Military History

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Description: "The Burma Campaign in the South-East Asian Theatre of World War II was fought primarily between British Commonwealth, Chinese and United States forces against the forces of the Empire of Japan, Thailand, and the Indian National Army. British Commonwealth land forces were drawn primarily from British India. The Burmese Independence Army was trained by the Japanese and spearheaded the initial attacks against the British forces....Contents: 1 Japanese conquest of Burma: 1.1 Japanese advance to the Indian frontier; 1.2 Thai army enters Burma... 2 Allied setbacks, 1942–1943... 3 The Balance Shifts 1943–1944: 3.1 Allied plans; 3.2 Japanese plans; 3.3 Northern and Yunnan front 1943/44; 3.4 Southern front 1943/44... 4 The Japanese Invasion of India 1944... 5 The Allied Reoccupation of Burma 1944–1945: 5.1 Southern Front 1944/45; 5.2 Northern Front 1944/45; 5.3 Central Front 1944/45; 5.4 Race for Rangoon; 5.5 Operation Dracula... 6 Final operations... 7 Results... 8 See also... 9 Notes... 10 References... 11 Further reading... 12 External links: 12.1 Associations; 12.2 Museums; 12.3 Media; 12.4 Primary sources; 12.5 History.
Source/publisher: Wikipedia
Date of entry/update: 2012-08-14
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English
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Source/publisher: Burma Star Association
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English
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Description: "Capt. Dinesh Hukmani?s Military History Site" ..... These pages contain order of battle information for the Burma Campaign, 1941-1945, historical details and other items of interest.
Creator/author: Capt. Dinesh Hukmani
Source/publisher: The Burma Campaign
Date of entry/update: 2010-11-16
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English
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Description: This site covers various aspects of the WWII campaigns in Burma, largely from a US military perspective. Chronological account, in cluding # Burma, 1942: 7 December 1941--26 May 1942 # India-Burma: 2 April 1942--28 January 1945 # Central Burma: 29 January--15 July 1945 as well as maps, bibliographies, photographs.
Source/publisher: HyperWar Foundation
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-24
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English
Local URL: HTML icon index.html, HTML icon index.html
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Description: "A Myanmar regime military court has handed life imprisonment terms to the junta’s former trade chief, ex-Lieutenant General Moe Myint Tun, and his assistant, ex-Brigadier General Yan Naung Soe, for corruption, according to junta media. The life imprisonment terms are equivalent to 20 years behind bars. The two were also removed from their military positions. The court martial verdicts follow the regime’s investigations into the activities of the duo, other high-ranking officials and hundreds of businesspeople last month. Moe Myint Tun, who has also been purged from the junta’s top administrative body, the State Administration Council, abused his position for personal benefit in violation of economic policies, and committed high treason by going against the roadmap and objectives of the regime, junta media said Tuesday, adding that he took bribes from companies and illegally held foreign currencies. He was the chairman of the Myanmar Investment Commission, the Foreign Exchange Supervisory Committee, and the Central Committee for Ensuring Smooth Flow of Trade and Goods. The regime announcement said he was found guilty of failing to take action against persons who raised the price of palm oil rather than selling it at the reference price set by the government. The Central Bank of Myanmar sold US dollars in order to import palm oil to be sold at the reference price, it said. “Moreover he … [took] bribes from companies, applying his rank and authority, illegally keeping foreign exchange currencies in hand, and participating in civilian businesses by breaking directives related to military discipline,” the statement reads. Prior to the investigation, The Irrawaddy reported that Moe Myint Tun had squirreled away millions of US dollars in bribes from businessmen over the past two years. Some of the businessmen told The Irrawaddy they had to pay him at least US$20,000 or the equivalent in gold and gifts—Louis XIII cognac, with a list price of more than $4,000 for a 750ml bottle, was highly preferred—just to meet him. Yan Naung Soe, joint secretary of the Central Committee for Ensuring Smooth Flow of Trade and Goods, personally benefited from violating the economic policies of the state and committed betrayal of the state and treason together with Moe Myint Tun, the regime said. “He also exchanged foreign currency for Myanmar kyats for businesspersons by applying his rank and authority, accepted foreign currency and Myanmar kyats from businesspersons, created connections between businesspersons with ex-Lt-Gen Moe Myint Tun, illegally kept foreign currencies in hand, and participated in civilian businesses in violation of directives related to the military discipline,” the regime said. The corruption scandal involving Moe Myint Tun and Yan Naung Soe embarrassed regime chief Min Aung Hlaing. He issued a warning late last month that senior military officers and ministers caught abusing their power for personal benefit would face heavy penalties in addition to dismissal. However, despite Min Aung Hlaing’s highly publicized anti-graft campaign against his subordinates, it is common knowledge that he leads the regime in terms of corruption and that his son Aung Pyae Sone and daughter Khin Thiri Thet Mon have abused their father’s power to amass great wealth..."
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
2023-10-11
Date of entry/update: 2023-10-11
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "1.On 9 October 2023 at 11:25PM local time, the terrorist military council launched heavy artillery and coordinated airstrikes in a Time on Target attack on the Munglai Hkyet IDP Camp near Laiza in Kachin State. 2.Based on initial reports, at least 30 have been killed, including women and 13 children and at least a further 57 have been injured. Rescue and recovery efforts are currently ongoing, and these numbers may increase. In addition, the destruction of one kindergarten, one school, one church and many civilians’ houses have been reported. 3.This deliberate and targeted attack by the terrorist military council on civilians fleeing conflict constitutes a blatant crime against humanity and war crime. 4.The National Unity Government strongly condemns this inhumane crime against humanity and war crime by the terrorist military council, and stands strongly together with the people of Kachin. The National Unity Government shares the pain from this tragic loss of many lives in the Kachin state, and commits to work together to our full ability to restore justice for all those affected. 5.The terrorist military council has taken advantage of the moment of the international community’s attention on the recent developments of the Israel-Hamas conflict to commit yet another crime against humanity and war crime. 6.In accordance with the UN resolution 2669, the National Unity Government strongly urges the international community to take timely and strong actions against the terrorist military council for their crimes against humanity, and to cooperate with the people of Myanmar to effectively prevent similar atrocities in Myanmar..."
Source/publisher: National Unity Government of Myanmar
2023-10-10
Date of entry/update: 2023-10-10
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "၁။ ၂၀၂၃ ခုနှစ်၊ အောက်တိုဘာလ (၉) ရက်၊ ည ၁၁ နာရီ ၂၅ မိနစ် အချိန်ခန့်တွင် ကချင်ပြည်နယ်၊ လိုင်ဇာမြို့အနီးရှိ မုန်လိုင်ခက် (Munglai Hkyet) စစ်ဘေးရှောင်စခန်းအား အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီတပ်က လက်နက်ကြီး၊ လေကြောင်း တို့ကို တပြိုင်နက် အသုံးပြုကာ ဗုံးကြဲပစ်ခတ်တိုက်ခိုက်မှု ပြုလုပ်ခဲ့သည်။ ၂။ ကနဦးရရှိသော သတင်းများအရ အဆိုပါတိုက်ခိုက်မှုကြောင့် စစ်ဘေးရှောင်စခန်းရှိ ကလေးသူငယ် ၁၃ ဦးနှင့် အမျိုးသမီးများအပါအဝင် အရပ်သားပြည်သူ ၃၀ ဦးထက်မနည်း သေဆုံးခဲ့ပြီး ထိခိုက်ဒဏ်ရာရသူ ၅၇ ဦးထက်မနည်းရှိကြောင်း သိရှိရသည်။ မြေပြင်တွင် ရှာဖွေကယ်ဆယ်ရေးလုပ်ငန်းများကို ဆက်လက်လုပ်ဆောင် နေဆဲဖြစ်ပြီး သေဆုံးသူ၊ ထိခိုက်ဒဏ်ရာရသူ အရေအတွက်မှာ ပိုမိုများပြားလာနိုင်ပါသည်။ ထို့အပြင် အဆိုပါ တိုက်ခိုက်မှုဒဏ်ကြောင့် စစ်ဘေးရှောင်စခန်း အပြင် စာသင်ကျောင်း ၁ ကျောင်း ၊ မူကြိုကျောင်း ၁ကျောင်း၊ ဘုရားကျောင်း ၁ ကျောင်း နှင့် အရပ်သားလူနေအိမ်များစွာ ပျက်စီးဆုံးရှုံးခဲ့ရသည်ဟု သိရှိရသည်။ ၃။ အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီသည် စစ်ရေးပစ်မှတ်မဟုတ်သည့် အရပ်သားပြည်သူများနေထိုင်သောစစ်ဘေးရှောင် စခန်းအား ရည်ရွယ်ချက်ရှိရှိ ပစ်မှတ်ထားတိုက်ခိုက်ခဲ့ခြင်းဖြစ်ပြီး အဆိုပါ လုပ်ရပ်သည် လူသားမျိုးနွယ်စုအပေါ် ကျူးလွန်သည့် ရာဇဝတ်မှု နှင့် စစ်ရာဇဝတ်မှုများကို ပြောင်ပြောင်တင်းတင်း ကျူးလွန်လိုက်ခြင်းပင်ဖြစ်သည်။ ၄။ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရသည် အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ ယခုကဲ့သို့ လူမဆန်စွာ လူသားမျိုးနွယ်အပေါ် ကျူးလွန်သည့် ရာဇဝတ်မှု နှင့် စစ်ရာဇဝတ်မှုများကို ပြင်းပြင်းထန်ထန် ရှုတ်ချပြီး ကချင်တိုင်းရင်းသားများနှင့်အတူ တသားတည်း ရပ်တည်သွားမည်ဖြစ်သည်။ ကချင်တိုင်းရင်းသားများ၏ ထိခိုက်ဆုံးရှုံးမှုအပေါ် အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ အနေဖြင့် ထပ်တူ နာကျင်ခံစားရကာ ထိခိုက်ဆုံးရှုံးရသူများအတွက် တရားမျှတမှု ပြန်လည်ရယူပေးနိုင်ရေးအတွက် အတူတကွ အစွမ်းကုန် ကြိုးစားသွားမည်ဖြစ်သည်။ ၅။ ယခုဖြစ်ရပ်သည် အစ္စရေးလ်နှင့်ဟားမတ်စ် စစ်ရေးပဋိပက္ခအပေါ် နိုင်ငံတကာက စိုးရိမ်မှုမြင့်တက်ကာ အာရုံစိုက်နေခြင်းကို အခွင့်ကောင်းယူ၍ အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီက လူသားမျိုးနွယ်အပေါ် ကျူးလွန်သည့် ရာဇဝတ်မှုနှင့် စစ်ရာဇဝတ်မှုများကို အချိန်ကိုက် ထပ်မံကျူးလွန်လိုက်ခြင်းဖြစ်သည်။ ၆။ အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ ယခုကဲ့သို့ ကျူးလွန်မှုများနှင့် အလားတူ ထပ်မံကျူးလွန်မှုများ မရှိစေရန် နိုင်ငံတကာအနေဖြင့် ကမ္ဘာ့ကုလသမဂ္ဂ ဆုံးဖြတ်ချက်အပိုဒ် ၂၆၆၉ အရ အချိန်နှင့်တပြေးညီ ပြင်းထန်ထိရောက်စွာ ဟန့်တားအရေးယူပေးပါရန်နှင့် အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ နှင့်အတူ ထိရောက်စွာ ပူးပေါင်း ဆောင်ရွက်ရန် အလေးအနက် တောင်းဆိုတိုက်တွန်းလိုက်ပါသည်။..."
Source/publisher: National Unity Government of Myanmar
2023-10-10
Date of entry/update: 2023-10-10
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Format : pdf
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Description: "၁။ မင်းအောင်လှိုင်ဦးဆောင်သော အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်တပ်က နိုင်ငံတော်အာဏာကို လုယူ သိမ်းပိုက်ချိန်မှစ၍ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံအတွင်း မူးယစ်ဆေးဝါးထုတ်လုပ်မှုနှင့် တရားမဝင်သယ် ဆောင်ရောင်းဝယ်မှုများသည် ယခင်ကာလများထက် ပိုမိုဖြစ်ပွားလာခဲ့ပြီး နယ်စပ်ဖြတ်ကျော် ရာဇဝတ်မှုများအဖြစ် အိမ်နီးချင်းနိုင်ငံများအထိပါ မူးယစ်ဆေးဝါးနှင့် စိတ်ကို ပြောင်းလဲစေ တတ်သော ဆေးဝါးများ၏အန္တရာယ် ကြီးမားကျယ်ပြန့်လာခဲ့ကြောင်း တွေ့ရှိရပါသည်။ ၂။ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရသည် လူသားတို့အား အညွန့်တုံးစေနိုင်သည့် မူးယစ် ဆေးဝါးနှင့် စိတ်ကိုပြောင်းလဲစေတတ်သော ဆေးဝါးများ၏ ဘေးအန္တရာယ် တားဆီးကာကွယ် ရေးကို တော်လှန်ရေးတာဝန်တစ်ရပ်အဖြစ် သတ်မှတ်သည်။ ၃။ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရသည် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံက သဘောတူလက်မှတ်ရေးထိုးထား သည့် မူးယစ်ဆေးဝါးနှင့် စိတ်ကိုပြောင်းလဲစေတတ်သောဆေးဝါးများ တရားမဝင် သယ် ဆောင်ရောင်းဝယ်ခြင်းကို ဆန့်ကျင်တိုက်ဖျက်ရေးဆိုင်ရာ ကုလသမဂ္ဂကွန်ဗင်းရှင်းများပါ ပြ ဌာန်းချက်များကို အကောင်အထည်ဖော်နိုင်ရေး ဆောင်ရွက်သွားမည်။ ၄။ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရသည် မူးယစ်ဆေးဝါးနှင့် စိတ်ကိုပြောင်းလဲစေတတ် သော ဆေးဝါးများဆိုင်ရာဥပဒေ (၁၉၉၃)နှင့် ယင်းဥပဒေကို ပြင်ဆင်သည့်ဥပဒေ(၂၀၁၈) ပါ ပြဌာန်းချက်များနှင့်အညီ မူးယစ်ဆေးဝါးနှင့် စိတ်ကိုပြောင်းလဲစေတတ်သောဆေးဝါးများ အန္တ ရာယ်တားဆီးကာကွယ်ရေးနှင့် ထိန်းချုပ်ရေးဆိုင်ရာလုပ်ငန်းများကို လိုအပ်သည့်ယန္တရားများ ဖွဲ့စည်း၍ ကုလသမဂ္ဂကွန်ဗင်းရှင်းဝင်နိုင်ငံများ၊ အပြည်ပြည်ဆိုင်ရာအဖွဲ့အစည်းများ၊ အိမ်နီး ချင်းနိုင်ငံများ၊ မဟာမိတ်တော်လှန်ရေးအင်အားစုများနှင့် ညှိနှိုင်းပူးပေါင်းဆောင်ရွက်သွား မည်။ ၅။ မူးယစ်ဆေးဝါးနှင့် စိတ်ကိုပြောင်းလဲစေတတ်သောဆေးဝါးများ အန္တရာယ်တားဆီးကာ ကွယ်ရေးနှင့် ထိန်းချုပ်ရေးဆိုင်ရာလုပ်ငန်းများဆောင်ရွက်ရာတွင် ပြည်သူလူထု၏ပါဝင်မှု သည် များစွာအရေးကြီးသဖြင့် ပြည်သူများအနေဖြင့် မိမိတို့အစိုးရနှင့်အတူ ပူးပေါင်းပါဝင်နိုင် ကြပါရန် ပန်ကြားအပ်ပါသည်။ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ..."
