The United States (US) on Thursday slapped sanctions on the leaders of Myanmar's junta, warning that more punishment could come even as the generals in Yangon ordered demonstrators to get back to work or face "effective actions".As Myanmar was preparing for a seventh consecutive day of anti-coup rallies, the US Treasury Department announced it was blocking any US assets and transactions with 10 current or former military officials held responsible for the 1 February coup.Demons

Thai pro-democracy protesters returned to the streets of Bangkok Wednesday after nearly two months, clanging pots and pans - a tactic borrowed from mass rallies against a coup in neighbouring Myanmar.The protest came a day after a court denied bail to four prominent democracy leaders who were charged under the kingdom's draconian royal defamation laws.Since the pro-democracy movement kicked off in July, more than 50 protesters have been charged under the laws and face up to 15 years in j

Hundreds of teachers and students protested at a Myanmar university Friday as the military widened a dragnet against officials ousted in a coup that has drawn global condemnation and the threat of new sanctions.The rally took place after the arrest of Win Htein, a key aide to de facto leader Aung Sang Suu Kyi, who has not been seen in public since being detained along with president Win Myint early Monday. A representative of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) said Fr

Until recently, the last time Myanmar’s military supervised a general election whose outcome it didn’t like was back in 1990.

A Myanmar court has charged ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi with breaching an import and export law, a spokesperson from her National League for Democracy (NLD) said Wednesday.The charges come days after the military staged a lightning coup, detaining Suu Kyi and Myanmar president Win Myint, and the army chief General Min Aung Hlaing was granted "legislative, judicial and executive powers".The swift power seizure effectively returns a nation at the edge of democracy to direct militar

Since the British declared independence of Burma in 1948, the Tatmadaw – Burmese Army – has been running modern-day Burma via coups and proxies.

The Myanmar military's detention of Aung San Suu Kyi during this week's coup has revived memories of her more than 15 years of house arrest at a lakeside villa in Yangon during the country's last period of junta rule.Under the cover of darkness early Monday, soldiers took Myanmar's de facto leader - who became a beacon for democracy in the 1990s and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate - back into custody.A lawmaker from her National League for Democracy (NLD) party, who requested

Despite criticism of Myanmar’s recent electoral process – said to be an “apartheid election,” one that was “less free and fair than the last” – as stated by Burma Campaign United Kingdom, the ASEAN member state still went ahead with its second general elections on 8 November, 2020. Even before the results were announced, widely admired civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) was projected to be returned to power in the election.

Myanmar's military coup marks an early test case of President Joe Biden's determination to advocate democracy but, unlike a decade ago when the United States (US) nurtured a transition there, he has limited options.The rise of democracy in Myanmar had initially been hailed as a key achievement of former president Barack Obama, under whom Biden served as number two, representing an opening of a long-closed nation that had been in rival China's orbit.But Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar

When the time comes to evaluate United States (US) President Joe Biden’s international legacy, one variable will be enormously significant: the relationship that his administration forges with China.