Yola Verbruggen

Reporting from Athens and Lesvos, Global Insight met lawyers on the frontline of Europe’s refugee crisis as they attempt to gain access to those in greatest need of legal assistance.

This article analyses the news production processes in reporting on the conflict. The article maps out the various actors involved in the production of news, such as foreign and local journalists, local producers (the “fixers”) and interpreters, and the various challenges and limitations they face. These challenges function to perpetuate a familiar set of reporting routines and “us vs them” or binary narratives, with consequences for the de-escalation or perpetuation of the conflict. (Message… Meer weergeven

This article analyses the news production processes in reporting on the conflict. The article maps out the various actors involved in the production of news, such as foreign and local journalists, local producers (the “fixers”) and interpreters, and the various challenges and limitations they face. These challenges function to perpetuate a familiar set of reporting routines and “us vs them” or binary narratives, with consequences for the de-escalation or perpetuation of the conflict. (Message me for a copy) Minder weergeven

As Kofi Annan travels to Myanmar’s conflict-torn Rakhine State, a train ride with the Rohingya demonstrates the deep-seated fear and distrust that dominate daily life in the state.
My first multimedia project.

Under intense pressure from the United States, Myanmar's new government is struggling to resolve one of its most pressing problems: it’s launched a programme aimed at providing citizenship to the Rohingya, an ethnic and religious minority who live under apartheid-like conditions.

To unravel Myanmar's drug trade and end the decades-long civil war, Tatmadaw-backed militias will need to be involved in the dialogue, experts say.

The government remains publicly evasive on the need for US sanctions against Myanmar, which are up for renewal this month. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi strongly supported the sanctions as leader of the opposition – often going so far as to petition US leaders to maintain them, according to leaked diplomatic cables – but has refused to give a straight-forward answer on the issue since assuming office.

Revered in the West almost as much as at home, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi may steer Myanmar’s foregin policy to a westward pivot to some degree, although the Nobel Peace Prize winner has already shown she understands the realities of dealing with powerful Asian neighbours.

Repressive drug laws and corruption have contributed to Myanmar’s spiralling narcotics problem, according to advocacy groups, who are calling on the new government to launch a change of policy.

A group of sickle-wielding vigilantes made its way through Myanmar’s northern Kachin State in January and February, clearing poppy fields nearly ready to be harvested in a quest to end production of the illicit drug. The mission turned farmers whose livelihoods were being cut down into angry and, at times, armed adversaries.

More than 5,000 civilians in Myanmar have been displaced in the past couple of weeks by heavy fighting between two ethnic armies, one of which signed a recent national ceasefire accord while the other was excluded.

On the second day of the US-ASEAN summit, leaders at the Sunnylands resort in California put their heads together to formulate a common stance on the conflicting claims laid on islands in the South China Sea. The topic, which pits China and the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei and Malaysia on opposing sides, has long been a delicate issue among ASEAN nations, not least for Myanmar, which wants to remain neutral.

As US President Barack Obama hosts leaders of all 10 ASEAN countries at a California ranch, disputes with China are ranking high on the agenda. By staying home purportedly to monitor the transition, President U Thein Sein has managed to avoid questions on the subject, as well as having to pick sides between two of Myanmar’s foremost, and often diametrically opposed, allies.

A genuine ceasefire agreement between the government and armed groups is needed to tackle poppy cultivation in the Pa-O Self-Administered Zone, local groups say.

Seated under a peacock flag in the National League for Democracy office just outside Yangon city centre, U Win Htein, a senior NLD member, laughingly dismisses concerns that his party’s win could be challenged by the election commission’s strict rules on campaign funding.

After bursting onto the political scene in July, the National Development Party surprised many observers by fielding 354 candidates – the fourth-highest total in the November 8 election.

The Union Solidarity and Development Party appears to have found a stronghold – in one of the most distant corners of the country. Election results in eastern Shan State have been slow to emerge but official figures from local sources show the ruling party ahead in many seats, much to the chagrin of local ethnic candidates.

