There is no question about it. Thailand needs to solve the problem of underground migrant workers, now estimated at 3 million strong. The challenge is how to do it right.

Recent clashes in Shan State between the Burma Army and the Myanmar National Democracy Alliance Army (MNDAA or Kokang) have highlighted differences between the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) and the ethnic ceasefire groups as the 2010 election approaches. Attempts by the SPDC to persuade the ceasefire groups totransform themselves into Border Guard Forces or surrender their arms and contest the forthcoming elections as a political party seem to have failed.

The latest US double-track policy of direct engagement and sanctions with the Burmese generals should be welcomed. It is also an innovation in itself to try a different tack, given that the “stick” alone has not produce result after more than two decades of implementation.

Let me share with you some analytic thoughts on about how the junta is forcibly expanding
the militias. 

A 12 years old boy
whose paper plane can fly
till 12.50 seconds in the sky.

It seems the Burmese junta has been painting quite a rosy picture or overly confident,  regarding its demand  of the  Kachin Independence Army (KIA)  converting itself into Border Guard Force (BGF) and become part of the Burma army, under its Commander-in-chief.

The World Youth Movement for Democracy, a youth network of the World Movement for Democracy (www.wmd.org), is pleased to announce the launch of its Global Essay Contest. Fifteen winners (3 in each region: Asia, Central/Eastern Europe & Eurasia, Middle East & North Africa, Latin America & Caribbean, and Sub-Saharan Africa) will be invited to participate in the upcoming 6th Assembly of the World Movement for Democracy in Jakarta, Indonesia, in April 2010.

In the late 1960s, when the frenzy whipped up by the Cultural Revolution hit its peak, thousands of young Chinese crossed the border to join Burmese Communist Party guerillas. Indoctrinated with Maoist ideology, they believed they were fighting for a global communist revolution.