The Stateless Rohingya Blog

Bangkok Post April 26, 2013 BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, BRUNEI : Thailand and Myanmar have agreed to open three more permanent border checkpoints to give a boost to economic development. Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and Myanmar President Thein Sein agreed on the Myanmar-proposed initiative on the sidelines of the 22nd Asean Summit in Brunei which ended yesterday. Deputy government spokesman Phakdeeharn Himathongkham said Ms Yingluck thanked the Myanmar government for raising the issue. The checkpoints are between Thailand's Three Pagodas Pass in Kanchanaburi province and Myanmar's Phayatongsu town; Ban Nam Pu Ron in Kanchanaburi and Myanmar's Tiki town; and the Singkorn temporary checkpoint in Prachuap Khiri Khan and Myanmar's Mortong town, he said. Mr Phakdeeharn said Ms Yingluck told Thein Sein that opening three more checkpoints would help strengthen ties between Thailand and Myanmar. He said Ms Yingluck took the opportunity during her meeting to foll

Dr. Maung Zarni DVB News: April 26, 2013 Dear International Crisis Group President Louise Arbour, I am writing to bring to your attention to the rather disturbing recent developments in Burma. Within 24 hours of your organisation’s “In Pursuit of Peace” dinner in New York, Burma’s Minister of Immigration and former Chief of Police Khin Yi, who was part of the delegation accepting the award on behalf of President Thein Sein, reportedly reiterated the Thein Sein Administration’s neo-fascist stance on the highly controversial 1982 Citizenship Act. In response to a question posed by a Rakhine nationalist during his public meeting with Burmese exiles in New York City this week, Khin Yi emphatically stated that Burma’s citizenship law is “solely based on blood” and no foreigners or “foreign blood” officially resided in Burma before the first Anglo-Burmese war in 1824. Khin Yi was emphatic when he said Thein Sein’s government will never alter