Tag: Aung San Suu Kyi

Myanmar: Peace talks resume but ethnic autonomy not on the agenda

July 12, 2018 Myanmar Aung San Suu Kyi, Chin, China, Churches, Human rights, Kachin, Karen, Ma Ba Tha, Minorities, Myanmar, Myitkyina, Panglong, Rakhine, Rohingya, Sanctions, Tatmadaw

Myanmar's defacto leader Aung San Suu Kyi leaves the 2016 Panglong Conference. (Photo: AUNG HTET/AFP/Getty Images)

A third round of peace talks are taking place in Myanmar this week between armed ethnic groups and government forces, but the military has ruled out discussions on the autonomy that ethnic groups crave. The six-day meeting, which has been dubbed the 21st century ‘Panglong Conference’ after the historic 1947 . . . Read More

US religious freedom report shows ‘no progress’ in Myanmar

May 30, 2018 Global News -- No Particular Country Aung San Suu Kyi, Iran, Islamic extremism, Kachin, Middle East, Mike Pompeo, Minorities, Mohammad bin Salman, Myanmar, Prisons, Refugees, Religious freedom, Rohingya, Sam Brownback, Saudi Arabia, USA

Displaced Kachin residents cross the Malikha river on 26 April to escape the fighting between the Kachin Independence Army and the Myanmar government troops. (Photo: ZAU RING HPARA/AFP/Getty Images)

Myanmar, Saudi Arabia and Iran are among the countries criticised for their religious-freedom records in the US State Department’s International Religious Freedom Report for 2017, launched yesterday (29 May) in Washington DC. The report references the violence against the predominantly Muslim Rohingya ethnic group in Myanmar, whose situation is still . . . Read More

Myanmar: 7,000 Kachin displaced as violence escalates

May 15, 2018 Myanmar Aung San Suu Kyi, China, Churches, Human rights, IDPs, Kachin, Myanmar, Myitkyina, Pope Francis, Rakhine, Rohingya, Tatmadaw, UN, Youth

Almost 7,000 people belonging to the largely Christian minority group in Kachin, northern Myanmar, have fled their houses since fighting between the army and a rebel group flared up in early April, according to recent figures from the Red Cross. “It’s a war where civilians are being systematically targeted by . . . Read More

USCIRF says Myanmar must ‘control’ its military

December 21, 2016 Myanmar Aung San Suu Kyi, Buddhist nationalism, Chin, Churches, Kachin, Ma Ba Tha, Myanmar, Naga, Rape, Torture

A new, critical report on religious freedoms in Myanmar by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom says the major challenge facing Aung San Suu Kyi’s government is “bringing the military under civilian control”. The report says the Burmese Army, which, due to constitutional provisions, is beyond civilian control, has . . . Read More

Myanmar Christians join latest peace talks

September 1, 2016 Myanmar Aung San Suu Kyi, Kachin, Karen, Myanmar, Nay Pyi Taw, Rape, Refugees, Women

Myanmar’s Christians have joined other ethnic groups at this week’s five-day peace conference in the capital, Nay Pyi Taw, aimed at ending decades of conflict. The conference was attended by the UN Secretary-General, but some critics say it’s happened without enough preparation and consultation. The 17 ethnic groups, including representatives . . . Read More

Myanmar’s new Speaker represents ethnic minorities

February 10, 2016 Myanmar Aung San Suu Kyi, Baptists, Kachin, Karen, Minorities, Myanmar

An ethnic Karen Christian has been selected as Speaker, a senior job in Myanmar’s Upper House that is seen as a reconciliation effort towards the country’s ethnic minorities, . Mahn Win Khaing Than was appointed by Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party, which swept to power in Myanmar’s first . . . Read More

Myanmar’s minorities in government talks

January 12, 2016 Myanmar Aung San Suu Kyi, Karen, Minorities, Myanmar, Nay Pyi Taw

Political dialogue between Myanmar’s government and eight ethnic minority groups are taking place in the capital, Nay Pyi Taw, . Some, if not most, of the ethnic minorities, are Christian, such as the Karen in the south. The at the election in November of Aung San Suu Kyi’s party, the . . . Read More

After Aung San Suu Kyi’s election win, Myanmar’s displaced Kachin are hopeful they can go home for Christmas

December 16, 2015 Myanmar Aung San Suu Kyi, Baptists, Christmas, Churches, Elections, Kachin, Refugees

As democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi prepares to assume power in Myanmar, two Baptist leaders among the country’s ethnic Kachin refugees are cautiously expecting more freedom to live their Christian faith, perhaps as soon as this Christmas. More than 100,000 ethnic Kachin, displaced due to civil war that broke . . . Read More

Myanmar’s Christians cautiously hopeful

November 12, 2015 Myanmar Aung San Suu Kyi, Buddhist nationalism, Chin, Elections, Kachin, Ma Ba Tha, Myitkyina

In Myanmar, Aung San Suu Kyi’s party, the National League for Democracy , has won a landslide victory in the first freely-contested election in 25 years, winning the needed two-thirds of the vote to enable it to nominate the country’s new President. Even though she herself is barred from that role, Suu Kyi has . . . Read More

In Myanmar, Christian rebels are in double trouble

May 19, 2015 Myanmar Aung San Suu Kyi, Chin, Kachin, Karen, Myanmar, Panglong

In March the Myanmar government and 16 rebel groups signed a draft ceasefire agreement, ahead of national elections scheduled for November this year. The pact, however, doesn’t contain self-determination provisions that these ethnic groups have demanded. Myanmar is made up of eight major and eight minor ethnic groups, each of . . . Read More

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