Myanmar

Southeast Asian nations seek breakthrough in South China Sea disputes

Southeast Asian foreign ministers gathered Sunday for their first meeting this year under the regional bloc's new chair, Malaysia, seeking a breakthrough over Myanmar's drawn-out civil war and territorial disputes in the South China Sea. The retreat on the idyllic northern resort island of Langkawi was the first major meeting of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations hosted by Malaysia. Officials said it aims to chart the bloc's direction for the year as it tries to resolve Myanmar's deadly four-year crisis and tensions over China's increasing assertiveness in the South China Sea. Malaysian Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan said ASEAN must bolster unity and make economic integration a top priority amid global uncertainties and the US-China rivalry in the region. He said the second term of incoming US President Donald Trump has also raised questions on how it will shape dynamics in the region. There is much to prepare for. Above all, what we need to anticipate are the ...

Mizo group urges govt to reinstate FMR, revoke pass on Indo-Myanmar border

An Aizawl-based Chin-Kuki-Mizo-Zomi group has urged the Centre to reinstate the Free Movement Regime (FMR), which facilitates a visa-free movement across the India-Myanmar border. The Zo Re-unification Organisation (ZORO), which represents ethnic Zo or Mizo tribes of India, Myanmar and Bangladesh, also demanded the revocation of the order mandating a border pass for people living within 10 km on either side to cross the international border. Speaking to reporters, the organisation president R Sangkawia on Tuesday said that the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has recently replaced the FMR with a new system to regulate movement across the India-Myanmar border. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in February 2024 had decided to scrap the Free Movement Regime (FMR) between India and Myanmar to ensure the internal security of the country and to maintain the demographic structure of India's North Eastern states bordering Myanmar. However, officials said that no official notification ...

More than 200 Rohingya arrive by boat in Indonesia over weekend: Official

Mainly Muslim Rohingya, who are originally from Myanmar and constitute the world's largest stateless population, often escape poor conditions in refugee camps on rickety boats to Thailand or Indonesia

Mizoram-Myanmar border movement regulated after govt's directives: Official

Security has been beefed up along the 510-km long Mizoram-Myanmar border and movement of people living within 10 kilometres on either side of the unfenced international border has been regulated following the directive of the Centre, an official said. The official said that residents of both countries living within 10 km on either side of the border now require border pass to visit each other. The border pass valid for a stay of up to seven days is being issued to both Myanmarese and Indian citizens visiting each other countries on production of documents verifying that they live within the territorial limit of 10 km on either side of the international border, he said on Saturday. The initiative was taken by state police, Assam Rifles and health officials at some entry and exit points from December 31 based on the order and new guidelines issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), he said. Six Mizoram districts - Champhai, Siaha, Lawngtlai, Hnahthial, Saitual and Serchhip - shar

Increased GPS interference near India-Pak border: How it affects flights?

According to a report by OPS Group, the Delhi Flight Information Region has seen daily spoofing since May 2024, which poses a risk to flight safety

In post-coup Myanmar, doctors, nurses turn to prostitution to survive

In February 2021, Myanmar's military seized power in a coup, and the country's economy, already hammered by the pandemic, started to buckle

Myanmar's economy likely to shrink as floods compound crisis: World Bank

In June, the bank had projected Myanmar's economy would grow 1 per cent during the current fiscal year, which ends in March 2025, but warned of increasing poverty and escalating violence

Ethnic armed group 'captures' Myanmar town, controls border with Bangladesh

One of the most powerful ethnic minority armed groups battling Myanmar's army has claimed the capture of the last army outpost in the strategic western town of Maungdaw, gaining full control of the 271-kilometer (168-mile) -long border with Bangladesh. The capture by the Arakan Army makes the group's control of the northern part of Rakhine state complete, and marks another advance in its bid for self-rule there. Rakhine has become a focal point for Myanmar's nationwide civil war, in which pro-democracy guerrillas and ethnic minority armed forces seeking autonomy battle the country's military rulers, who took power in 2021 after the army ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. Khaing Thukha, a spokesperson for the Arakan Army, told The Associated Press by text message from an undisclosed location late Monday that his group had seized the last remaining military outpost in Maungdaw on Sunday. Outpost commander Brig. Gen. Thurein Tun, was captured while attempting to flee t

Asean ministers to discuss Myanmar at Thailand meeting, says Indonesia

At the invitation of current Asean host Laos, the meeting will talk about ways to approach the crisis which has gripped Myanmar since a 2021 military coup

Rohingya in world's largest refugee camps mobilise to fight in Myanmar

The Rohingya, a mainly Muslim group that is the world's largest stateless population, started fleeing in droves to Bangladesh in 2016 to escape what the United Nations has called a genocide at

Myanmar's military ramps up attacks including rapes, torture: UN expert

Myanmar's desperate military junta is ramping up attacks on villages that have fallen to opposition groups, carrying out beheadings, gang rapes and torture, with women, children and the elderly among the victims, the UN independent human rights investigator for Myanmar said in a new report. Thomas Andrews, a former US congressman from Maine, said in the report to the UN General Assembly circulated Friday that the junta has responded to military defeats and the loss of territory by using sophisticated weapons against civilians and seeking to destroy towns that it cannot control. Calling Myanmar an invisible crisis because the world's attention is focused elsewhere, he said, Escalating atrocities against the people of Myanmar are being enabled by governments that allow, or actively support, the transfer of weapons, weapons materials, and jet fuel to junta forces. Andrews didn't name the governments. But he praised Singapore for cracking down on weapons transfers that has led to a 90 p

