UN human rights envoy Yanghee Lee offered stern words for the Burmese government on Friday evening, urging it to reconsider its refusal to issue visas to a UN fact-finding mission tasked with probing alleged human rights abuses in Arakan State and elsewhere in Burma.

No one here thought that leaflets could destroy riches and their possessors’ future plans so quickly. But in Burma, leaflets are not only capable of doing that — they can lead to death.

The Burmese government seeks to shore up support for its handling of the ongoing crisis in Arakan State at a press conference delivered by one of the country’s top security officials.

Burma’s political parties, including the NLD and USDP, wrap up their campaigns for this weekend’s by-election.

Locals in seven townships across Arakan State staged protests on Friday against a new radio station broadcasting in Maungdaw, Buthidaung and Rathedaung townships and providing Rohingya-language programming, which the protesters view as legitimising the Rohingya population.

In an emergency session on Wednesday, the Shan State legislature passed an urgent proposal to designate as “terrorist organisations” the four ethnic armed groups fighting with Burmese government forces in the state’s north.