Massive protests erupted in Istanbul on March 30, 2025, as 2.2 million rallied for jailed mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, challenging President Erdogan’s rule amid claims of political suppression.
Read RFA coverage of this topic in Burmese. Myanmar soldiers on a sweep through a central village known for its support of anti-junta forces killed 11 civilians, most of them too old to flee, residents of the area who saw the bodies told Radio Free Asia on Monday. The Myanmar military has had an appalling human rights record for decades in its wars against ethnic minority guerrillas in remote frontier regions, independent investigators have said. But violence over the past couple of years has been particularly brutal in central areas dominated by members of the majority Barmar community who, since a popular government was overthrown in a coup in 2021, have for the first time risen up in opposition to military rule. All of those killed in Magway region’s Myay Sun Taw village were elderly apart from two, residents said. “My father was left behind and didn’t escape the village. He’s elderly, so he’s attached to his home and didn’t run away. We were urging and calling for him but he didn’t follow us,” said the son of one of the victims. “As far as I know, he was shot in the head. I feel devastated. This is my village, my people and my parents,” said the son, who declined to be identified for safety reasons. Soldiers from the 101st Infantry Division Headquarters and three other battalions were involved in the sweep through the region that began on March 2, villagers said. There was no battle to explain the soldiers’ actions as they raided the village, though the area is known to support pro-democracy fighters in militias called People’s Defense Forces that have sprung up across the country since the coup, especially in the central Magway and Sagaing regions, residents said. “They were all just civilians,” said one witness of the aftermath of the raid. RFA called the junta’s spokesperson, Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, to ask about the incident but he did not respond by the time of publication. Destruction after a raid by Myanmar soldiers on Myay Sun Taw village, Magway region, taken on March 6, 2025.(Yesagyo Township Info Committee/Facebook) RELATED STORIES Myanmar junta chief says election to be held by January 2026 Nearly 30,000 civilians displaced by fighting in Myanmar’s heartland Fighting in Myanmar’s Sagaing region prompts thousands to flee to India border Residents identified the victims as a man over 70 named Han Tin, a man in his 60s named Htay Myint, 88-year-old woman Than Ma Ni, 60-year old woman Than Pyae, 86-year-old woman Hla Ngwe, 67-year old man Kyi Htay, 69-year old man Aung Myaing, 35-year old man Thant Zin, 40-year-old man Aung Lin Naing, 70-year-old man Nyunt Wai, and 50-year-old man San Win. Soldiers also burned down nearby Thar Gaung and Za Yat Ni villages, destroying about 600 homes and forcing some 10,000 people to flee. “Soldiers have launched a lot of offensives in this region. Most villages are carrying out actions with armed groups to protect themselves,” said a representative of the anti-junta Yesagyo Township Information Committee, who also declined to be identified in fear of reprisals. “The people killed in Myay Sun Taw were elderly and innocent. The military is malicious and extremely cruel.” Translated by Kiana Duncan. Edited by RFA Staff. We are : Investigative Journalism Reportika Investigative Reports Daily Reports Interviews Surveys Reportika
A Cambodian woman who authorities say was killed by two Chinese nationals last month dropped out of school when she was 15 to help her parents pay off bank debts, her mother told Radio Free Asia. Police found the heavily bruised and naked body of 18-year-old Heng Seavly in a shallow grave near a lake in Phnom Penh’s Dangkor district on March 1. On Monday, investigators announced the arrests of her boyfriend, 30-year-old Chen Cong, and 34-year-old Li Haohao. Police said the suspects confessed to the killing, adding that they believed she was about to leak information about a cyberscam operation in Phnom Penh. Relatives held a funeral for Heng Seavly in her hometown in southern Kampot province on Tuesday. “When I saw her brought into the temple, my energy and soul flew out of my body,” said her mother, Tim Sophy. “My daughter was naked when they killed her,” she told RFA. “This is so brutal. As a mother, I am shocked and speechless.” As the eldest daughter, Heng Seavly left home to work as a goods vendor in Sihanoukville to help her parents support her two younger siblings, Tim Sophy said. She was later persuaded by her boyfriend to move to Phnom Penh, the mother said. Tim Sophy, mother of Heng Seavly talks with RFA, in southern Kampot province, Cambodia, March 4, 2025.(RFA) “She was my fabulous daughter,” she said. “She never missed sending US$250 to $300 each month.” Police have said the two suspects acted on the orders of another Chinese national, 26-year-old Yang Kaixin, who remains at large. Translated by Sok Ry Sum. Edited by Matt Reed. We are : Investigative Journalism Reportika Investigative Reports Daily Reports Interviews Surveys Reportika
