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Myanmar’s junta has been responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity since the military coup in February 2021, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2023. The security forces have been implicated in mass killings, arbitrary arrests and detention, torture, sexual violence, and attacks on civilians in ...

A fear-cloaked dynamic has increasingly percolated Vietnam’s information environment, in both cyberspace and the mainstream media. A decree guiding the controversial Cybersecurity Law, which took effect in October 2022, looks to further empower Vietnamese authorities to censor online content they disfavour and bolster the state’s digital surveillance ...

On 30 December, Lao Prime Minster Phankham Viphavanh (72) resigned ostensibly on health grounds, but amidst an economy in sharp decline and saddled in foreign debt. He is succeeded by the scion of one of the country’s two political dynasties, Deputy Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone (56). Politics in ...

The Mekong River, the longest waterway in Southeast Asia, is often called the world’s most productive river because it holds a greater abundance of freshwater fish than any other river basin on the planet. From an ecological standpoint, there is one stretch of the river, in ...

Myanmar’s military junta is holding talks with three ethnic rebel groups on staging elections in areas they control, a rebel spokesman said on Friday, as the military prepares for polls the United States has said will be a “sham.” The country has about 20 ethnic rebel ...

Locals in Ben Tre Province are storing freshwater as saltwater intrudes into canals and rivers at levels higher than seen in previous years. Last weekend, Vo Thi Ngoc Anh, 50, a resident in Binh Dai District of Ben Tre, switched to bottled water for cooking instead ...

A bold Cambodian plan to secure World Heritage status along their stretch of the Mekong, where the free-flowing river has sustained some of the world’s greatest biodiversity, could provide much-needed respite to a river in danger of dying from dams and over-exploitation, experts say. In Phnom Penh, the Environment ...

Cambodian premier Hun Sen on Monday ordered the creation of conservation zones on the Mekong river to protect critically endangered dolphins, after three were killed by fishing nets and lines last month. The Irrawaddy dolphins, known for their bulging foreheads and short beaks, once swam through ...

KRATIE, Cambodia, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) — Cambodia on Monday broke ground for the construction of a bridge across the Mekong River here in the country’s northeastern part, with funds from China. The ceremony was presided over by Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen and Chinese ...

The fishing village of Khoen Khen in southern Laos is a quiet place, nestled along the banks of the Mekong River and hemmed by a ridge of mountains. But tranquil as it may now appear, locals say they’re waiting for a coming wave of construction ...