World

By Ginny Stein for Radio Free Asia2024.10.28Updated Oct. 29, 2024, 01:16 a.m. ET.Amnesty International researcher Joe Freeman recently traveled to Cox’s Bazar, the district in Bangladesh along the border with western Myanmar’s Rakhine state where thousands of ethnic Rohingyas have taken refuge this year.Members of the ethnic Muslim minority group joined some 1 million Rohingyas already sheltering in camps in Cox’s Bazar, including the more than 700,000 who fled a military crackdown and crossed the border over a period of months in 2017.This year, Rohingyas in Myanmar have found themselves caught in the crossfire between the military junta, which seized power in a 2021 coup d’etat, and the ethnic Arakan Army, or AA, which is fighting for self-determination in Rakhine state. Both sides have ...

By RFA Burmese2024.10.29Read RFA coverage of these topics in Burmese.A year after its launch, the ethnic rebel alliance that spearheaded the Operation 1027 offensive in Myanmar‘s northern Shan state has said it will not rest until the country’s military regime is removed from power.Since launching the offensive, named for its Oct. 27 start date, the Three Brotherhood Alliance of ethnic armies has gone on to push back the military from several regions in Shan state it controlled following its February 2021 coup d’etat, including along northeastern Myanmar’s border with China.At the time of the launch, the alliance - made up of the Ta’ang National Liberation Army, the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army and the Arakan Army - said the objectives of the offensive included removing the ju...

By RFA Staff2024.10.31In the decade since the U.N. first launched its International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists, nearly 800 journalists have been killed across the globe. Many more have faced violence, threats, harassment and lawfare, with the perpetrators often going unpunished. This is the situation in war zones like Myanmar, where journalists find themselves trapped in crossfire. But it is also true in ostensibly peaceful countries. China remains the world’s largest jailer of journalists; Cambodia has seen reporters assaulted for trying to expose wrongdoing; and, just this week, Vietnam sentenced a blogger to 12 years in prison in a case many believe to be retaliation for his reporting on corruption. RELATED STORIESCambodian journalist freed on bail after apology ...