Migrant worker remittances have transformed the remote Magway Region village of Mauktin, but unscrupulous job brokers have left many residents under crushing debt.
Migrant worker remittances have transformed the remote Magway Region village of Mauktin, but unscrupulous job brokers have left many residents under crushing debt.
The Tatmadaw has resumed its old ways, killing civilians and destroying villages, despite the early promise of peace initiatives backed by Norway and other Western countries.
With the Tatmadaw chief reaching retirement age this year, some speculate that a fresh face could achieve a détente with the NLD – but the appointment process itself could hold the key to better civil-military relations.
Highlights
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Though soldiers cast ballots outside their bases for the first time in the November election, the military vote enabled the Union Solidarity and Development Party to clinch rare victories in borderland constituencies.
The Tatmadaw has occupied the border town of Myawaddy and the Kayin State Border Guard Force has sealed off its nearby Shwe Kokko enclave as tensions rise over the group’s business empire.
Government officials are sorting through hundreds of thousands of complaints from households that missed out on a November cash transfer, as new research from the World Bank reveals the heavy toll of the pandemic on vulnerable families.
The National League for Democracy’s re-election was helped by generous cash and in-kind contributions, but loose campaign finance rules kept much of this support off the books.
Teachers risked their health to serve at polling stations on election day. Now several face lawsuits brought by the losing party.
BY Swe Lei Mon
"The girl’s parents demanded we give him the death sentence – just like he did to their daughter," a party spokesman said.
BY AFP
A coronavirus outbreak in Tachileik has shone a rare spotlight on border-based hotels, KTVs and casinos with links to powerful armed groups, whose open flouting of pandemic restrictions has put Myanmar and Thailand in danger.
Opinion
Doh Athan
Doh Athan
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- January 12, 2021
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