Southeast Asia
Burma: new Shan state opium eradication plan
The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) announced a new peace initiative in Burma’s conflicted Shan State aimed at facilitating poppy eradication.
Tag: Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia
Burma: pipeline plans behind Rohingya cleansing?
The Burmese port of Sittwe, epicenter of violence against the Muslim Rohingya people, is to be the starting point for the new Shwe pipeline linking Burma’s west coast with China.
Southeast Asia
China: drug lord’s execution sparks dissent
Chinese TV broadcast images of a Burmese drug lord and his accomplices on their way to a death chamber in Yunnan, prompting online protests from rights activists in Beijing.
Southeast Asia
Malaysia: 10 dead in stand-off with Sulu partisans
The Sultanate of Sulu claims that 10 members of the royal army were killed in an attack by Malaysian authorities on a village siezed by the Sulu partisans in Sabah state on Borneo.
Southeast Asia
Borneo stand-off: whither Sulu sultanate?
Security forces in Malaysian Borneo are in a stand-off with some 100 men they say are insurgents from the Philippine island of Sulu raising an ancestral claim to the territory.
Southeast Asia
Thailand: insurgents launch Army of Pattani?
The Thai military says Islamist insurgents in the country's south have formed a "Pattani Army" after an audacious raid on a government base near the Malay border.
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.
Southeast Asia
Mindanao: fighting despite new autonomy deal
New fighting was reported from the southern Philippines island group of Mindanao, despite a recent deal on regional autonomy aimed at ending the decades-long insurgency.
Southeast Asia
Indonesia indigenous peoples: We exist!
Indonesia responded to UN recommendations to recognize the rights of its indigenous peoples by claiming that none live in the country—as massacres of tribal peoples continue.