Rights chief also warns Britain will be ‘judged harshly by history for its failure to help prevent civilian slaughter in Gaza’
The UK has been accused by Amnesty International of “deliberately destabilising” human rights on the global stage for its own political ends.
In its annual global report, released today, the organisation said Britain was weakening human rights protections nationally and globally, amid a near-breakdown of international law.
Continue reading...Thousands of civilians flee as resistance fighters fight to flush out soldiers holed up at eastern bridge border crossing
Fighting raged at Myanmar’s eastern border with Thailand on Saturday, both governments said, forcing 3,000 civilians to flee as rebels fought to flush out Myanmar junta troops holed up for days at a bridge border crossing.
Resistance fighters and ethnic minority rebels seized the key trading town of Myawaddy on the Myanmar side of the frontier on 11 April, a blow to a well-equipped military struggling to govern and facing a test of battlefield credibility.
Continue reading...Military spokesperson says Nobel laureate is among prisoners to be moved out of prison as a precaution during hot weather
Myanmar’s detained former leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been moved from prison to house arrest, according to the military junta.
A spokesperson said the measure was taken due to extremely hot weather and that it was trying to prevent heatstroke among “all those who need necessary precautions, especially elderly prisoners”.
Continue reading...Thailand PM says army is weakening after junta requests permission to land evacuation flight from Myawaddy across the border
Myanmar’s embattled junta has evacuated personnel from a key border position after hundreds of soldiers surrendered to opposition groups, in another humiliating defeat for the army.
The military is now on the brink of losing control of Myawaddy, in Karen state, one of the most important border crossings in Myanmar and crucial to the flow of goods between the country and Thailand. It has been controlled by the military for decades.
Continue reading...Former Australian foreign minister named as secretary general António Guterres’ special envoy to country gripped by civil war
The former Australian foreign minister Julie Bishop has been appointed the United Nations secretary general António Guterres’ special envoy on Myanmar, the world body has said.
Bishop, the Australian National University’s chancellor, will take up the UN role that has been vacant since June last year, when Singaporean diplomat Noeleen Heyzer stepped down.
Continue reading...National Unity Government said it attacked two military targets in junta-controlled Naypidaw
Opponents of Myanmar’s military said they had carried out drone attacks against junta sites in the capital, Naypyidaw, in what appears to be a rare incursion against the embattled junta’s centre of power.
The National Unity Government (NUG), which was formed to oppose the 2021 coup, said it had launched drone attacks on two military targets in the capital.
Continue reading...Soaked survivors clung to hull overnight before being taken to safety by Indonesian rescue team
Dozens of Rohingya refugees have been rescued from the Indian Ocean off the coast of Indonesia after spending the night balanced on the hull of their overturned boat.
Seventy-five people were pulled from the stricken vessel, which was spotted on Thursday by an Indonesian search and rescue ship.
Continue reading...Home being sold after supreme court ruling in dispute with Aung San Suu Kyi’s estranged brother, with the price reportedly set at tens of millions of dollars
No bidders have appeared at an auction in Myanmar for the sale of the home of jailed former leader Aung San Suu Kyi, for which the starting price was reported to be in the tens of millions of dollars.
The family property on Yangon’s Inye Lake was up for auction by order of the supreme court, after a years-long legal battle between Aung San Suu Kyi, who was ousted in a 2021 coup, and her estranged brother Aung San Oo.
Continue reading...State media report all men aged 18-35 and women 18-27 must serve for up to two years and up to five years in a state of emergency
Myanmar’s junta has declared mandatory military service for all young men and women, state media said, as it struggles to contain armed rebel forces fighting for greater autonomy in various parts of the country.
All men aged 18-35 and women aged 18-27 must serve for up to two years, while specialists like doctors aged up to 45 must serve for three years. The service can be extended to a total of five years in the ongoing state of emergency, state media said on Saturday.
Continue reading...Towns and cities empty during protest on anniversary of military takeover and arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi
Cities and towns across Myanmar have come to a standstill as people took part in a silent strike to signal defiance against the military junta on the anniversary of the 2021 coup.
Three years since the military detained political leaders including Aung San Suu Kyi, its grip on power is more uncertain than at any point in the last six decades, according to analysts. The UN says two-thirds of the country is experiencing conflict.
Continue reading...Ten people extradited on Tuesday accused of being key figures in fraud involving victims of trafficking
Myanmar has extradited 10 people, including notorious warlords, to China, where they are wanted for their alleged role in running abusive online and telephone fraud centres in which tens of thousands of foreign nationals are trapped and forced to run scams.
The centres – which target people in China as well as in other countries - have flourished since the Covid-19 pandemic and China says about 44,000 people have been involved, including victims of human trafficking.
