Commemorating deceased monks and civilians: past and present ["For years, SPDC generals and senior officials have been seen daily in Burma?s state-run media attending religious ceremonies, offering food and necessities to monks, and sponsoring the repair and restoration of old temples, and the building of new ones to ?preserve? Buddhism in Burma. However, since September 2007, the real sacrilegious face of the SPDC has been exposed to the entire world, as it cracked down on the peaceful protests led by tens of thousands of monks throughout Burma..."]...Fleeing refugees find no safe refuge at Thai border ["200 meters from Thailand lie the demolished remains of Loi Sarm Sip refugee camp, set up by Shan State refugees fleeing human rights abuses committed by the Burmese military regime earlier this year. In May 2007, the Thai army determined that the site, located within Shan State, was ?too easily seen from Thailand? and forcibly relocated 24 families 500 meters farther into Burma. These 91 people, having just finished rebuilding their new homes, were moved onto a steep slope in the middle of the rainy season. Currently, they are receiving no support from the Thai authorities, and are still at grave risk of being abused or killed by the Burmese military and its ally, the United Wa State Army..."]...Gratuitous cruelty to Shan State political prisoners and their families ["In 2005, various Shan State political leaders were arrested by the Burmese military authorities. Denied access to their lawyers, nine of them were tried and given absurdly long prison sentences. Hkun Htun Oo, the 64-year-old elected leader of the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy was sentenced to 93 years in prison. His ?crime? had been simply to advocate peacefully for political reform..."]...Promoting safe delivery at the border ["22-year-old Ying Hom Noan is a medic at the Wan Piang Fah clinic serving over 2,800 refugees at the Shan- Thai border. Originally from western Shan State, she came to the border at the age of 15 and received training in emergency obstetrics care at the Mae Tao Clinic in Mae Sot. Since 2006 she has been running the ?MOM? (Mobile Obstetric Maternal Health Workers) Project, supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, at Wan Piang Fah. SWAN interviewed her about her work..."]...Lives destroyed by false trafficking charges ["...SWAN recently assisted a woman who had served a sentence of nine and a half years in Burma for child trafficking, a crime of which she was completely innocent. This is her story..."]...An orphan?s story ["Five decades of civil war have left terrible scars on the peoples of Burma. One of the most cruel legacies is the high number of orphaned children, who have lost their parents not only in combat, but also through the systematic human rights violations committed by the Burma Army against civilian populations in ethnic areas. Such violations include forced portering, extrajudicial killing, torture and rape. In the fifteen schools which SWAN is running along the northern Thai border for over 2,000 children, about one out of every five children is an orphan..."]...Salween dam construction launched in southern Shan State ["Ignoring the potential negative impacts on the livelihoods of millions of ethnic people, the MDX Group Co Ltd of Thailand and Burma?s ruling regime, jointly launched the construction of the giant Tasang Dam on the Salween River in southern Shan State on 29 March 2007. The Burmese military authorities forced over 400 villagers from Mong Ton and Mong Pan to attend the dam construction launching ceremony, which was hosted by MDX..."]...Fears over imminent China-Burma oil and gas pipelines ["Residents of northern Shan State fear mass forced relocation to make way for oil and gas pipelines from the west Burma coast to southern China..."]...SWAN urges EU to impose stronger sanctions against the Burmese military regime - 12 Oct 07 ["SWAN has consistently called for economic sanctions against the Burmese military regime, and at this crucial time urges the European Union to impose strong new economic sanctions on the regime..."]...Lanna Action takes on the SPDC ["Lanna Action for Burma (LAB), made up of long time Burma pro-democracy campaigners in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand (Lanna), has been carrying out protest actions against the SPDC?s recent crackdown on peaceful demonstrators..."]