Development and assistance for ethnic minorities and indigenous people
Ethnic minorities and indigenous people associations
Indigenous activists clash with UN over proposed park
When farmer May Cho Win learned that a conservation project proposed by the U.N. Development Program in Myanmar would include the land she’s worked for over a decade, the 28-year-old wondered how she and her husband would be able to support their three children. “Without our ...
VICTORIA MILKO
Montagnards flee to Thailand, fearing return to persecution in Vietnam
Fearing repatriation to Vietnam, almost 50 Montagnards fled Cambodia for Thailand after the Interior Ministry began rejecting some of their asylum claims last month, The Post has learned. Meanwhile, the head of the ministry’s refugee department Tan Sovichea on April 2 revealed only three of nearly ...
Nippon Foundation supports IDPs
Pledging to maintain peace, the Karen National Union has called on the Myanmar government and international organisations to work together to help internal displaced persons in the Kayin State. KNU chairman General Mutu Say Poe said IDPs, who fled to Thailand during the conflict with the ...
Ethnic data from 2014 census to be released
The long-awaited and final section of the 2014 census will be revealed within four months, the Ministry of Labour, Immigration and Population, adding that preparations for the release of the ethnicity data are underway now. U Myint Kyaing, permanent secretary of the ministry, told The ...
Kachin residents forced to forage for food to survive
Skyrocketing transport costs and road blockages due to conflict have forced a number of villagers in northern Kachin State’s Hsawlaw township to begin foraging for food in order to survive, according to Kachin MPs. “If we buy a bag of rice from Chipwe or Myitkyina, ...
ASEAN FMs pledge support on Rakhine
An unprecedented meeting of ASEAN foreign ministers called to discuss the ongoing military campaign in Rakhine State ended on December 19 with Myanmar expressing its appreciation for the other member states’ understanding. This was the first such meeting Myanmar has initiated on the subject, having previously ...
Indigenous lands are even more critical to preserving the Earth than we thought
Nearly one quarter of the carbon stored above ground in tropical forests is currently in the care of indigenous and traditional communities. A new report suggests that keeping those populations on the land and guaranteeing their right to it could be the key to keeping ...
UNFC seeks to broker end to Shan fighting
An umbrella organisation of ethnic armed groups has formed a five-member team to help negotiate an end to fighting in northern Shan State that has forced up to 5000 people to flee their homes. The United Nationalities Federal Council formed the team at a four-day emergency ...
Fighting drives more civilians out of villages
Refugees from fighting between two ethnic armed groups in northern Shan State are still flowing into the government-controlled town of Kyaukme amid reports that the Tatmadaw is stepping up its presence in the conflict zone. Relief workers are sending vehicles to war-torn villages to help civilians – ...
Two freed, but countless others still enslaved by armed groups
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 ...