web Desk

Last February, the United Nations official responsible for tracking human rights in Myanmar called for a global arms embargo against the ruling military junta, which was by then a year into a brutal crackdown on dissenters since its 2021 coup ousted the civilian government. In a 40-page report, Tom Andrews told the U.N. Human Rights Council that countries in the international body continued to sell arms to the junta, despite rising civilian casualties.  “The choice between action and inaction is literally a matter of life and death,” he warned. This month offered fresh evidence that Andrews’ call for action has

Myanmar’s junta continues to impose harsh prison sentences on student activists, sentencing seven of them to prison terms of between two and 25 years over the past seven days. The longest sentence was handed down by Yangon’s Insein Prison Court on Tuesday to Kaung Sat, from the city’s Myanmar Maritime University, according to his students’ union. He was arrested in November 2021 and charged with four counts of sedition, possessing arms, possessing explosives with intent to attack junta forces and buildings, and attempted murder. The court found him guilty of all the charges and sentenced him to a total of

A secret court in Myanmar on Wednesday sentenced the lawyer representing a leader of the former ruling political party to 15 years in prison with hard labor, according to an attorney with knowledge of the country’s judicial proceedings. The military tribunal in Mandalay’s Obo Prison sentenced Ywat Nu Aung, who represented Zaw Myint Maung, a vice chair of the National League for Democracy Party, on charges of aiding a terrorist organization, the attorney told Radio Free Asia, speaking on condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisal.  The move is the latest by the military junta, which took control of the

Junta troops are still banning the transport of humanitarian aid including shipments of medicines and fuel in western Myanmar’s Rakhine state a month after a local cease-fire went into force, according to sources in the region.  Brokered by Japan after four months of intense fighting in the Rakhine, the cease-fire is the latest halt to hostilities between junta troops and the rebel Arakan Army, or AA, that have devastated the civilian population of the state and of Paletwa township in neighboring Chin. Although roads have been reopened across Rakhine, junta forces continue to block the delivery of essential goods to