Min Aung Hlaing visits Malaysia to discuss repatriation plan
Regime leader Min Aung Hlaing departed Burma for Malaysia on Wednesday to hold talks with leaders in Kuala Lumpur on Oct. 7-8. The two Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member states are implementing a repatriation plan for a total of 5,000 Burma nationals held at immigration detention centers in Malaysia despite international criticism.
Regime media reported that Min Aung Hlaing departed for Malaysia from the capital Naypyidaw on Oct. 7. During his two-day visit, he is expected to meet with Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and attend a business dialogue with members of his regime. This visit comes days after nearly 1,500 Myanmar nationals arrived in Yangon from Malaysia.
Min Aung Hlaing’s visit to Malaysia highlights the growing engagement between Naypyidaw and Putrajaya, even as the regional bloc has continued to exclude senior regime officials from its high-level meetings and summits since 2021 after he led a military coup and refused to implement the ASEAN Five Point Consensus, its peace plan for Burma.
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Rights groups condemn regime leader’s visit to Kuala Lumpur
Rights groups in Malaysia and across Southeast Asia have condemned regime leader Min Aung Hlaing’s visit to Kuala Lumpur, urging Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim to halt the return of Burma nationals and warning that deportees could face persecution, forced military conscription, or other human rights violations.
“Dialogue between those who hold power does not necessarily serve the interests of the people. What matters most is the voice and will of the public,” Soe Min Thein, a spokesperson for an advocacy coalition representing migrant workers from Burma across Malaysia called the Myanmar Affairs Alliance, told DVB.
Fortify Rights and Human Rights Watch condemned Min Aung Hlaing’s visit, urging Malaysia not to give him diplomatic recognition while returning refugees to Burma. They also called for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in Malaysia to be given immediate access to immigration detention centres before any further returns take place.
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Mae Tao Clinic highlights Thai-Myanmar border crisis
In an exclusive interview with DVB English News following the 2026 announcement of the 13th Okinawa Peace Prize going to the Mae Tao Clinic, its founder and director Dr. Cynthia Maung reflected on the recognition and honour of being the first non-Japanese recipient in the award’s history.
“On behalf of our struggle for democracy, human rights, and peace for Myanmar, Mae Tao Clinic accepts this award,” she said, while adding that the 10 million Japanese yen ($62,000 USD) prize money will go toward empowering young leaders, building institutional capacity, and ensuring service continuity.
Founded in 1989 by Dr. Cynthia Maung following Myanmar’s ‘8888 Uprising’, the Mae Tao Clinic provides essential healthcare, education, and protection services to communities living along the Thai–Burma border, as well as internally displaced persons (IDPs), refugees, and migrant workers.
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News by Region
MAGWAY—Rescue groups and firefighters in Kamma Township told DVB that they evacuated more than 110 residents from 38 homes, located along Kanna Road, due to soil erosion on Monday. Kamma is located along the Irrawaddy River 115 miles (185 km) south of the region’s capital Magway.
A rescue worker in Kanna told DVB on the condition of anonymity that the 110 residents are currently sheltering at a hall used for religious ceremonies in Kanna’s ward No. 2. Residents are in urgent need of food, water and shelter materials. No casualties have been reported.
MANDALAY/YANGON—The regime’s Yangon and Mandalay Electricity Supply Corporations announced on Sunday that electricity will be supplied to the country’s two largest cities on a rotational basis—with the cities divided into Groups A and B—starting on Monday.
The electricity will be supplied on a four-hour rotation—with four hours on and four hours off—starting from 4-5 a.m. A Yangon resident told DVB that the lack of electricity could make life more difficult for his family due to extreme weather conditions. Read the full article on our website
(Exchange rate: $1 USD = 4,485 MMK)
Check out the exhibition: The Coup Years: A Visual Chronicle of Resistance in Myanmar being held in Jakarta, Indonesia, until Oct. 11.
