International Relations Lead Story News Rakhine
The United States indirectly criticised China on Monday for shielding Burma from strong UN Security Council action over a military crackdown against mainly Rohingya Muslims that the US and other countries have denounced as ethnic cleansing.
“Unlike the TNLA, we were not involved in the assault,” the KIA spokesman said. “The accusation by the Burmese army is simply not true.”
Criticism has emerged over remarks by Kachin State’s social affairs minister after he said the state government did not know the location of many people displaced by recent conflict, professing ignorance amid reports of hundreds trapped in the jungles surrounding Tanai Township’s Awng Lawt village.
International Relations Lead Story News
China on Sunday condemned fighting in Burma between Burmese government troops and ethnic militants near the Chinese border, which had caused people to flee into Chinese territory.
Lead Story News Protest Yangon
Riot police in Yangon used batons on Saturday to break up a protest in support of victims of fighting in Burma’s northernmost Kachin State, arresting several of the organisers.
Ethnic insurgents in Burma killed 19 people, including four members of the security forces, in a major attack near the main border gate with China early on Saturday, a government spokesman said.
Lead Story Natural Disasters News
One decade after an earthquake killed almost 70,000 people, China’s investment in disaster preparedness means a similar tragedy is unlikely, said experts who urged other Asian nations to follow suit.
Foreign Affairs Lead Story News
Mahathir Mohamad was sworn in as Malaysia’s seventh prime minister on Thursday after a stunning election comeback, defeating the coalition that has ruled the nation for six decades since independence from Britain.
International Relations Lead Story News
Burma’s perennially contentious relationship with the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation moved no closer toward amicability this week as the two sides traded barbs over the situation in Rakhine State, where a mass exodus of Rohingya Muslims tied to allegations of ethnic cleansing has heaped global censure on the government.
Most travelled by foot, carrying what possessions they could.
Villagers displaced by conflict in Kachin State’s Hpakant Township have been ordered by the Burmese military to evacuate their makeshift camps and find lodgings with friends or relatives.
International Relations Lead Story News Rohingya
The UN Security Council has urged Burma’s government to carry out transparent investigations into accusations of violence against mainly Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State and to allow immediate aid access to the region.
A Burmese policeman now serving a prison sentence gave more details to a court on Wednesday about how he says two Reuters reporters were framed by police, in what has become a landmark press freedom case for the Southeast Asian nation.
Burma’s Union Election Commission has set a Nov. 3 date for this year’s by-election, which will involve races for 13 seats across the Union Parliament and state and regional legislatures.
International Relations Lead Story News
China does not want the UN Security Council to tell Burma that credible, transparent investigations into accusations of violence against mainly Rohingya Muslims are important, according to proposed amendments to a British-drafted statement.
Senior UN officials have warned about the prospect of a flood of babies being born in the coming weeks and months in Bangladesh’s Rohingya refugee camps that could be the result of rape.
Over 90 refugees from Burma on Monday returned home from Thailand as part of an official repatriation agreement between the Thai and Burmese governments.
The leaders of a Christian group that has been described as a “cult,” which was deemed illegal by Burmese authorities, have been sentenced to three years in prison after a court in Irrawaddy Region found them guilty on charges of kidnapping.
