https://www.scmp.com/rss/510244/feed Min Ye Kyaw is an experienced journalist who has extensively covered current affairs, lifestyle and crime in Myanmar. His works have appeared in several publications, including The Times, The Guardian and Myanmar Mix. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com The United Nations and Myanmar’s shadow government have led condemnations over the decision this week by the country’s ruling junta to transfer ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest to solitary confinement in prison. Junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun on Wednesday said the Nobel laureate had been transferred to “solitary confinement in prison” and that her future trial hearings would be held within a courtroom in the detention facility. Since the coup in February 2021, Suu Kyi has been held... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3182963/myanmars-nug-says-junta-placed-aung-san-suu-kyi-solitary?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3182963/myanmars-nug-says-junta-placed-aung-san-suu-kyi-solitary?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 24 Jun 2022 09:26:13 +0000 The decision to execute two prominent political leaders in Myanmar in what will be the first judicial executions in decades is an explosive move likely to have a devastating effect at home and further damage the military junta’s reputation abroad. That is according to Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, after approval of the death penalty for four political prisoners, including the two democracy activists, was announced. He said it was “equivalent to pouring fuel on the... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3180761/myanmar-juntas-fuel-fire-cold-blooded-assassination-rights?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3180761/myanmar-juntas-fuel-fire-cold-blooded-assassination-rights?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 07 Jun 2022 11:02:11 +0000 Russia is shaping up to be a major energy supplier for Myanmar amid an exodus by international players from the country’s oil and gas sector, one of the junta’s biggest sources of foreign revenue. Last month, Malaysian state-owned firm Petronas and Thailand’s PTTEP said they would stop operations in Myanmar’s US$700 million Yetagun gas field, located south of the country in the Andaman Sea. Petronas has a 41 per cent stake in the 24,130 square kilometre gas field, while PTTEP owns 19.3 per... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3179283/myanmar-junta-says-russia-step-major-energy-supplier-after-more?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3179283/myanmar-junta-says-russia-step-major-energy-supplier-after-more?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 27 May 2022 00:30:17 +0000 It is dawn on Tuesday, the eve of Thingyan, Myanmar’s water festival that marks the new year. An anti-junta militant of the Karen National Union is starting his day, deep in the jungles of the Bago Yoma mountain range in central Myanmar, by gathering firewood and water for his battalion. As he goes about his daily chores, the graphic designer-turned-soldier, who goes by the nom de guerre Dat Khell, wistfully recalls his past celebrations of the important festival – before Senior General Min Aung... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3174020/myanmar-protesters-seek-joyless-new-year-subvert-juntas-fun?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3174020/myanmar-protesters-seek-joyless-new-year-subvert-juntas-fun?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 13 Apr 2022 01:00:13 +0000 As international attention shifts to the Russia-Ukraine war, the Myanmar military’s campaign of attacks against its opponents has ramped up a gear, with villages in the northwest being razed to the ground amid a bid to quell anti-junta forces. In March, soldiers destroyed more than 1,000 homes across four villages in Khin Oo Township in the Sagaing Division, where local militant groups have waged a fierce resistance effort. The military’s series of “hit-and-run” arson attacks, known by locals as... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3173335/myanmar-juntas-hit-and-run-arson-attacks-leave-cut-villages-no?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3173335/myanmar-juntas-hit-and-run-arson-attacks-leave-cut-villages-no?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 08 Apr 2022 01:00:25 +0000 For Myanmar’s ruling junta, an ideal state of affairs would be one where all forms of dissent are completely crushed and people fear protesting in public – eradicating the need for authorities to play cat-and-mouse games with demonstrators. But even as junta chief Min Aung Hlaing chases that goal, a resistance effort by the likes of James (not his real name), a 21-year-old graphic designer, will keep the regime on alert for quite some time yet. James is among the leaders of a group of youths who... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3168988/how-myanmars-gen-z-flash-mobs-evade-soldiers-protest-against?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3168988/how-myanmars-gen-z-flash-mobs-evade-soldiers-protest-against?