Investigative Journalism at Ij-Reportika.com Myanmar shut a main border crossing with Thailand early on Friday as junta forces carried out airstrikes in nearby areas, Thai officials and residents of the area told Radio Free Asia.  Insurgent forces captured most of the eastern border town Myawaddy this month but they were forced to withdraw days later under the threat of junta airstrikes. Junta troops re-gained control of a main battalion headquarters  in the town on Wednesday.  Residents of the Thai town of Mae Sot, over a border river from Myawaddy, said they heard explosions ..read more

Investigative Journalism at Ij-Reportika.com More than 300 Rohingya men from villages near Rakhine state’s capital have been forced by junta troops to attend mandatory training for Myanmar’s military over the last few days, residents told Radio Free Asia on Thursday.  The latest round of compulsory conscription among the stateless Muslim minority comes a month after about 1,000 Rohingya from elsewhere in Rakhine were made to join the military in March.  More broadly, more than 100,000 young men have fled their homes since the military announced in February it would implement a draft ..read more

Investigative Journalism at Ij-Reportika.com Insurgents have captured another base from Myanmar’s junta forces, this time in the far south of the country, in the latest in a string of setbacks for the military that overthrew an elected government in 2021, officials from anti-junta forces told Radio Free Asia on Thursday.  Ethnic minority Karen fighters have in recent weeks seized several camps from junta forces in eastern Myanmar, mostly notably in a major trade town near the Thai border. On Wednesday, ethnic minority Karen insurgents, together with pro-democracy allies, captured the jun ..read more

Investigative Journalism at Ij-Reportika.com Two Vietnamese teachers were sentenced to prison on Wednesday in separate cases for criticizing authorities on social media under vague statutes often used to stifle dissent, people with knowledge of the situation said.  They are the latest examples of how Vietnam systematically suppresses basic freedoms and civil rights.  Duong Tuan Ngoc, 39, was sentenced by the Lam Dong People’s Court to seven years in prison and three years of probation under Article 117 of the country’s Penal Code for disseminating anti-state propaganda and “smearing ..read more

Investigative Journalism at Ij-Reportika.com A group of 14 young Laotians who are being held at a Chinese-run casino in Myanmar said they are frightened by the recent fighting in nearby Myawaddy and are calling for new efforts to free them. The young Laotians were trafficked to work as scammers at a place called “Casino Kosai” in an isolated development near Myawaddy.  Karen Nation Union, or KNU, and allied anti-junta guerrilla armies took control of the important trade town earlier this month during intense fighting with Myanmar’s military.  Some of the young Laotians recently over ..read more

Investigative Journalism at Ij-Reportika.com Tibetan families whose pasture land was sold to Chinese businessmen without their knowledge or consent say that compensation belatedly offered to them – 3,000 yuan, or about US$415 each – is far too low, sources familiar with the situation told Radio Free Asia. Four Tibetans who had been arrested April 10 for protesting the land grab in Markham county in Chamdo, or Changdu in Chinese, in the Tibet Autonomous Region, were released, but said they had been beaten while in detention, a source told RFA Tibetan on condition of anonymity for safety reason ..read more

Investigative Journalism at Ij-Reportika.com A Uyghur butcher serving a seven-year prison sentence in southern Xinjiang for advising friends not to drink alcohol or smoke at a gathering has been released alive and returned to his family, sources with knowledge of the situation said. It marks the first time that one of the roughly 100 jailed Uyghur residents from Xaneriq village had been released alive, said an Uyghur from the area who now lives abroad, but who did not give his name for fear of retribution. Authorities freed Mahmudjan Muqeddem, 46, who hails from the Tawaqchi community of Xane ..read more

Investigative Journalism at Ij-Reportika.com A Thai border hospital received nearly 40 injured people for treatment after a battle in neighboring Myanmar, according to Thai officials on Monday. At least 38 were admitted in total, Thai public health minister Cholnan Srikaew said during a press conference at Mae Sot General Hospital on Monday.  Mae Sot is a Thai city that shares a border with Myanmar to the west. It is notable as a trade hub and for its substantial population of Burmese migrants and refugees. “We treat them according to their conditions, mostly involving surgery,” he said ..read more

Investigative Journalism at Ij-Reportika.com As the coffee bean harvesting season begins, plantation owners in southern Laos face a shortage of laborers because of low wages and high inflation in the small, landlocked Southeast Asia country, said people who work in the industry. Workers on plantations in Champassak province’s Paksong district are shunning jobs that pay just US$10-13 a day, based on the weight of coffee beans they pick, and instead heading for better paying work in neighboring Thailand. Others have sought jobs on cassava farms, where the pay is slightly better, a coffee farm w ..read more

Investigative Journalism at Ij-Reportika.com U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to China on Wednesday, according to a senior State Department official, in a trip that comes as he and others in Washington accuse Beijing of “fueling” Russia’s war in Ukraine by helping to resupply its military. Blinken will travel to Shanghai and Beijing from Wednesday to Friday, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the plans ahead of time. The official said he could not yet confirm that Blinken would meet Chinese President Xi Jinping during the visit. The trip will a ..read more