By AFP Gutted buildings, vacant windows and blocks bombed to rubble show the price paid by Rakhine State’s Pauktaw town for victory against the junta in the country’s civil war. Fighters from the Arakan Army took control of the fishing port of 20,000 people in January, as the conflict sparked by the military’s coup entered its fourth year. Pauktaw was one of a string of losses suffered by the junta across the country at the time, leading many to hope its decades-long stranglehold over Myanmar’s politics could be broken. Four months later, the AA remains in control but Pauktaw is mostly empty o ..read more

In an extract from her new book, On the Shadow Tracks: A Journey through Occupied Myanmar, former Frontier editor Clare Hammond describes travelling to the Kayah State capital of Loikaw on a railway that was built in the 1990s with mass forced labour. By CLARE HAMMOND | FRONTIER My companions in the carriage were two dozen men, and most of them fell quickly asleep, as the train snaked through the rolling plains. The villages we passed were monochrome, nestled tightly among the low hills and encircled by bamboo forest. There were no vendors on the train, and the small, sleepy stations were dese ..read more

OPINION Frontier reporter Hein Thar reflects on a recent journalism exchange trip to the United States, and his hopes for Myanmar’s own media development. By HEIN THAR | FRONTIER As I sat on a bus from Washington, DC to Boston, gazing out the window at the unfamiliar landscape, I couldn’t shake off the chill of the April day. While my head was covered by a funny, cheap earmuff I just bought at a CVS, my gloveless fingers were numb from the cold. In Myanmar, April is synonymous with a scorching heat that can make people sick and drive dogs crazy. I’ll never forget the oppressive heat of my atti ..read more

By AFP Cheers erupt as Nyan and Mae, a queer couple from Myanmar, tie the knot in front of thousands at the annual Pride parade in the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai. Denied the chance to celebrate their union in their homeland, where LGBTQ people face persecution and imprisonment, the couple sought peace and happiness in the more tolerant kingdom next door. The late night ceremony on Sunday was only symbolic, but the Thai parliament is expected to finalise same-sex marriage legislation later this year, perhaps as soon as October. When it does, Nyan and Mae plan to wed for real. “This is an ..read more

In Sagaing Region, 1.2 million people have been displaced and more than 61,000 buildings have been destroyed in conflict since the coup. And many residents now have to deal with extortion at multiple checkpoints. This week’s story is by a Doh Athan journalist and is available in English and Burmese. Doh Athan is a weekly podcast about human rights issues in Myanmar. It is made by local journalists with media partners from across the country, through a partnership with Fondation Hirondelle and the support of our donors. ENGLISH VERSION: BURMESE VERSION: The post Sagaing locals face delays ..read more

By AFP The United Nations warned on Friday that escalating fighting in conflict-torn Myanmar’s Rakhine State had forced around 45,000 minority Rohingya to flee, amid allegations of killings and burnings of property. “Tens of thousands of civilians have been displaced in recent days by the fighting in Buthidaung and Maungdaw townships,” UN rights office spokeswoman Elizabeth Throssell told reporters in Geneva. “An estimated 45,000 Rohingya have reportedly fled to an area on the Naf River near the border with Bangladesh, seeking protection,” she said. Clashes have rocked Rakhine since the Arakan ..read more

The Myanmar regime is mandating new biometric IDs for foreign travel and public services, in a move that could boost its surveillance powers, but a clumsy rollout is creating bottlenecks and fuelling illegal migration. By FRONTIER Dawn is breaking and, more than three hours before the immigration department in Yangon’s East Hlaing Tharyar Township opens its gates, a large crowd of mostly young people and prospective migrant workers are already gathered outside the office. “Hundreds of people come but the office only accepts 120 per day because they say that’s all they can handle,” one person q ..read more

OBITUARY Anna Joan Allott, who died last month aged 93, spent half a century schooling British diplomats in the Burmese language and studying its grammar, but her relationship with Myanmar started almost by accident. By VICKY BOWMAN | FRONTIER In 1952, the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies appointed Anna to work on a Burmese-English dictionary. The dictionary never saw the light of day, but the 22-year-old would acquire a lifelong commitment to Myanmar, then called Burma, and its language, literature and people. She passed this commitment on to me, when I was lucky ..read more

Across the country, mental health patients face social stigma, inadequate care and even abuse – problems that have worsened since the post-coup healthcare collapse, but which long precede it. By FRONTIER Ma Phyu*, 38, has been grappling with mental health issues for most of her adult life. Her mother, Daw Aye Than*, said that when her daughter’s symptoms emerged around age 21, she felt embarrassed and couldn’t find any support or assistance in their small village in Magway Region’s Myaing Township. “Eating has become a struggle for her. She used to vent her anger outside, but now she confines ..read more

Activists say health care in Myanmar prisons got worse after the coup. And it has deteriorated even further since a ban was imposed on families sending prisoners medicines. This has had fatal consequences for some. This week’s story is by a Doh Athan journalist and is available in English and Burmese. Doh Athan is a weekly podcast about human rights issues in Myanmar. It is made by local journalists with media partners from across the country, through a partnership with Fondation Hirondelle and the support of our donors. ENGLISH VERSION: BURMESE VERSION: The post Prisoners’ families say ba ..read more