Thailand’s decision to deport 40 Uyghurs back to China after languishing in a Bangkok detention center for over a decade raises concerns about their fate — and questions about what they were doing there in the first place. What is known about the Uyghurs sent back to China from Thailand? The men originally came from the Xinjiang region of northwestern China where 12 million Uyghurs live under Beijing’s harsh rule. Many have been subjected to human rights abuses and detained in concentration camps that Beijing says are vocational training centers. In 2014, the men were part of a larger group of Uyghurs who tried to escape Xinjiang through Thailand, but were caught. Ever since, they have been held at the Immigration Detention Center in Bangkok, a prison-like facility. After more than 10 years, on Thursday 40 Uyghur men were taken in trucks to Don Mueang International Airport to be deported to Xinjiang. Police officers patrol in the old city in Kashgar in China’s Xinjiang region, May 3, 2021.(Thomas Peter/Reuters) Why are Uyghurs trying to escape from China? Uyghur Muslims chafe under what they view as Chinese colonialism in their ancient homeland and resent curbs on their religion and culture under China’s drive to Sinicize ethnic minorities. While tensions have simmered for decades, a major turning point in the Uyghurs’ relations with the Communist government in Beijing was deadly unrest in July 2009 in Xinjiang’s capital, Urumqi. A Uyghur protest against racism and mistreatment spiraled into three days of communal violence between Uyghurs and Han Chinese that left at least 200 people dead and 1,700 injured. Beijing responded with severe and escalating repression, including mass surveillance, a “strike hard” crackdown since 2014 – the year the 40 deported Uyghurs were arrested in Thailand. The campaign featured arrests, separation of children from their parents, and destruction of mosques and other key elements of Uyghurs’ distinct cultural and religious identity. In 2017, Chinese authorities began detaining Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims en masse in what Beijing called “re-education” camps and prisons set up to eradicate religious extremism. Millions underwent political indoctrination and some were subjected to forced labor, torture, rape and the sterilization of women. Many Western nations condemned well-documented acts of repression under the crackdown as genocide or crimes against humanity. Some states imposed sanctions to block the import of products made in Xinjiang with forced labor. RELATED STORIES Thailand deports 40 Uyghurs to China despite fears of torture Visiting Xinjiang, Xi Jinping doubles down on hard-line policies against Uyghurs China pushes the ‘Sinicization of religion’ in Xinjiang, targeting Uyghurs What is the likely fate of the repatriated Uyghurs, based on past examples? The United States, United Nations and human rights group fear that the men will be tortured and subjected to forced labor as punishment for attempting to flee. Thailand said that it agreed to the deportation only after receiving assurances from Beijing that they would be unharmed. But what little is known about previous batches of Uyghurs forcibly repatriated to China appears to justify the fears expressed by critics of Thursday’s rendition. In December 2009, Cambodia deported 20 Uyghur asylum-seekers back to China. Last December, in the first word about them in 15 years, a relative of one of the detainees in Turkey revealed to Radio Free Asia the fate of some of the 20. Ayshemgul Omer, who had maintained contact with fellow relatives of the deported detainees, told RFA Uyghur they were sent to prison after a secret trial a year after their return. Four individuals were sentenced to life imprisonment, four others were given 20 years, and eight others received 16- or 17-year jail sentences, she said. Omer said her seriously ill relative serving a 20-year sentence still had to perform labor in prison, while one woman, who was later released, had a miscarriage in detention due to torture that included electric shocks and being left nearly naked in a cold jail cell. The main immigration detention center in Bangkok on Feb. 26, 2025.(Jerry Harmer/AP) What leverage does China hold over countries like Thailand to enforce its demands? Although Thailand is a long-standing treaty ally of the United States, like most Southeast Asian nations it has become increasingly reliant on Chinese trade and investment, and has close diplomatic and security ties with Beijing. The mostly authoritarian governments in the region share policy alignment and political preference with Beijing. Thailand, whose post-pandemic economic performance has lagged behind many of its ASEAN competitors, largely depends for growth on China. China is the largest source of tourists and has been a top foreign investor in Thailand, while Chinese are the largest foreign purchasers of Thai real estate. Neighbor states Cambodia and Laos have largely staked their economic and political futures on close official relations with China, receiving major infrastructure investment under Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative. Cambodia hosts a Chinese-funded naval base at Ream that the People’s Liberation Army Navy visits, and has blocked even ASEAN statements on the South China Sea at the behest of Beijing. Edited by Malcolm Foster. We are : Investigative Journalism Reportika Investigative Reports Daily Reports Interviews Surveys Reportika
