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| Latest News
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Regional & International
Burmese Junta Urged To Defer Referendum, Help Cyclone Victims First
 A scene from a Cyclone Nargis-hit area. Photo by the Democratic Voice of Burma.
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The National Council of the Union of Burma (NCUB) is calling upon the international community to press the military regime to immediately defer the referendum on the country’s new constitution and to use all resources available to help the people in Cyclone Nargis-hit regions.
“If they really care about the well-being of the people, they must suspend the referendum,” NCUB Spokesman Soe Aung said at the council’s press conference in Bangkok on 6 May 2008. “The military regime must revoke restrictions so that international aid agencies can travel freely to the cyclone-affected areas and deliver assistance to the people.”
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Regional & International
Burma Calamity Aggravated by Restrictions on News and Information
By Roby Alampay, SEAPA Executive Director
The cyclone that has devastated the people of Burma was no doubt aggravated by the strict restrictions on the flow of news and information on top of already poor communication infrastructure in the country.
Easing those restrictions should help mitigate a rapidly worsening humanitarian crisis and ensure that crucial aid now reaches the communities in desperation.
State-owned and state-controlled media had clearly failed to pass on
crucial news of an impending disaster despite emerging information that
Burma had been given advance warning.
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Regional & International
Altsean Says Referendum “Dead End for Democracy in Burma,” Points Flaws in Charter
The likely consequences of a forced ‘yes’ vote or a majority ‘no’ vote
on the 10 May 2008 referendum on Burma’s new constitution will have
serious regional repercussions, says the Alternative ASEAN Network on
Burma (Altsean-Burma).
“A forced ‘yes’ vote will likely intensify unrest in Burma among a
population increasingly dissatisfied with the entrenchment of a regime
notorious for its abuses and economic mismanagement. A majority ‘no’
vote despite the regime’s threats, intimidation, and fraudulent
practices would result in a deeper political crisis, since the regime
has repeatedly made it clear that it intends to remain in power if the
constitution is rejected,” the Altsean-Burma says in its 2 May 2008
newsletter.
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| Feature Article
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Learning about Conflict Prevention
By Mr. Pisak Long, local procurement officer for the Japan International Cooperation Agency in Phnom Penh
Me at the IAF
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I am not pessimistic to say that I am living in a poor country. Living in a developing country is very different from visiting a developed country. I took as my new lessons everything I saw in Germany during my eight-day visit to the country. I was there as a participant of the “Conflict Prevention and Conflict Management” seminar, organised by International Academy for Leadership (IAF) on 1-8 February 2008.
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| Latest Commentaries
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Deadly Nargis Hits Referendum Plan
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Larry Jagan |
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Next weekend Burma had been due to go to the polls to vote on a new constitution. A constitution that very few people have actually seen, and certainly one which cannot be criticised publicly. The whole process is a farce, according to most independent observers, including a UN official responsible for monitoring Burma's human rights situation for the last seven years.
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Relief Effort Should Be Burma’s No. 1 Priority
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Kyaw Zwa Moe |
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Burma, devastated by cyclone Nargis, is undergoing a national disaster that is beyond politics.
The military government said on Tuesday 22,464 people are dead and 41,054 are missing, but local people say the figure may go much higher. One million people may be homeless in Rangoon and Irrawaddy divisions, according to aid workers.
It’s time to go beyond politics: local, national and international.
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| Latest Publication
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Friedrich Naumann Foundation Alumni Network (FAN) Malaysia
DIRECTORY 2008
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FAF Malaysia project has recently published its latest International Academy for Leadership’s alumni directory 2008. This directory is the third since the alumni network was formed in March 2006.
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