• THAILAND

  A complex peace

  Spectrum, Phil Thornton, Published on 02/02/2014

  » Despite recent reforms, working in Myanmar for international non-government organisations (NGOs) is difficult. Most NGOs are concentrated in the country's urban areas, kept well away from the ethnic regions where health, education and food security is desperately needed. Like in most countries, NGOs are supposed to work in Myanmar with government agreement. This requires either a memorandum of understanding or letter of agreement with the government.

• THAILAND

  Stranded amid a sea of reforms

  Spectrum, Phil Thornton, Published on 10/03/2013

  » Recent progress within Myanmar is coming at the expense of ethnic villagers in the country's impoverished southeast, who who are seeing their land expropriated as development steamrollls in. That was the conclusion of ''Losing Ground'', a report released last week in Bangkok by the Karen Human Rights Group featuring the results of field studies undertaken from January, 2011 to November, 2012.

• THAILAND

  Spreading light in a murky world

  Spectrum, Phil Thornton, Published on 23/12/2012

  » Bunsiri was 15 when she ran away from home. Despite having only 20% vision she had been doing well at school. With the help of her stepfather Bunsiri had fought for years to go to school and had learned to read and write.

• THAILAND

  Mekong River bandit's powerful friends dry up

  Spectrum, Phil Thornton, Published on 30/09/2012

  » Naw Kham has been labelled a pirate, drug lord, murderer, racketeer, godfather and spy. He is listed as a fugitive on Interpol's Wanted Persons index. Earlier this year, both the Thai and Chinese governments placed Naw Kham on top of their most wanted foreigners lists, with Thailand offering a US$65,000 (two million baht) bounty for his capture.

• THAILAND

  Pilgrimage of pain for sick

  Spectrum, Phil Thornton, Published on 08/07/2012

  » Mary Boullier's pale fingers probe the swollen skin surrounding the barely opened slit that remains of nine-year-old Tin Tin's left eye and says, "We don't know what is causing the swelling around her eye, but when Tin Tin was admitted here she had severe anaemia. If it was left untreated it could have caused heart failure."

• THAILAND

  Development drive sees ethnic groups displaced by land grabs

  Spectrum, Phil Thornton, Published on 22/04/2012

  » At the ramshackle Ei Tu Hta camp more than 4,000 displaced people fear not just the the Myanmar military downstream on the Salween River, but also a constitution that will ''legally'' dispossess them of the land they were forced to flee.

• THAILAND

  The ugly face behind 'open' Myanmar's charm offensive

  Spectrum, Phil Thornton, Published on 03/06/2012

  » Moon Nay Li is adamant that despite all the talk of reforms there's still no rule of law to protect civilians in Myanmar. To prove her point she spreads a layer of detailed humanitarian reports, grisly photographs of dead children and single page testimonies that document the injuries, rapes, sexual abuse and tortures inflicted by the Myanmar army on civilians in Kachin State in recent months.

• THAILAND

  Myanmar's rising drug trade

  Spectrum, Phil Thornton, Published on 12/02/2012

  » Professor Des Ball pushes plates of what is left of a roast duck and barbeque prawn dinner to the side as he spreads a large map across the dinner table and stabs his finger at a point where northern Thailand meets Myanmar.

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