Source/publisher: National Unity Government of Myanmar
2023-09-14
Date of entry/update: 2023-09-14
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf
Size: 356.57 KB
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Sub-title: A series of violent events in Sagaing
Description: "WARNING: GRAPHIC - This report contains extremely graphic imagery and links to graphic imagery shared online. While efforts have been made to blur details, the report contains information which some readers may find distressing. To read the full report, download the PDF. Key Event Details Location of Incidents: Ma Le Thar village (မလဲသာ) (22.115030, 95.455742) in Ayadaw township Pa Dat Taing village (ပဒတ္တိုင်း) (22.074770, 95.448303) in Myinmu township Kan Taw village (ကန်တော်) (22.027901,95.569941) in Myinmu township Tar Taing village (တာတိုင်) (21.933220, 95.644867) in Sagaing township Let Ka Pin village (လက္ကပင်) (21.87949944, 95.48097992) in Myinmu township Swea Lwe Oh village (ဆွဲလွဲအို) (21.79330063, 95.3681488) in Myaung township Than Bo village (သံဘို) (22.72942924, 95.67418671) in Khin-U township Ta Ga Nan village (တဂဏန်း) (22.53455925, 95.68533325) in Shwebo township Date/Time of Incident: Multiple events between 23 February and 2 April 2023 Alleged Perpetrator(s) and/or Involvement: Light Infantry Division (LID) 99, based in Meikhtila LID Commander: Major General Than Htike No. 8 Military Training School, Shwebo township Summary of Investigation: Myanmar Witness has investigated allegations related to 8 incidents of violence in Sagaing. 6 of these incidents involved the beheading of at least one individual. One mass killing in Tar Taing led to the deaths of 17 individuals, including one beheading. Myanmar Witness has found that at least 33 people were killed in the 8 incidents investigated, 12 of whom were beheaded. Myanmar Witness identified, and where possible verified, imagery and video footage associated with these events, including images showing dismembered and beheaded bodies. Myanmar Witness also identified and geolocated footage of a beheading near Myaung. Many sources claim that the Light Infantry Division (LID) 99, under the command of Major General Than Htike, is responsible for six of the incidents. Locals report that the beheadings in Than Bo (incident 7) was carried out by the Security Administrative Council (SAC) No. 8 Military Training School from Shwebo township. Images showing SAC soldiers were identified but not verified in association with events in Let Ka Pin. The SAC released a statement admitting that SAC soldiers were responsible for a clash in Tar Taing. Executive Summary Between 23 February and 2 April 2023, a Myanmar military column reportedly traversed through part of the Sagaing region, conducting mass killings, fires, rapes, and raids in several villages. Myanmar Witness has identified, and where possible verified, imagery and video footage associated with a number of these events, which show bodies that were tortured, beheaded and dismembered. Myanmar Witness has found that at least 33 people were killed in the 8 incidents investigated, 12 of whom were beheaded. This report investigates claims related to the following events: Airstrike and ground troop incursion: Ma Le Thar Myanmar military raid: Pa Dat Taing Beheadings: Kan Taw Mass killing and beheading: Tar Taing Detention, mass killing and beheadings: Let Ka Pin Beheading: Swea Lwe Oh Beheadings: Than Bo Beheading, dismembering and rape: Ta Ga Nan Sagaing has been a focal point of resistance since the Coup. These 8 incidents identified, and where possible verified, by Myanmar Witness, show a pattern of excessive violence by the perpetrators. In a number of these cases the individuals were killed and then beheaded. As the beheadings serve no functional purpose, they represent a dramatic and horrific warning to those resisting military rule..."
Source/publisher: Myanmar Witness
2023-05-13
Date of entry/update: 2023-05-13
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "A recent and damning report from Human Rights Watch has highlighted the Myanmar military's use of a "thermobaric" munition in an attack on a Sagaing Region opposition building on April 11, 2023, which resulted in the death of over 160 individuals, including children. The advanced "enhanced-blast" munition utilised in the assault on the village of Pa Zi Gyi in upper Myanmar has been implicated in the severe and indiscriminate civilian casualties -- a clear breach of international humanitarian law. This reprehensible act appears to be a war crime, demonstrating the Myanmar military's continued and unchecked serious abuses. The military's employment of a weapon devised for maximum devastation in an area teeming with civilians is a blatant display of their disregard for human life. This has prompted urgent calls for international governments to sever the junta's financial, arms, and aviation fuel supply to discourage further atrocities. In the build-up to the Buddhist new year on April 11, around 300 residents from Kantbalu township convened to inaugurate an opposition-led administrative office in Pa Zi Gyi. Eyewitness accounts relay a chilling narrative of a military jet that dropped at least one munition, which detonated amidst the crowd, followed shortly after by a helicopter gunship that unleashed a barrage of cannons, grenades, and rockets on the fleeing civilians. The office was designed for civilian activities such as tax filing, township meetings, and judicial processes, although it was also used to store goods, funds, medicines, and some ammunition by the People's Defense Forces (PDF), an anti-junta militia. Human Rights Watch's investigation into photos of the victims and the aftermath of the attacks suggest that the initial assault was carried out with a potent, air-dropped "enhanced-blast" munition. This type of weapon, known as "thermobaric" or a "vapor-cloud explosive," can cause extensive damage over a wide area and is particularly devastating when used in populated regions. The Myanmar military, through state media, admitted to the airstrikes on the evening of April 11, claiming that they were targeting PDF members and that the casualties were a result of the strikes hitting PDF explosive and landmine storage units, which subsequently exploded. Nonetheless, the National Unity Government reports that those who perished were primarily civilian residents of Pa Zi Gyi, including 40 children, with the youngest victim being just 6 months old and the eldest 76. They reported that the total death toll from the attack was 168, although Human Rights Watch has not been able to confirm these figures. International humanitarian law compels all parties in non-international armed conflicts, such as those in Myanmar, to differentiate between combatants and civilians, to ensure that targets are military objectives rather than civilians or civilian objects, and to avoid and minimise civilian loss of life and property. Since the military coup in February 2021, AOAV has recorded 2,091 civilian casualties in Myanmar, 793 of whom were killed and 1,298 injured. Among the civilian casualties, AOAV has recorded at least 328 children, 249 women, and 365 men. 80% (1,674) of civilian casualties were reportedly killed and injured by the military government, who carried out 85% (323) of their attacks in areas reported as populated. Overall, AOAV has recorded 577 incidents of explosive weapon use in populated areas in Myanmar, or 55% of all 1,042 recorded incidents. 60% (1,974) of casualties in populated areas were reported as civilians. Villages are by far the worst affected locations, accouting for both the majority of incidents, 32% (332), and the majority of civilian casualties, 55% (1,153). 263 civilians have been killed and injured at public gatherings, and 109 in places of worship. Dr Iain Overton, Executive Director of AOAV, strongly condemned the April 11 air strike. "The utilization of such devastating weapons in areas heavily populated by civilians is not only a flagrant violation of international law but a profound betrayal of our shared human values. The loss of innocent lives, including children, is utterly tragic and unacceptable. It's a stark reminder that the international community must take robust measures to prevent further atrocities," he said. "We stand with Human Rights Watch in calling for a global halt to funding, arms, and fuel supplies to Myanmar's military, and for a strong international response to these grave abuses."..."
Source/publisher: Action on Armed Violence (London)
2023-05-10
Date of entry/update: 2023-05-10
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "Joint Statement on action taken against illegal acts of some members of the Village People’s Defence Force Chaung Oo Township, Sagging Division..."
Source/publisher: National Unity Government of Myanmar
2023-05-04
Date of entry/update: 2023-05-04
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Size: 271.57 KB
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Sub-title: The country’s neighbors continue to treat the military administration like a viable sovereign entity. They risk being left behind by events.
Description: "The military junta that attempted to seize control of Myanmar in February 2021 has failed. Free movement of its personnel is now reduced to the areas south and west of Mandalay in the country’s core. Even there, it is facing daily assassinations and bomb attacks and is barely able to govern due to widespread civil disobedience and a lack of public trust. The Naypyidaw junta, as it is aptly becoming known, is bunkering down wherever it can, reliant on its air force and roaming bands of methed-up soldiers to sow chaos in areas outside of its control. Nonetheless, a group of Myanmar’s neighbors, India, Thailand, Bangladesh, and Laos, seem adamant about treating the junta like a single sovereign entity and nursing it back to strength. Through what’s being called a Track 1.5 dialogue, these countries are seeking to marginalize the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which has been placed by the United Nations and the wider international community in the driving seat of international Myanmar policy. ASEAN had been inching towards a more moderate and critical position on Myanmar, until Thailand launched a separate track of talks aimed at undermining this approach. Track 1.5 talks have included junta officials and aim to bring stability back to the country, in the hope the junta can force through a transition to a slightly more democratic-looking political arrangement, despite continued exclusion of its much more popular political opponents. Even for states that couldn’t care less about the junta’s extreme human rights abuses or other moral concerns, this junta-first approach makes minimal sense, on realist grounds. Naypyidaw’s Loss of Effective Control Maps recently produced by the Free Burma Rangers (FBR), a humanitarian organization working in resistance areas, demonstrate just how limited the Myanmar army’s movement has become since the coup, as a result of the widespread nationwide uprising. The maps show how most major roads outside of the country’s core center are no longer under central authority. The military can still use some of these roads but only as part of well-organized military operations and not without great human and monetary cost. Enjoying this article? Click here to subscribe for full access. Just $5 a month. A panel of senior diplomats called the Special Advisory Council for Myanmar last year released research showing that the junta only had stable control of around 20 percent of the country’s townships. The others were either controlled or heavily contested by ethnic resistance organizations (EROs) and local defense forces. Since the coup, I have spent time in some of the FBR maps’ “white areas” – those where the junta’s movement is “very limited”. The situation varies greatly on the ground, but the maps provide an accurate bird’s eye picture. Some of these areas have been under the control of EROs for decades, some since the country’s independence in 1948. Other “white areas” are newly liberated territories, often where multi-ethnic communities are working together to build bottom-up administration with guidance from EROs, defense forces, the opposition National Unity Government (NUG), or other actors. Many other “white areas” are still vulnerable to incursions by roving bands of the Naypyidaw junta’s military units, who rape, burn, and dismember their way through the townships as part of an “ogre” strategy intended to strike fear into all those who resist. In practice, these units are always defeated and the abuses have simply spurred even more committed resistance from those communities and millions of people across the country. Air strikes and long-range artillery are the most destructive universal threat. Millions of people in resistance areas live under constant remote surveillance by drones, knowing that at any moment this could be followed by a devastating air force sortie. Long-range artillery is a daily occurrence in most resistance areas. During my travels in numerous areas, the sounds of shells followed by reports of civilian casualties have been a daily occurrence. As the FBR maps indicate, the resistance started from a very low bar, given the unmatched power that the Myanmar military had amassed since the last major uprising in 1988. But the key thing to watch is the trajectory of the conflict. The resistance has become increasingly better organized, increasingly more united, in terms of cooperation between EROs, political parties, and activist groups, and has remained consistently determined to see the revolution through. Many analysts have repeatedly claimed the resistance will be crushed or will collapse into disunity but the over-arching trends have consistently moved in the opposite direction. In March, Mandalay Region, the symbolic and strategic heart of the country, became the most active conflict zone in terms of the number of clashes. Meanwhile, rocket attacks on previously well-defended air bases and weapons factories have increased. Conflict is raging in numerous townships within 50 kilometers of the military’s fortress capital Naypyidaw and analysis firms have predicted that clashes in the capital district and surrounding areas will increase considerably this month. It is unlikely that the Naypyidaw junta is on the verge of immediate collapse but it is increasingly looking like a rump state, hunkered down in its trenches, wildly lobbing grenades into the surrounding areas. Nonetheless, for as long as the generals have the most conspicuous elements of state infrastructure down in the trench with them, neighboring countries and the U.N. seem very willing to pretend it is the “de facto authority” of the whole country. Some even want to take steps towards “normalizing” foreign relations with Myanmar in the hope that they can do a re-run of the resource rush that took place under military rule in the 1990s. Dead-end Efforts to Dress the Junta Up as the State Regardless of any basic moral considerations, which neighboring countries may see as a liberal distraction, treating the Naypyidaw junta as a reliable authority is simply impractical. The junta is just not able to implement its political or economic decisions across most of the country’s territory. This is most stark along the country’s long borders with India and Thailand, where its military and police outposts are isolated and starving, and where its administrators were mostly pushed out by local communities two years ago. Enjoying this article? Click here to subscribe for full access. Just $5 a month. For all the obvious problems with China’s extractive economic interests in Myanmar, there are lessons to learn from Beijing’s outcome-oriented pragmatism and its awareness of what is really going on in the country. China half-heartedly recognizes the Naypyidaw junta as the holder of key central infrastructure like visa offices, airports, and banks, but hedges its engagement considerably through its bilateral relations with at least seven powerful ethnic armed organizations and various political parties. China is able to keep its pipelines flowing and its trade gates open in spite of the collapsing Naypyidaw junta, not because of it. Some in neighboring countries claim that the military is holding the country together, fearing an imagined “balkanization” scenario in which Myanmar collapses into an even deeper form of chaos. Aside from the odd implication that Yugoslavia would have been better off as a single country for all eternity, this entire narrative is based on falsehoods. In practice, the resistance movement is far more united across ethnic lines than anything linked to the majoritarian extremist junta ever could be. EROs at the heart of the movement have stated emphatically that their number one priority is keeping the country together and that the military is the source of all division. The NUG was appointed by a National Unity Consultative Council, represented by over a dozen major political parties, ethnic resistance organizations, strike leaders, and others. It is holding talks regularly with a wide range of EROs, including some that are close to China, and its defense forces are cooperating with their armed wings across three area commands. Despite the inevitable and much-discussed internal tensions and ongoing challenges of this political project, unity has only increased month on month, and the levels of ground-level cooperation between disparate forces from different national communities is astounding. The Federal Democracy Charter they agreed on in April 2021 and amended in January 2022 is the foundation for a new union based on ethnic equality and democratic rule. Their political roadmap is miles ahead of anything put forward by the junta, whose only discernible objective is to change the title of its dictator from commander-in-chief to president. The only way it would make any realist sense for Asian countries to continue supporting the junta’s survival is if they believe they stand to benefit from never-ending chaos and instability in Myanmar. This provides an inexhaustible source of cheap labor and ensures their neighbor remains an inward-looking buffer state that could never post a strategic threat. But it also comes with huge economic and social risks and is simply unsustainable. More likely than such Machiavellian machinations, these countries probably just have very limited intelligence of the ground situation and so remain hitched blindly to a failing military that they assume will somehow repeat the events of the 1990s and establish a firm grip on the country. They may want to sign new infrastructure deals with the Naypyidaw junta but it lacks the capacity to provide a modicum of security for such projects, let alone the bureaucracy to manage their implementation or the capital to help finance them. Time for Clarity Unless these states come up with a more realistic and rational strategy, the most likely outcome of the track 1.5 dialogue and their ongoing engagements with the generals is that these states will become increasingly irrelevant and distant from what is actually being implemented on the ground. Countries, companies, and international agencies that find ways to work with resistance actors will be the only ones who can actually have an impact, for better or worse. This also means that countries across the world currently deferring to ASEAN leadership on Myanmar desperately need a new approach or they too will become increasingly irrelevant, while resource-hungry China remains the only country with well-defined goals and a strategy for implementing them. It is time for foreign democracies to take a more direct approach, perhaps through an “ASEAN plus” grouping including Japan, India, Bangladesh, and Western countries. Among the first of their concrete objectives should be to help the resistance remove the military from politics for good, while strengthening state and union-level democratic institutions. The fact that no foreign democracy is able to even explicitly articulate such obvious solutions to this entirely man-made crisis is a strong indication of why so little has been achieved.
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Source/publisher: "The Diplomat" (Japan)
2023-05-03
Date of entry/update: 2023-05-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "Myanmar junta soldiers killed a PDF commander and his assistant on Wednesday in the resistance stronghold of Sagaing Region, according to local sources. The fighters from Kawlin People’s Defense Force (PDF) Battalion 1 were killed in Kawlin Township. Eight members of Kawlin’s People’s Administration Team and Public Security Group were also killed by junta soldiers at around 6.00am on Thursday. The charred bodies of the commander of Kawlin PDF Battalion 1 and his assistant were found on Thursday near Thea Kaw Village, according to a member of Kawlin’s People’s Administration Team. “They were reportedly arrested at around 10.00am on Wednesday. Their burned bodies were found near Thae Kaw Village and were cremated on Thursday,” he said. A local source confirmed that the late commander had been newly transferred from the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) to lead Kawlin PDF Battalion 1. The KIA is one of Myanmar’s most powerful ethnic armed organizations. It has been fighting against the regime, as well as providing support and training to resistance fighters in Sagaing. “The deceased commander was recently transferred to Kawlin PDF Battalion 1”, said a source with connections to Battalion 1. In a separate incident, military regime troops ambushed eight members of Kawlin’s People’s Administration Team and Public Security Group early Thursday morning near Pay Pin Chaung Village. They were then killed and their bodies burned, according to locals. “Eight members of the People’s Administration Team and Public Security Group were shot dead and their bodies were burned by junta troops. They also torched the cars,” said the local. Fighting between regime troops and Kawlin PDF Battalion 1 intensified near Thea Kaw Village after junta troops captured the PDF commander and his assistant on Wednesday. Kawlin PDF’s Battalion 1 has been clashing with two columns of around 160 regime soldiers since April 25. The junta columns entered Kawlin Township on April 23. The following day, almost 100 residents of Kyauk Pyin Thar Village in the northeast of Kawlin were detained by regime troops..."
