The Hill News

Traveling in Burma last month, it wasn’t hard to see that things really are changing in this beautiful but troubled country. Posters of Aung San Suu Kyi filled market stalls and hung proudly in the offices of local civil society groups â€" a remarkable change from the past, when possessing just one was a cause for arrest. Activists of all backgrounds spoke openly about politics, even in public spaces, without the usual hushed tones and glances over the shoulder.
 
Sadly, however, human rights abuses and corruption also continue in this “new Burma”. In the ethnic areas we visited â€" Kachin in the north, and Karen and Mon in the east â€" the optimism we heard in Yangon was muted. In Kachin, we visited church compounds where women and children sheltered in crowded assembly halls after military attacks destroyed their homes. In the east, we met a Baptist pastor running aid programs for displaced communities, who had been ordered by authorities to give up par! t of the church’s land to a private company.

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