Category Archives: Africa

Is Myanmar another Rwanda genocide in the making?

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Editorial – Thailand current events

The events of the last two weeks in Myanmar bear considerable similarity to events a little over 19 years ago in a country that became synonymous with the abject failure of the UN, and defined the word “genocide” for the 20th century – Rwanda. While the one million people butchered in Rwanda is a relatively small number compared to the almost two million killed during the reign of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, Pol Pot took four years to reach his tally while in Rwanda the figure was reached in 100 days. The systematic murder, rape, desecration of corpses, destruction of homes, businesses and places of worship that have taken place against Myanmar Muslims of late closely parallel occurrences in … Continue reading →

Drug resistant malaria on Thailand-Burma border grows by 3,335%

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Field microscopy along the Thailand-Burma border. Photo: Courtesy SMRU

Two recent studies of malaria along the Thailand-Burma border show that drug-resistant malaria in the region is increasing at an alarming rate, with one study showing a 3,335 percent increase in the last 10 years. The reports, Emergence of artemisinin-resistant malaria on the western border of Thailand: a longitudinal study published in The Lancet and A Major Genome Region Underlying Artemisinin Resistance in Malaria, published in the journal Science, show drug-resistant malaria is rapidly moving into new areas Funded by the Wellcome Trust and the US National Institutes of Health, the two research projects included scientists from Bangkok’s Mahidol University, the Centre for Tropical Medicine at Britain’s Oxford University, and the Texas Biomedical Research Institute in the USA, found that … Continue reading →

Aid agencies fail Rwanda’s young genocide victims

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In June this year more than 200 children were still living on a garbage dump five kilometres outside Kigali – despite the largest relief operation the world has ever seen. When I visited the children they said they had been living there for almost two years and had never seen a relief-agency representative, government official or doctor. As garbage-laden trucks ground their way up the twisting dirt road to the tip site, the children gathered in the swirling dust, smoke and flies, waiting for an opportunity to clamber aboard and scour through the putrid, rotting trash in search of items to eat or sell at the local market.

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