As the genocidal horrors in Myanmar unfold, I am kicking myself for having risked my skin to go see then sainted leader, Aung San Suu Kyi. This event occurred in Rangoon (now Yangon) in 1996 when Suu Kyi was the revered democratic opposition leader resisting the nation’s brutal military regime. The western media loved her,…
India strikes fear into the hearts of 4 million Muslims India has drafted a controversial list of the country’s citizens which has made international headlines due to four million people living in the Indian state of Assam being excluded from the list. The Bengali speaking Muslims whose presumed citizenship status was effectively removed has left…
The criminal trial of two Reuters reporters in Myanmar has finally begun. Two young men were arrested late last year immediately after receiving what they thought were secret documents that would prove the military’s complicity in the killing of 10 Rohingyas during last summer’s Hybrid War events in Rakhine State. The government is charging them…
“In my four years as High Commissioner, I have heard many preposterous claims. That claim is almost in its own category of absurdity. Have you no shame, sir, have you no shame? We are not fools.” These were some of the remarks made by outgoing United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein,…
As Myanmar’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi this week sought to make progress on ending decades of civil war by bringing the country’s military and myriad ethnic armed groups to the negotiating table, the influence of Myanmar’s looming neighbour, China, weighed large on proceedings. Although bringing peace was a campaign promise when Suu…
Clashes between the Myanmarese military, popularly known as the Tatmadaw, and the ethno-regional separatists of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) in this sparsely populated but jade-rich northern region at the confluence of the country’s borders with both India and China have heated up in the past week and sent thousands of people fleeing from their…