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Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
2023-04-28
Date of entry/update: 2023-04-28
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "1. The terrorist Military Junta repeatedly attacked the healthcare sector since the coup on 1st February 2021. Since the beginning of 2023, the inhumane attacks of the Military junta, targeted intentionally the health facilities, especially by means of the airstrike, were escalating. 2. During the first two months of 2023 (January and February), the Ministry of Health, National Unity Government issued the Statement on the inhumane airstrikes upon the hospitals in Myanmar with the announcement 2/2023 on 28th February 2023. 3. The terrorist Military increasingly attacked and launched airstrikes in April 2023. As the result of airstrikes on 11th April 2023 at Pa Zi Gyi Village, Kanbalu township, Sagaing Region, a total of 168 civilians were dead including children, pregnant women, and aged people, and 16 civilians were severely injured. 4. The following attacks on the health sector have been found during the first 18 days of April 2023 by the Military Junta; 4.1 The soldiers of the terrorist Military destroyed and burnt down the outpatient department, two patient-wards, a drug store, and the operation theater at Nyaung Pin Thar Hospital situated in Tigyaing Township, Katha District, Sagaing Region on 2nd April 2023. 4.2 On 5th April 2023, the terrorist Military Council launched airstrikes three times and heavy artillery attacks resulting in the destruction of Si Thar Station hospital, school, and about 20 houses at Si Thar village, Shwe Gu township, Kachin state. Si Thar Station Hospital was totally destroyed and all the medicines and medical equipment were lost. 4.3 There was an incident on 7th April 2023 at a frontline place of the Karenni and Shan border area while the emergency medical team has been providing health services, the terrorist junta launches airstrikes at least five times without any combat attack in the place, causing the death of two healthcare workers at the scene, three healthcare workers were injured and four motorcars including the ambulance were also broken. 4.4 On 18th April 2023, the terrorist junta attacked the Man Gyi Kan hospital situated in Man Gyi Kan village, Myaing township, Magway Region by airstrike with Mi 35 then dropped troops and raided. The terrorist military council fired and destroyed this hospital resulting in the destruction of the hospital donated by the people of Japan for the Japan-Myanmar friendship including medicines, medical equipment and the X-Ray machine of about 800 Lakh MMK. A 15-year-old boy was killed by the junta, and also a total of 100 people including the patients, patient attendances, and the villagers, were hostaged and the houses, motorcars, and motorcycles were also destroyed. On 19th April 2023, the junta council attacked the Man Gyi Kan village again with Mi 35 and arbitrarily brought 15 innocent civilians. 5. From 1 February 2021 to 28 February 2023, the military junta brutally killed (70) healthcare workers, arrested (836) healthcare workers, occupied, attacked and destroyed health facilities (188 times), destroyed (59) ambulances, and stolen or highjacked (49) ambulances. (Reference: https://insecurityinsight. org/country-pages/myanmar) 6. Those inhumane attacks of the terrorist military, targeted intentionally the health facilities and health system, are breaking Geneva Conventions, the UN Security Council’s Resolutions, and International Humanitarian and Human Rights laws. We strongly urge the international community to take urgent action in order to immediately halt the military junta’s escalating war crimes and crimes against humanity in Myanmar. 7. Despite many difficulties and challenges the Ministry of Health, the National Unity Government is facing, we will put our ultimate effort to continue providing our services together with our heroes, healthcare professionals. Until the military dictatorship is uprooted and we, together with the public, will strive towards building a Federal Democratic Union..."
Source/publisher: Ministry of Health - National Unity Government of Myanmar
2023-04-20
Date of entry/update: 2023-04-21
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Format : pdf
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Description: "၁။ အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီသည် ၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ်၊ ဖေဖော်ဝါရီ (၁) ရက်နေ့တွင် တိုင်းပြည်အာဏာကို မတရားသိမ်းပိုက်ရန် ကြိုးပမ်းပြီးနောက်ပိုင်းကတည်းက ယနေ့အထိ ကျန်းမာရေးကဏ္ဍ အပေါ် အကြမ်းဖက်မှုများကို အကြိမ်ကြိမ်ကျူးလွန်ခဲ့ပြီး ၂၀၂၃ ခုနှစ်၊ နှစ်ဆန်းမှ စတင်၍ ဆေးရုံ/ဆေးခန်းများအပေါ် တိုက်ခိုက်မှုများ (အထူးသဖြင့် လေကြောင်းအသုံးပြု တိုက်ခိုက်မှု များ) ကို ပိုမိုကျူးလွန်လာကြောင်း တွေ့ရှိရပါသည်။ ၂။ ၂၀၂၃ ခုနှစ်၊ ဇန်နဝါရီလနှင့် ဖေဖော်ဝါရီလ (၂) လအတွင်း ဆေးရုံ/ဆေးခန်းများနှင့် ကျန်းမာ ရေးဝန်ထမ်းများအပေါ် အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ တိုက်ခိုက်မှုများကို ကျန်းမာရေးဝန်ကြီး ဌာနအနေဖြင့် (၂၈-၂-၂၀၂၃) ရက်နေ့၌ ထုတ်ပြန်ကြေညာချက်အမှတ် (၂/၂၀၂၃) ဖြင့် ထုတ်ပြန် ခဲ့ပြီးဖြစ်ပါသည်။ ၃။ အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီသည် ယခုဧပြီလအတွင်းမှာပင် လေကြောင်းအသုံးပြု တိုက်ခိုက်မှု များကို အရှိန်တိုးမြှင့် ကျူးလွန်ခဲ့ရာ (၁၁-၄-၂၀၂၃) ရက်နေ့က စစ်ကိုင်းတိုင်းဒေသကြီး၊ ကန့်ဘလူမြို့နယ်၊ မလယ်တိုက်နယ်၊ ပဇီကြီးကျေးရွာကို လေကြောင်းဖြင့် (၃) ကြိမ်တိုင်တိုင် ဗုံးကြဲပစ်ခတ်တိုက်ခိုက်မှုကြောင့် ကလေးသူငယ်၊ အမျိုးသမီးနှင့် သက်ကြီးရွယ်အိုများ အပါအဝင် အပြစ်မဲ့ပြည်သူ စုစုပေါင်း (၁၆၈) ဦး သေဆုံးခဲ့ပြီး (၁၆) ဦးမှာ အကြီးစားကုသမှုခံယူနေရသော ထိခိုက်ဒဏ်ရာများ ရရှိခဲ့သည်။ ၄။ ၂၀၂၃ ခုနှစ်၊ ဧပြီလ၏ ပထမ (၁၈) ရက်အတွင်း အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ ကျန်းမာရေး ကဏ္ဍအပေါ် တိုက်ခိုက်မှုများကို အောက်ပါအတိုင်း တွေ့ရှိရသည်- (က) (၂-၄-၂၀၂၃) ရက်နေ့တွင် စစ်ကိုင်းတိုင်းဒေသကြီး၊ ကသာခရိုင်၊ ထီးချိုင့်မြို့နယ်၊ ညောင်ပင်သာတိုက်နယ်ဆေးရုံရှိ ပြင်ပလူနာဆောင်၊ ကျား/မ လူနာဆောင် (၂) ဆောင်၊ ဆေးစတိုခန်း၊ ခွဲစိတ်ခန်း စသည့် ဆေးရုံအဆောင်တို့ကို အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်သားများက မီးရှို့ဖျက်ဆီးခဲ့သည်။ (ခ) (၅-၄-၂၀၂၃) ရက်နေ့တွင် ကချင်ပြည်နယ်၊ ရွှေကူမြို့နယ်၊ စီသာကျေးရွာကို အကြမ်းဖက် စစ်ကောင်စီက လေကြောင်းဖြင့် (၃) ကြိမ် ဗုံးကြဲပစ်ခတ်ပြီး လက်နက်ကြီးများဖြင့် ပစ်ခတ်တိုက်ခိုက်ခဲ့ရာ စီသာတိုက်နယ်ဆေးရုံ၊ စာသင်ကျောင်းနှင့် နေအိမ် (၂၀) ကျော် ထိခိုက်ပျက်စီးခဲ့သည်။ စီသာတိုက်နယ်ဆေးရုံ၏ အဆောက်အအုံတစ်ခုလုံးနီးပါး ထိခိုက် ပျက်စီးခဲ့ပြီး ဆေးရုံအတွင်းရှိ ဆေးနှင့် ဆေးပစ္စည်းများလည်း ပျက်စီးဆုံးရှုံးခဲ့သည်။ (ဂ) (၇-၄-၂၀၂၃) ရက်နေ့တွင် ကရင်နီ/ကယားပြည်နယ်နှင့် ရှမ်းပြည်နယ် နယ်စပ်ရှိ ရှေ့တန်းစစ်မျက်နှာပြင်တစ်နေရာ၌ အရေးပေါ်ကယ်ဆယ်ရေး ဆေးအဖွဲ့က ကျန်းမာရေး စောင့်ရှောက်မှုပေးနေစဉ် အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီက တိုက်ပွဲမရှိဘဲ လေကြောင်းဖြင့် (၅) ကြိမ်ထက်မနည်း ဗုံးကြဲပစ်ခတ်တိုက်ခိုက်မှုကြောင့် ယင်းဆေးအဖွဲ့မှ ကျန်းမာရေး စောင့်ရှောက်မှုပေးနေသူ (၂) ဦး မြေပြင်တွင် ပွဲချင်းပြီး ကျဆုံးခဲ့ပြီး (၃) ဦး ထိခိုက်ဒဏ်ရာ ရရှိခဲ့သည်။ လူနာတင်ယာဉ်အပါအဝင် ကား (၄) စီးလည်း ပျက်စီးဆုံးရှုံးခဲ့ရသည်။ (ဃ) (၁၈-၄-၂၀၂၃) ရက်နေ့၊ နံနက် (၁၁) နာရီခန့်တွင် အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီသည် မကွေး တိုင်းဒေသကြီး၊ မြိုင်မြို့နယ်၊ မန်ကျည်းကန်ကျေးရွာနှင့် မန်ကျည်းကန်ကျေးရွာရှိ ပြည်သူ့ဆေးရုံတို့ကို စစ်ရဟတ်ယာဉ်များ အသုံးပြု၍ ပစ်ခတ်တိုက်ခိုက်ခဲ့ပြီး အကြမ်းဖက် စစ်သားများက ဝင်ရောက်စီးနင်းခဲ့ကြောင်း သိရှိရသည်။ အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီသည် ပြည်သူ့ဆေးရုံ အဆောက်အအုံကို မီးရှို့ဖျက်ဆီးခဲ့ရာ ဂျပန်-မြန်မာ နှစ်နိုင်ငံ ချစ်ကြည်ရေးအတွက် ဂျပန်နိုင်ငံ ပြည်သူလူထုက လှူဒါန်းထားသော ဆေးရုံအဆောက် အအုံနှင့် ကျပ်သိန်း (၈၀၀) ခန့် တန်ဖိုးရှိ ဓာတ်မှန်စက် အပါအဝင် ဆေးနှင့် ဆေးပစ္စည်း များ ပျက်စီးဆုံးရှုံးခဲ့သည်။ အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်သားများသည် အသက် (၁၅) နှစ်အရွယ် ကလေးတစ်ဦးကို သတ်ဖြတ်ခဲ့ပြီး လူနာများ၊ လူနာစောင့်များနှင့် ရွာသူရွာသား (၁၀၀) ကျော်ခန့်ကို ဓားစားခံအဖြစ် ဖမ်းဆီးထားခဲ့သည်။ လူနေအိမ်များ၊ ကားနှင့် ဆိုင်ကယ် များကိုလည်း ဖျက်ဆီးခဲ့သည်။ (၁၉-၄-၂၀၂၃) နံနက်ပိုင်းတွင် မန်ကျည်းကန်ကျေးရွာကို စစ်ရဟတ်ယာဉ်ဖြင့် ထပ်မံပစ်ခတ်ခဲ့ပြီးနောက် ညနေ (၃) နာရီခန့်တွင် အပြစ်မဲ့ ပြည်သူ (၁၅) ဦးခန့်ကို ဖမ်းဆီးခေါ်ဆောင်၍ ကျေးရွာမှ ထွက်ခွာသွားခဲ့ကြောင်း သိရှိရသည်။ ၅။ အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီသည် (၁-၂-၂၀၂၁) ရက်နေ့မှ (၂၈-၂-၂၀၂၃) ရက်နေ့အတွင်း ကျန်းမာ ရေးဝန်ထမ်း (၇၀) ဦးကို သတ်ဖြတ်ခြင်း၊ ကျန်းမာရေးဝန်ထမ်း (၈၃၆) ဦးခန့်ကို ဖမ်းဆီးခြင်း၊ ဆေးရုံ/ဆေးခန်းများကို သိမ်းပိုက်ခြင်းနှင့် တိုက်ခိုက်ဖျက်ဆီးခြင်း (၁၈၈) ကြိမ်၊ ထိခိုက် ပျက်စီးခဲ့သော လူနာတင်ယာဉ် (၅၉) စီး၊ ခိုးယူသိမ်းပိုက်ခံရသော လူနာတင်ယာဉ် (၄၉) စီး ရှိခဲ့ပါသည်။ (Reference: https://insecurityinsight. org/country-pages/myanmar) ၆။ အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီက ကျန်းမာရေးကဏ္ဍအပေါ် ရည်ရွယ်ချက်ရှိရှိ ပစ်မှတ်ထား၍ အကြမ်းဖက်တိုက်ခိုက်နေခြင်းသည် ဂျီနီဗာကွန်ဗန်းရှင်း (Geneva Conventions) ၊ ကမ္ဘာ့ ကုလသမဂ္ဂ လုံခြုံရေးကောင်စီ ဆုံးဖြတ်ချက်များ၊ နိုင်ငံတကာဥပဒေများနှင့် ပြည်တွင်းဥပဒေ များကို ပြောင်ပြောင်တင်းတင်း ချိုးဖောက်နေခြင်းဖြစ်ရာ နိုင်ငံတကာအသိုင်းအဝိုင်းအနေဖြင့် အမြန်ဆုံး တားဆီးအရေးယူရန် လိုအပ်ပါသည်။ ၇။ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ၊ ကျန်းမာရေးဝန်ကြီးဌာနသည် အခက်အခဲနှင့် စိန်ခေါ်မှုများ ရှိနေသည့်တိုင် လက်ရှိဆောင်ရွက်လျက်ရှိသော ကျန်းမာရေးစောင့်ရှောက်မှုလုပ်ငန်းများကို သူရဲကောင်း ကျန်းမာရေးဝန်ထမ်းများနှင့်လက်တွဲ၍ အရှိန်အဟုန်မြှင့်တင် ဆောင်ရွက်သွား မည်ဖြစ်ပါသည်။ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတွင် စစ်အာဏာရှင်စနစ် အပြီးတိုင်ချုပ်ငြိမ်း၍ ဖက်ဒရယ် ဒီမိုကရေစီပြည်ထောင်စုကြီး ပေါ်ထွန်းသည်အထိ တိုင်းရင်းသားပြည်သူတစ်ရပ်လုံးနှင့် လက်တွဲ၍ ဆက်လက်ကြိုးပမ်းတိုက်ပွဲဝင်သွားမည်ဖြစ်ပါသည်။..."