Read RFA coverage of this story in Tibetan. India has boosted security for the Dalai Lama, adding about 30 police commandos to protect the Tibetan spiritual leader amid reports of potential security threats, according to a person familiar with the matter and Indian media reports. The move raises the security coverage for the 89-year-old Dalai Lama to the third-highest level, called Z-category, under the Central Reserve Police Force, or CRPF, the source told Radio Free Asia on the condition of anonymity because he wan’t authorized to speak to the media. Video footage of the Dalai Lama in southern India showed armed CRPF commandos around a vehicle carrying the Tibetan spiritual leader. Citing official sources, the Press Trust of India said the central government enhanced the Dalai Lama’s security because of “potential security threats.” The Indo-Asian News Service said the move was prompted by a recent Intelligence Bureau threat analysis report. RFA could not independently confirm these reports, and the security department of the Central Tibetan Administration — the Tibetan government-in-exile in Dharamsala, northern India — did not respond to requests for comment. The Indian Ministry of Home Affairs, the CRPF and the Indian Ministry of Foreign Affairs also didn’t offer any comments. The Dalai Lama normally lives in Dharamsala, but has been visiting a Tibetan community in southern India since Jan. 5. Chinese opposition The move comes amid growing concerns over the Dalai Lama’s safety due to China’s long-term opposition to his activities. Beijing is seeking to appoint the successor to the Dalai Lama, who is expected to either name his successor or provide some indication regarding his succession when he turns 90 in July. “This has led to growing desperation from the Chinese side,” senior Indian journalist and national security affairs specialist, Aditya Raj Kaul, told RFA. The highest level of security in India, given to the Indian prime minister and his immediate family, is called the Special Protection Group. Below that are the Z+ category, provided to top ministers in the central and state governments, and Z category, provided to prominent leaders and individuals based on their threat perception. Since the Dalai Lama’s flight from Tibet into exile in India in 1959, the Indian government has assumed responsibility for his security protection, maintaining a 24-hour security patrol around his residence in Dharamsala to ensure his safety. Whenever the Dalai Lama travels to different parts of India, his security arrangements are overseen by the central government, with state governments coordinating protection during his visits. The Dalai Lama (center) is guarded by the members of the Central Reserve Police Force in Hunsur, Karmataka state, India, Feb. 18, 2025.(Pema Ngodup/RFA) The Indian Ministry of Home Affairs directed the CRPF’s VIP security wing to take charge of the security for the Dalai Lama and ensure Z-category protection with around 30 CRPF commandos across the country, the Press Trust of India and other Indian media reported. The CRPF’s VIP security wing is provides security to individuals as assigned by the ministry, including politicians, state government ministers, governors, spiritual leaders, business tycoons and other prominent individuals. “Now there will be a massive security cover with commandos traveling with him in a multiple convoy and the possibility of additional state security cover,” senior Indian journalist and national security affairs specialist, Kaul, citing sources, told RFA. In December 2022, security at Bodh Gaya in northeast India’s Bihar state had been beefed up after an alleged threat to the Dalai Lama from a Chinese woman. However, the state police later clarified the incident was no threat to the Dalai Lama and that the Chinese woman had been detained and deported because she overstayed her visa. Translated by Tenzin Dickyi and Tashi Wangchuk for RFA Tibetan. Edited by Kalden Lodoe, Tenzin Pema, Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster. We are : Investigative Journalism Reportika Investigative Reports Daily Reports Interviews Surveys Reportika
A Lao woman who traveled to China for an arranged marriage warned others to demand legal documents and to have in-person meetings with potential husbands before leaving the country. Any woman who enters into what she called a “sham marriage” runs the risk of being trafficked to another man after they arrive in China, she told Radio Free Asia. “To those who may want to come to China, they should think and do research carefully,” she said, requesting anonymity for security reasons. “They shouldn’t decide without knowing what they could be facing. I experienced that myself.” A newlywed man shows marriage books for him and his wife in Luliang, northern China’s Shanxi province on Feb. 11, 2025.