BREAKING
May 29, 2025

English Version

SEZ deal with Russia in Dawei causes alarm on both sides of the border

Dawei Watch

May 20, 2025

In the conflict-scarred hills and coastal plains of Myanmar’s southern Tanintharyi Region, a decades-old project is resurfacing – not as a symbol of prosperity, but as a harbinger of fear. The Dawei Special Economic Zone (SEZ), a megaproject once billed as a transformative gateway for Myanmar’s integration into global trade, is now being revived by […]

The rainbow kite

Dawei Watch

May 13, 2025

With continuous breezes, many young children liked to fly kites. However, ready-made kites of various colors were no longer available at the shops in the village. Although the children were eager to play with kites, the season was not right for flying them and the elders were not free to make kites for their children, […]

Death from above: Civilians targeted in junta airstrikes in Tanintharyi

Dawei Watch

May 12, 2025

“The mere sound of a plane makes me feel sick,” said a 38-year-old resident of Launglon, describing the growing terror felt by civilians in Myanmar’s southern Tanintharyi region. Once relatively untouched by the junta’s brutal air campaign, Tanintharyi is now experiencing a sharp escalation in aerial attacks and heavy shelling from artillery. Even as Myanmar […]

Please open the school door!

Dawei Watch

April 27, 2025

Myanmar migrants’ children struggle to get an education in Thailand A young child from Myanmar used to sit in front of his house with his dog while he waited for his bus to school in Thailand every day. On school days, neighbours would often see him running to catch the school bus, wearing his blue […]

Armed groups and junta profit as toxic mines devour southern Myanmar

Dawei Watch

April 24, 2025

In July 2024, Maung Tu, 40, a manager at a mining company, purchased a betel nut farm of 2.4 hectares, or 6 acres, near the southern tip of Myanmar for nearly seven times the market price, paying approximately 200 million kyat (about $50,000 at the unofficial exchange rate). He has little interest in the cash […]

The $29-billion shortcut: Thailand’s land bridge project fuels hopes and fears

Dawei Watch

February 11, 2025

By Nicha Wachpanich The Thai government is betting big on a land bridge to revolutionise trade routes and propel the economy forward. But in the fishing villages and durian orchards of the South, the question remains: at what cost? Rising out of lush undergrowth like a modern ruin, an unfinished high-rise hotel greets visitors to […]

My Younger Brother …

Dawei Watch

October 31, 2024

We arrived in the middle of a quiet night and the door of the small house was open, but the place had the feel of a graveyard. When we arrived, we shone the beam of our torch at the door of the house. The door was open, but the small house belonged to a person […]