Source/publisher: Ministry of Health - National Unity Government of Myanmar
2023-04-20
Date of entry/update: 2023-04-20
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "Every dictatorship believes it needs a secret police force in order to survive in power, and the more brutal, the more effective. Nazi Germany had its Gestapo, or Geheime Staatspolizei: “The Secret State Police.” The Shah of Iran depended on Savak, the country’s domestic security and intelligence service, and Romania’s dictator Nicolae Ceausescu had his dreaded Securitate, “Department of State Security.” And Myanmar’s generals have their military intelligence service, which over the years has changed its name but always remained a main pillar of state power. But because of its secretive nature, Myanmar’s military intelligence has also on at least two occasions morphed into a state within the state, which became a threat to the established order and, therefore, was purged with some of its leaders receiving lengthy prison sentences. The question of maintaining that blind loyalty is the reason why Myanmar’s current dictator, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, is keeping his top intelligence operatives closer to him than his predecessors did. Lieutenant General Ye Win Oo, head of what since 2020 has been called the Office of Chief of Military Security Affairs (OCMSA), accompanies Min Aung Hlaing at all meetings with the junta-appointed cabinet, to meetings with foreign diplomats, and during trips abroad. Lt-Gen Ye Win Oo went to Russia with Min Aung Hlaing in June 2021 to attend the 9th Moscow Conference on International Security, and again in July 2022 to meet state-owned nuclear energy and weapons companies. During the second trip, Ye Win Oo’s wife Nilar and other spouses of the generals also went along, but more for shopping in Moscow than to participate in any important meetings. Since the 2021 coup, Lt-Gen Ye Win Oo has been responsible for tracking down opponents to the junta and he also runs the military’s interrogation centers where detainees are subjected to torture, which usually includes electric chocks, burning of genitalia, pouring boiling liquid or chemical solutions down the mouths of victims, and rape if those arrested are women. The Internet and social media have made it possible to disseminate such information to the outside world, but the methods are as old as Myanmar’s military intelligence itself. It dates back to General Ne Win, who seized power in 1962 and built up one of Asia’s most ruthless as well as efficient secret police forces. Originally called the Military Intelligence Service (MIS), it was known down to the lowliest non-English speaking peasant as em-eye and everybody feared it. Informants could be everywhere, sometimes even within dissident families. Ne Win was originally trained by the Japanese, in Tokyo in 1940-41 and when they occupied the then Burma 1942-45. US Lieutenant Colonel James Mc Andrew states in his 2007 study of Myanmar’s military intelligence apparatus: “Chosen for both ‘guerilla tactics and clandestine activities’ and ‘special’ leadership training was the future dictator and longtime strongman, Ne Win. Significantly, this curriculum included intelligence training provided by the Kempeitai, the brutal Japanese Military Police and counterintelligence organization. Being selected for Kempeitai is more than noteworthy in hindsight, and it must be viewed as an important early demonstration to Ne Win that maintaining coercive intelligence and counterintelligence organizations were essential to maintaining authoritarian rule.” Ne Win’s trusted intelligence chief for many years was his subordinate Brigadier General Tin Oo — not to be confused with the National League for Democracy (NLD) leader Tin Oo, or Tin U, a retired general and former army chief. ‘MI Tin Oo’, as he became known, was trained by the US’s Central Intelligence Agency on the US-held Pacific island of Saipan in 1957, and so was Lay Maung, who rose to become a top jurist for the military and Myanmar’s foreign minister 1980-1981. In those days, US support for Myanmar’s military was motivated by the fact that it fought against the insurgent Communist Party of Burma, but that cooperation came to an abrupt end in 1961 when the military and the People’s Liberation Army of China began joint operations against remnants of US-supported, nationalist Chinese Kuomintang forces who had been ensconced in eastern Shan State since their defeat in China’s civil war. Even if judicial executions of political opponents were the exception rather than the rule, anyone suspected of having contacts with the political or ethnic opponents of Ne Win’s regime was likely to be arrested and tortured while in jail. The MIS also had its own prison and torture center, the infamous Yay Kyi Aing, or “Clearwater Pond”. Many political prisoners were tortured to death there and in other, smaller MIS-run jails all over the country. The MIS kept a watchful eye not only on ordinary citizens, but especially army officers with perceived liberal ideas, which apart from constant rotations, corruption and institutional brutality contributed to the remarkable cohesiveness of Myanmar’s armed forces. MIS agents also watched politicized exiles living in Britain, West Germany, Thailand, Australia and the USA. For many years, mutual suspicion neutralized them as a political force because no one was ever sure who was an informant or not. In the 1970s and 1980s, the MIS was becoming increasingly powerful, and, at the time, Rodney Tasker characterized MI Tin Oo in the Far Eastern Economic Review: “He and his MIS colleagues were men of the world compared with the other short-sighted, dogmatic figures in the Burmese leadership. They were able to travel abroad, talk freely to foreigners and generally look beyond the rigid confines of the corrupt regime….although ruthless, he built up a reputation as a gregarious, open-minded, charismatic figure — a direct contrast to some of his mole-like colleagues in the leadership.” But in May 1983, Ne Win’s regime suddenly and unexpectedly announced that Tin Oo had been “permitted to resign” along with his former aide, Colonel Bo Ni. They had been purged ostensibly because their wives were corrupt — a charge that could be brought against any army officer in the country. Tin Oo and Bo Ni were subsequently jailed — and the entire MIS apparatus purged as well. The reason behind the move, however, remained a matter for conjecture. It was suggested at the time that the urbane MIS people had become too powerful for comfort and had almost managed to establish another state-within-a-state, which threatened Ne Win’s inner circle of hand-picked, less-than-intelligent yes men. Whatever the reason behind the purge, it had immediate effects on the security situation in the country. On October 9, 1983, 21 people, including four visiting South Korean cabinet ministers, were killed in a powerful explosion in Yangon. Three North Korean military officers were behind the atrocity. One of them was killed in a shoot-out with Burmese security forces, while the other two were captured alive. One of the bombers was executed in 1985, the other remained in Yangon’s Insein Prison until he died of natural causes in 2008. Observers at the time believe that the incident would never have taken place if MI Tin Oo had still been in charge; it clearly indicated that the military intelligence apparatus was no longer what is used to be. A new intelligence chief, General Khin Nyunt, was appointed in 1984. His Directorate of the Defense Services Intelligence (DDSI) soon became almost as efficient as the old outfit, and Khin Nyunt in many ways also resembled Tin Oo; he was fairly young and reasonably bright, but could be exceedingly ruthless whenever this was considered expedient by the old dictator, Ne Win. Less than four years after Khin Nyunt began rebuilding Myanmar’s shattered military intelligence apparatus, the country faced the largest civil unrest in its history. Millions of people nationwide marched against Ne Win’s regime and for a return to the democracy that the country had enjoyed before the 1962 coup. Any regime anywhere would have collapsed under the pressure of an entire population rising up against tyranny. That was not the case with Myanmar’s military-dominated regime, however. Thousands of people were gunned down in the streets of Yangon and elsewhere as the military stepped in, not to overthrow the government but to shore up a regime overwhelmed with popular protest. After the military had crushed the uprising, the DDSI was expanded. By 1991, nine new units were established and the DDSI also operated 19 detention centers, seven of them of Yangon, of which Yay Kyi Aing was still the most notorious. Undercover DDSI agents covered every movement of the NLD’s leaders and other opponents of the regime. However in 2004 Khin Nyunt, who had become prime minister, was ousted and arrested along with up to 3,500 intelligence personnel countrywide, including some 300 senior officers. Khin Nyunt’s fall from grace followed the death of his mentor Ne Win in December 2002. The old general had been placed under house arrest earlier that year, allegedly because of the corrupt behavior of his daughter, Sanda Win, her husband Aye Zaw Win — and the couple’s three unruly grandsons, who had terrorized private businessmen in Yangon with demands for bribes and “protection money.” But few doubted that the move against Ne Win and his family came as preparation for the post-Ne Win era; to make sure that Khin Nyunt’s influence would be limited. The dictator, who had ruled with an iron fist for several decades, was cremated near his home in Yangon. The funeral was attended by a handful of family members and about 20 plainclothes military officers, none especially high-ranking. Khin Nyunt’s ouster was not, as some reports in the foreign media at the time suggested, a power struggle between the “pragmatic” intelligence chief and “hardliners” within the military regime. A more plausible explanation for the purge was that Khin Nyunt and his DDSI had accumulated significant wealth through involvement in a wide range of commercial enterprises. They were building up a state within a state — like the old MI Tin Oo had done in the 1970s — and not sharing their riches with the rest of the military elite. Like Ne Win, the new dictator, Senior General Than Shwe, did not want to have any potential rivals around him, and Khin Nyunt clearly had political ambitions. He was a man not to be trusted. Immediately following the ousting of Khin Nyunt, the latest intelligence outfit, the Office of the Chief of Military Intelligence [the expanded DDSI], was dissolved and an entirely new organization established: the OCMSA, which was placed under more direct military control. It is highly unlikely that Lt- Gen Ye Win Oo will repeat the mistakes which MI Tin Oo and Khin Nyunt committed, and Min Aung Hlaing may, at least for the foreseeable future, be secure. OCMSA remained active throughout the decade of openness from 2011 to 2021, carefully watching the activities of politicians, activists and journalists. But Lt-Gen Ye Win Oo and his men unleashed the full force of the organization’s most brutal operatives after the 2021 coup. According to the rights group the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), 3,194 people have been killed since then, while 17,075 people have been detained and 5,274 of them have been sentenced by a court. A total of 108 prisoners received the death penalty, 121 of them are in absentia. 150 are currently on death row awaiting execution. So far, according to AAPP’s data, 3,874 have been released from prison. Until the 1988 uprising, Myanmar’s military intelligence conducted only limited operations overseas, mainly collecting information and giving the exiled community a scare. But after the dramatic events of the late 1980s and the subsequent flight of thousands of pro-democracy activists, especially to Thailand, its agents became more operational outside the country. Khin Nyunt’s right-hand man, Colonel Thein Swe sent thugs to beat up activists and, allegedly, ordered murders when he was defense attaché in Bangkok. In the early 1990s, the colonel built up an extensive network among diplomats, spies, informants and some media in Thailand. He was rewarded by being made the top-ranking intelligence officer under Khin Nyunt after he returned to Myanmar. There is now every indication that the OCMSA is even more active in foreign countries. To the surprise of many, not only are regular operatives involved in keeping a watchful eye on activists, journalist and others in Thai cities like Chiang Mai and Mae Sot, but people who once played roles in the pro-democracy movement and the so-called “peace process” during the 2011-2016 U Thein Sein presidency have become informants. At home in Myanmar, as The Irrawaddy has reported, old loyalties to military supremacy remain: even military intelligence operatives who were purged or sidelined in 2004 have been used as advisers. Among them are Colonel Ngwe Tun who was at the Defense Services Academy in Pyin Oo Lwin at the same time as Min Aung Hlaing, Lieutenant Colonel Nyan Linn, who in 1988 was responsible for distributing leaflets condemning democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, Sai Aung Thein who used to serve in Kengtung in Shan State, Myint Htay, an operative who liaised with Pa-O militia leader Aung Kham Hti, Lin Mingxian, another militia leader at Mong La on the Myanmar-China border, and Thein Swe, the horror man of Bangkok who has become a Brigadier General. As Ne Win once put it, lukaun lutaw, which refers to his preference for promoting loyal cronies rather than talented persons. Significantly, Major General Kyaw Win, an intellectual who Than Shwe in 1993 appointed deputy head of DDSI to counterbalance the rising power of Khin Nyunt, has not been seen since the coup. The future of the pro-democracy movement depends on its ability to understand the inner workings of Myanmar’s past and present military intelligence services [which to all intents and purposes have been a secret police], to map the current OCMSA’s activities, and counter them with increased vigilance in the streets — as well as in cyberspace. New, sophisticated electronic surveillance equipment, not available before, has been obtained from firms in Singapore and Israel. And with the military and its most repressive organ of power operating more closely than in the past, domestically as well as in foreign countries, the dangers are real..."
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Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
2023-04-17
Date of entry/update: 2023-04-17
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Description: "Press Release Regarding Air Strikes on Pazigyi village, Kant Balu Township, Sagaing Division, Myanmar..... 1.The National Unity Government is responding to the union level disaster of significantly large number of deaths and injured people due to the military council's air strikes at Pazigyi village, Kant Balu Township, Sagaing division. The relief and emergency response activities are being provided in a timely manner under the supervision of union level ministries and the coordination with the various officials in Sagaing region..."
Source/publisher: National Unity Government of Myanmar
2023-04-16
Date of entry/update: 2023-04-16
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Description: "12 April 2023: The international community must take immediate action against the illegal military junta to protect the Myanmar people from escalating junta atrocities and bring its leaders to justice following Tuesday’s shocking airstrikes against civilians, says the Special Advisory Council for Myanmar (SAC-M). At least 100 people, including children, were killed and dozens injured in an horrific aerial attack by junta forces on civilians in Pazigyi village, Kanbalu Township in the Sagaing Region of Myanmar on Tuesday, 11 April 2023. According to local media, junta jets dropped bombs and junta attack helicopters fired machine guns on more than 100 people gathered in the village for the inauguration ceremony of a local civilian administration office on Tuesday morning. The junta then launched a second round of aerial attacks on the village later the same day, as people were attempting to locate and identify the dead. The airstrikes could not have taken place without authorisation from commanders who report directly to the leader of the illegal junta, Min Aung Hlaing, through their chain of command. Only the junta has access to military aircraft in Myanmar. The junta’s violence is in further blatant defiance of United Nations (UN) Security Council resolution 2669, adopted on 21 December 2022, and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Five-Point Consensus, that Min Aung Hlaing agreed to with ASEAN leaders on 24 April 2021. The UN and ASEAN are being played for fools by Min Aung Hlaing and the Generals, who believe they will face no consequences for the barbaric violence they continue to inflict on the Myanmar people – violence that includes the 2016 and 2017 Rohingya genocide. The UN Security Council must use its powers under Chapter VII of the UN Charter to enforce the junta’s compliance with its resolution, including through targeted sanctions on military financial interests and aviation fuel, a comprehensive arms embargo and referral to the International Criminal Court. SAC-M calls on the Security Council to convene an emergency meeting this week to consider actions under Chapter VII. ASEAN must use its upcoming summit in May 2023 to adopt complementary punitive actions against the junta, with support from other governments in the region. Support for the democratic resistance in Myanmar must be urgently stepped up, including, as a priority, the provision of cross-border humanitarian assistance delivered directly to those in need. Until the military junta’s violence is ended, there can be no solution to the crisis in Myanmar..."
Source/publisher: Special Advisory Council for Myanmar
2023-04-12
Date of entry/update: 2023-04-12
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Description: "1. At 07:45 am on 11th April 2023, Myanmar military council intentionally performed an atrocious, indiscriminate air raid on a gathering of villagers in Pazigyi Village, Malai Ward, Kantbalu Township, Kantbalu District, Sagaing Region, Myanmar. 2. The terrorist military council first bombed with jet fighters followed by numerous air raid runs by MI-35 and helicopters killing, inuring, and maiming a large number of innocent villagers. 3. An initial report has confirmed that more than 100 innocent villagers that 18 children together with expectant women were killed in this atrocity. We will update the data as we get more confirmed reports. 4. From the time the National Unity Government received the news of the barbarity, the NUG has been - collating, confirming, and authenticating reports from the site - offering assistance, and aid in cooperation with local civil organisations making funeral arrangements, etc. - ensuring that medical teams from the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Defence were caring for the wounded and all that needed medical care - informing the diplomatic community and international community. 5. The National Unity Government makes a solemn pledge to take actions on the terrorist military council for its mass murder of innocent citizens, crimes against humanity, and war crimes against the citizens and see that justice is served..."
Source/publisher: National Unity Government of Myanmar
2023-04-11
Date of entry/update: 2023-04-12
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Description: "Myanmar regime troops on Friday raided Tham Mar Yoe Village, Wetlet Township in the anti-regime stronghold of Sagaing Region, torching 269 houses and killing an elderly resident, according to residents. Around 110 junta troops raided the village in western Wetlet on Friday afternoon and torched the village for three hours despite not engaging with any resistance forces. “A 78-year-old woman who had earlier suffered a stroke took refuge in a building in the monastic compound and was killed by the fire,” said Bo Young Ni, the leader of G-Z Brothers Young Ni Force. Situated on the Shwebo-Monywa road, Tham Mar Yoe has more than 700 households. Currently, residents are returning to the village and clearing up the debris, according to a resident. “They torched the village while passing on the road. Not even the monastery was spared,” a resident said. Currently, shelter, palm leaves, rice, oil and other foodstuffs are urgently needed for the fire victims, according to the Wetlet Township People’s Strike Committee. The troops involved in the raid departed the village for the Ayadaw Township military base’s Training Unit Battalion 10 on six vehicles that evening. Later that evening, G-Z Brothers Young Ni Force used eight land mines to mount two attacks on troops in Ayadaw Township, killing four soldiers. “We attacked a military vehicle first. Then we attacked again when four soldiers got out of the car to clear the mine. It is certain that four were killed,” Bo Young Ni told The Irrawaddy. His claim couldn’t be independently verified. Wetlet Township is a resistance stronghold bordering Shwebo and Ayadaw townships, where armed attacks against the military council are frequent. Villages in those townships are frequently raided by regime troops, who routinely torch homes in the villages..."
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
2023-03-20
Date of entry/update: 2023-03-20
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Description: "1. During January and February 2023, the military junta launched airstrikes on health facilities, arrested and brutally killed healthcare workers, and committed terrorist attacks on the public as follows; (1.1) On 10th January 2023 and 11th January 2023, the terrorist military launched airstrikes on Camp Victoria which was situated in the camp of Chin National Front (CNF), Chin State, the two female comrades and three male comrades from CNF were killed by those airstrikes. It also destroyed the outpatient department, the warehouse for the storage of medicine, and people’s houses too. (1.2) On 21st January 2023, the terrorist military launched an airstrike on a public hospital in the village of Ba Hin, Myaing Township, Magway Region. Because of those airstrikes, Ba Hin public hospital was destroyed instantaneously, including an X-ray machine, and killed one innocent woman (62-year-old) nearby this hospital. Fortunately, the hospital staff and patients (a total of 90 people) including the pregnant women, and orthopedic patients escaped from this incident. (1.3) On 19th February 2023, the terrorist military raided Nwe Inn Village, Pale Township, Sagaing Region, and intentionally destroyed the rural health center only by firing. (1.4) From 21st to 25th February 2023, the terrorist military destroyed and fired on Min village, Malaethar village, and Kanyin village in Ayadaw township, Sagaing Region. And also the airstrike was launched at the high school compound, and hospital land and destroyed the medicines and medical equipment in the hospital in these villages. (1.5) A CDM nurse, Daw May Zune Moe, who delivered a baby in one of the remote jungles has returned to Okpho Township, Bago Region and was investigated together with two comrades of the People's Defence Force (PDF) by the terrorist military near Kyauk Phyu Taung Village, Aye Mya Thar Yar, Oakpho township on 29th January 2023. The two PDF comrades were killed at the scene of investigation with live ammunition, while this nurse tried to run and hide from the hand of the terrorist military. However, she was arrested, inhumane interrogation was done, and was killed on 16th February 2023. (1.6) A staff nurse who participated in the Civil disobedience movement (CDM) from Falam General Hospital, Chin State, and lived in her hometown Moedargyi Village, Katha Township, Sagaing Region, was arrested in her village on 16th February 2023 during the raiding by the military junta and killed on 21st February 2023. 2. The military junta took the power of our elected government on 1st February 2021, within two years of the coup, the military junta brutally killed (70) healthcare workers, injured over (780) healthcare workers, arrested more than (900) healthcare workers, and attacked and destroyed (54) ambulances and (160) health facilities. 3. Those inhumane attacks of the terrorist military, targeted intentionally to the healthcare workers, health facilities and health system, are breaking the Geneva Conventions, Resolutions of the UN Security Council, and International Humanitarian and Human Rights laws. 4. The Ministry of Health, National Unity Government, condemns those extremely inhumane acts of violence by the terrorist military group and we strongly urge the international community to take vigorous and urgent action in order to immediately halt the military junta’s escalating war crimes and crimes against humanity in Myanmar in the strongest possible terms. 5. The Ministry is deeply saddened and offers our deep condolence to the families of the innocent people who have fallen at the hands of the terrorist military council. The Ministry also vows to seek judicial redress for the lives of those innocent members of the public and healthcare workers. We pledge that the terrorist military council and its lackeys see justice served on them and that the military dictatorship is uprooted and we will, together with the public, strive towards building a Federal Democratic Union..."
