• AUNG SAN SUU KYI HONORED BY UK PARLIAMENT!
• CEASEFIRE AGREEMENTS CONTINUE TO BE VIOLATED!
• NAYPYITAW MEETS KACHIN LEADERS AGAIN!
• ETHNIC LANGUAGES TO BE TAUGHT OUTSIDE SCHOOL HOURS!
• WOMEN CALLS FOR INCLUSION IN PEACE PROCESS!

Cartoon
Tips for the President: Why do I think you feel the same way especially after Rakhine?

Think Piece
Everybody is going to rake Myanmar. They want your gas, your oil and your minerals. They are not coming to your country for your well-being. They say they want to help you but they are not. You have to work with someone who is sincere in working with you. Are they doing it for themselves or the people? You have to do it gradually, don’t do fast. Do it step by step but very, very firmly.

M.R. Disnadda Disakul, Chairman, Mae Fa Luang Foundation, to U Htay Aung, deputy minister of tourism and hotels, at Mekong Tourism Forum held last week (12-15 June 2012), Bangkok Post, 18 June 2012

We don’t want to be shackled to be shackled by the past. We want to use the past to build a happier future.

Aung San Suu Kyi, speaking at British Parliament, 21 June 2012, Reuters

The World
19 June 2012
Report by London-based Global Witness says more than 700 people, one a week, died in the decade ending 2011 defending rights related to the environment, specifically land and forests:

• 2004 37
  2008 64
  2010 96
  2011 106
• Killings have occurred in 34 countries, three-quarters in Brazil, Peru and Colombia and, 50 in Philippines

(AP)

20 June 2012
Google introduces Endangered Languages Project. Only half of the 7,000 languages spoken today are expected to survive past the end of this century. (AFP)

International Relations
18 June 2012

Aung San Suu Kyi arrives in Ireland with U2 star Bono. (AFP)

19 June 2012
US Charge d’affairs in Rangoon Michael Thurston, comparing with the SPDC’ response to Cyclone Nargis in 2008, praises the country’s response to recent deadly sectarian fighting. This is something we would not have seen in the past, he says. (Reuters)

19 June 2012
Aung San Suu Kyi starts a week-long visit to London. (AP)

19 June 2012

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton releases Trafficking in Persons Report 2012, in which Washington upgrades Burma from Tier 3 (do not make significant efforts to comply with minimum standards) to Tier 2 (making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance). (DVB/Irrawaddy)

20 June 2012

Aung San Suu Kyi has a 30-minte private conversation with the Dalai Lama in London. (Mizzima)

21 June 2012
Speaking to the UK Parliament, Aung San Suu Kyi says current constitution needs to be amended to reflect the country’s ethnic composition. She is given a standing ovation. (BBC)

22 June 2012
Communist Party of China (CPC)-run Global Times comments on changes in Burma:

• Reforms bring “unprecedented hope”
• Hasty reform can provide chances for extremists

(VOA)

Thai-Burma Relations
18 June 2012
Request by NASA to use U-tapao naval bases for a joint Thailand-US Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) center and to study climate conditions goes to the prime minister and military advisers. (Bangkok Post)

Politics/ Inside Burma
19 June 2012

President Thein Sein announces “second wave of reforms” that will include tentative privatization and a law on minimum wage. He says Burma would choose the type of investment that does not hurt the environment and social economy. (Reuters)

Ethnic Affairs
15 June 2012
Union education minister U Mya Aye says non-Burman ethnic languages will be taught outside normal school hours. Language text books from kindergarten up to Grade 2 must be prepared and submitted to the ministry in two months. (MNA)

20 June 2012
Women’s League of Burma (WLB) calls for inclusion of women in peace process:

• Only one woman, Zipporah Sein of Karen National Union (KNU), involved in negotiations
• It calls upon both Naypyitaw and respective armed groups to make it more inclusive

(Irrawaddy)

20 June 2012
Naypyitaw’s U Aung Min and Laiza’s Sumlut Gun Maw meet in Maijayang. The former agrees to move Burmese army units out of certain Kachin villages to allow villagers to return. It does not agree to withdraw troops from the latter’s controlled areas, but proposes both sides distancing their units simultaneously. No agreement reached but signs are positive, says mediator San Aung. Each meeting is a step closer to ending the conflict. (Irrawaddy)

21 June 2012
Kachin State Chief Minister Lajon Ngan Hseng declares Naypyitaw has told him to dismiss or ignore Section 17/1 that outlaws the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO). The section states it is illegal for anyone to have contact with an outlawed organization. (Irrawaddy)

21 June 2012
About 71 people have been killed in clashes, in addition to 10 killed by a Buddhist mob on 3 June, says an official. (AFP)

Shans/ Shan State
16-19 June 2012
Confrontation between United Wa State Army (UWSA) and Shan State Army (SSA) in Monghsat, opposite Thailand’s Chiangrai. The two sides reach a 4-point agreement. (SHAN)

22 June 2012
Shan State Army (SSA) North holds crisis meeting with Union Peacemaking Work Committee (PWC) in Mandalay. (SHAN)

Economy/ Business
15 June 2012
Activists call on Norwegian government to investigate whether offshore drilling giant Seadrill violated sanctions last year when it performed exploratory work in a gas field co-owned by UNOG, owned by two of Aung Thaung’s sons: Nay Aung and Pyi Aung. (Irrawaddy)

21 June 2012
Asian Development Bank, which is part of the Greater Mekong Sub region secretariat, has concluded that the GMS Southern Corridor should be extended to include Dawei, according to Arjun Goswami, the bank’s director of regional cooperation, speaking in Bangkok. Ital-Thai Development (ITD) is under pressure to move the Dawei project forward, or else Burma could look for Japan or South Korea instead, says Kenneth Stevens, managing partner of Leopard Capital LP. (Bangkok)

Human Rights
20 June 2012
World Food Programme says it has provided emergency food supplies to more than 66,000 people, around two-thirds of those displaced in Arakan state, in the past week. (BBC)

20 June 2012
Press Freedom Day celebrated for the first time by UNESCO and information ministry. (DVB)

20 June 2012
Freedom House’s 2012 report says media freedom in Burma improved in 2012, but still far from being commendable:

• 187th among 197th countries surveyed, 3rd to last in Asia
• Positive includes release of bloggers, softening of censorship, fewer reports of harassment, increased number of private media outlet and allowing exiled journalists to return

(DVB)

Environment
22 June 2012
Rio Earth summit, attended by 191 UN members, approves agreement to roll back climate change, desertification and species loss. (Agencies)

Drugs
20 June 2012
A total of 299,700 pseudoephedrine-based cold pills in 10 packages, imported from Turkey, seized in Mae Sot while being delivered across the border from Thailand to Burma. (Bangkok Post)

War
16 June 2012
Clash between Shan State Army (SSA) and Burma Army (BA) in Tong Lao, Mongkeung township. No advance notification, says SSA. (SHAN)

17 June 2012
Clashes between SSA and BA in Hsipaw and Monghsu, where the former is attacked in force by the latter. (SHAN)

18 June 2012
Burma Army and KIA battle in Panghsai and Mongkoe, Muse township. (KNG)

19 June 2012
Renewed attack on the SSA by BA. BA wants to remove SSA from positions near the Salween, say sources. (SHAN)

22 June 2012
SSA delegation meets U Thein Zaw, Union Peacemaking Work Committee (UPWC) to discuss ending to ongoing clash in Monghsu township. (SHAN)