The Stateless Rohingya Blog

Burmese Vice-President Tin Aung Myint Oo greets construction workers at a Chinese-backed oil terminal on Maday Island in Arakan State. (Photo: yn.xinhuanet.com) Burmese Vice-President Tin Aung Myint Oo visited Arakan State by helicopter on Monday to inspect construction work at the oil terminal being built on Maday Island. The island marks the starting point of an oil pipeline stretching through Burma into China's southwest. A similar pipeline for natural gas to China also begins at nearby Ramree Island. Tin Aung Myint Oo expressed support for the project and thanked the contracted company, South East Asia Pipeline Company Ltd (SEAP), for its charity work providing education and healthcare facilities along the construction route.

( Mizzima ) – Burma has not requested United Nations monitors or assistance in the April 1 bi-elections, but the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) is planning to send election observers to monitor the process from the outside, U.N. special envoy Vijay Nambiar told reporters in New York on Monday.

( Mizzima ) – Burma’s human rights situation has improved notably in some respects but it has significantly worsened in others, Amnesty International (AI) said this week. It called for the U.N. to seriously consider a commission of inquiry to investigate war crimes and systematic human rights abuses.