Premier Srettha Thavisin presented the idea to counterparts from Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar and Vietnam. It is a move aimed at expanding the flow of visitors to the various countries and to feed the industry's revenues. However, for some experts it would be less streamlined because it requires more coordination in approvals.  

Sister Regina, of the Sisters of Repair, offers her testimony. “Without humanitarian aid, children and the elderly are suffering in the forests because the roads are blocked by the military. Conscription is used to provide human shields to force the rebels to kill their own countrymen. Our sisters remain close to the people, walking with them, even in tears, amid the dangers and the pain.”

Plans for the structure were announced earlier this year, but a government committee has now approved its budget. The project includes a series of parallel and feeder roads to connect some of India's main military bases to the border. The government fears that the influx of refugees could destabilise the local inter-ethnic balance.

In a letter circulated on Palm Sunday by the Archbishop of Yangon an appeal 'to end the long nights of conflict and fear'. A prayer that God will "soften the hearts of those rooted in violence and enable them to embrace the path of reconciliation".

The UNODC reports record production in 2023 with an 18 per cent increase in land under poppy cultivation. Civil war has led to crop replacement at the expense of rice or maize. Opium is refined locally, with heroin smuggled to neighbouring countries before reaching the global market.

The victim, 47-year-old Nammye Hkun Jaw, was shot yesterday in his computer shop in Mogaung. Wounded in the stomach, he was finished off with a bullet in the head. A former leader of the Baptist Kachin Convention, he was active in the fight against drug trafficking.