Myanmar

As Russia’s Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu vistited Burma/Myanmar last week, they agreed upon a sale resulting in the acquisition of six Sukhoi Su-30 fighter jets for the Burmese military. Shoigu met with the Army chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing in Naypyidaw, the capital of Burma. General Hlaing occupies the most senior position within the Burmese […]

There is a constant stream of news coming out of the conflicts in Burma/Myanmar, and it can get confusing to understand with words that blend together — words like, Rohingya, Burma, Myanmar, Yangon, Rangoon, Aung San Suu Kyi, the Karen, Karenni, Kachin, Shan … the list goes on. However, in attempting to understand the longest […]

Burma/Myanmar — Approximately 5,000 Buddhist protesters gathered in Mrauk U on Wednesday, protesting a ban on their freedom to gather in remembrance of the Kingdom of Arakan, which ended in 1784. This generally happens every year but was banned this year by the government. Reports are currently conflicting — some say they tried to enter […]

Yangon, Myanmar/Burma — A mass grave containing the bodies of 10 dead Rohingya Muslims has been uncovered in Rakhine State, Burma; the Rohingya combatants in the area have told authorities that the people buried were not a part of their organization. The government had earlier admitted to killing 10 “terrorists” in September, but have since […]

Burma/Myanmar — Two Reuters journalists were arrested on December 12, and have recently been charged under the “Official Secrets Act.” The two journalists, Ko Wa Lone and Ko Kyaw Soe Oo, had previously reported on the violence in Rakhine state with the Rohingya people. More often than not, the government tends to keep tight control over their media […]

The Burmese (Myanmar) government has been fighting ethnic minorities for decades. They have committed grave human rights abuses on every level, and they’ve done it to Christians, animists, Buddhists and most recently, the Rohingya Muslims. The violence toward the Rohingya civilians has been particularly harsh — Doctors Without Borders reported 8,170 deaths in the first […]

Anonymous sources within Karen State, Burma, have told SOFREP that the Burmese government (the same government currently attacking the Rohingya) are using a ceasefire with them to expand their front lines into Karen territory. That way, if the fighting breaks out again, they will have the advantage of existing infrastructure to help attack both combatants […]

Genocides, ethnic cleansing, democide — whatever name affixes itself to the act, there is one thing for certain: it takes a whole lot of work. The sheer amount of resources it takes to violently murder on a mass-scale, and displace, say, 650,000 people, involves a significant amount of resources and time. However, most regimes that […]

When a lot of people hear about a genocide in Sudan or ethnic cleansing in Burma, they think of the violence. Human beings are capable of terrible things, and the types of things they do to each other in these situations rightfully make the headlines. Recently, Burma’s offensive toward their own Rohingya people has meant […]

The United Nations put a resolution to vote on Christmas Eve, regarding the violence toward the Rohingya people  by Burma/Myanmar‘s government. The resolution had several stipulations, including the end of the military campaign against the people, an allowance for aid groups to legally go through Burma, and the allowance of a special U.N. envoy appointed […]

The aid organization Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres) has reported the deaths of 11,393 Rohingya people in the first 31 days of fighting against the ethnic minority; 1,713 were children under the age of five. “Of these, 8,170 deaths were due to violence … including 1,247 children under five years of age.” The survey […]

Rakhine State, Burma — The Burmese military has long persecuted all sorts of ethnic minorities throughout Myanmar/Burma — Muslim, Christian, animist or Buddhist — but the violence toward the Rohingya Muslims in recent months has proven exceptionally brutal. Countless documented cases of human rights abuses and war crimes have been reported from multiple aid organizations, […]