Aung San Suu Kyi News

“Asean moves gradually and by consensus”

Sunday, May 18, 2008 Myanmar's mishandling of cyclone disaster deals latest blow to Asean MANILA -- Myanmar, long a thorn in the side of its Southeast Asian allies, has again made them a target of criticism ... via Sun-Star Cagayan de Oro

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“They forced the people to vote Yes - and did not allow ballots to be cast in secret”

MS Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition party Saturday rejected the Myanmar junta's claim that more than 92 per cent of voters approved a military-backed constitution in the first round of a referendum last week. via The Straits Times

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“Then you get dysentery, malaria, skin infections. If it tips over the edge into cholera and typhoid, then it really is lethal in ... a population already weak and frail.”

Burma is in shock. The death toll is now believed to be 150,000. In the area hit by the cyclone around 1.5-million people are in desperate need of emergency aid -- especially clean water, food, and medicine. via National Post

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“They are controlling almost everything: civil life, economy, everything. People are really helpless. On the other hand, almost the whole country is against them.”

On the eve of a weekend visit to the Bay Area, exiled Burmese opposition leader Sein Win pledged that the Burmese immigrant community in the United States will use "people-to-people" connections to get cyclone ... via Inside Bay Area

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As the death toll mounts from the cyclone that struck a densely populated area of Myanmar stretching from the Irrawaddy Delta to Yangon, the country's military dictatorship is pressing ahead with efforts to ... via The Daily Star

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“Half the people displaced aren't in actual buildings”

Myanmar's military regime dug in its heels Thursday two weeks after a deadly cyclone, saying it would not bow to pressure to let in foreign aid workers as the United Nations called an emergency summit. via The Age

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“The main thing that is emphasised is that this is a humanitarian issue and it should not be politicised, and that is the view of everyone”

The state-run media in Burma is reporting that a new constitution that will entrench military control of the country has been overwhelmingly approved by voters in last weekend's referendum. via Australian Broadcasting Corporation

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“To everyone in the delta _ in the 47 effected townships where the vote is being delayed _ this is basically saying you might as well not turn out”

Myanmar announced Thursday that a constitution won massive support in a referendum _ a claim slammed by a leading rights group as an insult to the country's people.

The document, which critics say will cement nearly four decades of military rule, was approved by 92.4 percent of the 22 million eligible voters last Saturday, said Aung Toe, head of the Referendum Holding Committee on state radio. He put voter turnout at more than 99 percent.

The vote has also come under fire for being held while the country responds to a massive cyclone that has killed tens of thousands of people. Read more

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“We're working around the clock to get permission to use materials we believe would be helpful”

Military authorities in Burma have agreed to let 160 aid workers from four Asian countries assist its struggling cyclone relief effort, aid officials said yesterday, the government's first acknowledgment that ... via Boston Globe

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“We work for the government, what can we do?”

Monks here have traditionally been at the center of major pro-democracy protests against the ruling junta, most notably in a large uprising in 1988 and again during huge protests last September. via The Dispatch

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