Source/publisher: Ministry of Health - National Unity Government of Myanmar
2023-02-28
Date of entry/update: 2023-03-01
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "၁။ အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီသည် ၂၀၂၃ ခုနှစ်၊ ဇန်နဝါရီလနှင့် ဖေဖော်ဝါရီလ (၂) လအတွင်း ကျန်းမာရေးကဏ္ဍအပေါ် လေကြောင်းတိုက်ခိုက်မှုများ၊ ကျန်းမာရေးဝန်ထမ်းများကို ဖမ်းဆီး၊ နှိပ်စက်၊ သတ်ဖြတ်မှုများနှင့် အခြားအကြမ်းဖက်မှုများကို လူမဆန်စွာ ဆက်တိုက်ကျူးလွန်ခဲ့ သည့်အနက် အဖြစ်အပျက်အချို့ကို အောက်ပါအတိုင်း တွေ့ရှိရပါသည်- (က) (၁၀-၁-၂၀၂၃) နှင့် (၁၁-၁-၂၀၂၃) ရက်နေ့တို့တွင် ချင်းအမျိုးသားတပ်ဦး (CNF) ဌာနချုပ် တည်ရှိရာ Camp Victoria စခန်းကို အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်တပ်က လေကြောင်းတိုက်ခိုက်မှု ပြုလုပ်ခဲ့ရာ ချင်းအမျိုးသားတပ်ဦးမှ ရဲမေ (၂) ဦးနှင့် ရဲဘော် (၃) ဦး ကျဆုံးခဲ့ရပြီး ပြင်ပလူနာကုသဆောင်၊ ဆေးစတိုနှင့် လူနေအိမ်များ ပျက်စီးဆုံးရှုံးခဲ့ရသည်။ (ခ) (၂၁-၁-၂၀၂၃) ရက်နေ့တွင် မကွေးတိုင်းဒေသကြီး၊ မြိုင်မြို့နယ်၊ ဗဟင်းတိုက်နယ် ဆေးရုံကို အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်တပ်က ရဟတ်ယာဉ်ဖြင့် ပစ်ခတ်တိုက်ခိုက်ခဲ့ရာ ဆေးရုံ အနီးရှိ ဒေါ်ကြည်၊ အသက် (၆၂) နှစ် ကျည်ထိမှန် သေဆုံးခဲ့ပြီး ဆေးရုံရှိ ဓာတ်မှန်စက် အပါအဝင် ဆေးရုံနံရံနှင့် အဆောက်အအုံများ ထိခိုက်ပျက်စီးခဲ့သည်။ ကျန်းမာရေး ဝန်ထမ်းများနှင့် လူနာများမှာ အချိန်မီ တိမ်းရှောင်နိုင်၍ ဘေးကင်းခဲ့ပါသည်။ (ဂ) (၁၉-၂-၂၀၂၃) ရက်နေ့တွင် အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်တပ်သည် စစ်ကိုင်းတိုင်းဒေသကြီး၊ ပုလဲ မြို့နယ်၊ နွယ်အင်းကျေးရွာသို့ ဝင်ရောက်စီးနင်းခဲ့ပြီး ကျေးရွာရှိ ကျေးလက်ကျန်းမာရေး ဌာနခွဲ ဆေးခန်း (၁) ခုတည်းကိုသာ ရည်ရွယ်ချက်ရှိရှိ မီးရှို့ဖျက်ဆီးခဲ့သည်။ (ဃ) (၂၁-၂-၂၀၂၃) ရက်နေ့မှ (၂၅-၂-၂၀၂၃) ရက်နေ့အတွင် စစ်ကိုင်းတိုင်းဒေသကြီး၊ အရာတော်မြို့နယ်ရှိ မင်းရွာ၊ မလဲသာရွာနှင့် ကန်ရင်းရွာတို့ကို အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်တပ်က မီးရှို့ဖျက်ဆီးခဲ့ကြောင်း၊ ထို့ပြင် ကျေးရွာအတွင်းရှိ အထက်တန်းကျောင်းနှင့် ဆေးရုံ ကိုပါ ရဟတ်ယာဥ်ဖြင့် ပစ်ခတ်တိုက်ခိုက်ခဲ့ပြီး ဆေးရုံအတွင်းရှိ ဆေးနှင့် ဆေး ပစ္စည်းများကိုပါ အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်သားများက ဖျက်ဆီးသွားကြောင်း သိရှိရသည်။ (င) (၂၉-၁-၂၀၂၃) ရက်နေ့တွင် တောထဲတစ်နေရာတွင် မွေးလူနာကုသပေးပြီး အုတ်ဖိုမြို့ထဲသို့ ပြန်လာသော ပဲခူးတိုင်းဒေသကြီး၊ အုတ်ဖိုမြို့နယ်၊ အေးမြသာယာ တိုက်နယ်ဆေးရုံမှ CDM သူနာပြုဆရာမ ဒေါ်မေဇွန်မိုးသည် အုတ်ဖိုမြို့နယ်၊ အေးမြသာယာအုပ်စု၊ ကျောက်ဖြူတောင်ကျေးရွာအနီးရှိ အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်တပ်၏ ခမရ (၆) စစ်ဆေးရေးဂိတ်တွင် PDF ရဲဘော် (၂) ဦးနှင့်အတူ စစ်ဆေးခံရရာ အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်သားများက PDF ရဲဘော် (၂) ဦးကို နေရာတွင် ပစ်ခတ်သတ်ဖြတ် ခဲ့ကြောင်း၊ သူနာပြုဆရာမမှာ ထွက်ပြေးပုန်းအောင်းခဲ့သော်လည်း အကြမ်းဖက် စစ်တပ်က ဖမ်းမိသွားခဲ့ကြောင်း၊ စစ်ကြောရေးတွင် နှိပ်စက်ခဲ့ပြီးနောက် (၁၆-၂-၂၀၂၃) ရက်နေ့တွင် အုတ်ဖိုမြို့နယ်၊ ထန်းပင်ကုန်းကျေးရွာအနီး၌ အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်တပ်က သူနာပြုဆရာမ ဒေါ်မေဇွန်မိုးကို မုဒိမ်းကျင့်၍ ပစ်ခတ်သတ်ဖြတ်ခဲ့ကြောင်း သိရှိရသည်။ (စ) (၁၆-၂-၂၀၂၃) ရက်နေ့တွင် ချင်းပြည်နယ်၊ ဖလမ်းပြည်သူ့ဆေးရုံမှ CDM အထက်တန်း သူနာပြုဆရာမ ဒေါ်သဲသဲဝင်းသည် ၎င်း၏ ဇာတိရွာဖြစ်သည့် ကသာမြို့နယ်၊ မိုးဒါးကြီးကျေးရွာတွင် နေထိုင်နေစဉ် ရွာသို့ စစ်ကြောင်းထိုးလာသော အကြမ်းဖက် စစ်တပ်က သူနာပြုဆရာမကို ဖမ်းဆီး၍ (၂၁-၂-၂၀၂၃) ရက်နေ့တွင် သတ်ဖြတ်ခဲ့ကြောင်း သိရှိရသည်။ ၂။ အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်တပ်သည် (၁-၂-၂၀၂၁) ရက်နေ့တွင် အာဏာသိမ်းရန် ကြိုးပမ်းခဲ့ပြီးနောက်ပိုင်း (၂) နှစ်တာ ကာလအတွင်း ကျန်းမာရေးဝန်ထမ်း (၇၀) ဦးခန့်ကို သတ်ဖြတ်ခြင်း၊ (၉၀၀) ဦးခန့် ကို ဖမ်းဆီးခြင်းနှင့် (၇၈၀) ဦးကျော်ကို ထိခိုက်ဒဏ်ရာရစေခြင်း၊ ဆေးရုံ/ဆေးခန်း (၁၆၀) ကျော်ကို ဖျက်ဆီးခြင်းတို့အား ကျူးလွန်ခဲ့ကြောင်း တွေ့ရှိရပါသည်။ ၃။ အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီက ကျန်းမာရေးကဏ္ဍအပေါ် ရည်ရွယ်ချက်ရှိရှိ ပစ်မှတ်ထား၍ အကြမ်းဖက် တိုက်ခိုက်နေခြင်းသည် ဂျီနီဗာကွန်ဗန်းရှင်း (Geneva Conventions)၊ ကမ္ဘာ့ကုလသမဂ္ဂ လုံခြုံရေးကောင်စီ ဆုံးဖြတ်ချက်များ၊ နိုင်ငံတကာဥပဒေများနှင့် ပြည်တွင်းဥပဒေများကို ပြောင်ပြောင်တင်းတင်း ချိုးဖောက်နေခြင်း ဖြစ်ပါသည်။ ၄။ အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ အဆိုပါအကြမ်းဖက်လုပ်ရပ်များကို အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ၊ ကျန်းမာရေးဝန်ကြီးဌာနက ပြင်းထန်စွာ ရှုတ်ချလိုက်ပြီး နိုင်ငံတကာ အသိုင်းအဝိုင်းအနေဖြင့် ဖြစ်နိုင်သည့် နည်းလမ်းမှန်သမျှကို အသုံးပြု၍ အမြန်ဆုံး ထိရောက်စွာ တားဆီးအရေးယူ ဆောင်ရွက်ကြပါရန် တိုက်တွန်းအပ်ပါသည်။ ၅။ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ၊ ကျန်းမာရေးဝန်ကြီးဌာနသည် အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ လက်ချက်ဖြင့် ကျဆုံးခဲ့ရသော ကျန်းမာရေးလုပ်သားများ၊ တော်လှန်ရေးရဲဘော်များ၊ အပြစ်မဲ့ ပြည်သူများ၏ မိသားစုများနှင့်ထပ်တူ ကြေကွဲဝမ်းနည်းရပါသည်။ ဝန်ကြီးဌာနအနေဖြင့် အပြစ်မဲ့ကျဆုံးခဲ့ရသူများအတွက် တရားမျှတမှုကို မဖြစ်မနေ ပြန်လည်ရယူပေးမည်ဖြစ်ပြီး အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီနှင့်အတူ အကြမ်းဖက်လုပ်ရပ်များတွင် ပါဝင်ခဲ့သူများအားလုံးကို ပြည်သူ့တရားဥပဒေနှင့်အညီ ပြင်းထန်စွာ တုံ့ပြန်အရေးယူမည် ဖြစ်ပါသည်။ ဝန်ကြီးဌာနသည် စစ်အာဏာရှင်စနစ် ကျရှုံးပြီး ဖက်ဒရယ်ဒီမိုကရေစီ ပြည်ထောင်စုကြီး ပေါ်ပေါက်လာသည် အထိ တိုင်းရင်းသားပြည်သူလူထုတစ်ရပ်လုံးနှင့် လက်တွဲ၍ အစွမ်းကုန် ကြိုးပမ်းတိုက်ပွဲဝင် သွားမည်ဖြစ်ကြောင်း ကတိသစ္စာပြု၊ ထုတ်ပြန်အပ်ပါသည်။..."
Source/publisher: National Unity Government of Myanmar
2023-02-28
Date of entry/update: 2023-03-01
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "Myanmar’s military regime has blocked deliveries of rice and fuel to the jade-mining town of Hpakant in Kachin State since early this month, and residents are now going hungry as a result of shortages. The junta has cited the presence of Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and People’s Defense Force (PDF) fighters in Hpakant as the reason for the blockade, which is being enforced by regime troops and pro-junta militia members manning checkpoints on the roads leading to the town in central Kachin state. One female resident of Hpakant told The Irrawaddy: “They [the regime] have blocked deliveries of rice and fuel. The situation in the region is that the military enters and does as it pleases in the town. We can’t buy rice. Shops and gas stations have closed.” The ban has resulted in the price of normal rice increasing from 40,000 kyats per sack to over 100,000 kyats (around US$40) in the past two weeks alone. The price of gasoline has risen from 3,000 kyats per litre to 5,000 kyats. At some junta checkpoints, individuals are allowed to bring in rice for their own household consumption, but they have to pay a tax of 3,000 to 5,000 kyats per sack. And only people with ties to the regime are allowed to transport fuel, residents said. The order to restrict deliveries of rice came from the junta-appointed Kachin State border affairs and security affairs minister. Cargo trucks heading to Hpakant are checked at the Nam Ya checkpoint, and trucks carrying rice are being forced to turn back. One Hpakant resident said: “I heard that they [the junta] restricted the deliveries because of the KIA and PDFs. Local residents are in trouble. We can’t afford to pay high prices for rice. And every household including children is going hungry.” Some jade miners who operate small-scale mines have been forced to suspend their operations as a result of the ban on deliveries of fuel. “We are also experiencing fuel shortages and some jade mines have suspended operations. But miners who have ties to the military are still operating. In Kone San, Chinese companies are still mining despite the fuel shortage,” said a mine owner. Some residents said the rice and fuel blockade follows frequent resistance attacks on junta checkpoints in Hpakant. The regime has also often abducted prospectors and displaced people for a ransom starting from one million kyats, according to locals. The junta also imposed a similar ban on rice and fuel deliveries in late 2022, resulting in oil price hikes..."
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
2023-02-23
Date of entry/update: 2023-02-22
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Sub-title: “They view themselves as the only ones capable of keeping the country together – something that goes back to the military’s foundation as an anti-colonial fighting force.”
