The student-led movement to end mass atrocities.

Weekly News Brief, 5.14.10 – 5.21.10

In this week’s issue: Violence is escalating between Darfuri rebels JEM and the Sudanese police; the US has formally extended sanctions against Burma for another year; representatives from different industries met with the Department of State to discuss ensuring their minerals are conflict-free
 
Weekly News Brief, May 14 to 21, 2010, compiled by Joshua Kennedy of GI-Net and the STAND E-team. To received weekly news briefs, email education@standnow.org.
 
Sudan
 
Burma
  • The United States has formally extended sanctions against military-ruled Burma for another one year, despite its policy of engaging the regime. Obama said the crisis between the US and Burma that resulted in the imposition of sanctions had not been resolved and therefore Burma’s actions and policies were hostile to US interests.
  • Some leading members of NLD, who disagreed with the party’s decision to boycott this year’s general election, have founded a new political party, named the National Democratic Force, which will contest the polls.  Aung San Suu Kyi said that the act of forming a new party by some of the NLD leaders is incompatible with the democratic process, according to her lawyer, Nyan Win, after meeting her on Friday.
  • Around 1,000 members of several small militia groups will become border guard forces under Burmese military command after militia leaders reached an agreement with Lt-Gen Ye Myint, the Burmese junta chief of Military Affairs Security, at a meeting on Tuesday morning. The militia groups are primarily smaller forces aligned with the Shan State Army-South in the Tachilek district of Shan state.
  • The Burmese military is using local forced labor to relocate people set to be displaced by the construction of dams on the Irrawaddy River.
  • The United Nations issued a report on Friday naming the Burmese Army and two ethnic armed groups responsible for the recruitment of child soldiers over the past five years.
 
Democratic Republic of Congo
 
Afghanistan
 
Pakistan
 
Somalia
 
Around the World
Madagascar
 

Sri Lanka

 
Thailand

 

 

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