Myanmar's ethnic armed groups widen grip, threatening stability

BANGKOK/YANGON -- Myanmar's minority resistance forces are expanding their areas of control in the country, in some cases imposing strict rule on various local ethnic groups, as the forces' lack of democratic ideals casts a pall over hopes for stability in the region.

The Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), an ethnically Chinese group, on Aug. 3 released photos showing that it had fully occupied a key military regional headquarters in Lashio, Shan state, in the country's northeast.