Description: "More than two years after Myanmar’s military seized power in a coup, the country is in a state of generalized armed conflict and economic dysfunction. What began as a loosely coordinated protest movement against the military takeover has since hardened into a broad front of resistance groups that seeks not just to reverse the coup, but to remove the military entirely from its position of centrality in Myanmar’s political, economic – even social – life. How the Myanmar armed forces got there, and have since sustained their control over Myanmar and its people – even during the country’s decade of supposed reform in the 2010s – is the subject of a new book by the British journalist Oliver Slow, who lived and worked as a journalist in Myanmar between 2012 and 2020, several years of which he spent as an editor at Frontier Myanmar. His book “Return of the Junta: Why Myanmar’s Military Must Go Back to the Barracks” is due for release on February 23. Now based in London, he spoke to The Diplomat about the roots of a seemingly senseless coup, the ethnic and structural tensions bequeathed by British rule, and whether the country’s increasingly united resistance movement can manage to overcome them. When the military seized power on February 1, 2021, many observers struggled to understand why the military leadership had taken such a disastrous step, after a decade in which Myanmar had opened its economic and political system. What in your view motivated the takeover? How would you describe the worldview of those at the upper echelons of the armed forces, and how is such a view inculcated? The short answer I think is that the military was worried that the “transition to democracy” it had initiated a decade earlier risked spiraling out of its control. This wasn’t a transition towards any sort of genuine democracy, but rather an attempt by the ruling generals to gain the legitimacy they desired – particularly from Western powers – while also holding onto the main levers of power. The transition/roadmap – whatever you wish to call it – was to be achieved through its own rules, by adhering to the 2008 Constitution, which it had passed in a sham referendum just months after Cyclone Nargis devastated large parts of the country. Enjoying this article? Click here to subscribe for full access. Just $5 a month. There were a couple of shortcomings with this approach. The first was that the people didn’t want to play by these rules. Every chance they’ve had the opportunity to do so, the Myanmar people have said loudly that they don’t want to be ruled by the military – in the elections of 1990, 2015 and 2020, not to mention by-elections in 2012 and 2017. In all of these votes, the people have overwhelmingly voted for non-military parties, in particular Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD). Now of course she remains hugely popular in the country, but I see this as much more an anti-military vote rather than necessarily a pro-NLD one. And she didn’t want to play by these rules either, displaying a pretty clear desire to amend the constitution, which I think the generals worried could feasibly happen if the NLD were to rule for another term. The January 2017 assassination of constitutional expert U Ko Ni in broad daylight was a clear message by the military to leave their precious charter alone. So when the military’s proxy – the Union Solidarity and Development Party – performed even worse in the 2020 election than it had in 2015, I think that was a clear signal to the military rulers that they weren’t going to receive the popular mandate they desired, so they put an end to the experiment in the only way they know how – through violence. The NLD’s unwillingness to look into these claims of voter fraud was the final straw for them. In terms of the worldview of the Tatmadaw’s top brass, I think they view themselves as the only ones capable of keeping the country together – something that goes back to the military’s foundation as an anti-colonial fighting force, and through the difficult years after independence when the military did play an important role in keeping the country together. But the people view the military’s role in the exact opposite way, as responsible for the destruction of the country. I think that’s in large part because of the violence the military has meted out to the people for several decades, but also in the way it has destroyed other aspects of life in Myanmar, including education and the economy. Based on this worldview, I think the military wants complete control, and essentially for the people to bow down at its feet. Clearly, that’s not happening, and at the other end of the scale, you have most of the population now wanting the military completely removed from power. So, between a military that wants total power, and a resistance that wants the army removed from power, there really is this bottleneck that feels completely immovable at this moment in time. Your book examines in detail the history of military involvement in Myanmar’s politics from independence in 1948 up to the current iteration of military dictatorship. How is the current phase of military rule, which followed a decade of carefully graduated political and economic opening, different from past eras of direct military rule, and do you see any continuities? I see a lot of similarities, and a fair few differences. Enjoying this article? Click here to subscribe for full access. Just $5 a month. I think the main similarity is that they all hold onto this belief that the Tatmadaw is the only institution that can hold the country together. As I mentioned, this goes back to its foundations as an anti-colonial fighting force, its efforts to repel the Kuomintang – a foreign occupier – from northern Burma in the mid-20th century, and the important role the military played in keeping the country intact after independence. You simply don’t get to the top of the Tatmadaw without subscribing to this belief: it’s drilled into you through your education, through your daily life, through your social circle, through everything you do. The main difference I see in the current leadership – in particular coup leader Min Aung Hlaing, as after all this is a deeply hierarchical institution – is that it’s much more violent, or at least much more willing to resort to violence to hold onto power. Yes, previous juntas were violent, but I don’t think quite on this scale that we’re seeing – although that could be because it feels backed into a corner by the widespread resistance against it. I don’t want to claim for a second that previous juntas in Myanmar weren’t violent, but I don’t think we’ve ever seen such sustained violence by its forces across the entire country every day. Again, that could be because the resistance has never been as strong as it is now, but I do believe that the military in Myanmar today is a uniquely immoral institution. Prior to Myanmar’s independence, the country’s territory had never been under the control of a single, unitary state. What role do you think this challenge – the difficulty of consolidating state control in outlying, ethnic minority-dominated areas of the country – has played in justifying and perpetuating military rule? How much is military rule a symptom of Myanmar’s troubles, and to what degree is it a cause? Not all of Myanmar’s issues today are the fault of the military alone. Take British colonialism, for example, which had a pretty devastating impact on Burma. In addition to playing these different ethnic groups off against each other in a form of divide-and-conquer – the legacies of which persist today – they also dismantled most of the institutions that existed in the country at the time. The British also left behind a hugely unequal country in terms of a tiered education system, as well as one scarred by the brutal Burma Campaign of World War II, not to mention the thousands of weapons that were left behind from that fighting and fueled the insecurity of the early years after independence. The military likes to blame colonial rule for the problems the country is facing. In fact, just this morning I was reading a piece in state-run media to mark Union Day that essentially blamed “capitalist invaders” for the issues the country is facing. And there is some element of truth to that – a half-truth, if you will – but let’s not forget that it’s been more than 70 years since independence, and the military has had control of the country for the majority of that time. In that time, it has done almost nothing to lift the lives of the people. Instead, it has built up its own capabilities, filled its own pockets and those of its top brass, and done everything it can to hold onto power. Amid all of this, the people have not only been left to fend for themselves, but also subjected to the military’s violence. Since the coup, many Myanmar people have expressed intense frustration at the outside world’s inaction in the face of the military’s atrocities, right at the time that Western nations are mounting a joint effort to defend Ukraine from Russian aggression. How in your view should foreign governments deal with the growing political and humanitarian crisis in Myanmar? I think in large part the frustration is completely fair. While some Western governments have placed sanctions against the military’s business interests, there are still massive gaps in terms of what they could target. These gaps need to be closed as quickly as possible to ensure all steps are taken to ensure the military’s finances are cut off. Every day the military can continue making money, and it will continue meting out violence against the people. But we also need to be realistic and recognize that Myanmar’s future direction will be driven first and foremost by the dynamics inside the country. It will depend on the likes of those involved in the resistance – in those building parallel administrative systems, providing humanitarian assistance, the National Unity Government, and the armed resistance – as well as whether or not the military has the capabilities to cope with the huge resistance against it. I would say though, it’s clear that something in the world order is not working when a regime as objectionable as this one can cling to power. Of course, these are sovereign countries, and foreign interference in a country’s affairs is a complicated thing, but the “democratic global order” has shown itself to be pretty ineffective. Some U.N. departments do incredible work, so this isn’t an attack on the U.N. as a whole, but I have some pretty big questions about the role of the U.N. Security Council in its response. It describes itself as having “primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security,” and here we are two years after the military’s coup with one pretty flimsy resolution. Clearly, a drastic reset is needed in its approach, starting with getting rid of the veto for permanent members. Enjoying this article? Click here to subscribe for full access. Just $5 a month. Speaking in pragmatic terms, what I think we need to see from democratic countries is more support for the democratic resistance in Myanmar. There are so many remarkable groups doing important work, and these need to be highlighted and supported. Supporting justice initiatives against the military is also important, as is providing humanitarian assistance In terms of the resistance, I think it’s important to try and engage with the few governments who are allies of the military – your Chinas, Indias, Thailands, and Japans (for as long as Putin hangs onto power, Russia is a lost cause). The democratic resistance needs to be able to make a positive case to these countries about their ability to rule – I don’t think these countries particularly want to support the military, they just see no other option right now. One of the things that have historically benefited the military is the lack of unity between Myanmar’s various ethnic armed organizations and rebel groups on the one hand, and a simmering mistrust between these groups and the Bamar-dominated National League for Democracy (NLD) on the other. Are you at all optimistic that things have changed since the coup? I am. One of the few upsides of what’s been happening in Myanmar since the coup has been this new-found unity among the ethnic groups. I was in Myanmar in 2017, when much of the population pushed the military’s narrative that it had committed no wrongdoing against the Rohingya, so to see so many people apologize for that, and to admit they had fallen for the military’s propaganda, has been incredibly powerful. Now that’s not to say that any post-Tatmadaw existence in Myanmar is going to be straightforward, and in fact, I think it would be extremely messy and challenging. A lot of these grievances go back a long way, so a lot of trust-building has to be done to show that the change is genuine. But those looking to emerge as the future rulers of Myanmar have generally put together a positive case for the country’s future – one where federalism, justice, and respect for all are at its core. This is a much more positive vision for the country than the military has ever shown..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "The Diplomat" (Japan)
2023-02-15
Date of entry/update: 2023-02-15
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Description: "Myanmar junta forces including pro-regime militia have burned down more than 55,000 civilian houses nationwide since the 2021 coup, said Data For Myanmar, an independent research group. In total, 55,484 homes across the country’s 14 states and regions were torched as part of the military regime’s arson campaign between February 1, 2021 and the end of January 2023. Resistance stronghold Sagaing Region suffered the most arson attacks, with 43,292 houses burned, followed by 8,863 in Magwe Region and 1,484 in Chin State, according to Data For Myanmar’s report. The research group said that it used reports from the media, rights groups and refugee organizations to calculate the number of homes destroyed. However, the actual number of houses torched may be higher than the reported figure, as many regime arson attacks have yet to be verified and recent data from Kayah State is currently not available. Several resistance strongholds have experienced a recent escalation in junta arson attacks, following the regime’s imposition of martial law in 37 townships in Sagaing, Magwe and Bago regions and Chin and Kayah states. The Myanmar military has ignored calls from the international community to end all violence and release political prisoners. Instead, it has continued to commit atrocities including burning people alive, the arbitrary torture and killing of civilians, extrajudicial killings of resistance detainees, using civilian detainees as human shields, artillery and airstrikes on residential areas, looting and burning houses and acts of sexual violence. Since the February 1, 2021 coup, the junta has killed at least 2,989 people and arrested more than 19,000, said the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a rights group that monitors deaths and arrests by regime forces..."
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
2023-02-15
Date of entry/update: 2023-02-15
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Sub-title: Arming civilians could escalate violence nationwide, possibly leading to widespread civil war, experts warn.
Description: "Myanmar’s junta has revived a 1977 law that allows civilians it deems “loyal to the state” to own firearms, a move experts worry will escalate violence by arming pro-junta groups fighting armed resistance groups opposed to military rule. The junta’s Ministry of the Interior issued the order to revive the law on Jan. 31, a day before the second anniversary of the Feb. 1, 2021 coup, according to a leaked junta document and media reports. The law allows five types of firearms without permits: 9mm pistols and revolvers, 12-gauge or smaller shotguns, hunting rifles, and air guns. Handguns larger than 9mm, assault rifles, and submachine guns can also be owned with a permit. “This new amendment is designed for a wider range of weapons,” a Yangon-based lawyer told Radio Free Asia’s Burmese Service. “People who want to carry weapons now know what kinds of weapons they are allowed to carry.” The lawyer, who requested anonymity to speak freely, said that allowing civilians to carry weapons could pose a greater threat to the country's security. “Now, defense groups such as pro-junta militias … can legally take up arms issued to them by the military,” he said. “This could lead to many other problems related to the misuse of these weapons … and we can’t say it’s enough to simply register the weapons you carry.” The law says those applying for the right to bear arms must demonstrate “loyalty to the state, a good character, and a need to carry weapons,” with no criminal record or history of mental instability. Once their application is approved, the law mandates that licensed arms bearers must participate in the “suppression of crime and vice” if directed, and are responsible for “protecting the life and properties of the people” within the framework of the established rules. The military wants its supporters armed to shore up its fighting forces, said Kaung Thu Win, a leader of the Civil Disobedience Movement, which led widespread protests and strikes in the months following the coup. “They think that they will get help once they allow their supporters to take up arms. For example, armed pro-junta militias may report the presence of the [resistance] members to the military or fight them on their own,” he said. “By this new policy, the junta has given the pro-junta groups more rights to carry out more forceful attacks on the resistance forces under the law.” The army has already been arming pro-junta militia groups, said political analyst Than Soe Naing. The law merely legalizes it. “This new attempt is to arm people … such as members of the [pro-military] Union Solidarity Development Party, low-level civilian administration officials like ward and township administrators and their staff,” he said. “This is because the military junta can no longer guarantee their security and they now have to protect themselves.” It also means that if ordered, these newly armed people must cooperate in military operations against the resistance. RFA reached out to Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, the junta spokesman, by phone Monday to inquire about the newly enacted policy, but his phone rang unanswered. But Zaw Min Tun confirmed to the local “Popular News” media outlet on Monday that the regime will allow those who “adhere to discipline” to own guns. “There are calls from the people demanding their security,” he said. “We are going to allow the ones who really need to defend themselves, those who are under threat and those who can handle them in a disciplined manner [to bear arms]." Padoh Man Man, the spokesman of the Karen National Union armed ethnic group’s fifth brigade, said the policy is worrisome because it may lead to unnecessary shootings and killings. "About 3 years ago, the military adopted a policy for a mandatory military service for citizens 18 years and older, but they could not implement it successfully,” he said. “This new policy is their second attempt to do that. This is really a seriously worrisome situation for our country.” Organizations on both sides of the political spectrum said that resistance forces are shooting and killing people suspected of being junta informants, while the military is arresting and killing those it accuses of being resistance members. The military reported that 5,443 government officials, chief administrators, monks, and children were killed across the country between Feb. 1, 2021 and Jan. 25, 2023, and another 4,577 injured. Thailand’s Assistance Association for Political Prisoners said that, as of Monday, authorities in Myanmar had killed 2,988 civilians throughout the country since the military coup. Civil war imminent? Sunday was Union Day in Myanmar, a holiday commemorating the 1947 Panglong agreement which united the various parts of the country prior to its independence from Britain. However, escalating violence means that the country is headed toward a wider civil war, according to a statement by the Peace Process Steering Team, formed by representatives of armed ethnic organizations and tasked with negotiating with the junta for peace. Junta leader Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing said in a Union Day speech that the country is “a long way from peace” due to interference by various local and foreign groups, without providing details. Saw Mya Raza Lin, the deputy chairman of the Arakan Liberation Party, one of the country’s ethnic armed groups, said that it is time for stakeholders to have an open discussion. “It’s still necessary to negotiate. We need to have a serious discussion about the constitution, as well as for other sectors,” he said. “The revolution is a protracted feud that will take many years, and those in power may be concerned that the country will be separated into many smaller parts.” He said ethnic groups want their right to self-determination, so both parties must be transparent in negotiations. The steering team statement said that the country must solve its current political problems through peaceful means, and suggested that the junta’s power grab had led to a general crisis, including international sanctions. Last year was supposed to have been the “Year of Peace” after the junta declared a nationwide ceasefire and invited many of the ethnic armed groups for talks. Instead, the junta expanded an offensive against armed resistance groups nationwide, including by ordering airstrikes and artillery strikes. A meeting of the junta on Jan. 31 revealed that only 198 of Myanmar’s 330 townships are currently “stable,” and that 19,444 battles have been fought since the coup. According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 1.5 million people across the country have been forced to flee their homes due to armed conflict and insecurity..."
