Law and judiciary
Crime and law enforcement
Meth bust on Lao border nets $100K in pill form
Five Laotian nationals were arrested late on 1 February afternoon as they prepared to smuggle 24,000 methamphetamine tablets with a street value of nearly $100,000 into Cambodia, according to Meas Vyrith, secretary-general of the National Authority for Combating Drugs. The bust, which took place in the Lao ...
Official details Cambodia's drug problems
Cambodia’s drug czar on 1 February described a prison and rehab centre system in which drugs were being sold under the noses of the authorities and suggested police estimates of the number of drug users in Cambodia were “not enough” as he spoke at the Interior ...
Thai police rescue 29 Myanmar trafficking victims
Thai authorities have rescued nearly 30 Myanmar victims from alleged human traffickers’ hands in Phuket province. Keep reading ...
Migrant workers languish in Malaysian detention centres
Thousands of Myanmar migrant workers are spending months or even years in detention camps in Malaysia waiting for the government to confirm their citizenship status, migrant rights groups say. The delay has caused a backlog in the 11 detention camps throughout Malaysia, recently returned workers say. ...
Meeting on Cambodia-Thai border has crime focus
Senior officials from Cambodia’s Defence Ministry will leave for Thailand on 28 January for the 11th General Border Committee, which aims to strengthen cooperation between the two countries, particularly on cross-border crime. Keep reading ...
Bomb explosion kills two Chinese in Laos
An early morning bomb blast at a road construction site near a military camp in Laos’ Xaysomboun province killed two Chinese officials and injured a third on 24 January, RFA’s Lao Service has learned. The explosion near a work camp outside the Pha Nok Kok village ...
Sok Bun strikes a bargain with ‘Ms Sasa'
The trial of real estate tycoon Sok Bun opened with a bombshell on 26 January as it was revealed that former TV presenter Ek Socheata had dropped her complaint against the man who was seen viciously beating her on security camera footage that went viral in ...
Emergency ambulances to make ‘death highway’ less lethal
Myanmar’s notorious “death highway” might become a little less deadly as plans go forward to set up an emergency ambulance service along the route. Hospitals along the Yangon-Nay Pyi Taw-Mandalay Highway are taking part in the scheme. Keep reading ...
Myanmar released 29 political prisoners before power transfer
The Myanmar government under outgoing President Thein Sein on 22 January freed 29 political prisoners across the country, 18 of them from the notorious Insein Prison in the capital Yangon. Keep reading ...
Police to protect Kachin poppy destroyers
More than 1000 activists of a Christian-based anti-narcotics group are to have police protection after getting the go-ahead from the Kachin State government to destroy over 1600 hectares (4000 acres) of opium poppy fields. Permission was received on 21 January to mount the mass operation in Waingmaw ...