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Reuters blog archive
from The Human Impact:
A devastating fire displaces an already displaced population
In early March, I visited two refugee camps along the Thai-Myanmar border to report on the challenges facing refugee women and girls and was struck by the enthusiasm of students I met in Ban Mae Surin, a camp set in a remote but picturesque setting along the Mae Surin river.
The students were part of the Karenni Further Studies Programme and were rehearsing a group dance for International Women’s Day celebrations on March 8.
On that day, they learnt the dance moves for a song that calls for the elimination of violence against women and girls. Despite the sweltering afternoon heat, the four dozen or so students - and some alumni - practised non-stop.
In a normal schoolroom of 17 to 23 year olds, you’re sure to find some who would refuse to participate in such an activity because it’s ‘uncool’, no matter how worthy the cause. I would’ve been one of them, but there was none of that cooler-than-thou swagger in this group.
from The Human Impact:
India’s growing global humanitarian role: Is it enough?
India is increasingly seen as an important player when it comes to supporting nations hit by disasters or conflict, as well as for development, but given its size and influence, is it really doing enough to help resolve global crises?
Many, like the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), think not, especially when it comes to addressing humanitarian issues at an international level.
from Photographers Blog:
To die in peace
Yangon, Myanmar
By Minzayar
"There are about thirty patients in our hospice and the number’s always about the same. New patients arrive regularly and as old patients die. About ten die every month here.”
When the nurse showing me around the hospice said that, I was kind of shocked. If ten patients die a month, that means one every three days. To be honest, I have very rarely seen someone die near me. When I do, it is very sad and scary. I cannot imagine how the people here live with it.
from Photographers Blog:
A village hunted by wild elephants
Kyar Chaung village, Myanmar
By Minzayar
It was a fine winter evening and the first frame I took was a silhouette of a farmer and his wife wearing ta-na-ka, riding on their cow carts, so at once, I thought this is a very nice village. But in fact, its people have been living in fear for several years.
Kyar Chaung village is 64 miles north of Yangon, Myanmar. Most villagers have two houses. One on the ground to stay during the daytime and one in a tree to protect themselves from a wild elephant’s attack.
from Andrew R.C. Marshall:
Jailing dissidents is not only a Burmese tradition
Ever heard of Tun Aung? I hadn't until researching my recent Reuters special report on Myanmar's year of reforms. Human rights activists claim his plight is proof that the country's reformist government, like the military junta it replaced, is relying on repressive laws and secretive trials to silence perceived enemies.
Tun Aung, a practicing medical doctor and Islamic leader, was arrested in June 2012 after clashes between Buddhists and Muslims in Rakhine State killed at least 80 people. He was accused of inciting unrest in the town of Maungdaw, although Amnesty International said credible eyewitness reports suggested that Tun Aung "actively tried to defuse the violence."
from Photographers Blog:
The first embrace
On the road with President Obama in Myanmar
By Jason Reed
It was something you wouldn’t dream of ten years ago. Based then as a photographer in Bangkok, our forays into neighboring Myanmar consisted of clandestine treks across a slippery border into the jungle camps of Karen rebels. Rebels who were child soldiers brandishing impossibly heavy weapons in their fight against a military junta that had not only persecuted them but also banished Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi into years of house arrest - denying her a place in the political landscape following democratic general elections in May, 1990.
Journalist visas to Myanmar were almost impossible to obtain and the only visual fruit they bore was to strictly-controlled, officially-sanctioned photo opportunities at the ceremonial burning of illicit drugs intercepted from the golden triangle.
from India Insight:
Aung San Suu Kyi’s India visit: Killing softly with her words
Myanmar's pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi's trip to India last week was more than a homecoming of sorts to a country where she went to school and college, and which shaped her political beliefs. It was also about repairing ties frayed by New Delhi's abrupt decision in the mid-1990s to engage with the military junta in Yangon after decades of support for her campaign. She ended up reminding the world's largest democracy of how far it had strayed away from the ideals of the father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi, in the pursuit of realpolitik.
For a country which has prided itself on something bordering on "Indian exceptionalism", and fighting for equality and non-discriminatory policies on the global stage as well as the voice of the downtrodden in the initial decades since it won independence in 1947, the gentle admonishment from Suu Kyi must have rankled. Gandhi wouldn't have countenanced such a policy shift towards a military regime that brutalised its own people, she said, whatever the compulsions. She was saddened that India had taken a path different from hers, despite their shared colonial history and close ties between the independence leaders of the two countries, she told The Hindu in an interview ahead of the trip.
from Breakingviews:
O-Burma trip rewards reformists for job half done
By Wayne Arnold
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.
Barack Obama’s planned trip to Myanmar this month risks rewarding the country’s rulers for a job half-done. The visit would justifiably herald recent reforms and cultivate a key ally as U.S. foreign policy pivots to Asia. But it is sure to antagonize China’s new leaders and could reduce pressure on Myanmar to make the tougher changes it still needs.
from Photographers Blog:
Burnt under the sun
By Damir Sagolj
(WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT)
The bottom picture is of a dead man killed by who-knows-who and left alone in the desert. I shot this image almost ten years ago from atop a U.S. Marines tank speeding towards Baghdad.
It immediately got lost, the photo itself, amongst others illustrating what would be celebrated as the liberation of a country from a tyrant. Other images of fighting and those of U.S. soldiers doing this and that played well in the papers. Somewhere near Nassiriya, this man was left forgotten to rot under the desert sun -- and on our hard drives.
from Andrew R.C. Marshall:
Aung San Suu Kyi is in the House
The worst-kept secret in Naypyitaw, the eerily under-populated capital of Myanmar, is who lives in a new bungalow in its dusty northern suburbs.
The house looks unwelcoming, and perhaps it's meant to. It is painted a penitential shade of beige and ringed by a high fence topped with razor wire. "To protect against enemies," said a guard through a mouthful of betel juice, before shutting the heavy wooden gate that separates Naypyitaw's famous new resident, Aung San Suu Kyi, from a curious world.
