In recent years Australia has started to shift its focus westward. While the Pacific Ocean and Southeast Asia have been deemed primary areas of interest for the country, the Indo-Pacific construct has led Australia to take its Indian Ocean opportunities more seriously. Mostly this has led to greater cooperation with India as the region’s primary … Read more
Rows and rows of neatly set blocks of two-roomed tenements line the eastern corner of Bhasan Char, a 40-square kilometer sand-bar island off the coast of Bangladesh on the Bay of Bengal within Bangladesh’s territorial waters. Women cradle their babies in the narrow and cramped balconies of this sprawling mass of concrete while the men … Read more
Thailand has dispatched its first batch of aid along a humanitarian corridor to Myanmar that was recently established to assist civilian populations affected by the country’s metastasizing civil war. According to The Associated Press, Thailand yesterday sent 10 trucks over the Mae Sot-Myawaddy border crossing, carrying around 4,000 packages of aid to three towns in … Read more
Myanmar’s military junta is moving to enlist its first batch of civilians into the armed forces, amid reports that its recently announced conscription drive has driven thousands into hiding or into the ranks of the resistance. In a report published on Friday, Channel News Asia noted that summons letters have now been sent to “eligible … 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
An Indonesian search and rescue ship yesterday rescued dozens of Rohingya refugees from a capsized wooden boat off the coast of Aceh, underscoring the peril of the ocean journeys from Bangladesh. According to a report from The Associated Press, which had a photographer aboard the Indonesian vessel, 59 people were saved by the search and … Read more
Abaung Sein* took brief pauses to chew betel as she recollected her family’s flight out of Sittwe, the regional capital of strife-torn Rakhine State in western Myanmar. The elderly Rakhine/Arakanese was enjoying her guilty pleasure as her family settled into a friend’s crowded Yangon flat. “We were lucky that we bought the tickets when we … Read more
On February 6, 264 members of Myanmar’s border and security forces took shelter in Bangladesh to escape heavy fighting between Myanmar’s army and the Arakan Army. They were disarmed by the members of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) and taken to a safe shelter. Those who sustained critical injuries were given treatment at local hospitals. It … Read more
On February 29, an Indian delegation led by K. Vanlalvena, a member of the Rajya Sabha, India’s upper house of Parliament and the only delegate from Mizoram, made a surprise cross-border visit to rebel-held territory in western Myanmar. Crossing over from southern Mizoram’s Zorinpui, the parliamentarian from the Mizo National Front (MNF) and his team … Read more
An ethnic Kachin group in northern Myanmar has seized more than 20 military outposts and bases since it and its allies launched a coordinated attack on military targets last week, the group’s spokesperson claimed yesterday. On March 7, the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and its allies launched simultaneous attacks on military outposts and bases along … Read more