township, a mountainous area near the ss A- s outh chief Lt-Gen yawd s erk shakes hands with Myanmar’s Deputy Commanderin-Chief Gen Soe Win after the signing of a peace deal in May 2012.

Chinese border. Meanwhile, on May 15, the state-run newspaper The New Light of Myanmar reported that two people were killed when SSA-South troops when opened fire at the staterun Myanma Oil and Gas e nterprise compound in Nam Kham.

Reformist Minister Leaves Investment Commission

A leading reformist minister who played a key role in promoting Myanmar’s new foreign investment law has left his post as head of the government’s investment commission, The Financial Times reported on May 8. U Soe Thane, a President’s Office minister with close ties to President U Thein Sein, stepped down as chairman of the Myanmar Investment Commission, which approves foreign investment projects, and will be replaced by Finance Minister U Win Shein, following criticism among conservative politicians opposed to the quick pace of reform. U Soe Thane will continue overseeing economic affairs in his ministerial role.

two Injured in Myanmar Airways Mishap

Two passengers were injured on May 16 when a Myanmar Airways plane landing in Monghsat, northern Shan State, shot past the end of

President U thein Sein Visits White house

President U Thein Sein became the first Myanmar head of state in nearly 50 years to visit his US counterpart at the White h ouse on May 20. During the visit, US President Barack Obama broke with official policy to refer to his guest’s home country as Myanmar, instead of Burma, as it is still designated in the United States. Last November, Mr Obama became the first sitting US president to visit the country. The trip aimed to end Myanmar’s decades of diplomatic isolation and reward its shift from authoritarian rule. During U Thein Sein’s visit, he and Mr Obama discussed Myanmar’s democratic transition, communal and ethnic tensions and providing economic opportunity for Myanmar’s people. the runway due to a brake failure. The Fokker plane was carrying 55 passengers when it went 200 meters off the runway before hitting a fence and stopping. A wing and a wheel on the aircraft were damaged in the accident, and two passengers suffered broken arms. The flight had departed from h eho, also in Shan State, where three people were killed on Christmas Day 2012 when an Air Bagan flight crash-landed on a local road. One of the victims of the crash was a motorcyclist who was hit by the plane as it descended in heavy fog.

Boat Carrying 100 Rohingya Muslims Capsizes

A boat carrying about 100 rohingya Muslims capsized off Myanmar’s west coast on May 13, with as many as 50 feared drowned at the start of a mass evacuation from low-lying regions ahead of Cyclone Mahasen, UN officials said. The boat struck rocks off Pauktaw Township in rakhine State, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of humanitarian Affairs. Nearly 20,000 rohingya had been living in makeshift camps in Pauktaw, including about 12,000 in flood-prone areas, since an outbreak of violence between ethnic r akhine Buddhists and r ohingya Muslims last year. The cyclone, which made landfall on May 16, largely spared the rakhine coast but claimed at least 18 lives in Myanmar, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

Power Outage In Yangon

High voltage power lines stretch across the yangon River to deliver an inadequate and irregular power supply to a city where demand is growing daily. Much to the frustration of the city’s residents, power outages during the hot summer months have been even more frequent than in previous years.