Conflict in Myanmar sparks surge in property purchases in Thailand

From January to September, over 1,000 units worth 5.46 billion baht ($158 million) were sold to Myanmar nationals, REIC data showed

Myanmar airstrikes indiscriminately target civilians, say rights group

Myanmar's military has consistently targeted civilians and their communities as a form of collective punishment in the country's southeast since the army seized power in early 2021, a rights group said in a report released Friday. Documented airstrikes on villages examined by researchers from the Karen Human Rights Group based in Myanmar's southeast, are emblematic of a broader assault on civilians across the war-torn nation, said James Rodehaver, the Bangkok-based chief of the Myanmar team of the UN's Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. He spoke Friday in an online panel discussion accompanying the release of the new report. Military officials were not immediately available for comment on the report, but in the past has said it attacks only legitimate targets of war, accusing the resistance forces of being terrorists. Myanmar is racked by violence that began when the army ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021 and brutally suppressed ...

Myanmar's head Gen Min Aung Hlaing visits China first time since coup

The head of Myanmar's military government embarked Tuesday on an official visit to China, the embattled Southeast Asian nation's most important international ally, for several regional meetings. It is the first time Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing has traveled to the neighboring country since his army seized power in February 2021 from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. Myanmar's army suffered unprecedented battlefield defeats over the past year, especially in areas near the Chinese border. Both Myanmar's ruling generals and China's government have shown concern as pro-democracy guerrillas and armed ethnic minority groups, sometimes working hand in hand, have taken the initiative in their fight against military rule. But Beijing is now concerned about instability that threatens its strategic and business interests in Myanmar. China's government has maintained good working relations with Myanmar's ruling military, which is shunned and sanctioned by many Western nations for the .

UN envoy warns of Myanmar's escalating crisis and rampant criminal networks

The UN special envoy for Myanmar warned that the Southeast Asian nation is in crisis, with conflict escalating, criminal networks out of control and human suffering at unprecedented levels. Julie Bishop told the U.N. General Assembly's human rights committee on Tuesday in her first report since being appointed by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres last April that Myanmar actors must move beyond the current zero-sum mentality. The army in Myanmar ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021 and suppressed widespread nonviolent protests that sought a return to democratic rule, leading to increasing violence and a humanitarian crisis. In the past year, three powerful ethnic armed militias have gained territory, keeping the government's ruling military increasingly on the back foot in fighting that has forced hundreds of thousands of civilians to flee their homes. According to the U.N., 3 million people are displaced across Myanmar and some 18.6 million need ...

Myanmar's civil war reshaped with coordinated offensive by powerful groups

Three well-armed militias launched a surprise joint offensive in northeastern Myanmar a year ago, breaking a strategic stalemate with the regime's military with rapid gains of huge swaths of territory and inspiring others to attack around the country. Before the offensive, the military's control had seemed firmly ensconced with its vast superiority in troops and firepower, and aided with material support from Russia and China. But today it is increasingly on the back foot, with the loss of dozens of outposts, bases and strategic cities that even its leaders concede will be challenging to regain. How did the offensive unfold? The military seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021, giving rise to intensified fighting with long-established armed groups associated with Myanmar's ethnic minority groups, and sparking the formation of new pro-democracy militias. But until the launch of Operation 1027, eponymously named for its October 27 start, the ...

Kuki bodies oppose proposed fencing of India-Myanmar border, FMR scrapping

Kuki Inpi and Kuki Chiefs Association opposed the proposed fencing of the India-Myanmar border and scrapping of the Free Movement Regime (FMR), claiming these "threaten to infringe upon the cultural, traditional and historical rights of indigenous communities". The central government earlier this year decided to cancel the FMR, which allows people residing close to the India-Myanmar border to venture 16 km into each other's territory without a visa. It also decided to erect a fence along the 1,643-km-long India-Myanmar border, which passes through Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh. The two apex bodies of the Kuki-Zo community, in a joint statement issued on Saturday, claimed that the movement of people across the India-Myanmar border is a vital lifeline for maintaining social, cultural and family ties across the border. "The proposed fencing disregards the unique geographical and social conditions of this region, where borders cut across traditional lands and family .

China shuts supply to rebels, backs Myanmar's falling junta in civil war

A year on, rebel forces have ground down the junta, pushing the military out of vital borderlands and making inroads into the contested heart of Myanmar

Seven dead in Myanmar after boat carrying people who fled fighting capsized

Seven people are confirmed dead and more than 30 are missing after a boat whose passengers included villagers fleeing from fighting in Myanmar capsized in the Andaman Sea, a rescue worker and local media said Monday. About 30 people have been rescued from the boat, which on Sunday was carrying an estimated 70-75 people to the nearby coastal town of Myeik in Myanmar's southern region of Tanintharyi from the island of Kyauk Kar, which is in an estuary leading to the sea, according to a villager helping rescue operations. The crowded passenger boat set out from Kyauk Kar at 9.30 pm on Sunday and sank near the mouth of the estuary about 15 minutes later, said the villager, speaking to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because he feared being arrested by the military The cause of the accident was unclear, but the villager said the boat, which normally carries a maximum of 30-40 passengers, was overcrowded with people and commodities, and there were strong currents in the

China ranks worst in internet freedom globally: US' Freedom House report

Freedom House said that China shared its designation as the world's worst environment for internet freedom with Myanmar