Category Archives: Myanmar

Myanmar hands over junta-backed warlords to China in telecoms scam case

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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.

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Three years on from Myanmar’s military coup, the junta is struggling to assert control

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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.

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Australian-linked mining companies helping to prop up Myanmar military junta, report alleges

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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.

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Myanmar junta and armed rebels agree ceasefire

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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.

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‘I can ride the bus. I can walk the streets’: the joy of freedom for Rohingya resettled in the US

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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.

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Myanmar becomes world’s biggest producer of opium, overtaking Afghanistan

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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).

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Myanmar fighting at its worst since 2021 coup, says UN

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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.

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Immigration detention: Rohingya refugee NZYQ freed after high court case did not show remorse for raping 10-year-old

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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.

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Myanmar’s military commanders responsible for rape and torture – war crimes report

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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.

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Myanmar junta facing biggest challenge yet after new offensive by armed groups, analysts say

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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.

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Myanmar: at least 29 people killed in attack on camp for displaced people

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Victims of attack in Kachin state include children, according to media and local activists

At least 29 people, including young children, have been killed in an attack on a camp for displaced people in Myanmar’s Kachin state, according to media reports and two local activists.

Dozens more people were injured in the attack, which happened at about 11.30pm on Monday night in Kachin, Myanmar’s northernmost state, it was reported. Unverified images on social media, showed men carrying victims, including a small child, from the rubble in the darkness.

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‘Powerless’ son says Aung San Suu Kyi’s life may be at risk due to serious health problems

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Myanmar’s deposed leader has gum disease and struggles to eat but son says requests for help made by prison officers have been denied

Aung San Suu Kyi’s life may be at risk, because she has such serious gum disease she is struggling to eat after more than two years in jail, her son has warned, saying he feels powerless to help her.

Myanmar’s ousted leader, now 78, has not been allowed see a doctor even though she was unable to walk at one point, is suffering from vomiting and dizziness and may have problems with her wisdom teeth, Kim Aris said.

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Myanmar journalist jailed for 20 years for cyclone coverage

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Sentencing of Sai Zaw Thaike at one-day trial for treason and defamation shows press freedom has been ‘completely quashed’ under junta, editor says

A Myanmar court has sentenced a photojournalist to 20 years in prison with hard labour over his coverage of the aftermath of a deadly cyclone, according to Myanmar Now, the media organisation he worked for.

The sentence given to Sai Zaw Thaike, a photographer for the independent online news service, appeared to be the most severe for any journalist detained since the military overthrew the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021.

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Gangs forcing hundreds of thousands of people into cybercrime in south-east Asia, says UN

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Organised criminals use threats, torture and sexual violence to coerce victims to work in international scamming operations

Hundreds of thousands of people have been trafficked and forced to work for online scamming operations in south-east Asia run by criminal gangs, according to a UN report.

Billions of dollars are being generated each year by gangs who coerce victims into cybercrime, where they are subject to threats, torture and sometimes sexual violence, said the report, published by the UN human rights office on Tuesday.

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At least 17 people dead after boat carrying Rohingya refugees capsizes off coast of Myanmar

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Search for survivors continues in latest tragedy as persecuted Muslims make perilous sea journeys in search of better lives

At least 17 people have drowned and 33 are missing after a boat carrying Rohingya refugees from Myanmar to Malaysia capsized on Monday.

The bodies of 10 women and seven men have been recovered after being washed up on the coast of Myanmar, said Bya Latt, a spokesperson for the rescue group Shwe Yaung Matta Foundation. Eight people who were rescued are being held at a local police station, Latt said.

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Aung San Suu Kyi’s partial ‘pardon’ still means 27-year sentence

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Human rights groups say Myanmar military’s move to drop five of ousted leader’s convictions is meaningless

Even with a partial pardon announced this week by Myanmar’s military junta, Aung San Suu Kyi still faces the prospect of being kept in detention until she is more than 100 years old, if she lives that long.

She has been held by the military since it seized power in a coup on 1 February 2021, and has been convicted of 19 offences – from sedition and illegal possession of walkie-talkies, to breaking pandemic rules and electoral fraud.

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Aung San Suu Kyi given partial pardon by Myanmar junta

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Ousted leader granted clemency on five charges as part of amnesty but faces a further 14 cases

Myanmar’s junta has pardoned Aung San Suu Kyi on five legal charges, military-controlled TV has announced, although the deposed leader still faces more than two decades in detention.

Aung San Suu Kyi has been detained by the military since 1 February 2021 when it ousted her democratically elected government. The 76-year-old has since been sentenced for multiple charges – including incitement, electoral fraud and corruption.

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Myanmar junta extends state of emergency, forcing delay to elections

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Military-controlled government seemingly needs more time to organise new vote as it tackles protests and armed resistance

Myanmar’s military-controlled government has extended the state of emergency it imposed when the army seized power from an elected government in 2021, forcing a further delay in elections it promised when it took over.

MRTV television said the National Defense and Security Council met on Monday in the capital, Naypyidaw, and extended the state of emergency for another six months starting on Tuesday because time is needed to prepare for the elections. The NDSC is nominally a constitutional government body, but in practice is controlled by the military.

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Baby dies after teargas fired at Rohingya trying to escape Indian detention centre

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Child’s death follows hunger strike at Jammu & Kashmir jail amid increasing hostility towards 40,000 refugees ahead of elections

A five-month-old girl has died after Indian forces fired teargas at Rohingya refugees trying to escape a detention centre where they have been held for more than two years.

Videos – sent to Rohingya activists by detainees at Hiranagar jail, now operating as a holding centre – appear to show women and men amid clouds of teargas. About 270 Rohingya detainees at the centre, in the Indian-administered territory of Jammu & Kashmir, have been on hunger strike since April over their detention.

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Villagers say 14 killed as Myanmar violence flares

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Fighting increases in border states while junta continues to delay elections

Fighting between the Myanmar army and anti-junta rebels has flared up in recent days, with local people in one village saying on Saturday that 14 people were killed in a single raid.

Deadly violence has engulfed Myanmar since the military deposed Aung San Suu Kyi’s civilian government in February 2021 and unleashed a bloody crackdown on dissent that has left thousands dead.

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