They say that despair can kill a man, and so it did with two teenage Rohingya held in the Ranong detention centre for seven months. Two doctors who treated the detainees at the centre said the pair basically starved themselves to death after becoming dispirited and refusing to eat or exercise. The official reason for the two teenagers' deaths is "natural causes" caused by cardiac arrest.
"Their minds were just so sick that they lost enthusiasm for everything," said one of the doctors based at the centre who preferred to remain anonymous. "They refused to take food and they refused to move around. They told me that they were desperate and didn't know what to do with their lives any more. They told me that it's better to kill them than to detain them like this."

The deaths go to the heart of Thailand's problems dealing with illegal immigrants and refugees, and the inadequacy of current policies and facilities to deal with the growing number of cases.

Abdul Salam, 18, died on June 30 on the way to Ranong Hospital. Hammatula, 15, was found dead in the detention centre at 4am on Aug 13, a day after a medical check by one of the doctors. The two were among 78 ethnic Muslim Rohingya boat people fleeing Burma who were intercepted by the navy near Surin Island on Jan 26, and sent to the centre a few days later.

AL Jazeera Net
Myanmar's ruling military leaders have agreed to a request from Jim Webb, a US Democratic senator, to release a US national sentenced to seven years of imprisonment.

Webb was able to secure the release of John Yettaw over talks with Senior General Than Shew, Myanmar's military ruler, which concluded on Saturday.

"Yettaw will be officially deported on Sunday morning," Webb's office said in the statement.

"Senator Webb will bring him out of the country on a military aircraft that is returning to Bangkok on Sunday afternoon," it said.

Officials in Myanmar had previously said that Yettaw would probably be deported soon after Webb's departure.

Yettaw, a diabetic and epileptic former military veteran, is being held at Yangon's Insein prison. He was convicted along with Aung San Suu Kyi, a pro-democracy leader, after swimming uninvited to the Nobel laureate's lakeside home.

Aug 10th, 2009 12:17 am BdST
Dhaka, Aug 9 (bdnews24.com)—Foreign minister Dipu Moni, in a statement Sunday, said around 400,000 illegal Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh have been causing law and order to slide and environmental damage.

The foreign ministry statement was released after a meeting between Dipu Moni and Raymond Hall, regional representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Both Dipu Moni and Hall agreed that Myanmar must improve its internal environment to stop influx of Rohingya refugees into Bangladesh and other neighbouring countries, according to the statement.

The foreign minister also expressed the hope that the authorities in former Burma would take the refugees back considering its relations with Bangladesh.

"Dipu Moni mentioned that some 28,000 registered refugees were living in two camps, but said nearly 400,000 unregistered refugees living outside the camps are a heavy burden on Bangladesh economically, socially, environmentally and also in terms of law and order issues," said the statement.

voanews
By David Gollust
State Department
President Barack Obama said Tuesday the Burmese decision to extend democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's house arrest for another 18 months is unjust and called for her immediate, unconditional release. Officials say the trial outcome will have a negative impact on the administration's review of policy towards Burma.
The Obama administration has been reviewing its approach to Burma with the possibility of greater engagement with the military authorities there. But officials say the conviction and sentencing of Aung San Suu Kyi Tuesday for violating terms of her long-running house arrest can only negatively affect those deliberations.

President Obama set the tone of U.S. reaction with a written statement calling the conviction of the Burmese democracy leader unjust and a violation of international human rights principles and Burmese commitments under the ASEAN charter.
The latest case against the democracy leader followed a bizarre incident involving an American citizen who made an uninvited visit to her home in May.

The President called the sentencing of the American defendant in the case, John Yettaw, to seven years in prison for the home invasion out of proportion with his actions. He urged the release of all of Burma's political prisoners, believed to number more than 2000.