(Adek Berry/AFP) The woman said she jumped at the chance to move to China two years ago for an arranged marriage. But eventually she realized that a promised 60 million kip (US$2,750) payment was never going to come. “I heard many people say marrying a Chinese man would help to solve financial problems and make life more comfortable,” she said in an interview on Feb. 4. “I had too much excitement from a lack of experience at that time.” Arranged marriages between Chinese men and young Lao women have become more common in recent years as the women and their families seek financial security amid Laos’ bleak economy. A Lao anti-human trafficking activist who goes by the name Ms. Dee told RFA last month that a middleman is usually involved in forming an agreement. The young women and their families are paid at most 30,000 yuan (US$4,150) while the middlemen keep the remainder of the fee, which can be around 200,000 Chinese yuan (US$27,500), she said. “After being sent to China, the Lao girls of course expect to receive some money that they can send home to support their families. But in fact, their Chinese husbands refuse,” Ms. Dee said. ‘Just go with him’ Another Lao woman told RFA in a separate interview that a middleman sold her to a man three days after she arrived in China. “I was told not to be too particular,” she said on Feb. 10. “Just go with him. I have no choice at all.” The middleman added that she would get paid for the marriage after about six months, and could then “run away with a new man and get paid again,” she said. But the money never came, and she said she worries that a typical 16-year-old Lao girl could also be easily tricked by middlemen who promise monthly payments of 2,000 yuan (US$275) to send to family back in Laos. “The middlemen always gave them nice images of being married to Chinese men. ‘He’ll buy you a smart phone, nice clothes, new shoes,‘” she said. “All those materialistic things plus thinking of being out of poverty.” RELATED STORIES Lao police stop 3 women from boarding flight to China in trafficking case Three human traffickers to stand trial in northern Laos Lao official: Gov’t can’t afford to address rise in human trafficking Vientiane police arrest taxi driver and woman, rescue 4 teenagers The woman who spoke to RFA on Feb. 4 said Lao women could end up with a Chinese man who has a criminal record and isn’t able to provide legal marriage documents. “If the Chinese man cannot come to Laos and provide you with any legal documents, be aware and never believe that,” she said. “Don’t believe it if a middleman told you they will provide all needed documents when you have arrived in China.” She added: “You cannot trust the middleman. They will not pay you after you are sent to China.” A Lao official at the Anti-Trafficking Department told RFA that the middlemen often target young women from hill tribes who lack awareness and whose families have financial hardship. Translated by Khamsao Civilize. Edited by Matt Reed. We are : Investigative Journalism Reportika Investigative Reports Daily Reports Interviews Surveys Reportika
Read RFA coverage of this story in Burmese. Telecommunications outages in western Myanmar’s embattled Rakhine state have persisted for nearly 100 days, impinging on its more than 3 million residents’ right to information and livelihoods, sources in the region said Wednesday. The blackouts have affected all 14 townships occupied by the rebel Arakan Army, or AA, in Rakhine, sources said, as well as AA-occupied Paletwa township in neighboring Chin state, and the Rakhine townships of Kyaukphyu, Munaung and parts of Sittwe, which have been under the control of the military junta since its February 2021 coup d’etat. The AA cut off both telephone and internet access in its territories beginning Nov. 16, 2024, and a source close to the rebel group told RFA Burmese that the outages are “to prevent airstrikes, because there are junta informants” there. He offered no evidence to support his claim. The junta implemented blackouts in its Rakhine territories shortly after the AA attacked military positions in the state in November 2023, ending a year-long ceasefire. Attempts by RFA to reach Khaing Thukha, the AA spokesperson, for comment went unanswered Wednesday, as did calls to Hla Thein, the junta’s spokesperson and state attorney general in Rakhine state. A Buddhist monk records a video with his mobile phone as he listens to Rohingya Muslim poets during the “Poetry for Humanity” event in Yangon, Myanmar.(Sai Aung Main/AFP) Residents said that, in addition to affecting their livelihoods, the blackouts have made communicating with family members a challenge. “Separated across different areas, we can’t communicate with our families or close relatives,” said one Rakhine resident who, like others interviewed for this report, spoke on condition of anonymity due to security concerns. He noted that transportation is difficult and travel expenses are high, so meeting in person is also off the table. “Our family members [in other parts of Rakhine state] don’t know what is happening to us here,” he said. “We are also deeply worried when we hear that the junta has carried out aerial strikes in areas where our family members live.” RELATED STORIES Northern Myanmar cut off by state-wide communications blackout Daily blackouts