Also this week, the junta vowed polls ‘no matter what’, while restricting distribution of AIDS medication and seeking support in Wa State.

The junta’s murderous repression, hare-brained economic policies, and forced subscription have drained the country of its most precious resource: its young people.

Six ethnic organizations said Beijing is pressuring the TNLA to cede territory while supplying arms to the regime and backing its December election.

China’s support for the junta’s proposed election is tied to its strategic interests in a stable Myanmar, and it has pressured resistance forces to agree to ceasefires.

Several major ethnic armed organizations say they will not allow voting booths to be set up in territories they control.

State bordering China harbors rich deposits of rare earth minerals, essential for making everything from electric cars to defense systems.

Beijing outlines a stability-first election agenda for Myanmar, prioritizing peace, unity and development to safeguard Chinese strategic and economic interests.

Junta blockades, soaring prices and US aid cuts are driving a sharp rise in hunger and malnutrition across conflict-hit Rakhine State.

Systematic rape and sexual humiliation are among the crimes in junta detention centers being investigated by the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar.

Overview of the western state conflict shows ethnic army pushing for control of the capital but vulnerable to coastal incursions.

At the first meeting of the junta’s State Security and Peace Commission, Min Aung Hlaing ordered swift trials for ‘disruptors’ and a military push to expand voting areas.

This week’s Irrawaddy editorial discussion asks if Min Aung Hlaing will take responsibility for his crimes.

A recent meeting with KIA and NUG representatives in the Kachin rebels’ mountain fastness of Laiza was highly productive, says Chin Brotherhood spokesman Salai Yaw Man.

The Ta’ang National Liberation Army’s general secretary was bullish Tuesday as the armed group readies itself for more China-brokered “peace” talks with the junta this month.

Resistance groups in Sagaing Township say 16 people trapped on the Sagaing–Shwebo road were killed. 

Analysts say regime is seeking to erode public reverence for Daw Aung San Suu Kyi by removing monuments to her father.

The AA denies killing 600 Rohingya in Htan Shauk Kham village, saying photos of the purported victims’ bodies in fact show junta soldiers who died in battle.

A brutal enforcer for successive military regimes, the former acting president is only the latest in a long line of criminals who escaped a reckoning with their crimes.

The ethnic army said it would block polls in areas it controls, denouncing them as a sham, and vowed to capture all townships in Rakhine State.

Malaysia’s foreign minister said the trip will likely take place on September 19 and include the foreign ministers of Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines.

The regime's $3-milllion PR campaign in Washington aims to whitewash war crimes and court US favor, even as it clings to Chinese support and continues atrocities at home.

Ethnic armed group says declaration is unjustified; regime delegation promises to relay request after visiting Mongla and UWSA-controlled Panghsang.

The regime says that its Ministry of Health will be able to distribute vital antiretroviral medication.

Also this week, the regime turned to ultranationalists ahead of sham election, paid $3m for access to Washington, and launched random phone checks in surveillance crackdown.

Anyone interested in an objective appraisal of the ongoing Spring Revolution in Myanmar should read veteran journalist Bertil Lintner’s new book, says Rajeev Bhattacharyya.

Regime forces, reinforced by a flotilla from Mandalay, have reoccupied a battalion headquarters that fell to the Kachin Independence Army in February.

The Shan State chief minister and military officials visited UWSA and NDAA territories as the junta pushes for cooperation ahead of its planned December vote.

The Arakan Army has started a fresh offensive after a month without fighting.

Rank-and-file soldiers who retreat are often shot dead or beaten by officers lurking behind the lines, according to a young conscript who defected to the ethnic Arakan Army.

The junta has hired GOP-linked DCI Group for $3 million a year to help rebuild ties with the US and soften criticism ahead of its widely condemned election, filings show.

After orchestrating the brutal 2007 Saffron Revolution crackdown and serving as military intelligence chief, Myint Swe spent his final years as a ceremonial figurehead for the current junta.

The International Trade Union Confederation says the planned polls are “a cosmetic trick to rebrand a brutal military regime as a legitimate civilian government.”

Regime soldiers advancing on Mogoke from recently reclaimed Nawnghkio engage in intense clashes with Ta-ang National Liberation Army forces determined to hold strategic mining town.

In 2021, a stolen election shattered the democratic hopes of the younger generation—unleashing a tech-fueled revolution with a momentum 1988’s uprising couldn’t sustain.

No matter how legitimate their struggle against the junta, we need greater scrutiny of how ethnic armed groups administer the territories they conquer, says David Scott Mathieson.