Source/publisher: "RFA" (USA)
2023-02-13
Date of entry/update: 2023-02-13
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "SINGAPORE — In Myanmar’s biggest city, Yangon, soldiers patrol the streets at all hours. Police officers stop pedestrians at random, hauling them to jail if they show signs of sympathy for the opposition. Poverty rates in the city have tripled, according to the United Nations, and crime is rife. Are you on Telegram? Subscribe to our channel for the latest updates on Russia’s war in Ukraine. It has been two years since Myanmar’s military ousted its democratic government in a coup, plunging swaths of the Southeast Asian country, also known as Burma, into violent conflict. The junta has crushed free expression, imprisoning journalists, revoking the licenses of independent news outlets and gone to other lengths to limit visibility into the realities of life under military rule. To capture the struggles of quotidian life, The Washington Post asked three of Yangon’s residents to share their experiences on a single day late last month, each recounting in a series of voice messages the arc of their day. All three are members of a young generation that came of age as democratic rule arrived in Myanmar in the early 2010s and then saw it snuffed out. Willion, one of a dwindling number of journalists in the city, tried to avoid a run-in with authorities. Sam, a small-business owner, wrestled with the contempt he felt toward the soldiers swarming his city. South of downtown, power outages left Hannway, a young activist, struggling to connect to the revolutionary movement for which she’d put her education on hold. They are being identified by their English instead of Burmese names to limit the chances of repercussions. Daybreak Willion, 30, sat up straighter when he heard his neighbors stir. He’d stayed up in case the police arrived for one of their random checks. Opening his laptop, he blinked at the clock at the bottom right corner: 7:13 a.m. He’d made it through another night. The authorities had been going after journalists like him since the coup. A few weeks ago, police arrested one of Willion’s co-workers, seizing his phone, which had photos and messages implicating Willion. As a precaution, he’d been moving every few days, he said, traveling with a backpack that had just his laptop, a hard drive and a few sets of clothes. Willion sat back against the wall, his face lit by the laptop screen. He was preparing a presentation on citizen journalism, showing people in conflict-ridden parts of the country how they could document the military’s atrocities. But he was tired, and there was a lot on his mind. He hadn’t seen his parents in almost a year, and his mother had recently been hospitalized for a heart condition, he said. He wanted to visit but that meant devising a safe route across town. The military had spies across the city and a new Chinese-built surveillance system equipped with advanced facial recognition technology. As he weighed the risks, Willion felt his head grow heavy. Farther east, past a river, Sam, 36, was driving to work. A fire had broken out in his middle-class neighborhood overnight, consuming a house and its residents. On his morning walk, neighbors told him the police never responded. Sam wasn’t surprised. Every day, he read reports of banks being robbed in broad daylight, and people being murdered in their homes. The authorities almost never caught the perpetrators. He glanced out the window. Traffic had slowed around a government building guarded by a garrison. Sam looked at the soldiers in uniform, most of them young men, and thought the same thing he always did at this point in his commute. “I hope they get sent to the front line and die.” As a Buddhist, he knew he shouldn’t think such thoughts, he said. But looking at the soldiers wielding their guns reminded him of the young activists shot dead on the streets of Yangon. Sam’s office was dark when he arrived. He groaned. He blamed them for this, too. Energy suppliers pulled out of Myanmar after the coup, and in recent months, rebel armies had started to attack transmission lines to hurt the junta. At Hannway’s family home, the blackout had shut down running water. At a tea shop for Myanmar exiles, songs from home and resistance in the air Hannway, in her early 20s, heard her parents in the kitchen figuring out what to do. She rolled over in bed and looked at her phone — 10:30 a.m. Two years ago, she recalled, she’d be in class by this time studying to be a doctor. But when the military seized power, she’d chosen to participate in a civil disobedience movement (CDM) aimed at crippling the health-care system. She scrolled through messages that came overnight. “They’re investigating CDM students,” read one from a friend. “Be careful.” Afternoon Hannway paced around the kitchen. It’d been four hours, and the power was still out. Her mother tried to calm her down, but the message from her friend had unnerved her. News had started to spread recently that the military planned to punish boycotting students like her. For her safety, she rarely left her house, she said. She killed time by taking online language classes and working remotely on projects supporting the resistance movement. But without electricity, she couldn’t do even that. How long could she keep on like this? Hannway checked the time — 2:27 p.m. There was a virtual meeting with some CDM doctors in three minutes. The WiFi was still out. Sam, too, felt the military had made so many aspects of life harder. He was at a tea shop north of Hannway’s home, meeting a friend vexed over whether to re-enroll his children in government schools. Sam didn’t know what to say. He had his own frustrations: He’d been forced to spend money on generators and solar-powered batteries because of the blackouts; he was facing surging costs of food and gas; the local currency wouldn’t stop falling in value so his small business had to keep raising its prices. Passing by soldiers on his way back to the office, he felt bile rising inside him again. Why, he asked, were they everywhere? A love story, forged in Myanmar’s political strife, ends in execution At 5:30 p.m., after a few hours of sleep, Willion finally prepared to leave his apartment. On his phone, he logged out of his usual social media accounts and into fake profiles that showed no links to journalism. He scrubbed personal messages and contacts, then scanned the Telegram groups where people shared sightings of soldiers in the city. Nothing too alarming. He flagged down a cab for the hospital. But minutes after leaving his complex, he saw a congregation of soldiers outside a nearby hotel. He squinted through the window — authorities had cuffed three men, he said. Soldiers were interrogating passersby. Willion fought the instinct to take out his phone to film what was happening. There were too many of them. Securing his face mask, he slunk deeper into his seat. He had to get to the hospital. Nightfall Before the coup, Sam liked to explore Yangon’s various neighborhoods on foot. But he was wary these days about appearing suspicious so he kept his walks to the public parks. Lined with palm trees and often empty, they were one of the only remaining reprieves from the military’s hold over the city, he said. Strolling as the sun set, Sam let himself relax. He didn’t want to keep praying for those soldiers to die. Every time he did, he heard his mother’s voice telling him to “keep kindness in his heart.” But it was hard when he woke up each morning to videos of villages set on fire and accounts of rape and torture. Where was he supposed to find the humanity? He saw three older men walking briskly in the park. As they drew closer, Sam could hear they were talking loudly about Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, the junta leader. One made a joke, turning the general’s name into a curse word, and the other two guffawed, their pot bellies shaking. Sam smiled as he listened. It sounded for a moment like old Yangon, he said. He wondered if he should strike up a conversation. But maybe they would think he was an informant. He kept walking. Back in her bedroom, after dinner, Hannway settled in front of her laptop. The electricity was finally back. She pulled up a “click-to-donate” site, where people could get advertisers to send a few cents per click to a cause. The money raised by this site was going toward rebel groups. Hannway tapped her index finger repeatedly. She felt deflated, she said. She missed attending lectures and visiting old bookshops; she missed the rigor of having an ambition. She thought, as she often did at night, about a friend — a woman serving 20 years in prison after being caught at a safe house for activists. Hannway felt something turn inside her. She couldn’t give up, she told herself. She didn’t have the right. As the world moves on, Myanmar confronts a mounting, hidden toll It was dark by the time Willion reached the hospital. His mother looked better than he expected, but it still made him sad he couldn’t care for his family. A relative had passed away recently, his mother said. It would probably be safer for everyone, he told her, if he didn’t attend the funeral. After returning home, Willion logged back into his real social media accounts. There’d been renewed fighting in the country’s central Sagaing region, and citizen journalists had sent him reports earlier in the day that soldiers had set fire to seven houses. Once he compiled more information, he’d distribute it to other outlets. But his sources had suddenly gone dark. Maybe the junta had jammed the signal. He hoped it was that. Just after midnight, Willion warmed up dinner. He’d have to find another place to stay in a few days, once people in the neighborhood started to recognize his face. But, for now, he’d spend another night awake, waiting for daybreak. Diamond reported from Yangon..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "The Washington Post"
2023-02-09
Date of entry/update: 2023-02-09
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "တရားရေးဝန်ကြီးဌာန၊ တရားဥပဒေစိုးမိုးရေးနှင့်အသွင်ကူးပြောင်းရေးကာလ တရားမျှတမှု ဆိုင်ရာဦးစီးဌာနသည် စစ်အာဏာသိမ်းမှုဖြစ်စဉ်အတွင်း ဖြစ်ပွားနေသည့် စစ်ရာဇဝတ်မှုများ၊ လူ့အခွင့်အရေးချိုးဖောက်မှုများ၊ လူသားမျိုးနွယ်စုအပေါ်ကျူးလွန်သည့်အမှုများ၊လူမျိုးတုံးသတ် ဖြတ်မှုများ၊ အပါအဝင် အရပ်ရပ်သော ဥပဒေဆိုင်ရာ ချိုးဖောက်မှုများကို စာရင်းကောက်ယူ မှတ်တမ်းပြုစုလျက်ရှိပါသည်။ ကျူးလွန်မှုများ၊ ချိုးဖောက်မှုများအပေါ် အမှန်တရားရှာဖွေဖော်ထုတ်ခြင်း၊ တရားမျှတမှု ရရှိအောင်ဆောင်ရွက်ခြင်း၊ ပြန်လည်ကုစားပေးခြင်း၊ ဖြစ်ရပ်ဆိုးများထပ်မံမဖြစ်ပွားစေရေးအတွက် အဖွဲ့အစည်းဆိုင်ရာပြုပြင်ပြောင်းလဲခြင်း စသည့် လုပ်ငန်းစဉ်များကို ဆောင်ရွက်ရန်စီမံ လျက်ရှိပါသည်။ ပြည်သူများအနေဖြင့်လည်းကောင်း၊ တော်လှန်ရေးအစုအဖွဲ့များအနေဖြင့်လည်းကောင်း၊ အဖွဲ့အစည်းများအနေဖြင့်လည်းကောင်း အာဏာသိမ်းဖြစ်စဉ်အတွင်း ဖြစ်ပွားနေသည့် ပြစ်မှု ကျူးလွန်မှုများ၊ လူ့အခွင့်အရေးချိုးဖောက်မှုများ၏ သတင်းအချက်အလက် မှတ်တမ်းများကို ပေးပို့ကြပါရန်နှင့် ပူးပေါင်းပါဝင်ပေးကြပါရန် ဖိတ်ခေါ်အပ်ပါသည်။ ၂၀၂၃ခုနှစ်၊ ဇန်နဝါရီလအတွင်း အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ အကြမ်းဖက်မှုလုပ်ရပ်ကြောင့် ထိခိုက်သေဆုံး နစ်နာခဲ့ရသောစာရင်းနှင့် မီးလောင်ဆုံးရှုံးခဲ့ရသော အိုးအိမ်များစာရင်းကို အများပြည်သူသို့ တင်ပြအစီရင်ခံအပ်ပါသည်။..."
Source/publisher: Ministry of Justice - NUG
2023-02-05
Date of entry/update: 2023-02-05
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Description: "SAC and PNO militia troops shot and killed a civilian driver and injured a farmer near the Tigyit coal mine in Pinlaung township, southern Shan State, on January 7, 2023. On January 3, there was fighting between SAC troops and local PDF forces near Long Karn village tract, west of Samka Lake, Nyaungshwe township, southern Shan State. On January 7, about 50 regime troops, including local PNO militia, set up a checkpoint on the main Aung Pan-Tigyit-Pinlaung road, giving the reason that the PDF were active in that area. That evening at about 8 pm, the regime forces began indiscriminately firing their weapons, including artillery, for about 30 minutes towards Payaphyu village, about three miles from Tigyit village. One of the bullets hit a 40-year-old farmer returning home to Nan Sawng village after irrigating his farmland east of the village. Sai Aye (not his real name) was hit and injured in his leg. SAC soldiers took him to Pinlaung hospital for treatment. Soon afterwards, at around 9 pm, Khun Tun (not his real name) a 35-year-old villager from Kin Moon Chong village, Muay Pin village tract, Pinlaung township, was driving his car along the Aung Pan-Tigyit-Pinlaung road. He was driving fast and braked suddenly to stop at the newly erected SAC checkpoint. The troops then opened fire at his car, hitting him in the stomach and killing him instantly. This was witnessed by a local villager who had been forced by the PNO to guide their troops. His corpse was not transferred to his family, but was cremated by the troops at 2 pm on January 8 at Pinlaung cemetery. The SAC and PNO militia troops are continuing to block the Aung Pan-Tigyit-Pinlaung road. The SAC troops are from Kalaw-based LIB 7 and Tigyit-based LIB 511 and LIB 512..."
Source/publisher: Shan Human Rights Foundation
2023-01-18
Date of entry/update: 2023-01-18
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Description: "On 10th January 2023 at around 4:30 pm and 11st January 2023 at around 4:00 pm, the terrorist military council used its jet fighters to bombard Camp Victoria which serves as the headquarters of Chin National Front. On the first day, two Chin women and three men revolutionaries were killed and quite a few others were injured and on second day, the medical clinic in the Camp and the civilian household were destroyed. It is also reported that during the event one bomb was dropped inside Indian territory. Even before this event the terrorist military council has been repeatedly bombing regions in Karen State, Kachin State, Sagaing Division and Magway Division where innocent lives have been lost. It is a known fact that from the time the terrorist military council staged an attempted coup d’etat on 1st February 2021 to date, 460 innocent civilians, mostly children, have lost their lives due to their repeated air strikes. The National Unity Government strongly condemns the terrorist military council’s use of air strikes targeting innocent civilians. We convey our condolences to all those who have lost their lives from the ethnic communities by these inhumane atrocities and pledge that we will do our utmost to find justice for all those lives lost by judiciary means, be it national or international. We urge our neighbouring countries to take immediate, robust action on the terrorist military council on the infringements incurred causing loss of property and livelihood in their land. These infringements and actions are in blatant contravention of the United Nations Security Council’s resolution that requires the immediate cessation of violence in Myanmar. As they also disregard the international community’s efforts to find a rapprochement in Myanmar’s affairs, we ask that the international community work hand in hand with the National Unity Government, the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, National Unity Consultative Council, People’s Representatives, and the Ethnic Revolutionary Forces to resolve the crisis in Myanmar..."
Source/publisher: National Unity Government of Myanmar
2023-01-12
Date of entry/update: 2023-01-12
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "၂၀၂၃ ခုနှစ် ဇန်နဝါရီလ (၁၀) ရက် ညနေ ၄:၃၀ နာရီခန့်တွင်တစ်ကြိမ်၊ ဇန်နဝါရီလ (၁၁) ရက်နေ့ ညနေ ၄:၀၀ နာရီခန့်တွင် တစ်ကြိမ် အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီက ချင်းအမျိုးသားတပ်ဦး(CNF) ဌာနချုပ်တည်ရှိရာ Camp Victoria စခန်းအား တိုက်လေယာဉ်များအသုံးပြု၍ လေကြောင်းမှ ဗုံးကြဲတိုက်ခိုက်မှုပြုလုပ်ခဲ့သည်။ အဆိုပါ လေကြောင်းတိုက်ခိုက်မှုများအတွင်း ပထမရက်တွင် ချင်းအမျိုးသားတပ်ဖွဲ့ဝင် တော်လှန်ရေးရဲမေ (၂) ဦးနှင့် ရဲဘော်(၃) ဦးကျဆုံးကာ ဒဏ်ရာရရှိသူများရှိခဲ့ပြီး ဒုတိယနေ့တွင် ပြင်ပလူနာဆောင်နှင့် လူနေအိမ်များ ပျက်စီးဆုံးရှုံးခဲ့ပါသည်။ ထို့အပြင် အိန္ဒိယနိုင်ငံ နယ်နိမိတ်အတွင်းသို့ ဗုံးတစ်လုံး ကျရောက်ပေါက်ကွဲခဲ့သည်ဟုလည်း သိရှိရပါသည်။ အဆိုပါ ဖြစ်စဉ်မတိုင်မီကလည်း အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီသည် ကရင်ပြည်နယ်၊ ကချင်ပြည်နယ်၊ စစ်ကိုင်းတိုင်း၊ မကွေးတိုင်းတို့တွင် လေကြောင်းအသုံးပြုကာ ဗုံးကြဲတိုက်ခိုက်မှုများ ကြိမ်ဖန်များစွာပြုလုပ်ခဲ့ကာ အရပ်သားပြည်သူ သေဆုံးမှုများ ရှိခဲ့ပါသည်။ အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီက ပြည်သူ့အာဏာကိုလုယူခဲ့သည့် ၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ် ဖေဖော်ဝါရီလ ၁ ရက်နေ့မှ စတင်၍ ယနေ့အထိ လေကြောင်းတိုက်ခိုက်မှုများကြောင့် သေဆုံးခဲ့ရသူဦးရေ ( ၄၆၀ ) ဦးကျော် ရှိနေပြီဖြစ်ပြီး အများစုမှာ အရပ်သားပြည်သူများနှင့် ကလေးသူငယ်များ ဖြစ်ကြောင်း အချက်အလက်များအရ သိရှိရသည်။ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရအနေဖြင့် အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီက အရပ်သားပြည်သူများကို ပစ်မှတ်ထား၍ လေကြောင်းအသုံးပြု ဗုံးကြဲတိုက်ခိုက်နေမှုများကို ပြင်းထန်စွာရှုတ်ချပါသည်။ အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ လူမဆန်သော သတ်ဖြတ်မှုများကြောင့် ကျဆုံးခဲ့ကြရသော တိုင်းရင်းသား ပြည်သူများအတွက် ဝမ်းနည်းကြေကွဲ ရပါကြောင်းနှင့် ကျဆုံးခဲ့ရသူ တစ်ဦးတစ်ယောက်ချင်းစီတိုင်းအတွက် တရားမျှတမှုကို ပြန်လည်ရရှိနိုင်ရေး ပြည်တွင်းနှင့် နိုင်ငံတကာတရားဥပဒေများနှင့်အညီ အစွမ်းကုန်ကြိုးစား ဆောင်ရွက်သွားမည်ဖြစ်ကြောင်း ပြောကြားလိုပါသည်။ အိမ်နီးချင်းနိုင်ငံများ အနေဖြင့်လည်း မိမိတို့၏လေပိုင်နက်ကို ကျော်လွန်အသုံးပြုကာ မြန်မာပြည်သူများကို သတ်ဖြတ်နေရုံသာမက၊ အိမ်နီးချင်းနိုင်ငံများရှိ ပြည်သူလူထု၏ အသက်အိုးအိမ်စည်းစိမ်လုံခြုံမှုကိုပါ ခြိမ်းခြောက်လာနေသည့် အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ လုပ်ရပ်များကို ထိရောက်ပြင်းထန်စွာ အရေးယူ ဆောင်ရွက်မှုများ အမြန်ဆုံးပြုလုပ်ကြပါရန် တိုက်တွန်းပြောကြားလိုသည်။ အကြမ်းဖက် စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ လုပ်ရပ်များသည် အကြမ်းဖက်မှုများကို ရပ်တန့်ရန်တောင်းဆိုထားသည့် ကုလသမဂ္ဂလုံခြုံရေးကောင်စီ၏ ဆုံးဖြတ်ချက်ကို ပြောင်ပြောင်တင်းတင်းချိုးဖောက်ခြင်းဖြစ်ပြီး မြန်မာ့အရေးကိစ္စကို ပြေလည်စေရန် ကူညီဆောင်ရွက်နေသည့် နိုင်ငံတကာအသိုင်းအဝိုင်း၏ ကြိုးစားမှုများကိုလည်း လျစ်လျူရှုနေခြင်း ဖြစ်သောကြောင့် နိုင်ငံတကာ အသိုင်းအဝိုင်းအနေဖြင့် မြန်မာ့အရေးကိစ္စကို အမြန်ဆုံးဖြေရှင်းနိုင်ရေးအတွက် အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ၊ ပြည်ထောင်စုလွှတ်တော်ကိုယ်စားပြုကော်မတီ၊ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေး အတိုင်ပင်ခံကောင်စီ အပါအဝင် ပြည်သူလူထုကို ကိုယ်စားပြုသည့် မြန်မာ့တော်လှန်ရေးအင်အားစုများနှင့် ခိုင်ခိုင်မာမာလက်တွဲ ဆောင်ရွက်သင့်ပါကြောင်း အလေးအနက် တိုက်တွန်းလိုက်ပါသည်။..."
Source/publisher: National Unity Government of Myanmar
2023-01-13
Date of entry/update: 2023-01-12
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Source/publisher: Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management - NUG
2023-01-08
Date of entry/update: 2023-01-08
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Description: "Six civil society organizations that work on business and human rights sent a letter dated September 30, 2022 to 160 major investors in MUFG Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, and Mizuho Bank, major Japanese banks that are investing or lending to projects that may benefit the Myanmar military, or that hold shares in companies that may be complicit in human rights violations in Myanmar. In their human rights policies, the financial groups that oversee each of the banks, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Mitsui Sumitomo Financial Group, and Mizuho Financial Group, support international human rights standards such as the UN Global Compact and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, and are expected to implement those standards without fail. The letter requested that the institutions holding shares in the three banks promptly engage with the banks to take the "measures required of banks" shown in the letter, and that if the three banks do not take measures even after engagement, to consider divestment. The recipients of the letter included multiple pension funds and mutual aid associations. So far, in addition to the Council on Ethics that manages four pension funds in Sweden that welcomed our input, we have received responses from nine institutions. One of the nine stated that it would conduct engagement, and two others said that they would utilize our request in their analyses of corporations and future engagement. However, the remaining recipients did not disclose information about specific activities including whether or not they were conducting engagement. Further, the recipients included multiple mutual aid associations for civil servants in Japan, but none of the associations even responded to our request. In Myanmar, the military continues to commit international crimes such as the murder of people including children, unlawful arrest, arbitrary detention, sexual violence, forced disappearance, and torture. Investors may be complicit if they neglect the fact that they hold shares in and receive dividends from companies that are funding these crimes. We strongly urge investors to take action towards improving the human rights situation in Myanmar, in accordance with their international human rights responsibilities. Please refer to the letter linked below for further details. [English] "Call for Engagement to Urge Banks to Take Measures to Stop the Flow of Funds to the Myanmar Military," dated September 30, 2022, sent to 160 institutional investors holding shares in MUFG Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, or Mizuho Bank..."
