Ethnic minorities and indigenous people

Two young women who were the focus of a Myanmar Times investigation this month into mass abductions of civilians by ethnic armed groups have been freed by the Kachin Independence Army (KIA). Ma Nang Htwe Yin and Nang Kyan Kham, both 20-year-old ethnic Shan pre-school teachers, were ...

Indigenous peoples fighting economic land concessions (ELCs) in Cambodia are more likely to get results with violent protest than lodging their complaints through legitimate channels, a controversial study published this month argues. The paper, published by Young Sokphea in the Asian Journal of Social Science, concludes ...

Ethnic Palaung civilians fleeing fighting in Namkham township have accused forces of the Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS) of laying landmines around their village and looting their homes. IDPs from Law Naw spoke to The Myanmar Times in a makeshift camp set up about 10 ...

At least 3,000 people have fled their homes in northern Myanmar following clashes between two ethnic rebel groups, the United Nations said on 16 February, raising fears the government’s fragile peace efforts could be fracturing. Heavy fighting in the northern state of Shan broke out last ...

Hundreds of civilians in Myanmar’s northern Shan State are reported to have fled a sudden offensive by government forces and separate fighting between two ethnic armed groups, while senior monks are intervening to help villagers trapped in the war zone. The two days of fighting in ...

Even though Myanmar’s NLD controls both houses of parliament, ethnic minority MPs are ready to take on the majority to improve ethnic rights. The representative of the Zomi Congress for Democracy, which won two upper house and two lower house seats, said that even with a small ...

The Rakhine State government has started building new homes in six villages in Kyauktaw and Mrauk-U townships for civilians who fled fighting between the Arakan Army (AA) and the military last month. District and township authorities, as well as police, had ordered IDPs (internally displaced people) to ...

President U Thein Sein attended this weekend’s World Peace Buddhist Conference, organised by the deputy chair of the nationalist hardline group Ma Ba Tha. Held at the Sitagu Academy’s Sagaing campus, the event was self-described as bringing together dozens of leaders from all religions to counter ...

Ethnic armed groups or militia may have abducted 15 young men and women who went missing in late December, local residents fear. The men, from the Shan and Ta’ang communities in Nant Onn village, Muse township, Shan State, had gone out celebrating the Shan New ...

Organisers of makeshift camps for villagers fleeing a military offensive in remote areas of Rakhine State are appealing to the international community for aid. More than 300 civilians, all of whom are said to be ethnic Rakhine Buddhists, have fled to the safety of monasteries following ...