South Asia
India: Naxalite hand in opium trade?
Authorities in India say that the Naxalite guerillas, following a series of reversals, have taken refuge in the northeast, where they are trading opium for guns from Burma.
Tag: Burma
Southeast Asia
Burma: Kachin rebels agree to peace talks
With fighting escalating after a 17-year ceasefire broke down last year, Burma’s Kachin Independence Army (KIA) has agreed to talks with the government.
Southeast Asia
Burma: new airstrikes on Kachin rebels
Burma's army claimed responsibility for air-strikes against Kachin rebel positions in the north—less than a day after the government denied the strikes had taken place.
Southeast Asia
Burma: repression of anti-mine protesters
Aung San Suu Kyi is to lead an investigation after brutal repression of protests by farmers facing forced relocation to make way for expansion of a Chinese-owned copper mine.
Southeast Asia
Burma frees 452 (political?) prisoners
Burma freed 452 prisoners ahead of Obama’s visit, but the National League for Democracy denounced the move as empty, saying that no political prisoners were included.
South Asia
Buddhist-Muslim tensions follow Bangladesh riots
Buddhists in Burma and Sri Lanka held anti-Muslim protests after Muslim rioters in Bangladesh torched Buddhist temples in response to a Facebook post denigrating the Koran.
Southeast Asia
Burma: invisible war in Kachin state
As Aung San Suu Kyi’s visit to the US won wide media attention, more peasants were displaced by the ongoing war against tribal peoples in Burma’s north.
Southeast Asia
Burmese warlord confesses to Mekong massacre
Burmese warlord Naw Kham, hunted down in the Golden Triangle by elite Chinese forces, pleaded guilty before a court in Yunnan to a massacre of Chinese merchant crewmen.
The Andes
Venezuela, Bolivia give US backtalk over drug war ‘blacklist’
Venezuela and Bolivia reacted angrily to the fourth consecutive White House annual determination that they have "demonstrably failed" to combat narco trafficking.
Southeast Asia
AMAZIGH
UN investigators renewed their call for charges against Burma military officials suspected of carrying out a genocide against the nation's minority Rohingya population over the past year. The UN Office of Human Rights published an exhaustive list of atrocities and called "for the investigation and prosecution of Myanmar's Commander-in-Chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, and his top military leaders for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes." Since last August, 700,000 Rohinga refugees have fled into neighboring Bangladesh, and many have spoken of the Burmese military's attacks on their villages, describing actions that are considered crimes against humanity under international law. This August, a UN fact-fidning mission for the first time referred to the conflict as a genocide. (Photo: UNHCR)
Southeast Asia
FIRE7
The UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar issued a report urging the investigation and prosecution of Burma's top military generals for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. The Mission "found patterns of gross human rights violations and abuses committed in Kachin, Rakhine and Shan States that undoubtedly amount to the gravest crimes under international law," adding that there is likely sufficient evidence to establish "genocidal intent." (Photo: European Commission via Flickr)
Southeast Asia
leonida
The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar (Burma) Yanghee Lee called for the Human Rights Council to support an investigation by the International Criminal Court (ICC) into crimes against the Rohingya people. "I strongly recommend the persons allegedly responsible for the violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law be investigated and prosecuted by the ICC or a credible mechanism," said Lee. She expressed disappointment that the Security Council has not yet referred Burma to the ICC, stating said that none of the investigations by the Burmese government have met international standards, and were likely initiated to distract the international community. (Photo: European Commission via Flickr)