Myanmar or Burma

Myanmar’s junta is racing to assure Chinese officials that it can ensure security on the border and elsewhere in the country since the Arakan Army encircled the site of a US$ 8 billion investment project in Rakhine State considered to be the pearl of economic cooperation between Naypyitaw and Beijing.

India plans to spend nearly $3.7 billion to fence its 1,610-km (1,000-mile) porous border with Myanmar within about a decade, said a source with direct knowledge of the matter, to prevent smuggling and other illegal activities.

Some members of the Indian government have also blamed the porous border for abetting the tense situation in the restive northeastern Indian state of Manipur, abutting Myanmar.

This year’s commemoration is scheduled to kick off at 5.15 p.m. Critics of the regime say the time was carefully chosen in line with yadaya traditional Burmese magic rituals. The three digits in the time—five, five and one—add up to 11, which helps to avert “Set Ta Mee”, or the Eleven Dangers, according to a traditional Myanmar belief.

As the TNLA expands its forced conscription policies to newly-conquered territories, a Frontier reporter reflects on his time with the group in 2021, and his friendship with a young Ta’ang boy destined for war since birth.