Smoke rises from under the seats of a Myanmar National Airlines plane shortly after it lands without the use of its front wheel. The plane landed safely on Sunday at Mandalay airport despite the landing gear problems. Passengers scrambled to evacuate as instructions were given over the speaker system. The airline said in a statement that flight UB103 came from Yangon and the pilot flew around the air traffic control tower twice in order for staff to check if the landing gear had been activated before the decision was made to make an emergency landing. The statement also said the pilot followed emergency procedures and dumped extra fuel before attempting to land.
Category Archives: Myanmar
Myanmar plane with 89 on board lands without front wheels
Pilot praised after touching down successfully at Mandalay despite failure of landing gear
A Myanmar pilot saved the day after his aircraft’s landing gear failed, safely putting the jet on the runway with no front wheels on Sunday, an official said.
The touchdown – in which no one was hurt – was the second instance of a malfunctioning flight in Myanmar in less than a week.
Continue reading...‘I can’t wait to go to my newsroom’: Reuters journalist Wa Lone walks free – video
Reuters journalist Wa Lone is swamped by his fellow reporters after being released from prison alongside colleague Kyaw Seo Oo. As he left Yangon’s Insein jail, Wa Lone thanked everyone who had called for their release, adding: "I'm really happy and excited to see my family and my colleagues. And I can't wait to go to my newsroom." When asked if he could continue to be a journalist in Myanmar, he replied: "I am a journalist. I am going to continue."
The two journalists were reporting on the massacre of Rohingya Muslims when they were arrested and sentenced to seven years in jail for breaking Myanmar's Official Secrets Act. They were freed when President Win Myint issued a pardon for 6,520 prisoners.
‘We will lose any hope of going home’: Rohingya live in fear of resettlement
Plans to relocate Rohingya people in Myanmar’s Rakhine state promise to dash their dreams of returning to traditional life
For the past seven years, Mohammad has been able to see the beach on the outskirts of Sittwe, and the Indian Ocean beyond, only through a barbed wire fence.
“The only difference between a prison and the Rakhine camps is that in prison at least they know how long their sentence is,” says the 23-year-old, shaking his head.
Continue reading...Kachin women from Myanmar ‘raped until they get pregnant’ in China
Women from Kachin minority are allowed to go home only if they leave baby behind, says HRW report
Burmese and Chinese authorities are turning a blind eye to a growing trade in women from Myanmar’s Kachin minority, who are taken across the border, sold as wives to Chinese men and raped until they become pregnant, a report claims.
Some of the women are allowed to return home after they have given birth, but are forced to leave their children, according to an investigation by Human Rights Watch, titled Give Us a Baby and We’ll Let You Go.
Continue reading...Rohingya crisis: UN investigates its ‘dysfunctional’ conduct in Myanmar
Exclusive: Inquiry follows claims it ignored warning signs before alleged Rohingya genocide
The UN has launched an inquiry into its conduct in Myanmar over the past decade, where it has been accused of ignoring warning signs of escalating violence prior to an alleged genocide of the Rohingya minority.
UN sources have confirmed to the Guardian that the initially hesitant UN secretary general, António Guterres, decided to proceed with the investigation after a “build-up in pressure” within the organisation.
Continue reading...Lethal landslips and drug addiction: Myanmar’s toxic jade trade
A controversial new gemstone law fails to address the hazards of an industry in which scores of workers die each year
At one of the jade mining pits that scar the mountains of northern Myanmar’s Kachin state, a miner recalls how five of his friends died during a landslide two years ago. “I was so scared,” he says. While working in areas where there have been previous landslides, he says he has discovered dead bodies and buried them.
Testimonies heard by the Guardian reveal a deadly environment where lethal landslides and equipment failures strike regularly, in an industry with a history of human rights abuses, corruption and environmental destruction. “At first it was so scary for me,” says another worker. “But it’s becoming natural … We started accepting that we could die in any situation.”
Continue reading...‘Treated like cattle’: Angelina Jolie takes aim at Myanmar over Rohingya plight
Hollywood star meets refugees in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district where 740,000 Rohingya have fled since August 2017
Angelina Jolie has shared the stories of rape survivors during a visit to Rohingya refugee camps and said the responsibility to let them return “lies squarely with the government and the authorities in Myanmar”.
The envoy for the UN refugee agency said Myanmar must “show genuine commitment” to end violence that has driven hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims into neighbouring Bangladesh.
Continue reading...Reuters journalists to remain in Myanmar jail after losing appeal
Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo jailed for seven years for breaching country’s Official Secrets Act
The two Reuters journalists imprisoned in Myanmar for their reporting on the violence against the Rohingya in Rahkine state have lost their appeal, with the court upholding their guilty verdict and lengthy prison sentences.
Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo had each been handed prison sentences of seven years in June after they were found guilty of breaching the country’s Official Secrets Act after it was claimed they were in possession of classified documents.
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