News
Heavy Job Losses in Myanmar Since Coup: ILO Report
Myanmar lost an estimated 1.2 million jobs in the second quarter following the February military coup that crippled an economy already weakened by the coronavirus pandemic, according to the International Labor Organization (ILO). “Myanmar was already facing economic stress with jobs and livelihoods under threat as ...
THE IRRAWADDY
Myanmar’s Electricity Sector Crippled Since Military Coup
The military coup has created a crisis in Myanmar’s electricity sector, which has lost billions of dollars in income and been beset by prolonged power outages across the country due to mismanagement by the junta and the public’s refusal to support the regime, Independent Economists ...
THE IRRAWADDY
Blinken urges ASEAN to take ‘immediate action’ on Myanmar
Antony Blinken, the United States top diplomat, has expressed “deep concerns” about the military coup in Myanmar, calling on Southeast Asian nations to take action to end violence and restore democracy in the country. Blinken made the appeal during a meeting with foreign ministers of the ...
AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES
Russia backs ASEAN consensus on Myanmar crisis
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has expressed support for a Southeast Asian diplomatic effort to end the political crisis in Myanmar. Speaking during a visit to the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, Lavrov said the Five Point Consensus agreed by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) bloc ...
News Agencies
Released Myanmar Journalists Tell of Junta Torture and Human Rights Violations
On June 30, the military regime released over 2,000 people who had been detained over the past five months for their involvement in the anti-junta movement. Most of those freed were civilians detained in anti-regime protests, as well as 12 journalists. The Irrawaddy has interviewed some ...
THE IRRAWADDY
Myanmar Junta Invites Bids for New Solar Power Projects
The military regime is seeking tenders to implement 12 solar power projects to raise foreign currency, with some 40 firms including Thai and Chinese companies planning to make bids. Bids for the 12 solar power projects were invited on May 24 and tenders are to be ...
THE IRRAWADDY
Genocide Designation for Myanmar Tests Biden’s Human Rights Policy
Three years ago, American investigators produced a 15,000-page analysis of atrocities committed in 2017 against the Rohingya, an ethnic Muslim minority group in Myanmar. The report documented survivors’ accounts of gang rapes, crucifixions, mutilations, of children being burned or drowned and of families locked inside their blazing ...
Lara Jakes
Deadly Myanmar mine disaster caused by poor planning, say data sleuths
A detailed analysis of satellite and remote-sensing data has uncovered poor conditions at the Wai Khar jade mine in northern Myanmar, where a landslide last July killed more than 170 people. The international team of authors behind the study1 — the first to rigorously document a mining accident ...
Andrew Silver
Deforestation of endangered wildlife habitat continues to surge in southern Myanmar
Tanintharyi, Myanmar’s portion of the spit of land that splits the Gulf of Thailand from the Andaman Sea, is still swathed in old growth rainforest home to a unique medley of animals and plants – some of which are endangered and found nowhere else on ...
Morgan Erickson-Davis
COVID-19 Cases Surge in Southeast Asian Countries, as Officials Call for Renewed Attention to Prevention
With COVID-19 infections and deaths rising in Myanmar and its neighbors, deposed national leader Aung San Suu Kyi has called on citizens in the military-ruled country to strictly observe all precautions aimed at preventing the pandemic’s spread, her lawyers said on Monday. Following a court hearing ...
Reported by RFA’s Myanmar, Lao, Vietnamese, and Khmer Services. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane, Max Avary, Viet Ha, and Sok Ry Sum. Written in English by Richard Finney.
