The Kachin Independence Organization has seized a swathe of mineral rich territory on Myanmar’s border with China, but the group now has the tough task of running an ethnically diverse area mired in poverty and the legacy of strongman rule. 
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The Kachin Independence Organization has seized a swathe of mineral rich territory on Myanmar’s border with China, but the group now has the tough task of running an ethnically diverse area mired in poverty and the legacy of strongman rule. 
It’s been more than nine months since Rakhine State plunged into an even darker chapter, when attacks by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army prompted a brutal army crackdown that has seen 700,000 people – overwhelmingly Muslims who identify as Rohingya – flee over the border into Bangladesh.

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Myanmar enters 2021 with more friends than foes
The early delivery of vaccines is one of the many boons of the country’s geopolitics, but to really take advantage, Myanmar must bury the legacy of its isolationist past.
Will the Kayin BGF go quietly?
The Kayin State Border Guard Force has come under intense pressure from the Tatmadaw over its extensive, controversial business interests and there’s concern the ultimatum could trigger fresh hostilities in one of the country’s most war-torn areas.