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NAYPYIDAW, Myanmar (AFP) — Britain’s foreign minister Boris Johnson met with Aung San Suu Kyi in Myanmar’s capital on Sunday to press for action on the Rohingya crisis, as the country faces mounting pressure to punish troops accused of atrocities against the Muslim minority. Johnson spoke with the embattled Myanmar leader, whose reputation among the international community has plunged over her handling of the crisis, in Naypyidaw while on a four-day tour in Asia. The meeting followed […]
BANGKOK, Thailand (AFP) — Two Reuters journalists detained for two months by Myanmar authorities were arrested over their investigation of a massacre of 10 Rohingya men, the news agency said in a report that detailed the grisly killings. It is the first time Reuters has publicly confirmed what Myanmar nationals Wa Lone, 31, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 27, were working on when they were arrested on December 12 on the outskirts of Yangon. The pair […]
UNITED NATIONS, United States (AFP) — Britain, France, the United States and five other countries asked the UN Security Council on Wednesday to discuss the fate of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees driven from Myanmar, diplomats said. The council will hold a meeting on Tuesday to hear UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi report on the crisis sparked by an army crackdown in Myanmar’s Rakhine state in August. Sweden, Poland, the Netherlands, Kazakhstan and Equatorial […]
SINGAPORE, Singapore (AFP) – China’s continued reclamation in the South China Sea has eroded trust among claimants and could raise regional tensions, Southeast Asian foreign ministers said Tuesday. The ministers from the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) did not mention China by name in their statement after a one-day meeting in Singapore, current chair of the grouping. Beijing claims nearly all of the waterway and has been turning reefs and islets into islands and installing military […]
YANGON, Myanmar (AFP) — Myanmar officials have denied a report of five mass graves of Rohingya in a village in crisis-hit Rakhine, a border region gutted by a military crackdown on the Muslim minority. Myanmar troops are accused of waging an ethnic cleansing campaign against the Rohingya, nearly 700,000 of whom have fled to Bangladesh since last August. Myanmar denies the allegation, saying it launched a proportionate crackdown on Rohingya rebels, but has blocked reporters and UN […]
UNITED NATIONS, United States (AFP) – North Korea is flouting UN sanctions by exporting coal, iron, steel and other commodities banned under UN sanctions, earning nearly $200 million in revenue last year, a UN report said Friday. A UN panel of experts also found evidence of North Korea’s ongoing military cooperation with Syria to develop its ballistic missile and chemical weapons programs, and with Myanmar. North Korea “continued to export almost all the commodities prohibited in the […]
UNITED NATIONS, United States (AFP) — Myanmar’s government has told the Security Council that this month was “not the right time” for a visit by the top UN body to see first-hand the Rohingya refugee crisis, the council president said Thursday. Kuwait’s Ambassador Mansour al-Otaibi said Myanmar authorities were not opposed to such a visit, which could take place in March or April. “They just think that this is not the right time for a visit,” Otaibi, […]
by Richard Sargent with Annie Banerji in Cox’s Bazar Agence France Presse YANGON, Myanmar (AFP) — Myanmar blamed Bangladesh on Tuesday for delays to the start of a huge repatriation program for Rohingya refugees, as the UN warned of the dangers of rushing their return to strife-torn Rakhine state. Nearly 690,000 Rohingya escaped to Bangladesh after a brutal Myanmar army crackdown began in the state last August, while around 100,000 fled an earlier bout of […]
YANGON, Myanmar (AFP) — Talks were held Monday to “settle issues” over the repatriation of Rohingya refugees to Myanmar, Bangladeshi officials told AFP, as doubts linger over how many of the 655,000 Muslim minority who fled violence are likely to return. Under diplomatic pressure, Myanmar has vowed to repatriate refugees driven into Bangladesh by an army crackdown last year, if they can verify they belong in western Rakhine state. But aid agencies question how many […]
YANGON, Myanmar (AFP) — Myanmar’s civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi has welcomed an unprecedented army admission that security forces carried out extra-judicial killings of Rohingya Muslims as a “positive step”, state-backed media reported Saturday. After months of staunch denials of abuse, the army on Wednesday said a probe found four members of the security forces helped kill 10 Rohingya militant suspects at Inn Din village on September 2, leaving their bodies in a hastily […]
YANGON, Myanmar (AFP) — A strong 6.0-magnitude earthquake hit a remote region of central Myanmar early Friday, the US Geological Survey said. The shallow quake struck some 40 kilometers (24 miles) west of the town of Pyu, the USGS said. It was followed by three weaker tremors in the region, all of magnitudes 5.3, the survey reported. “There is a low likelihood of casualties and damage,” USGS said, but noted that residential structures in the […]
YANGON, Myanmar (AFP) — The detention of two Reuters journalists in Myanmar was extended for two more weeks, a court said Wednesday, in the pair’s first public appearance since their December 12 arrest under a draconian colonial-era secrecy law. Wa Lone, 31, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 27 — Myanmar nationals who had been reporting on a military-led crackdown on Rohingya Muslims — were arrested after being invited to meet police for dinner on the […]
