Myanmar

Activists from Quaker and Catholic community groups took action outside weapons manufacturer Nioa’s gates in Pinkenba, reports Kerry Smith.

A Tatmadaw 'goodwill' delegation led by Senior General

As protests grow against the military coup in Myanmar, Australian mining companies are carrying on as if nothing happened, writes Allen Jennings.

A military coup took place in Burma/Myanmar, reversing the country's ostensible shift toward civilian government. Alternative ASEAN Network on Burma's Debbie Stothard discusses its significance with Green Left.

Socialist parties in the Asia-Pacific have condemned the military coup in Burma/Myanmar, writes Susan Price

Alternative Asean Network on Burma founder Debbie Stothard speaks to Green Left about the background to the latest military coup in Burma/Myanmar.

Rohingya refugees living in a refugee camp in Bangladesh are  just surviving, as they look towards the day when they can return to their homeland, writes Paul Gregoire.

British team Leeds United FC is under fire after announcing late last month plans to tour Myanmar despite the mounting allegations of human rights abuses and “ethnic cleansing” in the country.

The club revealed its two final post-season games would be in the Myanmar cities of Yangon and Mandalay. The tour will be sponsored by a bank that has been linked to the government and, consequently, the hundreds of thousands human rights abuses reported by refugee Rohingya Muslims.

The United Nations said that nearly 4000 people have been driven out of their homes in Myanmar (also known as Burma) in April as the country’s north is gripped with violence.

Habiburahman, a Rohingyan refugee and founder of the Australian Burmese Rohingya Organisation, has called on the Australian government to suspend its military aid to Burma (Myanmar). Australia currently spends $450,000 a year on aid to the Burmese military.

Habiburahman was speaking at a public meeting on March 28, organised by the Refugee Action Collective. 

He called for a halt to Australian investment in Burma, with human rights conditions being imposed on any resumption. Woodside Petroleum has invested $400 million in offshore gas and oil exploration.

United Nations human rights official Andrew Gilmour said on March 7 that it was impossible to safely send Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh back to their homes in Myanmar as documents released under freedom of information laws show that the Australian defence department plans to spend almost $400,000 on training members of the Myanma military in 2017-18.

More than 600,000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar (also known as Burma) to Bangladesh since August 25. With about 300,000 Rohingya refugees already in Bangladesh, tens of thousands in hiding in northern parts of Rakhine State and about 100,000 detained in Internal Displacement Camps, the United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres has described this mass exodus as “the world fastest-developing refugee emergency and a humanitarian and human rights nightmare.”

In a September address to the United Nations Human Rights Council, top UN human rights official Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, described the Myanmar military’s attacks on Rohingya as being “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing”.

Satellite photos show the Myanmar security forces and local militia burning entire Rohingya villages to the ground. There are consistent accounts of extrajudicial killings, including the shooting of fleeing civilians.