News
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 ...
High Court to hear ATM fraud allegations
Five foreigners accused of multiple offences of fraud involving the use of fake bank cards or electronic equipment to withdraw cash can be tried together, Yangon Region’s High Court has decided. The decision means that the cases of a British man and four Indian citizens will ...
Amyotha committee takes aim at resource extraction
With Myanmar’s deadly jade industry increasingly under international scrutiny after hundreds of scavengers were buried in landslides, the Amyotha Hluttaw is taking the infamously unregulated extractive industries sector to task. The illegal plundering of natural resources will be put to an end, according to National League for ...
The first Lao businesswoman in Myanmar
Somsavath Khemsuliyajack is one of the first Lao nationals to set up a business in Myanmar, which is currently one of the hottest investment destinations in the world. Somsavath develops, distributes, and markets cosmetics under the brand name ‘SK Herbal’. SK Herbal’s line of products has ...
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 – ...
Activists wary of next govt’s human rights record
With a Nobel Peace Laureate poised to lead the next government, human rights activists are concerned they are in line for a major disappointment. Andrew MacGregor, from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said he feared “we are in a honeymoon period”. Keep reading ...
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 ...
Zika national guidelines planned in Myanmar
Health officials are drawing up plans to help protect Myanmar against the Zika virus. Dr Soe Lwin Nyein, director general of the department of public health, said earlier this week that nationwide guidelines would be issued soon. A symposium on Zika virus infection held at the ...
RCSS faces landmine claims
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 ...
Talks raise hopes, and fears, of a presidential deal
A third round of talks between military chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing and National League for Democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has raised hopes among her supporters that the two sides can reach a power-sharing agreement over the presidency and new government. But ...