A member of the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy has expressed exasperation at the slow pace of the vote count in eastern Shan State after she had been present at the election commission office in Kengtung for two nights to observe the tallying with still no results announced.

Making inroads into areas where ethnic parties had high hopes of success, the National League for Democracy last night claimed victory in all but one seat in the three townships of Kayin State’s Hpa-an district.

It is 7am. In traditional Kayin dress, Daw Nan Say Awa of the Phlone Sgaw Democratic Party arrived at a polling station in Hpa-an to cast her vote. She is one of the candidates contending one out of only 17 elected seats in the Kayin State parliament, one of the smallest in the country.

The village of Kawt Yin, in Kayin State, gave few outward signs yesterday that it was preparing for a landmark election. At its entrance, requests for directions to the polling station were answered with confused faces and fingers pointing to different places, none of them correct. No campaign trucks blasted party music; no candidates’ faces looked down from party billboards.

The National League for Democracy claims voter lists in Kayin State’s Hpa-an township are being manipulated, with those of mixed heritage most at risk of losing their vote.

In Tong Si village in eastern Shan State the streets were empty. Almost all the residents had gone out to help with the harvest. Working day in, day out to bring in this season’s rice crop, the farmers have not had much time to think about the upcoming elections. In one of the houses a young mother, one of the few not in the fields today, was feeding her baby.

When political parties in Kengtung, eastern Shan State, are asked what they hope the election will bring, one of their responses is surprising: youth.

The signing of a ceasefire between Myanmar’s government and ethnic armed groups unfolded with pomp and ceremony today, following a week of clashes that displaced about 1,000 people in northern Shan State.

For many elderly ethnic Chinese residents of Yangon, the anti-Chinese riots of 1967 are still a fresh wound. It is widely believed that the military government deliberately stoked the violence in an attempt to divert attention from the deteriorating economy. The anti-Chinese sentiment fomented by the regime continues to reverberate, and many of the ethnic Chinese in Yangon consider a vote for the ruling party, the brainchild of then-Senior General Than Shwe, unthinkable.

Four candidates have registered to take on Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in rural Kawhmu but there is little expectation of anything other than another massive victory for the Nobel laureate.

The opposition NLD is coming under fire for its choice of candidates, amid fears of a split within the party.

Knee-high elephant grass has taken over the paddy where Pu Tin’s rice should now be growing. Like other farmers across Myanmar whose land was destroyed by floods, she now worries that she will miss the next rice harvest and her family will face crippling debt as well as hunger.

A court hearing into the death of a journalist while in military custody in October 2014 heard testimony from his widow yesterday, but was overshadowed by the revelation that the soldiers who shot him had already been acquitted by a military tribunal last year.

Witnesses told a court hearing in Mon State’s Kyaikmayaw yesterday that they recalled seeing journalist Ko Par Gyi on the streets of the small town before he was detained by the military. He would die in custody a week later, while allegedly trying to escape.

On October 23, 2014, Ma Thandar returned to her room in a Bangkok hotel. It had been a long day of meetings ahead of an award ceremony the next day, at which she was to be recognised for her activism. Having been offline all day, she opened her Facebook account and went through her messages. “I am sorry to tell you…” one of the messages began.

Outside Letpadan Township Court on April 7, worried parents gathered to follow the proceedings of a trial against their children who had participated in a protest against the National Education Law. But most of the parents’ concerns were not about the legal system, in which they have little faith, but about the health of the young activists.

On the evening of March 9, Ma Phyoe Phyoe Aung made a phone call from Letpadan. It was clear in her voice that she believed trouble was brewing. “I don’t know what will happen tomorrow, but I am so worried for my students,” she said in a small voice. Her usually determined speech seemed clouded with worry.

