The New Mon State Party and Lahu Democratic Union will sign the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement on 13 February, with their accession to the accord marking one of the most substantive breakthroughs in Burma’s peace process since the National League for Democracy took power nearly two years ago.

Diana Hunyh examines the historical and contemporary controversy of the Rangoon University Student Union.

“We cannot just agree to place our fate in the hands of the Burmese military, because then we are helpless if they deploy armed force against us," said UNFC's Nai Hong Sar.

During a brief trip to conflict-wracked Kachin State on Tuesday, State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi visited displacement camps and, in a lighter moment, posed for photos with a pair of nonagenarians who similarly smiled for the camera with Suu Kyi’s father more than a half-century ago.

A fiberglass statue of Burma’s independence hero was completely destroyed by a man with mental illness in the Irrawaddy delta.

Last month hundreds of internally displaced persons fled renewed conflict in Burma's north. For many, they traded one IDP camp for another.