in Myanmar disrupt livelihoods of rural, urban dwellers UN calls for Myanmar to end internet blackout in Rakhine state Other residents said that fighters with the AA and other allied rebel groups have access to the internet via the satellite service Starlink. Several said that they need to travel “miles” in order to access a working telephone. Communicating from abroad Many people from Rakhine state, an underdeveloped area of Myanmar, choose to work abroad to earn a living and send money home to help their families. But a resident of Rakhine who is working in Thailand told RFA that the lack of phone and internet connections has made it nearly impossible for her to send money home. “I can’t even communicate with my children, who are still in the village, and as a mother, I constantly worry about them,” she said. “I also have parents and siblings, and I want to know if they are safe and how they manage to make a living. Not being able to reach them fills me with anxiety.” The woman, who also declined to be named, said it had been “more than two months” since she last had contact with her family members in Rakhine. Journalists in Rakhine told RFA that while the AA has allowed them to access the internet using Starlink, they can only do so for five hours a day, limiting their ability to report news from the region. Translated by Aung Naing. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster. We are : Investigative Journalism Reportika Investigative Reports Daily Reports Interviews Surveys Reportika
Read RFA coverage of this story in Burmese. UMPIEM MAI REFUGEE CAMP, Thailand — Saw Ba had been living in a refugee camp on the Thai-Myanmar border for 16 years when he got the news last month that he’d been waiting years for: He and his family would be boarding a plane to resettle in America. It had been a long wait. Saw Ba, in his 40s and whose name has been changed in this story for security reasons, had applied for resettlement soon after getting to the camp in 2008. With much anticipation, staffers from the International Organization for Migration, or IOM, brought his family and 22 other people from Umpiem Mai Refugee Camp to a hotel in the Thai border town of Mae Sot in mid-January. There they were to wait to catch a flight to Bangkok and on to the United States. Freedom and a new life awaited. But three days later, the IOM staffers delivered bad news: All 26 people would have to return to the refugee camp because the incoming Trump administration was about to order a halt to the processing and travel of all refugees into the United States. The Umpiem Mai Refugee Camp on the Thai-Myanmar border, at Phop Phra district, Tak province, a Thai-Myanmar border province, Feb. 7, 2025.(Shakeel/AP) Saw Ba and his family had been so sure they would be resettled that they had given all of their belongings — including their clothes — to neighbors and friends, while their children had dropped out of school and returned their books. “When we arrived back here [at Umpiem], we had many difficulties,” he told RFA Burmese, particularly with their children’s education. “Our children have been out of school for a month, and now they’re back, and their final exams are coming up,” he said. “Our children won’t have books anymore when they return to school. I don’t know whether they’ll pass or fail this year’s exams.” Missionary work Saw Ba fled to the refugee camp because he was targeted for his Christian missionary work. Originally from Pathein township, in western Myanmar’s Ayeyarwady region, he was approached by an official with the country’s military junta in 2009 and told to stop his activities. When he informed the official that he was not involved in politics and refused to comply, police were sent to arrest him. He fled to Thailand, where he ended up in the Umpiem Mai camp. There he met his wife and had a son and daughter, now in seventh and second grade, respectively. RELATED STORIES Vietnamese in Thailand wait anxiously after Trump suspends refugee program Myanmar aid groups struggle with freeze as UN warns of ‘staggering’ hunger Tide of Myanmar war refugees tests Thailand’s welcome mat for migrants Another woman in the camp, Thin Min Soe, said her husband and their two children had undergone a battery of medical tests and had received an acceptance letter for resettlement, allowing them to join a waitlist to travel. She had fled her home in the Bago region in central Myanmar for taking part in the country’s 2007 Saffron Revolution, when the military violently suppressed widespread anti-government protests led by Buddhist monks. Thin Min Soe and other refugees at the camp told RFA they are afraid of returning to Myanmar due to the threat of persecution. The country has been pitched into civil war after the military toppled an elected government in 2021. Many said they no longer have homes or villages to return to, even if they did want to go back. With the U.S. refugee program suspended, “we are now seriously concerned about our livelihood because we have to support our two children’s education and livelihoods,” she said. When RFA contacted the camp manager and the refugee affairs office, they responded by saying they were not allowed to comment on the matter. US