Thailand is prepared to accept up to 100,000 people from the conflict-torn Karen State in neighboring Myanmar, its foreign minister said yesterday, as ethnic Karen rebels closed in on the town of Myawaddy on the Thai border. Late last week, the Karen National Union (KNU) announced that it and allied anti-regime militias had overrun a … Read more
The town of Mae Sot in northwest Thailand is bustling. A frontier town with a civil war on its doorstep, the population has swelled with Burmese and ethnic rebels who spend most of their time across the border battling it out against the military junta. Bamar, Karen, Karenni, and Mon – both Buddhists and Christians … Read more
More than 200 people protested yesterday in western Indonesia against the continued arrival of Rohingya refugees by boat, claiming that the sudden influx of people threatens to overwhelm local communities. More than 1,500 Rohingya civilians, seeking to escape the heaving, unsanitary, and crime-ridden refugee camps of southern Bangladesh, have washed up on Indonesia’s shores since … Read more
Yesterday, BenarNews published a report detailing Indonesia’s difficulty in handling the sudden influx of Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh – and of the fears that the government may choose to deport them back to Myanmar. An estimated 1,487 Rohingya refugees have arrived in Indonesia in recent weeks, according to the country’s Ministry of Political, Legal, and … Read more
ASEAN Beat | Politics | Southeast Asia Thuzar Maung was reportedly abducted from her Kuala Lumpur residence on July 4, along with her husband and three children. Advertisement Malaysian police have opened an investigation into the disappearance this month of a Myanmar democracy activist and her family, who were refugees recognized by the United Nations. On Tuesday, the country’s … Read more