Shan State Army (SSA) South leader Col Yawdserk, saying he "heartily" welcomes the outgoing Thai army commander in chief Gen Sonthi Boonyaratglin's acceptance of Pyinmana's request "to do everything he could to encourage the rebel groups to come to the table," according to Bangkok Post, has stated his terms for negotiations with the junta. "He has already done what he could," said the 50-year old SSA commander today from his Loi Taileng base across Maehongson province, reminding SHAN of the planned 23 May meeting between the two sides which failed to materialize following disagreement on the venue.

Demonstrators are stopped by men in civilian clothes during a protest in Rangoon August 28, 2007. The grind of everyday life, fear of being beaten up and a lack of belief in people power as a weapon against a ruthless military junta suggest a string of protests in Myanmar will not snowball into a mass uprising. (Democratic Voice of Burma/Reuters)

The broom-wielding gangs that broke up fuel price protests in Burma were taking direct orders from the ruling junta, which now appears to favor them as a way to crush dissent, rights groups and diplomats said on Thursday. The Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) said it had documents proving military and civilian officials had explicit guidelines on how to mobilize and run the Swan-ar Shin heavies used to quash this month's rare outbreak of protests.

Burma's military junta tightened the net on leaders of a rare string of protests on Thursday, raiding homes of known activists and their friends and distributing their photographs in a manhunt around Yangon. "I know they've been after me," Suu Suu Nway, an outspoken critic of the former Burma's ruling generals, told Reuters by telephone. "I heard they have sent pictures of three women activists, including me, to several of their offices."

The Shan State Nationalities People's Liberation Organization (SNPLO) that had been shattered the last two months by factional divisions have been reorganized, according to an SNPLO senior officer. The remnant group, 600 strong, held a meeting at its Nawnghtao base in Hsihseng township, 59 miles south of the state capital Taunggyi, to elect the 11-men Central Committee led by the ageing Takley on 19 July, he said.

China is wary of a full scale war between Burma's ruling junta and ethnic insurgents resuming on Burma-China border before the Beijing 2008 Olympics. The Chinese government has unofficially requested both the junta and ethnic insurgents along the border to avoid a civil war before the Olympic Games next year, border sources told KNG today. According to sources close to the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), the Chinese government has been closely watching the KIO's movements and has suggested that the KIO continue to take part the junta's development programmes.

The Wa army battlions based on the Thai-Burma border have been ordered to train for simulated battles and artillery firing by the UWSA (United Wa State Army) headquartered in Pansan, The battalions have also been storing food and weapons, said a border source. On the orders of Pansan HQ, Lt. Col Yan Kaw Kyon, the commander of Huay Aww battalion, 171 military region, ordered Wa' battalions based in BP 1/ BP 2, Ho Yut, Ho Pan, Kyu Zan Kap, Mueng Kyut, Huay Aww, Nam Hu Khun, and Wa villages to store dry rations and keep weapons and ammunitions at hand.

The United Wa State Army (UWSA), currently under pressure from the Burma Army to withdraw from its southern bases adjoining Thailand's northern border, wants it reopened, according to a businessman returning from the Sino-Burma border. The Thai border has been closed to the Wa bases since 1999 during the Chuan Leekpai administration. "Panghsang may offer cooperation in drug suppression in exchange for access to supplies from Thailand," said the businessman who asked anonymity.

The Burma Army harbours no plans to attack Wa. The area commander of Pongpakhem sub-township, Mongton Township, opposite Chiangmai, denied yesterday that the army plans to forcibly dislodge Wa units stationed along the Thai-Burma border, according to a veteran Thai security source. Chatting with villagers yesterday, Col Than Tin Aung blamed the media for stirring up unrest by reporting the Wa had been ordered by the Burma Army to pull out from their strongholds along the border bases and return to the north. "It was a trick to create an atmosphere of mistrust between us," he was reported to have said.

Prison life in Burma is hard enough for able-bodied men; for women, it can be a vision of hell. At least 57 of the more than 1,100 political prisoners currently behind bars in Burma are women. Burma’s women were always prominent on the country’s political scene, joining the anti-colonial struggle that brought independence and then participating in the task of building a viable state. Since the 1988 popular uprising and subsequent crackdown that smothered the last vestiges of democracy, hundreds of women have been locked up for speaking out against their country’s descent into brutal dictatorship.

Dictator Watch has learned of two additional surface-to-surface missile facilities in Burma. We also have information about the role Singapore is playing in the SPDCs efforts to procure military materiel, and the juntas program to send officers to Russia for training in nuclear science.

The Burma Bulletin is a short month in review of events in Burma, particularly those of interest to the democracy movement and human rights activists. In the July 2007 issue you will find: * National Convention * Ethnic groups under pressure * Bird flu more widespread * ASEAN Charter * Gambari's travels * Food shortages * Chronology of events * List of Reports * Much more...