Hundreds of soldiers who participated in the Armed Forces Day parade at Pyinmana Naypyidaw had deserted, according to an informed border source. Of 300 men from Monghpyak-based Military Operations Command (MOC) #18 in eastern Shan State, who went to the new capital, 650 miles away, for the occasion, only some 140 were back at the command post, he said, quoting a senior officer. "Many of them came from lowland Burma and were homesick," he explained, "So when the opportunity came, they just took it. It was the same with many other commands."

A trusted confidant of a Shan State Army (SSA) South commander, whose death has been publicized for months by a rival group, visited S.H.A.N. yesterday to announce he is still very much alive and kicking. "That was propaganda," said Lt-Col Pawngkher, 43, of Victory Column, who was, according to his erstwhile comrade Lt-Col Moengzuen, "killed in action" during a two-hour long fight in Mongkeung, 108 miles northeast of the state capital Taunggyi, on 28 December 2006. The news of his death was repeated in vivid details by in places as far as Bangkok and Muse, which was to no one's surprise vehemently denied by the SSA. But it wasn't until the visit by his confidant when all doubts were dispelled.

A Burmese commander who surrendered his arms to the Shan State Army (SSA) South 3 days earlier is facing court martial, according to border sources. The trial of Maj Thein Tun Aung, who commanded the Heavy Weapons company #2 opposite the Loi Gawwan base of the SSA-South, opposite Chiangrai, was presided by none other than Lt-Gen Kyaw Win, who oversees the Burma Army's three regional commands in Shan State, said one source.

The International Labour Organisation on Wednesday decided to defer taking Burma to the International Court of Justice over the use of forced labour following the Burmese junta's signing of a "Supplementary Understanding" last month. In February the Burmese military government signed an agreement to allow the ILO to set up a mechanism that will enable victims of forced labour to seek redressal. By agreeing to the "Supplementary Understanding," Burma has accepted that no one lodging complaints about forced labour would be victimized.

Night patrols dispatched by the Burma Army and its Shan counterpart bumped into each other last evening resulting in an hour long scuffle, reported Thai and Shan sources this morning. The duel took place 3km north of Gawmerng, an eastern extension of Loi Gawwan, the main base of the Shan State Army (SSA) South's Kengtung Force between 19:00-20:00 local time. The SSA patrol managed to extricate itself without a scratch. No casualties on the Burma Army side is known. Both sides beefed up their defenses following the fight.

Former UN Special Envoy Razali Ismail sought to negotiate between the opposition party and the military regime from 2000 until 2005. He recalls his meetings with Burma’s most famous prisoner, Aung San Suu Kyi. In early 2006, I resigned as the United Nations Secretary General’s Special Envoy to Myanmar [Burma]. By that time, I had been to Myanmar 14 times, stretched out over a period of four years. The first visit was in 2000 when the United Nations sent me there with a delegation on my first mission. It was then that I met Aung San Suu Kyi and the Myanmar Secretary One, Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt. It was he who arranged for me to see her. It was the middle of June, the monsoon period, and very hot and humid.

An internal document obtained by Jane’s shows that Myanmar army battalions are poorly managed and resourced and plagued by desertion. Battalion commanders have been told to change recruitment practices and ease conditions of service, but resources are lacking. A confidential internal document obtained by Jane’s shows that the Myanmar Armed Forces suffer from false reporting, haphazard inspections and poor record keeping. Battalion commanders are chastised for drinking excessively and for being fixated on profit making and womanising, according to the document. It further states that morale among enlisted ranks is low, contributing to high rates of desertion.

Chin women reveal further evidence of state-sanctioned rape in Burma, urge India to stop arming Burma’s junta. Unsafe State, a new report by the Women’s League of Chinland (WLC), provides further evidence of state-sanctioned rape by the military regime’s troops, and urges India, where the majority of Chin refugees seek asylum, to review their economic and military support of the regime. Despite tight military controls in the isolated Chin hills , the WLC have managed to document 38 cases of sexual violence, committed with impunity by the Burma Army throughout Chin state, mostly during the past five years. Almost half of the cases were gang rapes, and at least a third committed by officers.

Shan State Army (SSA) troops have been shoring up the defense of a non-ceasefire Wa base along the Thai-Burma border, between Maehongson and Homong, according to Thai, Karenni and Shan sources. An estimated 150-strong SSA unit, commanded by Lt-Col Awng Mya, have been with the Wa National Army (WNA), commanded by Col Bo Teuk Merng, at Loi Wa Her, also known as Loi Tawng Myauk, opposite Ban Rak Thai, Muang district, Maehongson province, for more than a year. The base has been facing 4 Burma Army battalions, commanded by Col Soe Win Tun, backed up by four 120 mm mortars:

A Gang-Rape Case in Putao，Kachin State On February 2nd, 2007, shocking news broke out from the highland plains of Duk Dang Village, Putao. This day of infamy will go down in history as evidence of the State Peace and Development Council's savagery, brutality, and oppression. Over a month has passed but we, the Kachin people around the world, have not forgotten the despicable act committed by Maj. Zaw Min Thet, Capt. Win Myint Oo, Capt. Kyaw Ze Ya, and four other service members of Infantry Battalion 138.

Grim labour camps are propping up the regime. Dan McDougall braved the junta's sadistic police to hear the testimony of those who broke free. In a corner, Ko Min Shah looks furtively towards the door, half-expecting the 'Em-Eye', Burma's sadistic military intelligence service. He scribbles in frustration as his Biro runs out. 'I want to write a message for you with my wife's details, to take out for me. You can carry it to the Thai border; she may be there. There are charities there who can help me, no?' he says hopefully. 'I'm not politically motivated. I'm just trying to find my wife. There is no real dissent here in Rangoon. People are too scared to be members of any democratic movement. We are all just victims, people like me who are trying to get their lives back.' Ko Min, 47, his wife and two sons were swept up with hundreds of others in a military raid on their village close to the city of Bagan in 2005. The family were put to work, clearing jungle, digging latrines and an irrigation system for a military camp outside Mandalay.

Burma's military rulers have been showing off their new capital for the first time to the outside world. The new city, called Naypyidaw, or Abode of Kings, is being built about 460km (300 miles) north of the old capital, Rangoon. Until now few outsiders were allowed to go there, but the foreign media has been invited to the capital to watch the huge Armed Forces Day parade. However, it is still not clear why the generals have moved here. The rutted and overcrowded roads of Burma suddenly give way to smooth eight-lane motorways as you approach the new capital. Naypyidaw is being built on a vast and extravagant scale in hundreds of square kilometres of tropical scrubland.

Photos of NayPyiDaw & 'Armed Forces Day'