Myanmar all but fell from the international conscience in 2023, with the world subsumed by the Ukraine war, conflict in the Middle East and the dumpster fire of domestic American politics Myanmar, which competed with Sudan for most neglected conflict, was further marginalized by misconceptions that its post-coup civil war had settled into a grinding […]

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A shaky agreement to end fighting in northern Myanmar has served to highlight concerns in Beijing over the ongoing unrest – and the limits of China’s power to influence the ongoing civil war. On January 12, 2024, China announced that it had brokered a cease-fire between the Myanmar military and a trio of ethnic armies, […]

The post China’s influence on Myanmar insurgents only goes so far appeared first on Asia Times.

The unprecedented “Operation 1027” resistance offensive launched in late October 2023 continues to make advances on Myanmar military positions in northern Shan State. Hundreds of ruling State Administration Council (SAC) bases have fallen or been abandoned to the rolling onslaught of the Three Brotherhood Alliance (3BA) comprised of the insurgent Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army […]

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Ahead of Myanmar’s 76th Independence Day on January 4, the official preparations appear morose, half-hearted and unconvincing. By any objective assessment, “independence” from British colonialism has lost its mojo at a time the military regime is immolating Myanmar as a functioning society. The five “objectives: of this year’s anniversary are as discordant as the State […]

The post End for Myanmar military’s monkey-grip on independence? appeared first on Asia Times.

In November 2023, several countries followed through on their earlier commitments to intervene in the Rohingya genocide case, supporting The Gambia against Myanmar at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Events on the battlefield have also shifted the military balance, which could affect the prosecution of crimes at the ICJ and other international courts. On […]

The post Myanmar’s battered junta in extreme legal jeopardy appeared first on Asia Times.

In late October, an alliance of three ethnic armed organizations (EAO) launched a major offensive against Myanmar’s military regime in the north of the country.  Soon afterward, other EAOs and militia groups, including members of the opposition People’s Defense Forces (PDFs), took advantage of the regime’s troubles by opening new fronts in western, eastern and […]

The post Still too early to write off Myanmar’s junta appeared first on Asia Times.

Over a month after the launch of the most successful campaign by anti-junta resistance forces in Myanmar’s civil war, some overarching realities are emerging from events that have been widely hailed as a turning point in the conflict. The most important is arguably the least obvious: the dangers of triumphalism and a rush to victory […]

The post The dangers of guerrilla triumphalism in Myanmar appeared first on Asia Times.

Myanmar’s military is still reeling from the surprise Operation 1027 insurgent attacks in northern Shan state that overran over 140 bases, captured large caches of weapons and raised potent new questions about the State Administration Council (SAC) coup regime’s survival. But is the SAC’s extraordinary setback driving it to use banned chemical weapons against the […]

The post Is Myanmar’s embattled regime using chemical weapons? appeared first on Asia Times.

Myint Swe, the acting president of Myanmar’s military government, has warned that the country “will be split into various parts” after his armed forces suffered huge territorial losses to resistance fighters recently. His response was to call on Myanmar’s people to support his military forces, a call that is likely, based on previous experience, to […]

The post Myanmar’s military junta in death spiral decline appeared first on Asia Times.

If the echoes of World War II have any resonance in 21st century Myanmar then events have not yet reached the point in April 1945 when the delusional commander-in-chief of a defeated German army directed non-existent divisions from an underground bunker amid the ruins of the national capital. They are, though, plausibly at a similar […]

The post No good options for Myanmar’s mortally wounded regime appeared first on Asia Times.

The stunning Blitzkrieg of Operation 1027 in northern Shan state over the past two weeks will possibly go down as the most pivotal and daring feat of arms in Myanmar’s many decades of civil war. In the early hours of October 27, combined forces of multiple ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) and a handful of allies […]

The post Brotherhood Alliance rewriting Myanmar’s war narrative appeared first on Asia Times.

One Chinese citizen was killed and several others injured yesterday (November 4) when an artillery shell fired by the Myanmar military apparently missed its intended target and landed on the Chinese side of the China-Myanmar border. The strike had targeted the city of Laiza on the Myanmar side of the border, home to the headquarters […]

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Amid the last torrential storms of the 2023 monsoon, the fog of war is thickening over Myanmar. And growing numbers of observers monitoring the country’s unfolding implosion are in danger of getting lost in the gloom. No one doubts that hostilities between the country’s embattled State Administration Council (SAC) coup regime and a plethora of […]

The post Fog of war: Myanmar’s armed conflict is not a stalemate appeared first on Asia Times.

Tougher times await Myanmar migrant workers in Southeast Asia. Two recent orders issued by Myanmar’s junta State Administration Council (SAC) in September will result in higher costs of moving, living and working abroad for migrant workers and a fall in their disposable income and savings. The first is the order that Myanmar migrant workers who […]

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To celebrate the eighth anniversary of Myanmar’s manifestly moribund Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA), the ruling military regime laid on a lavish celebration on October 15 in the gargoyle capitol of Naypyidaw. VIP attendees included Chinese special envoy Deng Xijun, Indian Deputy National Security Advisor Vikram Misri and Thai Vice Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow. The State […]

The post Myanmar’s treasonous and traitorous peace parade appeared first on Asia Times.

Myanmar’s grueling civil war permits few sunrays amidst unremitting attacks against civilians by the military State Administration Council (SAC) junta and the asymmetric struggles of multiple anti-military revolutionary groups across the country. But a report released on September 26 by the Karen Peace Support Network (KPSN), “A shifting power balance”, indicates that a multi-pronged revolutionary […]

The post Where the revolution is working in Myanmar appeared first on Asia Times.

A bewildering factor of mass atrocity crimes is the need for so many onlookers to seek to normalize the aftermath. Six years on from the military campaign against the Rohingya Muslims of Myanmar –  where over 700,000 civilians were forced out of northern Rakhine state into squalid camps in Bangladesh, with several thousand murdered and […]

The post Wages of guilt for Myanmar’s Rohingya atrocity appeared first on Asia Times.

The United Nations Under-Secretary for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths made a visit this week to Myanmar’s military capital Naypyidaw, and went mano-a-mano with dictator Min Aung Hlaing, recently self-appointed prime minister and head of the State Administration Council (SAC) junta. Griffiths, also the head of the Office Coordinating Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), […]

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It was with a heavy dose of dejected familiarity that anyone from Myanmar over the age of 30 must have received the news in recent days that Aung San Suu Kyi had her prison sentence reduced and moved from incarceration to house arrest. For foreigners, at least those who worked in the country before 2011 […]

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At the onset of a monsoon season unlikely to see much respite in Myanmar’s raging civil war, the month of June was especially unkind to a coup regime struggling to impose its will on a nation in revolt. The State Administration Council (SAC) junta’s woes were compounded by additional US sanctions on a listing banking […]

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