News
Myanmar junta discusses elections with ethnic groups
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 ...
Escaping the chaos of home, Myanmar migrants face exploitation abroad
Forced to flee her Magway village in southeast Myanmar during a junta attack, Theingi Soe spent a “terrible” month living in makeshift shelters in the jungle during the rainy season. In her misery, she began to plot another escape – to a life in a ...
Nayrein Kyaw and Gemunu Amarasinghe
Traders defy the law to import more teak into the USA from Myanmar than before the coup
Despite sanctions put in place against the brutal military junta in Myanmar, US traders continue to source precious teak from the country for luxury yachts and flooring. The allegations are made in the new EIA report Acts of Defiance – How US traders are ignoring sanctions to import ...
Myanmar’s junta stays quiet as climate change hits
On November 13, as country delegates at the UN climate summit in Egypt, known as COP27, continued their negotiations, Duwa Lashi La, the acting president of the National Unity Government (NUG), Myanmar’s parallel administration, sent a letter to the meeting reaffirming its commitment to reduce climate-warming emissions. He added that ...
Thin Lei Win
Myanmar: Freed filmmaker Toru Kubota returns to Japan
Toru Kubota landed in Japan Friday morning after he was freed from prison and deported by Myanmar’s junta on Thursday. The 26-year-old filmmaker and video journalist arrived in Tokyo on a scheduled flight from Yangon via Bangkok. Kubota said upon landing that he wanted to express his gratitude ...
Martin Fritz Tokyo
Laos, Thailand, Myanmar seek ways to crack down on drug trafficking in Golden Triangle area
According to the report issued on the website of the Office of the Supreme People’s Prosecutor of Laos, the second meeting of the Golden Triangle Prosecutors Network on “Cooperation to Counter Narcotics Trafficking in the Region” was held in northern Laos’ Luang Prabang province. The meeting ...
XInhua
Myanmar Releases Nearly 6,000, Including 4 Foreigners in Prisoner Amnesty
Myanmar’s military-controlled government announced Thursday it was releasing nearly 6,000 prisoners under a broad amnesty. Major General Zaw Min Tun, Myanmar junta’s spokesperson, confirmed to VOA Burmese the release of artists, activists, one minister, a top election commission official and one minister chief from the ousted ...
VOA News
India Should Exercise Caution Over Myanmar Timber Imports
The confusion over Myanmar timber exports to India was laid to rest last month when the central government in New Delhi informed the Indian border state of Mizoram that timber was not on the restricted list of commodities from Myanmar. New Delhi’s directive was in response to a ...
RAJEEV BHATTACHARYYA
Illegal gold mining threatens freshwater lake in Myanmar
Illegal gold mining is threatening Myanmar’s largest inland freshwater lake – which ethnic people in Kachin state depend on for their livelihoods – due to the increasing demand for the precious metal as the country’s economy teeters towards collapse. U Aung Ko, a 60-year-old ethnic Shan ...
Maran
Women in Rohingya camps face an epidemic of gender based violence
The world’s largest refugee camp is no haven for women and girls. Previously viewed as a safe place of refuge from persecution in Myanmar, Rohingya women and girls face daily risks of violence and abuse. The Rohingya camps braced for, were hit, and have largely recovered ...
DAYNA SANTANA PÉREZ
