On February 21, the U.S. Department of Justice indicted Japanese Yakuza leader Takeshi Ebisawa on charges of international trafficking of nuclear materials from Myanmar beginning in early 2020. Ebisawa had already been in U.S. custody since April 2022, after he was charged in New York City for illegal arms trading and narcotrafficking. The recent indictment … Read more
The long queues outside the Thai embassy in Yangon in recent weeks speak to the devastating toll and regional significance of the humanitarian crisis that continues to unfold in Myanmar. The country has now entered into the third year of protracted, embittered, and violent conflict between the junta government run by the military (Tatmadaw), and … Read more
More than three years after the Myanmar military seized power in a coup, it has become commonplace to argue that the battlefield is turning against the military and its State Administration Council (SAC). Resistance forces have enjoyed momentum since the launch of Operation 1027, an offensive launched in late October by the Three Brotherhood Alliance … Read more
China’s government has reportedly brokered an agreement between the Myanmar military and an alliance of armed resistance groups that has made sweeping gains in eastern Myanmar since late last year. In a Chinese- and Kachin-language statement yesterday, the Three Brotherhood Alliance (3BHA, or Northern Alliance) of resistance groups stated that following a round of China-brokered … Read more
Since the Three Brotherhood Alliance. a coalition of three ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) — the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), and the Arakan Army (AA) — launched Operation 1027 against the military junta on October 27 last year, Myanmar’s long-running civil war has taken a new turn. Its impact … Read more
While global attention is drawn to the crises in Crimea and the Gaza Strip, the severe human rights violations in Myanmar have continued unabated since the 2021 military coup. According to a recent report by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the Myanmar military regime has intensified its use … Read more
Myanmar’s opposition National Unity Government (NUG) has denounced the military’s announcement that it will begin enforcing a 2010 military conscription law, vowing to resist its implementation. In a statement yesterday, the NUG, which is coordinating the nationwide resistance to the military junta, said that the February 10 announcement was “unlawful and has no legal effect.” … Read more
On February 8, the rebel Arakan Army (AA) seized Mrauk-U, the former capital of the Arakan kingdom in Rakhine State, western Myanmar, along with the towns of Minbya and Kyauktaw. In fact, since the resumption of war between the AA and the country’s military junta on November 13, the AA has now successfully taken over … Read more
After significant battlefield setbacks over the past three months, Myanmar’s military announced that it would start to enforce for the first time a 2010 conscription law that subjects young men and women to at least two years of military service. In a statement read out on state broadcaster MRTV on Saturday, junta spokesperson Maj. Gen. … Read more
Thailand expects to open up a humanitarian corridor in about a month to deliver aid to civilians displaced by the conflict in neighboring Myanmar, the country’s Foreign Minister Parnpree Bahiddha-Nukara said yesterday. Speaking with reporters after inspecting the planned staging area in the busy border town of Mae Sot, a longtime center of refugee aid … Read more