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. 

Southeast Asia

Vietnam: peasant protests over land-grab

Residents of Van Giang outside Hanoi marched to oppose the seizure of their lands for an “EcoPark” development project hailed by the government as a model of sustainability.

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.

Southeast Asia

Geopolitical chess game heats up South China Sea

Beijing's move to set up a military garrison on disputed Yongxing Island—claimed by the Philippines as part of the Paracel chain—is escalating tension in the South China Sea.

Southeast Asia

Burma: new fighting with Shan State rebels

Amid Aung San Suu Kyi’s triumphal tour of Asia and Europe, the world has paid little note as ceasefires have broken down between the Burmese government and ethnic guerilla armies in northern Shan state.

Southeast Asia

Cambodia: villagers protest Laos dam project

More than 500 Cambodian villagers marched to protest a controversial dam project up the Mekong River in Laos that they charge is under construction despite a pledge to halt progress while officials conduct a new impact study.

Southeast Asia

Stateless Muslims revolt in Burma’s west

Burma declared a state of emergency in western Rakhine state following an uprising by the Muslim Rohingya people—for generations denied citizenship by both Burma and Bangladesh, each considering them “illegal” immigrants from the other.

Southeast Asia

Cambodia: environmentalist slain in threatened forest region

Cambodia’s most outspoken activist against illegal logging was shot dead while escorting journalists near a protected forest in Koh Kong province, where he has repeatedly attempted to expose outlaw timber rackets that include military officials.