Hope dims for ethnic minorities

Hard at work: A file photo showing workers packing T-shirts promoting Suu Kyi’s NLD party at a print house in Yangon. — AFP

Yangon: For many marginalised ethnic minority groups in conflict-plagued regions of Myanmar, next month’s national elections had at least offered a glimmer of hope for empowerment.

But a decision to exclude swathes of their homelands from the vote – ostensibly over security concerns –has instead filled them with anger and despair, with nearly two million people now disenfranchised.