Page 5 - Myanmar

Elections will happen in Myanmar within 10 months, says junta leader

Four years after seizing power from the elected administration, the head of the military government declared Myanmar will hold a general election within 10 months, state-run media reported Saturday. Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing said Friday the election will take place either in December or January 2026 at the latest, according to the Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper. He announced the dates in a press conference while on an official visit to Belarus, one of the few allies of Myanmar's military government, saying that 53 political parties have already submitted their lists to participate in the election. However, Min Aung did not mention exact election dates. The announcement comes as Myanmar is roiled by a civil war in which the army has been forced onto the defensive against pro-democracy militants as well as ethnic militias seeking autonomy in much of the country. The army takeover from Aung San Suu Kyi's elected government in February 2021 has been met with widespread popula

Why are Indians trapped in Myanmar's Myawaddy region in cybercrime scams?

Hundreds of Indians trapped in Myanmar's Myawaddy region were lured by fake job offers and forced into cybercrime; a crackdown by Thailand, Myanmar, and China aims to dismantle these scam hubs

India, Myanmar discuss possibility of resuming border trade through roads

India and Myanmar have discussed the importance of resuming border trade through roads and agreed to take steps on this issue, an official statement said on Sunday. The issue was discussed during a meeting between Myanmar's Deputy Commerce Minister U Minn Minn and Minister of State of Commerce and Industry Jitin Prasada here on February 14. They discussed possibilities to increase cooperation in areas such as pharmaceuticals, pulses, petroleum products and greater use of the recently launched Rupee-Kyat trade settlement mechanism. "During the meeting, both the leaders deliberated on the potential areas of collaboration to promote bilateral trade and also acknowledged the importance of resuming border trade through roads and agreed to take steps on this issue," the commerce ministry said. India is the fifth-largest trading partner of Myanmar. The bilateral trade stood at USD 1.74 billion in 2023-24 against USD 1.76 billion in 2022-23.

Illegal migration reshaping Delhi's demography, impacting polls: JNU report

The JNU report on Delhi's demography notes a marked rise in the Muslim population due to migration from Bangladesh

Budget 2025: Maldives gets more aid from India, but what about Bangladesh?

Union Budget 2025: India's foreign aid drops to Rs 5,483 crore in Budget 2025; Maldives sees a hike to Rs 600 crore, Afghanistan's aid doubles, while Myanmar faces a cut amid ongoing internal turmoil

Peace prospects look bleak in Myanmar as civil war rages; tensions remain

Peace prospects look bleak in Myanmar as a civil war rages despite international pressure on the military four years after it seized power from an elected civilian government. The political situation remains tense with no negotiation space in sight between the military government and the major opposition groups fighting against it. The four years after the army's takeover on Feb. 1, 2021, have created a profound situation of multiple, overlapping crises with nearly half the population in poverty and the economy in disarray, the UN Development Programme said. The UN Human Rights Office said the military ramped up violence against civilians last year to unprecedented levels, inflicting the heaviest civilian death toll since the army takeover as its grip on power eroded. The army launched wave after wave of retaliatory airstrikes and artillery shelling on civilians and civilian populated areas, forced thousands of young people into military service, conducted arbitrary arrests and ...

MoS Margherita meets Ambassadors of Thailand, Myanmar, Dominican Republic

Margherita held talks on further deepening the relations of India with these countries

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 ...