Burma: Endemic Sexual Violence

From Mizzima:

Three Chinese women were gang-raped last week by Burmese government troops in northern Kachin State, the Kachin News Group (KNG) reported on Monday.

According to witnesses, the women were raped on October 7 by about 10 Burmese soldiers in Shadan Pa, located between the Namsan Hka River and Munglai Hka River, west of the Myitkyina-Manmaw (Bhamo) Road.

One of the three women was unconscious for hours at a public hospital in Laiza, the headquarters of the Kachin Independence Organization, hospital sources told the KNG.

The gang-rape was committed by Burmese troops under the Mogaung (Mugang)-based Military Operation Command-3 (MOC-3) led by Brig-Gen Myat Kyaw under the Northern Regional Command (NRC) based in Myitkyina, local residents and Kachin Independence Army (KIA) officials said.

FREE!! Aung San Suu Kyi

From BBC News:

Burma's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has addressed a large crowd of her supporters, a day after her release from house arrest.

"The basis of democratic freedom is freedom of speech," she said at her party's offices, Reuters reports.

Ms Suu Kyi was allowed to leave her Rangoon house when her sentence expired on Saturday. She had been detained for most of the past two decades.

World leaders and human rights groups have reacted with joy at her release.

Aung San Sui Kyi - New Charges

From the Canberra Times:

The United States has called for the immediate release of Aung San Suu Kyi, as Western governments condemned new charges brought against the pro-democracy icon by Myanmar's military junta.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she was "deeply troubled" by the case laid against Aung San Suu Kyi just days before her six-year-long detention was to have expired.

The democracy activist has been charged with breaching the terms of her house arrest in a bizarre incident in which a US man swam to her lakeside house and hid inside her home.

Aung San Suu Kyi, now removed from her home, is being held at the grounds of Insein Prison, where the Myanmar government said she faces trial on Monday.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon is "gravely concerned" about the case, his deputy spokesman Marie Okabe said in a statement, adding Ban believed the democracy activist "is an essential partner for dialogue in Myanmar's national reconciliation."

In Geneva, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, Tomas Ojea Quintana, called for Aung San Suu Kyi to be freed, and said her detention broke the country's laws.

Aung San Sui Kyi

From the Herald Sun:

Burma's junta have rejected an appeal to free pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi when her detention order expires on May 27.

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate has spent more than 13 of the past 19 years - including the past six - under house arrest in the capital Rangoon.

From Mizzima:

The Burmese military junta has rejected an appeal for the release of detained opposition leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, in accordance with the law of the country, a party official said.

Nyan Win, spokesperson of the National League for Democracy, the party led by Aung San Suu Kyi, had appealed for her release through her lawyer. The appeal was rejected on May 1.

In the appeal, Hla Myo Myint had argued that the detention of Aung San Suu Kyi must end by May 27, as the law of Burma does not permit detention of more than five years on charges of disturbing peace in the country.

Suu Kyi was last arrested on May 30, 2003, after her motorcade was attacked by junta-backed mobs in upper Burma during a political tour. She was then charged with disturbing the peace in the country and each year the junta continues to extend her detention period.

Nyo Ohn Myint, in-charge of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the NLD in exile, said the junta, besides its lack of interest for national reconciliation, feared that the release of Suu Kyi would jeopardize their plans.

More on Aung San Sui Kyi from BBC News; from DASSK; Wikipedia; and Britannica Online.