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 03 Mar 2022 00:00:39 +0000 The Myanmar military’s recent placement of landmines around oil and gas pipelines connected to southwestern China suggests the junta is hypersensitive to possible attacks on the projects amid an escalating national rebellion, experts say. The Southeast Asian nation is already one of the world’s most heavily mined nations and the use of landmines to protect the nearly 800km pipelines will likely further antagonise residents incensed by the brutality displayed by the junta in recent months, said... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3165109/myanmar-armys-landmines-oil-gas-pipelines-near-china-likely?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3165109/myanmar-armys-landmines-oil-gas-pipelines-near-china-likely?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 29 Jan 2022 04:00:16 +0000 In 2021 there were a raft of reports about the Myanmar military regime’s mass killings, and the massacre in Hpruso, Kayah state, on Christmas Eve ranks as one of the deadliest attacks of the year. Anti-junta fighters, rights activists and officials from international aid agencies who spoke to This Week in Asia said that while news of large civilian casualties no longer jolted them after months of fighting, the nature of the latest killings had horrified them. On Christmas Day, the Myanmar Now... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3162697/bound-gagged-shot-myanmars-military-massacre-women-children?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3162697/bound-gagged-shot-myanmars-military-massacre-women-children?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 09 Jan 2022 05:00:21 +0000 Myanmar’s media is headed into 2022 in a parlous state, with independent journalists who remain in the junta-ruled country forced to operate surreptitiously to avoid arbitrary detention, beatings and violent repercussions for their families, according to interviews by This Week In Asia. State media, meanwhile, has intensified the propagation of falsehoods depicting peace returning to the country, even as anti-junta fighters step up their guerilla campaign against the generals, the local... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3160620/myanmars-journalists-detained-beaten-killed-junta-tightens-grip?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3160620/myanmars-journalists-detained-beaten-killed-junta-tightens-grip?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 22 Dec 2021 03:00:24 +0000 Myanmar’s deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi was sentenced to four years in jail by a junta-controlled court, in the first conviction in a series of criminal trials she is facing in the aftermath of the February 1 coup. She will serve a reduced two-year sentence in the undisclosed place where she is currently detained – instead of a prison – following a “partial pardon” granted by junta chief Min Aung Hlaing, state television said in a late night bulletin. In an immediate response, the United... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3158607/myanmars-ousted-leader-aung-san-suu-kyi-sentenced-4-years-prison?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3158607/myanmars-ousted-leader-aung-san-suu-kyi-sentenced-4-years-prison?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 06 Dec 2021 06:29:07 +0000 From activists to United Nations officials, the world’s watchdogs have been warning about the human rights abuses taking place in Myanmar as the military cracks down on anti-junta forces and protesters. In the latest of these warnings, the UN secretary general Antonio Guterres this week said the window to prevent junta chief Min Aung Hlaing’s forces from entrenching their now seven-month de facto rule of the country was closing, and once again called for a unified international response. His... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3150880/tortured-executed-shot-juntas-way-death-post-coup-myanmar?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3150880/tortured-executed-shot-juntas-way-death-post-coup-myanmar?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 02 Oct 2021 03:00:18 +0000 With only six per cent of junta-ruled Myanmar’s 54 million people vaccinated, the country’s shadow government is planning to channel much of its revenue from global crowdfunding campaigns towards inoculating as many residents as possible. The National Unity Government’s (NUG) finance minister Tin Tun Naing told This Week in Asia in a recent interview that the effort would first focus on areas not under the full control of the military, and was expected to cost US$300 million. The NUG, comprising... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3149608/myanmars-shadow-government-plans-us300-million?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3149608/myanmars-shadow-government-plans-us300-million?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 22 Sep 2021 01:30:33 +0000 The international community has expressed alarm over the declaration of a “people’s defensive war” by Myanmar’s anti-junta forces, even as interviews with citizens weary of the military’s brutality suggest there is support on the ground for the revolt. Tuesday’s call to arms by Duwa Lashi La, the acting president of the National Unity Government (NUG), comes just days before a United Nations committee makes a highly awaited decision on who can represent Myanmar at the world body. The declaration... