“The largest inflows of foreign currency to the military are from the oil and gas and mining sectors. We need to totally shut off the flow of foreign currency that is keeping the junta alive,” a local economist who asked not to be named told The Irrawaddy.
Category: Myanmar
Myanmar coup threatens Chinese power projects
Projects taken up by Chinese state-backed liquefied natural gas and solar energy companies would have been difficult to implement even before the Feb. 1 military takeover, insiders say. Now the coup has further complicated matters.
‘From complex to chaotic’: Myanmar coup shrinks frontline aid
Zau Lawn, a pseudonym for a 24-year-old divinity student in northern Myanmar’s Kachin State says, “I couldn’t tell [security forces] I was helping those who fled war. If the Burmese soldiers found me with humanitarian items, I am afraid that they would harm me.”
A human tragedy
In Day Bu Noh, we met Saw Tender, the Mutraw District Governor and president of the Salween Peace Park who said that it is the people who bear the brunt of the attack.
Almost Half of Myanmar’s Population Face Poverty Next Year: UN Report
“From 2005 to 2017, Myanmar managed to nearly halve the number of people living in poverty. However, the challenges of the past 12 months have put all of these hard-won development gains at risk.”
Illegal rare earth mines on China border multiply since Myanmar’s coup
“Before the coup, we only saw one or two trucks per day. Now there is no proper inspection we are seeing 10 to 15,” an activist in Chipwi told The Irrawaddy.
Myanmar’s military coup linked to illegal deforestation
The British monitoring group Conflict and Environment Observatory (CEOBS) claims that deforestation of primary rainforest at the heart of the country spiralled since the military took over.
World’s oil and gas majors cannot be expected to save Myanmar
Though one could accuse the oil companies that are staying put of being self-serving by not heeding to the calls of pro-democracy protesters and human rights groups, it would be a flawed, one-dimensional view of a complex and multilayered problem.
Military coup clouds control over jade, gems in Myanmar
Opposition to the military’s coup has boosted ethnic armed groups, creating a new challenge to its lucrative jade and gems business.