News stories by Johanna Son

TOKYO, Oct 14 (IPS) - Foreign donors are rushing into Myanmar (formerly Burma), whose government has been pushing the right political buttons as part of its democratic reform process. But development planners and local activists caution that  the best approach should still be ‘easy does it’.

If there were any hopes that Wednesday’s surrender by the leaders of Thailand’s biggest anti-government protests in decades would instantly ease tensions, these were dashed by the ugly spasms of violence that wracked this capital soon after they turned themselves in.

Amid gunfire and street battles here and heated, divided emotions playing out in Thailand’s worst political crisis in decades, there has been little room for discussing human rights, restraint and finding a middle ground.

Burning tyres and buses with plumes of smoke billowing from them. Sniper shots and grenade attacks. Deaths and injuries. No-go zones in the Thai capital.

Very few things — not even the political gridlock that erupted into violence a few days ago — can prevent Thais from celebrating the traditional New Year, marked by drenching one another with water. But this year’s festivities were more muted than usual amid the uncertainty around the anti-government protests, which have lasted for more than a month now.

'I wish the red-shirt protesters will get tired soon and go home,' Nicha, a 28- year-old receptionist, said soon after the Thai government declared a state of emergency as tens of thousands of protesters went into their fourth week of rallies here.

One can take anti-retroviral therapy to cope with HIV. But how does one remedy the deeply rooted social inequities that marginalises groups like men who have sex with men and drug users, as well as women, putting them out of the reach of efforts to address the pandemic?

The failure to reach the neediest, often the most stigmatised, people coupled with the global financial crisis, loom as Asia-Pacific’s biggest challenges in coping with HIV and AIDS at this point, despite the major headway it has made in expanding the number of people with access to treatment.