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3148056/call-defensive-war-against-myanmars-junta-sparks-alarm-even?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3148056/call-defensive-war-against-myanmars-junta-sparks-alarm-even?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 09 Sep 2021 00:00:26 +0000 It took the Association of Southeast Asian Nations nearly three months to convene a special meeting to discuss Myanmar’s February 1 coup. Then, a further three months elapsed before the bloc agreed on appointing Brunei’s senior diplomat Erywan Yusof as the special envoy to the violence-wracked nation. Now, some three weeks have passed since that August 4 appointment, and the bloc has still offered little indication of what is to come. This week, Singapore’s Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3146694/aseans-foot-dragging-fuels-anger-myanmar-what-next-special-envoy?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3146694/aseans-foot-dragging-fuels-anger-myanmar-what-next-special-envoy?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 28 Aug 2021 03:00:27 +0000 In Myanmar’s commercial capital Yangon, Yee Mon has spent weeks rendering whatever help she can to residents in her township as the economy, already ravaged by February’s coup, takes a further beating from a spiralling Covid-19 disaster. Yet, the 25-year-old former proof editor feels guilty. While she fanned out with food and medical aid for neighbours, her own uncle and aunt succumbed to the coronavirus. She could do little to prevent their deaths as they needed oxygen, which was in scarce... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3142994/myanmar-pleas-junta-leave-coronavirus-good-samaritans?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3142994/myanmar-pleas-junta-leave-coronavirus-good-samaritans?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 29 Jul 2021 07:22:56 +0000 Thuya Aung recalls driving through the night last week searching for medical oxygen for his father, who was suffering from Covid-19 at the family home in South Dagon township near Yangon. Thuya’s mission meant defying the overnight curfew imposed by Myanmar’s military junta but he had no choice. “Time was running out,” the 29-year-old said. “So I have to go out although I know I could be arrested or get shot by soldiers on the way.” Eventually his mother called. His father had died. Myanmar’s... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3140870/myanmar-struggles-contain-coronavirus-health-workers-who?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3140870/myanmar-struggles-contain-coronavirus-health-workers-who?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 13 Jul 2021 04:30:18 +0000 Alfie would normally be working in his salon in Yangon but he, like many other young people in Myanmar, has abandoned his regular life to take up arms against the military junta that seized power in February. The 26-year-old hairdresser has cultivated a glamorous profile online, through a mixture of celebrity clientele and his own TikTok and social media content. After initially joining the anti-coup protests demanding a return to civilian rule, the Kachin native has traded his clippers for a... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3136225/myanmar-hairdresser-has-swapped-his-scissors-rifle-and-military?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3136225/myanmar-hairdresser-has-swapped-his-scissors-rifle-and-military?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 06 Jun 2021 07:00:07 +0000 Human rights activist Aung Myo Min, 53, has many firsts under his belt. Three decades ago, he became the first openly gay person to become involved in Myanmar’s pro-democracy movement, when the bloody 1988 students’ uprising led him to dedicate his life to activism. His work defending human rights and protecting LGBTQ communities from prejudice has won him several international awards, including the Felipa de Souza Award in 1999 and the Schuman Award in 2017. Why Southeast Asia’s LGBT community... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3133355/myanmars-first-lgbt-minister-continues-lifelong-fight-against?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3133355/myanmars-first-lgbt-minister-continues-lifelong-fight-against?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 14 May 2021 02:30:16 +0000 Three years ago, his five-star restaurant in Yangon’s Mayangone township was packed with diners every day, serving French cuisine to both expats and Myanmar locals. But after the double whammy of the Covid-19 pandemic and February 1 coup left his business bankrupt, chef Orng Joitamoi decided to shut up shop and become a street food vendor, selling congee and sausages. “I didn’t become a chef to cook at a fine-dining restaurant, I did because I love cooking. As long as I am cooking, I am a chef,”... