Final crackdown? Thailand moves against Myanmar cyber scam centres

Thailand has turned the screws on scamming operations abutting its territory, but experts warn of powerful vested interests on both sides of the border, while Myanmar migrants complain of heightened police harassment.

By MATTHEW BRUNWASSER | FRONTIER MYANMAR

Having long tolerated and even facilitated cyber scam centres exploiting thousands of trafficked foreigners just across its border with Myanmar, Thailand is reacting to domestic and international pressure to demonstrate it is serious about shutting them down.

A stream of top-level officials from Thailand and China has visited the Thai town of Mae Sot, across the border from Kayin State’s Myawaddy Township over the last month. Deals have been struck with the Myanmar regime and allied armed groups that have profited from and enabled the Chinese criminal gangs running cyber scam compounds.

Q&A: ‘We have to focus on the structure of organised crime’, says Thai MP Rangsiman Rome

One of the loudest voices calling for action against cyber scam centres on the Thai-Myanmar border, opposition MP Rangsiman Rome says Thailand’s current crackdown is only the first step.

By MATTHEW BRUNWASSER | FRONTIER MYANMAR

Last weekend, Thai opposition parliamentarian Mr Rangsiman Rome led a delegation to Mae Sot in Tak province to investigate the impact of Thailand’s crackdown on scam centres operating across the border in Myanmar’s Kayin State. Deputy leader of the People’s Party, Rangsiman serves as chair of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security, Border Affairs, National Strategy, and National Reform.

Troubled waters: Bangladeshi fishermen rocked by Rakhine war

Conflict and chaos in Myanmar’s Rakhine State have escalated the risks faced by Bangladeshis who are trying to eke out a living along the maritime border.

By MATTHEW BRUNWASSER | FRONTIER MYANMAR

The six boats were fishing last month in Bangladeshi waters, close to the maritime boundary in the Bay of Bengal, when a Myanmar warship appeared about a kilometre away.

Fearful of the Myanmar navy’s reputation for violence and aggression – including several recent attacks on Bangladeshi fishing boats – they immediately withdrew their nets and began motoring back towards the Teknaf peninsula.

But it was too late.

America first: aid freeze erodes an already anemic response to Myanmar crisis

An executive order by United States President Donald Trump has halted foreign aid programmes around the world, sowing chaos among the humanitarian community and its beneficiaries in Myanmar and Thailand.

By MATTHEW BRUNWASSER | FRONTIER MYANMAR

More than a week has passed since United States President Donald Trump issued an executive order immediately freezing all international aid pending a 90-day review. Since then, humanitarian organisations working on Myanmar have been scrambling to grasp the repercussions of the sudden edict.

“It’s pandemonium,” said an aid worker who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue.

Hailing War Criminals, Serbs Shun Reflection

BELGRADE, Serbia — When a general convicted of war crimes gave a lecture last month to cadets at the military academy in Serbia’s capital, he received a warm welcome from the defense minister. The nation should feel “proud” of veterans like the general, “the bravest of the brave,” the minister said. So it was no surprise that after another general, Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb commander, was convicted of genocide, crimes against humanity and other war crimes this week, President Aleksandar Vucic called the verdict “unjustified.”

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Serbia Prepares to Elect a President Amid a Murky Media Landscape

BELGRADE, Serbia — When he was Serbia’s information minister in the late 1990s, Aleksandar Vucic censored journalists, forced media critics out of business and served as chief propagandist for the regime of Slobodan Milosevic, the Serbian strongman reviled for the atrocities that followed the breakup of Yugoslavia.

Today Mr. Vucic is the prime minister of Serbia, having been elected in 2014 as a reformer on promises to lead Serbia into a democratic future and membership in the European Union. He has renounced the extreme nationalist views of his past. Continue reading “Serbia Prepares to Elect a President Amid a Murky Media Landscape” →

Serbia’s Prime Minister Projected to Win Presidency, Consolidating Control

BELGRADE, Serbia — Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic appeared headed toward a first-round victory in Serbia’s presidential election on Sunday, winning more than 50 percent of the vote among a field of 11 candidates, according to exit polls and early results.

If the preliminary vote count holds and Mr. Vucic passes the 50 percent threshold, he would avoid a riskier two-way runoff on April 16.

While Serbia is a parliamentary republic and the presidency is intended as a largely symbolic position, the actual effect of the election result is seen as removing the last check on Mr. Vucic’s power and as a further erosion of Serbia’s nascent democratic institutions. Continue reading “Serbia’s Prime Minister Projected to Win Presidency, Consolidating Control” →

As Albania Reckons With Its Communist Past, Critics Say It’s Too Late

TIRANA, Albania — When the Rev. Shtjefen Kurti, a 73-year-old Catholic priest, was executed in 1971 for performing a baptism, the Communist authorities didn’t bother to inform his family. Only when his brother tried to take food to him in prison did he learn the priest’s fate.

“Don’t come back,” a guard told the brother. “He won’t be needing it anymore.” Continue reading “As Albania Reckons With Its Communist Past, Critics Say It’s Too Late” →

Bosnian Serbs challenge Dayton order in referendum

BANJA LUKA — Bosnian Serbs voted on Sunday in a referendum that could be the boldest challenge to date to the constitutional order, created by the Dayton Accords which ended the war in 1995.

Milorad Dodik, the president of Republika Srpska has been threatening since 2006, when he came to power, to hold referenda on questions ranging from territorial separation of the Serb entity to the authority of Bosnian state judiciary, which many Serbs see as biased, and the national holiday. His party’s platform includes an explicit threat to hold a referendum on independence in 2018.

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Bosnia’s biggest foreign investment: Bonanza or threat?

Gaze across the pristine green hills of Trnovo and you’d be hard pressed to find a single sign of civilisation.

And that’s precisely the point.

A Dubai-based property developer sees this clearing on Mt. Bjelasnica – home to part of the 1984 Sarajevo Winter Olympics – as a prime location to realise Bosnia’s biggest ever foreign investment: Buroj Ozone City.

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