Further to our recent update on court orders that at least 300 men in southern Thailand could not be held at so-called "vocational training" camps against their will (UP-123-2007), the police have since rearrested three and threatened others to go back to the camps if they don't also want to be taken back into custody by force.

The Burmese government agreed on 19 October 2007 to a visit by the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, Prof. Paulo Sergio Pinheiro.

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that the husband of a human rights defender in the south of Thailand has been shot dead. Ma-usoh Malong's wife has been organising and supporting the victims and families of the Tak Bai incident. Other human rights defenders in Thailand believe that the killing is intended as a warning to all of them. 

This week the United Nations Human Rights Council, or HRC, held a special session, the fifth since its establishment in March 2007, to consider the human rights situation in Burma. The call for the convening of the session by Portugal and another 17 members of the Council was seen as a positive and timely move and an important step to bring the situation in Burma to the attention of the international community. It was a particular relief for Asian NGOs in that it provided reassurance that Asian issues have not been left out of the work of the HRC. The Council's four previous special sessions focussed on Darfur, Lebanon and Palestine.

In an apparent sign of confidence that the mass civilian protests in Burma have been contained, the military junta has reconnected to the Internet since 6 October 2007, though connection is limited to curfew hours at night and comes in sporadic trickles.