Myanmar

Sentencing Sean Turnell to jail won't help the Myanmar junta's international isolation or its domestic problems.

But Australia is one of the few Western democracies not to have applied new sanctions to the military since the coup. [economic ineptitude](https://www.frontiermyanmar.net/en/an-illegitimate-junta-cant-fix-myanmars-broken-economy/) and their inability to impose their authority on the country. A recent [report](https://specialadvisorycouncil.org/2022/09/statement-briefing-effective-control-myanmar/) by the Special Advisory Council for Myanmar argued that the NUG and ethnic resistance organisations have effective control over 52 per cent of Myanmar’s territory, with a further 23 per cent contested and the junta having stable control of only 17 per cent. Bowman was [sentenced](https://www.ft.com/content/e210eca2-4172-441c-9075-cab595b5514e) to a year’s jail in early September, along with her Myanmar husband. [UN seat](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/9/16/who-represents-myanmar-un-faces-credentials-pressure-at-assembly) is currently occupied by Kyaw Moe Tun. It should further disabuse the notion that treating brutal military regimes with kid gloves results in positive outcomes. The resulting [status quo](https://theconversation.com/two-governments-claim-to-run-myanmar-so-who-gets-the-countrys-seat-at-the-un-167885) effectively left the NUG’s representative in situ. [kangaroo courts](https://www.internationalaffairs.org.au/australianoutlook/myanmars-kangaroo-courts-hand-aung-san-suu-kyi-another-six-year-term-while-sean-turnell-pleads-not-guilty/). Immediately prior to the arrest the United Kingdom had decided to apply new Turnell’s lawyers are unable to comment on the trial and Australian consular officials have been Since the coup of February 2021 the entire justice system has been corrupted and made [subordinate](https://doi.org/10.1017/lsi.2022.41) to the military. Vicky Bowman, a fomer UK ambassador to Myanmar and Executive Director of the Myanmar Centre for Responsible Business was arrested for “immigration offences” on the fifth anniversary of the Rohingya genocide.

Australia has rejected a three-year prison sentence handed down to Sean Turnell in Myanmar and called for his...

"Sean has been one of Myanmar's greatest supporters for over 20 years and has worked tirelessly to strengthen Myanmar's economy. and deport him now," she said in a Facebook post quoted by Reuters. She said the government will continue to offer Prof Turnell and his family support "for as long as required".

An earthquake of 5.6 magnitude struck Myanmar on Friday, the European Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) said.

[The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.](https://www.thomsonreuters.com/en/about-us/trust-principles.html) The quake was about 112 km (69.59 miles) north northwest of Monywa in Myanmar and had a depth of 144 km (89.48 miles) EMSC added. Sept 30 (Reuters) - An earthquake of 5.6 magnitude struck Myanmar on Friday, the European Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) said.

A court in military-ruled Myanmar on Thursday jailed deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her former economic adviser, Australian Sean Turnell, for three ...

Thursday's sentencing took place in a closed court in the capital, Naypyitaw. and calls for his immediate release," Foreign Minister Penny Wong said in a statement. "Sean has been one of Myanmar's greatest supporters for over 20 years and has worked tirelessly to strengthen Myanmar's economy. "The Australian government has consistently rejected the charges against Professor Turnell. and deport him now," she said in a Facebook post. A

Amid the conflict, the military has taken many political prisoners, both elites and ordinary people. This includes Professor Sean Turnell, a former academic at ...

Actively supporting the National Unity Government as the main democratic opposition seeking to end military rule and establish civilian rule. Denying legitimacy to the military regime in regional and international forums. Increasing the number of visas granted to people from Myanmar as part of the Humanitarian Resettlement Program, both offshore and onshore. More broadly, it is also in Australia's interests to oppose the Myanmar military's unjustified claims to power and ensure conflict comes to an end quickly. The military has been holding Turnell for more than 18 months. In July this year, the military stooped to an historic low when it executed four political prisoners without warning. The military has already released some political prisoners as part of regular mass prisoner releases. In addition, the country is home to many pre-existing ethnic armed forces, many of whom have again taken up arms against the military. Since February 1, 2021, the military has initiated war on its own people. The anti-military and pro-democratic front are putting up strong resistance. [Children caught in the conflict](/news/2022-09-20/myanmar-army-helicopter-fires-on-school/101455958). Conflict and instability across the country.

There's broad agreement that Myanmar amber is a precious scientific resource. Fossils inside amber preserve fine details and soft tissue as if ancient organisms ...

