Burma

• April 24, 2021

This weekend, Asean will be deliberating on possible courses of action regarding Myanmar. Across the country, brave people, many of them children, are being murdered daily; health services are ceasing to function in the middle of a pandemic; the economy is collapsing; and every well-informed analyst predicts only a future of deepening civil war, …

Asia, Myanmar, WORLDVIEWS

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Vijay Nambiar, UN Envoy, Untangles the Problems Plaguing Myanmar

Barbara Crossette

• May 19, 2014

The surprising move in 2010 by a repressive Burmese military regime to begin ceding power to the nation’s people was just the beginning of a tangled story. The new democracy held its first credible election less than two years later — an election that catapulted Aung San Suu Kyi, barely 18 months free of …

Asia, Development, Myanmar

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As US Warms Up to Burma, Burmese Respond in Kind

Dulcie Leimbach

• May 24, 2013

Burma’s major moves toward liberalization and release from the vise of its military grip signal huge strides toward democracy, yet nothing in this long-isolated, mineral-endowed country is assured. Even as the nation branches out from its dependence on China and advances cordial relations with the United States — including a visit by President Thein …

Asia, Development, Human Rights

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Burma, a Short History

Barbara Crossette

• April 15, 2013

When Burma won independence from Britain in 1948, it was a devastated country tormented by multiple crises. Geographical misfortune had placed this otherworldly Buddhist nation in the path of powerful armies in World War II as Japan battled Western allies for control of the strategically placed country. Its capital city, Rangoon, was heavily damaged; …

Asia, Development

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Two Faces of Burma Coming to New York

Barbara Crossette

• August 22, 2012

It may have been a coincidence or maybe not. When the 67th United Nations General Assembly session opens in New York in mid-September, the president of Burma, Thein Sein, is expected to speak in what is still called, quaintly, the “general debate.” At almost the same time, Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace …

Asia, Development, Human Rights

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Regional Partners Lighten the UN’s Burdens

Barbara Crossette

• November 26, 2011

Since the founding of the United Nations more than 65 years ago, groups of regional nations – in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas – have become the organization’s political, peacekeeping and development partners. While some of these groups have kept a low profile, several now find themselves in the international spotlight as crucial …