Tag: Myanmar

An official from the commission set up by Myanmar’s ruling military junta to oversee upcoming elections said Thursday that the results of the widely disputed poll will be available by the end of January. At a news conference in Naypyidaw, Myanmar’s capital, election officials said that six parties would run for nationwide seats, while another 51 others would compete in individual states or regions. The vote is scheduled to be held in three phases beginning on Dec. 28, with two weeks between each phase, officials said. The military announced the…

The son of former Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi said on Friday that his mother is suffering from health problems and needs urgent medical attention, appealing for her release from military custody. Kim Aris told Reuters that the 80-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate had asked to see a cardiologist about a month ago, but that he wasn’t able to determine if that request had been granted. “I am extremely worried,” he said, according to Reuters. “There is no way of verifying if she is even alive.” Aris said that…

The military-backed election commission in Myanmar set Dec. 28 for the initial phase of long-promised elections, the first since the 2021 coup that overthrew the country’s last elected government and kicked off a still-raging civil war. Junta leadership nominally transferred power to an interim government last month in preparation for the elections. Last week, Min Aung Hlaing, the military chief and acting president, called for increased security to protect politicians and voters, warning of a rise in attacks on civil servants, according to the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar…

The military junta that controls Myanmar nominally transferred power to an interim government on Thursday ahead of a planned election in December and January. A state of emergency that was due to expire Thursday after seven extensions was lifted, Zaw Min Tun, a government spokesman, told state media. The decree had given legislative, judicial, and executive powers to Min Aung Hlang as head of the ruling military council. But state media reported late Thursday that martial law and a state of emergency would be imposed in more than 60 townships…

Rohingya rights groups on Thursday decried “regional inaction and global neglect” over the plight of the Muslim minority from Myanmar after more than 400 refugees were feared drowned when two boats sank this month after setting sail from Bangladesh. Last week, the U.N. refugee agency said that while details remained unclear, it had collected reports from family members and others about two separate boat tragedies on May 9 and May 10 in which 427 people may have died. It said both boats left from Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, where about 1…

BANGKOK – A month after a deadly earthquake triggered the collapse of a high-rise construction site in Bangkok, labor rights groups say the disaster has exposed long-standing flaws in Thailand’s construction sector – particularly its failure to protect the migrant workers who keep it running. On the day of the quake, more than 100 workers were inside a 32-story unfinished tower when tremors from a 7.7-magnitude earthquake in neighboring Myanmar shook the Thai capital, causing the building to crumble. Many of those trapped were migrant workers from Myanmar, drawn to…

Myanmar’s ousted civilian government called for international intervention, accusing the military regime of committing “war crimes” by killing nearly 400 people within a month, despite the junta’s declaration of a ceasefire on April 2. From April 3 to May 13, junta airstrikes across 11 of Myanmar’s 14 territories have killed a total of 182 people and injured 298, said the National League for Democracy, or NLD, the party that won a landslide in the 2020 election but was ousted in a coup the following year. The majority of attacks have…

A junta jet bombed a rebel-controlled village in western Myanmar on Tuesday, killing more than a dozen civilians, an official from the Arakan Army, or AA, and residents told Radio Free Asia. The AA, which controls 14 of Rakhine State’s 17 townships, has faced escalating junta assaults involving airstrikes, village burnings, travel restrictions, and the blocking of vital supplies such as food and medicine. In AA-controlled Rathedaung township, a junta jet bombed Htun Ya Wai village just after 10 a.m., a person close to the AA told RFA. “13 dead…

Junta forces bombed a school in central Myanmar, killing more than a dozen children, the country’s exiled civilian administration told Radio Free Asia on Monday. A jet fired at Sagaing region’s Oe Htein Kwin village in Tabayin township, which is under rebel control. “As far as we know now, 17 young students have died and more than 20 were injured. Some are still missing because of the bomb, so the death toll could be higher,” said Nay Bone Latt, a spokesperson for the prime minister’s office of the National Unity…

Myanmar’s military launched attacks on four villages in northern Myanmar controlled by an insurgent group, according to a statement published by rebels on Friday, despite both armies agreeing to a ceasefire extension only days earlier. A junta plane attacked villages in Shan state’s Nawnghkio township, bombing Ya Pyin and Tha Yet Cho from Monday to Thursday, according to a statement from the Ta’ang National Liberation Army, or TNLA, which controls the area. International rights groups and insurgents have criticized junta forces for repeatedly violating their own ceasefire declared on April…