has resettled 3 million refugees Since 1980, more than 3 million refugees — people fearing persecution because of their race, religion, nationality, politics or membership in a social group — have been resettled in the United States. During the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, the United States resettled 100,034 refugees, the highest number in 30 years. The most came from the Republic of the Congo, followed by Afghanistan, Venezuela and Syria. Myanmar was fifth, accounting for 7.3%, according to the Center for Immigration Studies. Over the past 30 years, the United States accepted the highest number of refugees from Myanmar — about 76,000 — followed by Canada and Australia, according to the U.S. Embassy in Thailand. Hundreds of Myanmar refugees from Thailand were brought to the U.S. in November and December, before the end of former President Joe Biden’s term. The Ohn Pyan refugee camp near Mae Sot, Thailand, undated photo.(RFA) Thai health workers will provide healthcare during the day from Monday to Friday, while refugee camp health professionals will be on duty at night and on weekends. The U.S. freeze on foreign aid has also impacted the work of other humanitarian groups at the Thai-Myanmar border, including the Mae Tao Clinic, which provides free medical care to those in need, as well as health education and social services, officials told RFA. Translated by Aung Naing and Kalyar Lwin. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster. We are : Investigative Journalism Reportika Investigative Reports Daily Reports Interviews Surveys Reportika
Hundreds of millions of people in China and other parts of East Asia are on the move this week to celebrate New Year’s with family gatherings, feasts and traditional activities honoring ancestors and hoping to bring good fortune. Colloquially known as “Chinese New Year,” the Lunar New Year falls on Jan. 29 this year, but it can come as early as Jan. 21 or as late as Feb. 20. In 2026, the holiday falls on Feb. 17. The variation is the result of using a lunar calendar based on the phases of the moon, modified into a lunisolar calendar that addresses leap years to keep it roughly in line with the solar year of the Western, or Gregorian, calendar. Most East Asian nations adopted the Gregorian calendar in the late 19th or early 20th centuries, and the lunisolar calendar is used for cultural events, religious ceremonies, and for some people, birthdays. A Chinese woman lights a prayer candle during a service at Dhanagun Vihara in Bogor, West Java, Jan. 28, 2025, on the eve of the Lunar New Year of the Snake.(ADITYA AJI, Aditya Aji/AFP) The reason “Chinese New Year” is a misnomer is that the holiday is also observed on the same date in South Korea and Vietnam –- two neighbors of China that were heavily influenced by Chinese culture centuries ago. Like China, they will ring in the Year of the Snake on Wednesday. In South Korea, the holiday is called Seollal and features a return to hometowns, the wearing of traditional hanbok attire, playing folk games, and performing rites and offering food to deceased relatives to honor the family lineage. Young people bow deeply before their elders and receive gifts and money, and rice cake soup is a main treat for the holiday, which is a three-day affair. Kim Dynasty and Tet North Korea, separated from the South in the wake of World War II in a division cemented by the 1950-53 Korean War, returned to the practice of celebrating the Lunar New Year in 1989, and made it an official holiday in 2003. But the most important holidays in North Korea focus on the birthdates of founder Kim Il Sung and his son Kim Jong Il, the father of current leader Kim Jong Un. Even Lunar New Year is observed mainly by visits to statues of the two elder Kims. Tibetan women prepare for a ritual dance as they celebrate the Losar, or Tibetan New Year in Kathmandu, Nepal, Feb. 23, 2023.(Bikram Rai/AP) The ceremony Monlam (“Wish Path”) held at major monasteries of the Gelug sect of Tibetan Buddhism entails monks chanting and praying to bring peace and good fortune to their Himalayan region. The Uyghurs of the Xinjiang region, annexed by China in 1949-50, celebrate Nowruz, the Persian New Year. It falls on or near the Spring Equinox and will be observed on March 20 this year. The holiday is observed by various ethnic groups in countries along the Silk Road, including Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, India, Iran, Iraq, central Asian states and Turkey. For the Uyghurs, facing repression under Chinese rule and heavy-handed assimilation policies, there is a strong emphasis on preserving cultural identity through gatherings, feasts of special food, music and dance. RELATED STORIES Cash-strapped Chinese take the slow train home for Lunar New Year China swamped with respiratory infections ahead of Lunar New Year travel rush In song and dance, Uyghurs forced to celebrate Lunar New Year Splashing water, Buddhist rites In Southeast Asia, while Vietnam follows the Chinese-inspired calendar and traditions, the traditionally Buddhist nations of Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar mark the solar new year in mid-April, when the sun enters the sign of Aries the Ram. Revelers take part in mass water fights on the first day of Songkran, or Thai New Year, in Bangkok on April 13, 2024.(Lillian Suwanrumpha/AFP) The people of Myanmar celebrate the Burmese New Year, called Thingyan, or Water Festival, by throwing buckets of water on each other and on Buddha images as an act of prayer to wash away misfortunes to welcome the new year. It falls on April 13-16 this year. Edited by Malcolm Foster. We are : Investigative Journalism Reportika Investigative Reports Daily Reports Interviews Surveys Reportika