[discussed](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-021-01479-z) the [ethical](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-021-01472-6) and [legal](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-021-01478-0) issues. Ironically, “For Myanmar researchers, it’s very difficult to access the Myanmar amber mines,” says co-author Zin-Maung-Maung-Thein, a paleontologist at the University of Mandalay. but it’s a win-win situation.” To foster equitable collaborations, he adds, “The country with the expertise should invite the Myanmar scientists [to their institutions with] some kind of scholarships.” “It is impossible to provide purchase records and import and export certificates as required by SVP, because amber has been transferred many times before it entered the hands of scientists,” she says. [Science exposé in 2019](/content/article/fossils-burmese-amber-offer-exquisite-view-dinosaur-times-and-ethical-minefield), the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology (SVP) released a letter on 21 April 2020 calling for a [moratorium on publishing studies of Myanmar amber obtained](https://vertpaleo.org/svp-letter-to-editors-final/) after the military took over the mines in 2017. Most amber from Kachin is transported to the Chinese border town of Tengchong, although some is also sold in Myanmar at the Myitkyina Gems and Jewelry Trade Center. The Fushun Amber Institute, for example, has been collecting Myanmar amber since the beginning of the 2000s, and has many specimens still to be studied. “The accessibility of these specimens is key,” Dunne says. In 2017, the Myanmar military took control of the mines. Most Myanmar amber mines are in the northern state of Kachin, where the Kachin Independence Army and the Myanmar government military have been battling in armed conflict since the 1960s. “From all the deposits we know across the world, this is the one that preserves pieces of dinosaur habitat,” says study co-author Emma Dunne, a paleontologist at FAU. Now, a new study suggests paleontological research has directly benefited from the conflict in Myanmar, which has created opportunities for ethically questionable mining, trade, and collecting practices.

Fossil material in amber from Myanmar can provide important insights into mid-Cretaceous forest ecosystems. However, Myanmar amber has been receiving ...

[51](/articles/s42003-022-03847-2#ref-CR51), [52](/articles/s42003-022-03847-2#ref-CR52). [12](/articles/s42003-022-03847-2#ref-CR12), [14](/articles/s42003-022-03847-2#ref-CR14), [48](/articles/s42003-022-03847-2#ref-CR48). [3](/articles/s42003-022-03847-2#ref-CR3), [4](/articles/s42003-022-03847-2#ref-CR4), [11](/articles/s42003-022-03847-2#ref-CR11). [3](/articles/s42003-022-03847-2#Fig3) and [4](/articles/s42003-022-03847-2#Fig4)). [3](/articles/s42003-022-03847-2#Fig3)). [4](/articles/s42003-022-03847-2#Fig4)). [2](/articles/s42003-022-03847-2#Fig2)). [1](/articles/s42003-022-03847-2#Fig1)). [4](/articles/s42003-022-03847-2#Fig4) and S [2](/articles/s42003-022-03847-2#MOESM1)). [3](/articles/s42003-022-03847-2#MOESM1)). [2](/articles/s42003-022-03847-2#Fig2) and Table [S1](/articles/s42003-022-03847-2#MOESM1)). [24](/articles/s42003-022-03847-2#ref-CR24), [25](/articles/s42003-022-03847-2#ref-CR25).

A court in military-ruled Myanmar sentenced ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi and Australian economist Sean Turnell to three years in prison Thursday for ...

At least there is a sentence. Their trial was held in secret. Both were detained in February 2021 when the military seized power.

The European Union is preparing to impose a new tranche of sanctions against Myanmar's democracy-suspending, coup-installed military regime, but behind.

Its last tranche of sanctions was imposed in February, on the one-year anniversary of the coup. “Instead of demanding such questionable punitive measures, we should therefore focus on advocating for active, positive support for the Revolution, where no such calculation even has to be made.” In 2017, Brussels warned Myanmar that it could lose its EBA trade privileges over the military-led “genocide” of its Muslim Rohingya population. The Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI), an international alliance of companies, trade unions and NGOs, commissioned its own report in May. Around a quarter of Cambodian exports lost their tariff- and quota-free access to European markets as a result. “In fact, real harm is being done by these very activities providing income and foreign exchange to the regime,” he said. The EU has cut EBA privileges for other Southeast Asian countries for much less than genocide and military coups. “More disaggregated data indicates that garment exports have driven the overall increase in manufacturing exports.” “There is no indication, so far, that the EBA would feed the treasury of the military. The EU has claimed there are around 500,000 workers in Myanmar’s manufacturing sector, but some analysts question the figure. EU parliamentarians this month asked the European Commission, the executive, asked for a decision on Myanmar’s EBA status. The EU was the largest purchaser of Myanmar-made apparel before Covid-19.

Myanmar's junta sentenced an Australian economist to three years in prison while also handing down another conviction to ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi, ...

“The proceedings have been an outright sham and Myanmar’s military must immediately release Turnell so he can return to his family in Australia,” he said. “Concerted action” from the international community was needed “to turn the human rights situation around in the country”, she said. She said the economist was tried in a “closed court” and Australian officials had made “every effort to attend the verdict but were denied access”. “It’s heartbreaking for me, our daughter, Sean’s 85-year-old father and the rest of our family,” she said in a statement. The exact details of Turnell’s alleged offence have not been made public, though state television has said he had access to “secret state financial information” and had tried to flee the country. His sentence provoked a swift reaction from Australia, with the foreign ministry rejecting his conviction and urging his “immediate release”.