An examination of the plight of the refugees of Burma's protracted civil war, many of whom have fled across the border into Thailand. This study looks at the changing nature of the refugee situation and the responses of the parties involved, including the United Nations, the refugees themselves, and governments in both Bangkok and Rangoon. In the process, Fear and Sanctuary addresses pertinent international questions regarding civil war, ethnic resistance against an oppressive state, displacement, and refugee protection.
For months during 1943 there was no night in Hellfire Pass. By the light of flares, carbide lamps and bamboo fires, men near-naked and skeletal cut a passage through stone to make way for a railway. Among these men were some of the 22,000 Australian soldiers taken prisoner by the Japanese during World War II. In camps across Asia and the Pacific, they struggled, died, and survived with a little help from their mates. 'Hellfire' was researched in Australia, Japan and across South-East Asia. It draws on 50 first-person interviews, ranging from former prisoners to an old Mon villager deep in the Burmese jungle, and from Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew to veterans of the Imperial Japanese Army. The result is a tour de force, a powerful and searing history of the prisoners of the Japanese.
This book explains how Burma's booming drug production, insurgency, and counter-insurgency interrelate—and why the country has been unable to shake off thirty years of military rule and build a modern, democratic society.
Ancient Southeast Asia provides readers with a much needed synthesis of the latest discoveries and research in the archaeology of the region, presenting the evolution of complex societies in Southeast Asia from the protohistoric period, beginning around 500BC, to the arrival of British and Dutch colonists in 1600. Well-illustrated throughout, this comprehensive account explores the factors which established Southeast Asia as an area of unique cultural fusion. Miksic and Goh explore how the local population exploited the abundant resources available, developing maritime transport routes which resulted in economic and cultural wealth, including some of the most elaborate art styles and monumental complexes ever constructed. The book’s broad geographical and temporal coverage, including a chapter on the natural environment, provides readers with the context needed to understand this staggeringly diverse region. It utilizes French, Dutch, Chinese, Malay-Indonesian and Burmese sources and synthesizes interdisciplinary theoretical perspectives and data from archaeology, history and art history. Offering key opportunities for comparative research with other centres of early socio-economic complexity, Ancient Southeast Asia establishes the area’s importance in world history.
The idea of connectivity is an integral part of regionalism in international trade and integration. The focus in this book is particularly on the so-called southern East - West Economic Corridor which consists of the connections between the southern part of Myanmar and the western part of the central region of Thailand. Between the Two Oceans of Indo-Pacific covers a diverse range of topics in the fields of geography, history, archaeology, international trade, tourism, migration and infrastructure for transport. This book is an effort to understand these for a better future for ASEAN as well as India. The findings of this book may help strengthen the ASEAN integration process on its way towards 2025.
Originally published in 1983, this book explores the history of Burma, including chapters on Burma before 1044, The Kingdom of Pagan and the Shan Dominion. Burma's history had been little studied until recently, until the Burma Research Socety, founded in 1910, began to collect material of all kinds, and this book may be regarded therefore as one of the first-fruits. The book presents a mass of original work and incorporates the results of research up to the date of going to press; it offers a flood of light on the still many dark places of Burmese history and constitutes distinctly a step forward in our knowledge of the subject.
Despatches in this volume include that on operations in Burma between 15 December 1941 and 20 May 1942 by General Wavell; Operations in Eastern Theatre, based on India, March 1942 to 31 December 1942 by Field-Marshall Wavell; Operations in the Indo-Burma Theatre 21 June to 15 November 1942 by Field-Marshall Auchinleck; and Operations in the India Command 1 January to 20 June 1943 by Field-Marshall Wavell.This unique collection of original documents will prove to be an invaluable resource for historians, students and all those interested in what was one of the most significant periods in British military history.