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3131172/how-myanmar-chef-went-fine-dining-street-food-vendor-following?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3131172/how-myanmar-chef-went-fine-dining-street-food-vendor-following?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 27 Apr 2021 04:00:15 +0000 Within hours of taking part in one of the largest student-led anti-coup protests to be held in Myanmar’s commercial capital of Yangon last month, 20-year-old Han had been thrown into jail by security forces. The journalism student stayed locked up for more than three weeks, alongside some 300 other university students who took part in the demonstration on March 3, before the military junta released them all without explanation on March 24. Han, who was studying at the National Management Degree... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3129059/i-still-get-nightmares-myanmar-student-protesters-traumatised?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3129059/i-still-get-nightmares-myanmar-student-protesters-traumatised?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 11 Apr 2021 03:22:13 +0000 Through the haze of grief and pain, there is one moment of clarity to which the family of Khant Nyar Hein keep returning: they have lost everything since they lost him. The 17-year-old, a first-year medical student, was killed by Myanmar security forces on Sunday, one of the more than 224 residents of Southeast Asia’s poorest nation who have died while opposing the February 1 military coup that unseated the democratic government of Aung San Suu Kyi. After his funeral on Tuesday, Khant’s family,... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3126214/its-not-about-one-family-any-more-myanmar-family-slain-17-year?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3126214/its-not-about-one-family-any-more-myanmar-family-slain-17-year?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 19 Mar 2021 11:53:19 +0000 The streets of Hlaingthaya, Myanmar, have a reputation for being tough and unwelcoming. The township on the western edge of Yangon is one of the largest and most populated in the country, its 67 square kilometres teeming with almost 700,000 residents, nearly half of whom work in its 850 or so factories. Many of those workers migrated from the countryside, seeking an escape from poverty, only to find that city life had dangers of its own. In the past these workers have described a township of... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3125583/why-are-myanmars-anti-coup-protesters-angry-china?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3125583/why-are-myanmars-anti-coup-protesters-angry-china?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 16 Mar 2021 01:16:26 +0000 Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi will not travel to Myanmar on Wednesday to hold talks with the country’s military leaders following a military coup earlier this month, but has left it open as an option, a spokesman for the foreign ministry confirmed on Wednesday. “After taking into account the current development and the input of other Asean countries this is not the ideal time to conduct a visit to Myanmar,” Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah told a news briefing.... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3122799/myanmar-coup-indonesia-downplays-purported-asean-plan-new?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3122799/myanmar-coup-indonesia-downplays-purported-asean-plan-new?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 23 Feb 2021 09:43:32 +0000 As Myanmar’s protests against the military junta gather steam, young demonstrators are turning out in the streets in droves to express their anger against the coup. The street rallies that have followed the putsch are the biggest demonstrations the country has seen since 2007’s Saffron Revolution, named after the colour of the robes worn by Buddhist monks who demanded democracy as they protested against the loss of fuel subsidies. This time around and more than a decade later, the protesters –... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3121494/myanmar-coup-protesters-delight-internet-satirical-signs?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3121494/myanmar-coup-protesters-delight-internet-satirical-signs?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 11 Feb 2021 23:30:16 +0000 Days after Myanmar’s military seized power in a coup, it appears all has returned to normal in Yangon, where offices remain open, the roads are bursting with traffic, and nearby bazaars are packed with customers shopping for groceries. A fruit seller in downtown Yangon says business has not been affected, and he has continued to open his shop at the market, earning some 30,000 kyat (US$21) from 6am to 7pm. While there were long queues at banks earlier in the week, a 22-year-old accountant says... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3120776/amid-myanmars-civildisobedience-movement-thunder-pots-and-pans?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3120776/amid-myanmars-civildisobedience-movement-thunder-pots-and-pans?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 06 Feb 2021 02:00:21 +0000