A cooling breeze makes for a pleasant afternoon in Sittwe. In a noodle shop on the city’s main road customers chat quietly while a rickshaw driver waits for business outside. But the tranquil scene in the Rakhine State capital is deceptive.

Life has assumed a strange kind of normalcy in the internally displaced people's camp near Sittwe, the capital of Myanmar's Rakhine state, where the wedding was held. The camp was supposed to be temporary, housing people for an estimated six months, but two years later displaced Muslims continue to live there in increasingly dire conditions and with no chance to leave.

Under the cover of darkness, fishing boats meet at sea off the Rakhine coast. Muslim fishermen, no longer allowed to enter the market in downtown Sittwe, the state capital, sell their day’s catch to Rakhine Buddhist buyers. on the pier at Sittwe, fishmongers and middlemen know about the deals being done at sea. But the topic is sensitive because the Rakhine Budhist fear repercussions for themselves or their businesses for doing business with Muslims.

A few cigarettes secure passage through the security checkpoint on the outskirts the Rakhine State capital, Sittwe. The checkpoint marks the boundary of an area designated for internally displaced persons where some of the 140,000 Rohingya left homeless by the communal unrest in 2012 have sought refuge. once through the checkpoint, a dirt road leads to what is known as a “limited area”, which has also been cordoned off by the police even though its inhabitants are not IDPs.

Away from the spires and chandeliers, members of Nay Pyi Taw's parliament live in spartan conditions and struggle to get their work done

"[..] if it was my choice, I would still be in the army.” Military representatives in the Myanmar parliament.

It happens regularly. A woman boards one of Yangon city's crowded buses to start her daily journey to work or school. A man stands behind her and all of a sudden she feels him pressing against her. She is too scared to tell him to stop and the man continues, despite being surrounded by many others on the overcrowded bus.

Political parties struggle to raise campaign funds
Many political parties eager to compete in the general election due to be held next year are concerned that a lack of financial resources will limit their ability to campaign effectively, party members say.

A volunteer teacher is the only one of seven suspects to face court over a mining dispute, raising fears the country is reverting to old habits

In upper Myanmar, private prospectors are manually drilling for oil hoping to strike it rich. But the odds are stacked against them..

After years of active duty, soldiers from the Tatmadaw or one of Myanmar's armed ethnic groups often struggle to readjust to the hardships of civilian life. With their respective armies unable or unwilling to support them, they are often left to fend for themselves.

As a push for constitutional reform by Aung San Suu Kyi and the 88 Generation students gains momentum, the Union Election Commission is looking at ways to restrict campaigning

With little hope for a better future, children are doing hard labour to provide income for their struggling families, while organisations call for increased access to education and protection

Freedoms gained in recent years are under threat in the wake of violent clashes between Muslims and Buddhists in Rakhine state, raising fears of lese majeste-style media restrictions

The death of long-time political captive Win Tin last week casts fresh light on the torture the country's former inmates endured and their struggle to adjust to the outside world

The country is preparing for its annual water festival amid increasingly tight security and the potential for political controversy

Despite government promises, there are scant signs of hope for those who have spent decades displaced from their farms

Critics claim the first population-wide survey in 30 years is designed to ‘divide and rule’ and weaken ethnic minorities' political position.

Former political prisoners are shunned from universities because nobody wants to bear responsibility for allowing them back in.

Alleged sexual abuse of three young students at a Mae Sot boarding school has led to calls for better protection systems

The recent bombings in Myanmar have increased insecurity. People fear an unknown perpetrator with an unknown agenda. There is a lot of speculation. Are the perpetrators frustrated ethnic minorities, radical Buddhists, Muslim extremists or are elements from the government behind the attacks? One thing is certain, the bombings pose yet another threat to peace in Myanmar.

Burma (Myanmar) is going through a great transformation. What was a relentless military dictatorship only a few years ago is now an applauded ‘democracy’. But not everybody is joining in with the clapping.

Find all my stories on www.yolaverbruggen.com