Aung Thaung: Why Now, Why Him and Who’s Next?
Senior USDP member and former Burmese junta general Aung Thaung addresses the media during a press conference. (Photo: The Irrawaddy) Before receiving US President Barack Obama in Naypyidaw, Burmese...
View ArticleThe House on an Island
The palace left behind by Lim Chin Tsong features a mix of Eastern and Western architectural styles. (Photo: Steve Tickner / The Irrawaddy) YANGON — When the writer and former British civil servant...
View ArticleQuestioning Oslo’s Embrace of Burma
Norwegian royal couple King Harald V and Queen Sonja in Rangoon on Dec. 2, 2014. (Photo: Steve Tickner / The Irrawaddy) The relationship between Burma and Norway has transformed in recent years; one of...
View ArticleLight at the End of the Tunnel?
A child walks by posters of Myanmar independence leader General Aung San at an event in Maha Bandoola Park, Yangon in December. 2015 marks the centennial of the birth of the national hero. People are...
View ArticleOf Teachers and Tea Shops
A tea shop in Rangoon. (Photo: The Irrawaddy) I thought of them often when I was in exile, and they sometimes came to my dreams. After my immediate family members, friends and teachers from my high...
View ArticlePeng Jiasheng’s Fall from Grace
Kokang leader Peng Jiasheng poses for a photograph with Kokang children at a local festival on February 3. (Photo: www. kokang.net) As heavy fighting rages in the Kokang Special Region in northern Shan...
View ArticleMin Aung Hlaing’s Putsch
Burma military Commander-in-Chief Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing, second from left, in Lashio over the weekend. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy) Was it an intelligence failure? That’s what many Burmese were...
View ArticleLiving Next Door to China
Security forces in Rangoon hold back a protester attempting to break a police line near the Chinese Embassy in late December, during a protest against the death of a woman near the Chinese-backed...
View ArticleJunta-Era Thugs Are Back on the Streets
Members of the vigilante group, bearing red armbands with the word “duty” written in Burmese, prepare to accost student protesters near Rangoon’s Sule Pagoda on Thursday. (Photo: Aung Naing Soe / The...
View ArticleSuu Kyi, Singapore and the Ties That Bind
Burma’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi speaks to the Burmese community living in Singapore on Sept. 22, 2013. (Photo: Reuters / Edgar Su) Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s first prime minister who oversaw...
View Article‘Signing the Ceasefire Does Not Mean Achieving Peace’
Gen. Gun Maw talks to Irrawaddy editor-in-chief Aung Zaw in Rangoon on Wednesday. (Photo: Hein Htet / The Irrawaddy) Just as the latest round of peace talks paused for a recess and participants emerged...
View ArticleWin Tin, Suu Kyi and the Perils of Trust
Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi walks inside the parliament building in Nyapyidaw during a break in proceedings on Apr. 3. (Photo: Soe Zeya Tun / Reuters) The late veteran journalist and...
View ArticleCan Burma Buy Happiness in Washington?
US President Barack Obama shakes hands with Burma’s President Thein Sein during their meeting in Rangoon in November 2012. (Photo: Reuters) Burmese activists were outraged to learn late last week that...
View ArticleWin Tin: Burma’s Revolutionary Journalist
Win Tin after his release from prison in 2008. (Photo: Kyi Toe) One year to the day since Burma lost one of its leading intellectual figures, Win Tin, The Irrawaddy looks back on his enduring legacy. A...
View ArticleRehabilitating Burma’s Cronies
Myanmar tycoon Tay Za holds a child at a school supported by his Htoo Foundation in Myitkyina in 2013. (Photo: Reuters) The United States Treasury announced on Thursday that prominent business leader...
View ArticleDeath of an Activist Reporter
Activists hold up a banner of the late Aung Kyaw Naing on Sunday in Rangoon, at an authorized protest calling for an inquiry into his killing in military custody. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy) May 3...
View ArticleIntrigue and an iPad
Retired junta leader Snr-Gen Than Shwe is seen receiving instructions on how to use an iPad from his granddaughter. (Photo: Facebook) Is ex-senior general Than Shwe, the country’s widely feared and...
View ArticleSaving the Spirit of Shwedagon
Shwedagon: Devotees at Shwedagon Pagoda on the Full Moon Day of Tabaung on March 4. (Photo: Sai Zaw/The Irrawaddy) In 1871, the local Sangha in Rangoon were seeking assistance in restoring the...
View ArticleDisquiet on the Western Front
A boat is framed by the ruins of a destroyed mosque in a part of Rakhine State’s Pauktaw Township in October 2012. (Photo: Reuters) Amid an ongoing crisis involving thousands of so-called “boat people”...
View ArticleSuu Kyi’s Mission to China: It’s Complicated
US President Barack Obama and Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi exit her residence for a news conference at their meeting in Rangoon on Nov. 19, 2012. (Photo: Reuters) Politics, as we all...
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