Govt-Backed Militias Clash With Kachin, Karen Rebels

By LAWI WENG & SAW YAN NAING

RANGOON — Separate clashes were reported over the weekend in north Burma’s Kachin State and east Burma’s Karen State between government-backed militias and non-state armed groups.

In Kachin State, clashes reportedly occurred on Saturday between the government-backed Kachin Border Guard Force (BGF) and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA).

San Aung, a peace broker with the KIA’s political wing—the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO)—said fighting broke out after BGF members attacked KIA bases in Chi Pwe and Sawlaw, two towns in Pangwa region, in the northern part of the state.

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Opinion: Burma’s draft media law reflects the government’s reform

By Zin Linn

Press freedom of Burma is still in the midst of an uncertain circumstance. The press law or the media law is a no-win situation so far. Since the majority of media personnel rejected the formation of the Core Press Council, the interim press council was a compromise between information ministry and the defiant journalists. The latest ‘interim press council’ was formed by referencing international standard of ‘Co-regulatory System’, as mentioned on the website of the Ministry of Information. Even though interim press council was formed on 17 September 2012 in Rangoon as a substitution for the Myanmar Core Press Council, its existence will be insecure within a few months.

According to earlier media reports, the interim Press Council has been assigned the task of drafting a code of conduct and to offer its input in rewriting a draft media law proposed by the Information Ministry. Most journalists believed that press council members’ major responsibility would be helping to draft the press law.

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Still in the dark on Myanmar�s nuclear ambitions

Robert Kelley

Francis Wade

Thein Sein must come clean on the ambitions of his military to break away from Myanmar’s past.

Three years ago a defector from the Myanmar military fled the country with extensive documentation of a nascent secret nuclear programme. The chain of custody and validation of the material he possessed rivals the equivalent information currently attributed to Iran, whose own ambitions have become the target of threats of war from the US and Israel.

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Exiled student group signs peace plan

By Todd Watson

The ABSDF formed in the aftermath of the 8888 Uprising, which led to thousands being massacred by the military, fought alongside rebels and ethnic minority groups.

YANGOON: Earlier this month, the All Burma Students’ Democratic Front (ABSDF) agreed to a 12-point cease-fire plan with the government of Myanmar.

This is by far the most fruitful development to come from last week’s commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the 1988 pro-democracy uprising.

The ABSDF was formed in the aftermath of the 8888 Uprising, so called because it began on 8 August 1988, which led to the massacre of thousands of Burmese citizens by the military.

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Seeking Safe Passage, Persecuted Myanmar Minority Risk Abuse by Traffickers

BY JUDY WOODRUFF: Next to Southeast Asia.

The nation of Myanmar, also known as Burma, is home to one of the most persecuted minorities in the world, that according to the U.N.They are Muslims known as the Rohingya.And human rights groups say they have been recent targets of ethnic cleansing by their Buddhist neighbors.

John Sparks of Independent Television News reports on the dangerous journey for those who try to leave.

JOHN SPARKS: On a windswept stretch of the Bangladesh coast, there is a ragged-looking settlement hidden amongst the trees, home to thousands who’ve fled from neighboring Burma.They’re Rohingya Muslims fleeing vicious ethnic violence in their homeland, but few want to stay, however.They have come here to find themselves a ship.They want to escape.And these people are desperate.

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Rohingya Leader Calls for Talks with Myanmar Government, Rakhines

by Khin Maung Soe

A leader of the minority Rohingya Muslim community in western Myanmar’s restive Rakhine state has called for a meeting between representatives of his group, local ethnic Buddhists and the government to put an end to deadly clashes in the region.

Abu Tahay, chairman of the Union Nationals Development Party (UNDP), said the three groups should include an international arbitrator to independently judge on issues that have led to clashes between members of his minority group and ethnic Rakhine Buddhists, which last year left nearly 200 dead and 140,000 displaced.

“We need a group that can exert influence on both communities, such as an international intermediation group,” Abu Tahay told RFA’s Myanmar Service in an interview in Washington on Tuesday.

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Arakan Magazine – Issue 2026/Q1
Arakan Magazine – Issue 2026/Q1

IN THIS ISSUE
Contents

  • Ethnic Armed Governance and the New Power Order
  • Stabilisation Forces and the Future of Peace in Rakhine State
  • War Within Wars in Myanmar and the People Trapped Between Them
  • The Human Development Potential of Rohingya Youth
  • Powerlessness as a Great Power in Moral Authority
  • The Unseen Mental Health Emergency of Rohingya Survivors
  • Narco War Fueling Genocide Against the Rohingya
  • Rohingya News
  • ARNO Policy Brief

Reports

THE SITUATION OF MUSLIMS IN BURMA

By Kyaw Zwa

History
The dawn of Muslim settlements and propagation of Islam has been widely documented by Arab, Persian, European and Chinese travelers of the ninth century AD.

The current population of Burmese Muslims are the descendants of Arabs, Persians, Turks, Moors, Indians, Chinese and Malays, who settled and intermarried with local Burmese and many ethnic Burmese groups such as Kachin, Kaya, Kayin, Chin etc

Rohingya Library

All ABOUT ROHINGYA

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