Many members of Myanmar’s Christian minority celebrated Christmas in fear this year, worried that the military would unleash airstrikes on them, with some worshippers taking to the safety of a cave deep in the forest for Christmas Eve mass. Predominantly Buddhist Myanmar has been engulfed in conflict since the military overthrew an elected government in 2021, with fighting particularly heavy in ethnic minority areas where many Christians live and where generations have battled for self-determination. “Christmas is a very important day for Christians, it’s also important to be safe,” said Ba Nyar, an official in an ethnic minority administration in eastern Myanmar’s Kayah state in an area under the control of anti-junta insurgents. “That’s why lately religious ceremonies have only been held in Mother’s Cave, which is free from the danger of air strikes,” he told Radio Free Asia, referring to a cave in the forest that covers the state’s craggy hills near the border with Thailand. Several hundred people, most of them women and children, crowded into the cave on Christmas Eve, squatting on its hard-packed floor for a service led by a priest standing behind an altar bedecked with flowers and candles. Ba Nyar and other residents of the area declined to reveal the cave’s location, fearing the junta would bomb it with aircraft or attack drones if they knew where it was. Villagers in a cave for Christmas Eve mass in a rebel zone in Myanmar’s Kayah state on Dec. 24, 2024.(Christ the King – Loikaw via Facebook) Most of those attending the service in Mother’s Cave have been displaced by fighting in Kayah state, where junta forces have targeted civilians and their places of worship, insurgents and rights groups say. Nearly 50 villagers were killed in Kayah state’s Moso village on Christmas Eve in 2021, when junta troops attacked after a clash with rebels. In November, the air force bombed a church where displaced people were sheltering near northern Myanmar’s border with China killing nine of them including children. More than 300 religious buildings, including about 100 churches and numerous Buddhist temples, have been destroyed by the military in attacks since the 2021 coup, a spokesman for a shadow government in exile, the National Unity Government, or NUG, said on Tuesday. RFA tried to contact the military spokesman, Major General Zaw Min Tun, for comment but he did not answer phone calls. The junta rejects the accusations by opposition forces and international rights groups that it targets civilians and places of worship. About 6.5% of Myanmar’s 57 million people are Christian, many of them members of ethnic minorities in hilly border areas of Chin, Kachin, Kayah and Kayin states. No Christmas carols In northwestern Myanmar’s Chin state, people fear military retaliation for losses to insurgent forces there in recent days and so have cut back their Christmas festivities. “When the country is free we can do these things again. We just have to be patient, even though we’re sad,” said a resident of the town of Mindat, which recently came under the control of anti-junta forces. “In December in the past, we’d hear young people singing carols, even at midnight, but now we don’t,” said the resident, a woman who declined to be identified for safety reasons. “I miss the things we used to do at Christmas,” she told RFA. In Mon Hla, a largely Christian village in the central Sagaing region, a resident said church services were being kept as brief as possible. Junta forces badly damaged the church in the home village of Myanmar’s most prominent Christian, Cardinal Charles Maung Bo, in an air raid in October. “Everyone going to church is worried that they’re going to get bombed,” the resident, who also declined to be identified, told RFA on Christmas Day. “The sermons are as short as possible, not only at Christmas but every Sunday too,” she said. The chief of the junta, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, attended a Christmas dinner on Sunday at St. Mary’s Cathedral in the main city of Yangon and reiterated a call for insurgents to make peace, saying his government was strengthening democracy. Anti-junta forces dismiss his calls as meaningless and say there is no basis for trusting the military, which overthrew a civilian government in 2021, imprisoned its leaders and has tried to crush all opposition. Edited by RFA Staff. We are : Investigative Journalism Reportika Investigative Reports Daily Reports Interviews Surveys Reportika
Our mission is to present authentic and accurate investigative reports on issues that most media houses won’t even dare to speak about.
Don’t miss our future updates! Get Subscribed Today!
