Air Kanbawza launches services
April 4, 2011 by TTRweekly Staff
Filed under Aviation, News
YANGON, 4 April 2011 – Air Kanbawza, Myanmar’s newest domestic airline, took off 2 April serving two routes; Yangon-Nyaung Oo(Bagan)-Mandalay-Heho and Yangon-Myeik.
Air Kanbawza is owned by the private Kanbawza Bank of U Aung Ko Win, which last year, together with Cooperative Bank and the Tun Foundation Bank, formed Royal Myanmar Transport that took over Myanmar Airways International to privatise the airline.
Royal Myanmar Transport acquired 80% of the shares in MAI and the Ministry of Transport retained the balance.
Call to lift sanctions on Myanmar
DILI, 17 November 2010 – East Timorese President Jose Ramos-Horta on Monday urged the United States and Europe to lift sanctions against Myanmar after the junta released opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Ramos-Horta also expressed his happiness over Saturday’s release of his fellow Nobel laureate from house arrest in Yangon, where she had been held for 15 of the past 21 years.
Suu Kyi adopts conciliatory note
YANGON, 16 November 2010 – Democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi called Monday for a “non-violent revolution” in Myanmar after being freed from years of house arrest.
The 65-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner told the BBC in an interview at the headquarters of her National League for Democracy she was sure democracy would eventually come to Myanmar, although she did not know when.
Suu Kyi addresses supporters
November 15, 2010 by AFP
Filed under Mekong Region
YANGON, 15 November 2010 — Myanmar’s long-suffering people are eagerly putting their hopes for a better future in the hands of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, but observers warn the dissident is no “miracle worker”.
There was a new air of optimism on the streets of Yangon on Sunday as Suu Kyi awoke to her first full day of freedom.
Thousands turned out to hear her first address since her release from house arrest on Saturday, suggesting her absence has not dimmed the popularity of the daughter of the nation’s founding father in the eyes of many.
MYANMAR Fast Facts
November 8, 2010 by TTRweekly Staff
Filed under News
GEOGRAPHY: The Republic of the Union of Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, is in Southeast Asia and borders Bangladesh and India to the west, China to the north and Laos and Thailand to the east.
AREA: 676,552 square kilometres (270,620 square miles).
POPULATION: 57.5 million (2008, official estimate), 49.2 million (2009, World Bank estimate).
Envoy slams Myanmar elections
UNITED NATIONS, 8 November 2010 – Sunday’s elections in Myanmar were not free or fair, the top US diplomat at the United Nations said Sunday.
“Today’s elections in Burma were neither free nor fair, neither credible nor legitimate,” said US Ambassador Susan Rice, using Myanmar’s alternate name.
“Yet again, the Burmese regime has missed a critical opportunity to move toward democracy and improve the lives of the Burmese people,” she said in a statement.
Military clashes in wake of Myanmar elections
YANGON, 8 November 2010 – Rebel troops clashed with government soldiers in a town in eastern Myanmar Monday after rare elections, leaving three civilians dead and causing thousands to flee across the Thai border, officials said.
Eleven more people were injured when heavy weapons fire from ethnic rebels hit the town of Myawaddy in Karen State, said an official in the military-ruled country who did not want to be named.
There was no information on any troop casualties on either side.
Tough talk from Republicans
WASHINGTON, 8 November 2010 – The top Republican senator urged US President Barack Obama on Sunday to reject the “mockery” of Myanmar’s first election in 20 years and renew his backing for democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi.
“Although the Burmese junta will trumpet the theatre performed today as an election — an exercise only the SPDC considers meaningful — November 7, 2010 will be just another day in Burma marked by government oppression and hardship for its people,” Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell said in a statement.
Burma opposition wants tourists
LONDON, 5 November 2010 – A close associate of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi has called on foreigners to visit military-ruled Myanmar to witness the suffering of its people, a British newspaper reported Thursday.
Win Tin, a co-founder of Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD), told The Times that contrary to a previous call for a tourism boycott, the party now wants outsiders to learn more about the country, also known as Burma.
MAI hopes elections have a silver lining
SINGAPORE, 26 October 2010 – Struggling flag carrier Myanmar Airways International is hopeful that next month’s elections will usher in a new era of growth for the country’s tourism sector, a senior executive said Friday.
“We are hoping that after the elections, the country will be opened up and we believe there will be more tourists coming in,” Ye Jhan, the airline’s assistant general manager, said at an aviation forum, late last week in Singapore.