Continue reading...Junta leader Min Aung Hlaing facing criticism after months of battlefield losses, with an estimated two-thirds of the country gripped by conflict
Three years after seizing power, Myanmar’s junta is struggling to assert control, with humiliating losses in recent months and growing criticism of its leader, Min Aung Hlaing, by pro-military figures.
Images shared across social media show hauls of weapons seized from overrun military outposts in the north, exhausted soldiers surrendering en masse and even a military jet plunging from the sky after it was shot down. In one unprecedented image, brigadier general commanders are pictured raising a glass – apparently with their former enemies – after they were forced to concede defeat in the key town of Laukkai in northern Shan state, along with almost 2,400 men.
Continue reading...Activist group Justice for Myanmar alleges companies have continued operations in war-torn nation since the coup almost three years ago
Australian-linked mining companies are continuing to operate in Myanmar, helping to support the military junta and the junta-dominated mining sector, a new report alleges.
The activist group Justice for Myanmar released a report Tuesday detailing the activities of mining companies either linked to Australia or backed by Australian investors, which it alleges have continued their operations in the war-torn nation since the coup almost three years ago.
Continue reading...China mediates truce that would halt months of conflict that has displaced half a million people in country’s north
Myanmar’s military and an alliance of armed ethnic minority groups have announced a China-mediated ceasefire after months of conflict that has posed the biggest threat to the junta since it seized power in 2021.
Fighting has claimed hundreds of lives and displaced more than half a million people since October, when the alliance launched an offensive against the junta.
Continue reading...A diplomatic breakthrough has allowed 62 refugees to start a new life in America. Yet a million still remain in fear and poverty in the Bangladeshi camps
After 23 hours on his first international flight, it was only after stepping off the plane in the United States that Nurul Haque finally felt the relief of escaping the refugee camps of Bangladesh, where he was born.
Haque was among the first Rohingya refugees allowed to leave Bangladesh in more than a decade. The 62 people who have flown to the US since late last year might be few, but resettlement has given them hope of opportunity and security that was denied them in Bangladesh.
Continue reading...Opium production in Afghanistan slumped an estimated 95%, according to a UN report
Myanmar became the world’s biggest producer of opium in 2023, overtaking Afghanistan after the Taliban government’s crackdown on the trade, according to a United Nations report.
Myanmar produced an estimated 1,080 metric tonnes of opium – essential for producing heroin – this year, according to the latest report by the United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
Continue reading...Widespread escalation in violence across number of states poses greatest challenge yet to military rule
Myanmar is gripped by the worst escalation in violence since the military seized power in a coup almost three years ago, the UN has said, with intense clashes taking place across a number of states and regions.
The UN said an escalation in the fighting that began late in October was “the largest in scale and most extensive geographically” since the military coup, and has affected swathes of the country.
Continue reading...Psychologist noted ‘risk factors’ for possible reoffending including ‘attitudes’ stemming from his own childhood abuse, court documents reveal
The plaintiff who overturned the legality of indefinite immigration detention in the high court was found to be owed protection because he experienced forced labour and his brother was abducted and killed in Myanmar.
Previously unreported details of the stateless Rohingya refugee, known as NZYQ, were contained in court documents published on Tuesday, including that the judge did not find he had shown remorse in relation to his conviction for the rape of a 10-year-old boy, despite pleading guilty. The documents also show a psychologist had noted “risk factors” for possible reoffending including “attitudes” stemming from his own childhood abuse.
Continue reading...Security Force Monitor finds 64% of senior army officers led units allegedly committing killings, rapes, torture and disappearances
New research into alleged war crimes in Myanmar has concluded that the majority of senior commanders in the Myanmar military, many of whom hold powerful political positions in the country, were responsible for crimes including rape, torture, killings and forced disappearances carried out by units under their command between 2011 and 2023.
The research, by the Security Force Monitor (SFM), a project run by Columbia Law School’s Human Rights Institute, states that 64% – 51 of 79 – of all Myanmar’s senior military commanders are responsible for war crimes. It claims that the most serious perpetrator of human rights violations is Gen Mya Tun Oo, Myanmar’s deputy prime minister, former defence minister and a member of the ruling military council.
Continue reading...Junta struggling to counter offensive by armed ethnic groups, amid claims it has lost 100 outposts in the north
Myanmar’s military is facing its biggest military challenge since it seized power in a coup more than two years ago, after an alliance of opponents cut off key trading routes and seized towns and dozens of outposts near the Chinese border.
The offensive in northern Shan state, which was launched by an alliance of ethnic armed groups in coordination with newer anti-coup groups, is a significant blow for the military, analysts say, and could be exploited by the wider pro-democracy resistance movement.
Continue reading...