<p>Press freedom and online freedom of information are still being flouted in Burma, three months after <a href="http://en.rsf.org/burma-than-shwe-03-05-2010,37287.html">Thein Sein</a>&rsquo;s election as a civilian president. He promised to &ldquo;respect the role of the media&rdquo; but heavy jail sentences for journalists, suspension of newspapers and police raids on Internet caf&eacute;s show that there has been no let-up in controls and intimidation. And now a string of new measures have just tightened control over Internet use.</p>

<p>The Myanmar government&rsquo;s reduction of prison terms must be swiftly followed by the immediate and unconditional release of all prisoners of conscience, Amnesty International said today.</p>

<p><em>Empty Response to UN Envoy&rsquo;s Call for Release of All 2,100 Political Prisoners</em></p> <p>(New York, May 16, 2011) &ndash; The Burmese government&rsquo;s decision to grant a one-year sentence reduction to all prisoners is a slap in the face to a senior United Nations&rsquo; envoy who had just called for the release of all political prisoners in Burma, Human Rights Watch said today.</p>

<p>The Vice-Chair of the Indonesian National Human Rights Commission, Mr. Nurkholis, today called on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to support a UN investigation into business and human rights violations in Burma. Mr. Nurkholis made his statement as a member of the experts panel at regional civil society&rsquo;s first Public Hearing on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Human Rights in ASEAN held in Jakarta today.</p>

<p>Following recent heavy fighting in northern Shan State, all the planned Salween dam sites in Burma now lie directly in active conflict zones. The Salween Watch Coalition is therefore demanding an immediate halt to all plans to build dams on the Salween River in Burma. This applies directly to the Governments and Corporations of China and Thailand as well as the new Government of Burma</p>

<p>On 12 April 2011, European Union Member States will renew the European policy on Burma.</p> <p>ALTSEAN Burma, the International Federation for Human Rights, Info Birmanie and the French League for Human Rights are deeply concerned by the continued failure of the European Union to publicly support a UN Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into credible and serious allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Burma. The establishment of a CoI must be included in the Council Conclusions.</p>

<p>Shan community groups strongly denounce the current Burma Army offensive against the Shan State Army-North (SSA-N) and atrocities against civilians, including shelling of Buddhist temples, gang-rape and using women as cannon fodder.</p>

<p>With the 2008 Constitution in hand, which is devoid of any guarantee for the rights of the ethnic nationalities, and after stage-managing freely the 2010 elections, which did not allow for free expression of the voters,&nbsp; the SPDC military dictatorship cast its military uniform and set up itself as a new government,&nbsp; with a civilian fa&ccedil;ade. We do not believe that this new government, under the control of the military leaders, will be able to undertake true democratic transition and ethnic reconciliation necessary for peace and stability in the country.</p>

<p>On 30 March, Senior-General Than Shwe officially dissolved the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) to make way for the new Union Government, but the formal handover of power from the SPDC to the current military-dominated government appears to be no more than an effort to maintain the status quo. The Forum for Democracy in Burma (FDB) strongly denounces the new government in Burma and cautions that the military dictatorship remains in full force despite its thinly veiled civilian fa&ccedil;ade.</p>

<p>As the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar presents his report to the 16th session of United Nations Human Rights Council, governments should speak with one voice on Myanmar&rsquo;s long-standing failure to address widespread and systematic human rights violations in the country.</p>

<p>Engineers are secretly surveying for dams planned by China hydropower giant Datang on the Salween and its tributaries in Karenni State under the armed guard of Burma&rsquo;s junta, according to local researchers.</p>

<p>On August 4th, 2009 we, the KNU, issued a statement concerning the Hatgyi dam construction project. In the statement, we called upon the countries investing in construction of the dam to withdraw their investment as the construction of the dam would cause massive damage to the environment and bring on widespread human rights violations against local populations in the form of burning down of villages, looting of property, crop destruction, killing of livestock, extortion of money, torture and killing of suspects, rape of women, forced relocation and forced labor by troops of the SPDC military dictatorship.</p>