For Burma?s generals, 2009 was little more than a breathing space between last year?s constitutional referendum and next year?s election. For everyone else, however, it was a year full of disturbing developments, with just the faintest ray of hope on the horizon. Early in the year, the plight of the Rohingya grabbed the headlines, highlighting a humanitarian crisis that is just one of many in military-ruled Burma. Before the year was over, tens of thousands of refugees from other ethnic minorities would pour over the country?s borders with Thailand and China, fleeing military offensives launched by the junta and its allies. But for the regime, all of this was merely a sideshow. The generals? main tasks for the year were to keep opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi safely under wraps—which it accomplished thanks to an unwanted American ?visitor? and a compliant court—and to rein in restive cease-fire groups ahead of the 2010 election. When it wasn?t settling scores within its own borders, the regime was busy forging new ties overseas. But while the Burmese generals found fellow pariah state North Korea to be a natural ally, they seemed less sure about how to respond to the friendly overtures from the US, their staunchest international critic. Many in Burma welcomed the US initiative with cautious optimism, but after yet another year marked by farce and tragedy, few look forward to the year ahead with any great expectations... Rohingya Refugees on the High Seas; A Pact between Pariahs: Burma and North Korea; Courtroom Theater of the Absurd; The DKBA: Bloodstained Opportunism; Border Guard Force Proposal Sets Off Test of Wills; The Kokang Conflict: The Beginning of the End for Ethnic Insurgency in Burma?; US Rethinks Its Burma Policy