Source/publisher: Mekong Watch, Friends of the Earth Japan, Justice For Myanmar, Network Against Japan Arms Trade, ayus:Network of Buddhists Volunteers on International Cooperation and Japan International Volunteer Center
2023-01-06
Date of entry/update: 2023-01-06
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "Executive Summary: The Myanmar Interim Arrangements Research Project (MIARP) was funded by the Joint Peace Fund (JPF)1 , and implemented between October 2017 and October 2018. Researchers spoke to more than 450 people in Shan, Karen/Kayin and Mon States, Tanintharyi Region, Naypyidaw, Yangon and Thailand, including confict-affected communities, representatives of Myanmar government and Army, leaders and members of Ethnic Armed Organisations (EAOs), civil society organisations (CSOs), political parties, diplomats and donors, and international aid workers and analysts. The term “Interim Arrangements” (ၾကားကာလအတြ߾္းေࠀာ߾္ရြက္ရ မည့္အ߿ီအ߿ဥ္မ်ား) is a contested concept, meaning different things to different stakeholders. The MIARP adopted the following working defnition of Interim Arrangements: “Service delivery and governance in confictaffected areas, including the relationship between EAOs and government systems, during the period between initial ceasefres and a comprehensive political settlement.” Interim Arrangement refers to EAOs’ governance functions, administrative authority and service delivery systems. The issue of which geographic areas are covered by Interim Arrangements is problematic. The Myanmar Army has pressed to restrict EAOs’ service delivery and governance functions to areas under armed groups’ exclusive control (which in most cases have not yet been demarcated); on the ground however, EAOs’ infuence and delivery of services and governance functions extend into areas where political and military authority is mixed, and contested with the government and Tatmadaw. In principle, the “interim” period extends until a comprehensive political settlement has been implemented, which given recent setbacks in the peace process may take many years to achieve. In the meantime, recognition of Interim Arrangements refects the government’s acknowledgement of key EAOs’ political legitimacy and administrative responsibilities - at least, for those groups which have signed the Nationwide Ceasefre Agreement (NCA). One of the key recommendations of this report is to support EAOs to exercise governance and administrative authority in a responsible and accountable manner. The only offcial text referring to Interim Arrangements is the October 2015 NCA. However, Interim Arrangements are relevant in areas where EAOs have not signed the NCA, and furthermore the NCA text fails to cover the full range of meanings associated with the term. Although Interim Arrangements are about more than the NCA, Chapter 6 (Article 25) of this agreement does recognize the roles of signatory EAOs in the felds of health, education, development, environmental conservation and natural resource management, preservation and promotion of ethnic cultures and languages, security and the rule of law, and illicit drug eradication. The NCA allows EAOs to receive international aid, in coordination with the government. However, with no agreed mechanism for addressing these goals through the peace process architecture, the NCA has had limited impacts on improving confict-affected communities’ access to equitable and effective governance and services. Furthermore, on the ground in southeast Myanmar, government offcials seem to regard EAOs primarily as service delivery actors, and/ or private companies, rather than legitimate governance and administrative actors. For many years, Myanmar’s larger EAOs have taken on governance and administration roles in their areas of control, often delivering a wide range of services in partnership with CSOs. In the southeast, groups like the Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS), Karen National Union (KNU) and New Mon State Party (NMSP) are de-facto governments in relatively small pockets of territory. They also have infuence and provide some services in wider areas of “mixed administration”, where EAO authority overlaps with that of the government and Myanmar Army. Between them for example, these three EAOs administer or support more than 2,000 schools, providing ethnic language teaching to vulnerable children who would otherwise often be denied an education. They also work with local partners to provide health services, access to justice and other public goods.2 Similar arrangements exist in other parts of the country, both in ceasefre areas where EAOs have not signed the NCA, and in areas of on-going armed confict. For example, across much of Kachin and northern Shan States, the Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO) and other EAOs provide elements of governance, and life-saving if under resourced services to Internally Displaced People (IDPs) and other highly vulnerable communities. There are three principal rationales for supporting Interim Arrangements: 1. Effective Interim Arrangements will provide the best outcomes for vulnerable and marginalised communities in confict-affected areas. Rather than reinventing the wheel, existing EAO and CSO service delivery systems should be supported on a case-by-case basis, recognising best practice (an “appreciative inquiry” approach). Meeting the government’s targets for school enrolment and universal health coverage for example, will depend on the work of EAOs and affliated civil society actors, who should be seen as partners in meeting critical needs and achieving development goals. Chapter 3 explores how these issues play out in relation to specifc sectors and issues. 2. Several of Myanmar’s EAOs (including NCA signatory and non-signatory groups) enjoy long-standing political legitimacy among the communities they seek to represent. Supporting EAO governance regimes will counter perceptions of the peace process as a vehicle for state penetration into previously autonomous areas, displacing existing EAO authorities and services, without consulting local stakeholders. In order to be confict-sensitive, aid should be delivered in ways that do not undermine systems associated with EAOs, to the beneft of the government (which is a party to the confict). Timely peace dividends can best be provided to vulnerable and marginalized communities by working with existing and trusted local service delivery systems. 3. Interim Arrangements could be a key element in building “federalism from below” in Myanmar, supporting effective local governance through equitable practices of self-determination. The administrative functions and services provided by key EAOs (and their civil society partners) should be regarded as the building blocks of federalism in Myanmar - a political solution to decades of armed confict which key stakeholders have endorsed. It will be very diffcult for confict-affected parts of Myanmar to move from the current mixture of service delivery systems and governance regimes towards a formalized (federal) system, without better coordination, and substantial political and technical negotiations. However, given the slow pace of the peace process since 2016, Interim Arrangements have been given relatively little attention. Given that the Political Dialogue element of the peace process appears stalled, it could be useful to identify a small number of political priorities, to help deliver on ethnic stakeholders’ key aims. These could be negotiated by EAOs (and political parties) in a „fast track“ manner, resulting in a Union Peace Accord that benefts both the government and ethnic stakeholders. Areas for possible progress include education and language policy (recognition of and funding for EAOs’ extensive school systems; “mother tongue” teaching in government schools); land issues (recognition of land title documents provided by EAOs; revision of unjust land laws; compensation and restitution for people who have had their land unfairly taken); equitable natural resource management; and addressing forced displacement – i.e. Interim Arrangements. This would not prevent ethnic stakeholders from continuing to campaign for federalism, including changes to the 2008 Constitution..."
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Source/publisher: Joint Peace Fund and Covenant Consult
2018-09-00
Date of entry/update: 2022-12-11
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "The military takeover last year fractured Myanmar’s media into three distinct groups. Needless to say, one group supports the regime while another – the country’s once mainstream but now exiled independent media that is still reporting on the country – principally opposes military rule.....The third group is media with military backgrounds.....Which group does the media outlet that you regularly read belong to? Readers might feel uncomfortable browsing this article, but sometimes it’s necessary to wash our dirty linen.....Exiled again but still independent and professional.....One of the first things military dictators do after seizing power from a democratically elected government is clamp down on independent media. Dictators hate listening to voices criticizing their coup and the consequences of a military takeover. Barely a month after seizing power, Myanmar’s military regime had revoked the licenses of Myanmar Now, 7 Day, Mizzima, DVB and Khit Thit. Local media outlets Myitkyina News Journal (Kachin State), Delta News Agency (Ayeyarwady Region), Tachilek News Agency (Shan State), Zayar Times News Agency (Sagaing Region), Kantarawaddy Nes Agency (Kayah State) and Independent Mon News Agency were also banned. Meanwhile, the offices of media including The Irrawaddy, Mizzima and Myanmar Now were raided by regime troops following their close coverage of the junta’s bloody crackdowns on peaceful anti-coup protests. The Irrawaddy office in downtown Yangon was raided twice, in a campaign of junta intimidation that is described in more detail below. Worse still, the junta has arrested media workers for doing their jobs, turning Myanmar into the world’s second-worst jailer of journalists after China with at least 26 behind bars, according to Committee to Protect Journalists’ 2021 prison census. The bans, raids and arrests sent a clear message to the press that there is no space for independent media under military-ruled Myanmar. Journalists went into hiding. To keep reporting on the regime’s atrocities and the junta’s impact on the day-to-day lives of Myanmar people, The Irrawaddy, Mizzima, DVB, Myanmar Now and others were forced to relocate to other countries. For The Irrawaddy, Mizzima and DVB, this marked a return to exile for the first time since 2012. But as established independent media, they have maintained their professional journalistic standards while wrestling with financial, legal and security issues in their host countries. On the other hand, the Burmese services of Voice of America (VOA), BBC and Radio Free Asia can still operate in military-ruled Myanmar. Some, however, have upset their audience with controversial reports criticized for leaning towards the junta following the coup last year. For example, a VOA Burmese report on November 7 last year claimed that thousands of people attended a junta-promoted hot air balloon festival in Mandalay’s Pyin Oo Lwin, the seat of Myanmar’s military academies. It drew condemnation from readers as there was no evidence of thousands of festivalgoers in the photos featured along with the report. The audience’s anger focused not just on the story’s accuracy but also the fact that a US government-funded broadcasting service was promoting the junta’s desperate claim that Myanmar under military rule was back to normalcy. In another story in May, VOA Burmese reported that “at least 180 Myanmar journalists were sheltering in Thailand.” Though the figure was not disputable, the report amounted to leaking information to a regime that has detained and jailed journalists since the coup, said netizens.....Democracy activists also questioned VOA’s reporting.....“We no longer take questions from VOA as we don’t like their stance,” said a leading member of an established Myanmar rights group. VOA is one of the few media outlets favored by junta spokesman Major-General Zaw Min Tun, who never fails to respond to its questions and offer information, while never answering phone calls from media operating outside the country. As a consequence, its audience often find that VOA reports amount to regime propaganda despite its claim of “impartiality.” The head of VOA Burmese is currently under investigation for sexual harassment. BBC Burmese Service is another outlet apparently favored by the regime. In October this year, the regime vowed to file charges against The Irrawaddy and BBC over their coverage of a deadly shooting at Mon State’s Golden Rock Pagoda. But no action was taken against the BBC, and Maj-Gen Zaw Min Tun continues to give interviews to the outlet as if nothing had happened while BBC reporters are still working in the country. In contrast, the regime officially banned The Irrawaddy in the same month by revoking its publishing license after the news agency failed to parrot its official account of the Golden Rock shooting. The ban came after lawsuits, raids, arrests and other moves targeting the independent news agency since the coup last year. Regime personnel arrested The Irrawaddy’s publisher, a former photojournalist and a staff member while also raiding the home of one of its editors.....Pro-junta media: Regime-sponsored media have mushroomed since the coup. Their reporters are regulars at press conferences given by the military regime. They can also be found in private groups of the junta information team. Realizing the media’s power and influence, the military approached several outlets even before the coup with offers of incentives and business opportunities in exchange for favorable coverage. There are now more than two-dozen pro-junta media outlets run by former military officials, members of regime-friendly political parties and ultra-nationalists. They are mostly active on social media like Facebook and post their propaganda talk shows on YouTube and Telegram. The junta has state-owned newspapers, radio and TV stations for propaganda purposes but people rarely pick up its papers or tune into its services. So the regime is funding other media to tap Myanmar’s growing audience on digital platforms. The purpose the funding of these so-called media is to drum up support for the junta, to undermine the anti-regime movement by spreading disinformation, and to discredit independent media coverage of the anti-regime movement – an old trick of the previous junta to “use media to attack the media.” The most infamous pro-junta outlet is Thuriya Nay Wun, owned by Moe Hein. Despite being a member of the 88-Generation at the forefront of the 1988 pro-democracy uprising, Moe Hein took sides with the dictatorship for personal interests. In return, he was handed property in Naypyitaw, a monthly allowance, and regular funding for his media house. At junta press conferences, he calls for the crushing of the shadow government National Unity Government, its People’s Defense Force armed wing, and parliamentary Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, the group of lawmakers elected in the 2020 general election. He also spreads propaganda in his regular shows broadcast on junta mouthpiece Myawaddy TV and junta-controlled state broadcaster MRTV. Another pro-junta media is Myanmar Hard Talk, whose chief editor Aung Min is a staunch supporter of the military and even more dogmatic than Moe Hein. Neo Politics News Agency headed by Kyaw Myo Min, former editor-in-chief of Akone Thi media, is regime-friendly too. The junta can also count on People Media and its chief editor Kyaw Soe Oo. All four of these outlets have displayed support for the military regime in video clips posted on their Facebook pages. The pro-junta Myanmar National Post is helmed by chief editor Naung Taw Lay and backed by ultranationalist group Ma Ba Tha. NHP is led by Win Oo, who was jailed under the ousted National League for Democracy (NLD) government for vandalizing a new Yangon bus stop. When US President Joe Biden called for democracy to be restored in Myanmar, Win Oo’s NHP twisted Biden’s words to claim the US was merely urging the regime to hold an election as soon as possible. Another infamous pro-regime outlet is Bullet Journal, led by U Hla Swe. The former lawmaker from the military’s proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party and ex- lieutenant-colonel is notorious for badmouthing the ousted NLD and the anti-regime movement. He has openly admitted to helping secure arms for pro-junta militias that have joined regime troops in upper Myanmar to raid villages and loot civilian property.....Media with a military background.....Myanmar media is no stranger to military affiliations and financing. Some of these outlets still survive today. Military involvement in today’s media dates back to 2000 and the previous junta, when then military spy chief Lt-General Khin Nyunt and his Office of Strategic Studies (OSS) masterminded the launch of the Myanmar Times. Khin Nyunt is responsible for the jailing, torturing and killing of political activists following the 1988 democracy uprising. A pet project of the previous junta, the Myanmar Times served as the military leadership’s mouthpiece, promoting Khin Nyunt’s faction and also Myanmar as a business-friendly country that was not as bad as painted in exiled media outlets. The SASAKAWA foundation provided assistance to the Times and controversial Australian editor Ross Dunkley, who was later charged with drugs and prostitution, was hired to pump the propaganda. Certain western diplomats also backed the Times in the vain belief it could help push political change. An influential OSS officer named Col. Thein Swe, the righthand man of Khin Nyunt, appeared to be actively involved in running the paper. When the Times was launched, Thein Swe told Asiaweek that it would be “different, more flexible” than other papers. Thein Swe’s son, Sonny Swe, who now runs Frontier Myanmar, held a 51-percent stake in the newspaper. While all other media outlets faced draconian censorship, Myanmar Times reports just went through the Directorate of Defense Services Intelligence (DDSI) and were approved overnight. Col Thein Swe was later promoted to brigadier-general and headed the regime’s Military Intelligence international relations department. He was a military attaché to the Myanmar embassy in Bangkok in the 1990s, when he reportedly hired thugs and informants and pushed Thai authorities to crack down on Myanmar democracy activists and journalists sheltering in the kingdom. Bertil Linter, who is based in Thailand and has covered Myanmar since the late 1980s, said he was once on Thein Swe’s hit list for his reporting on the then junta. “I confronted him over it when we met at a diplomatic function in Bangkok, and he fled the scene,” the veteran Swedish journalist recalled. After Khin Nyunt was purged in 2004 during Than Shwe’s crackdown on military intelligence to maintain power, Thein Swe and his son were thrown into prison. The then regime charged Sonny Swe for breaking censorship regulations. The Myanmar Times halted operations following the coup in February last year. Another longstanding media outlet still running inside Myanmar is Popular News, which focuses on junta-related news and ignores the resistance movement. Popular News is owned by Daw Nan Kalyar Win, daughter of former military dictator Than Shwe’s confidant General Win Myint. Thanks to her family background, she landed an interview with Min Aung Hlaing just before the 2020 general election. The military chief hinted he was doubtful of the integrity of the poll while alleging shortcomings in election preparations. Another outlet still tolerated by the junta is Eleven, which makes sure it avoids upsetting the regime in reports. The Standard Time runs on a similar policy.....How long before Myanmar outlets can return?.....The Irrawaddy and other media agencies that went into exile after the 1988 pro-democracy uprising returned to Myanmar under U Thein Sein’s government in 2012. Media played an important role in national reconciliation after democracy icon Daw Aung San Suu Kyi entered Parliament in 2012. However, with advertising revenues switching to social media, media agencies were already struggling when they were hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. After the coup last year, independent newsrooms that promote pillars of democracy like human rights and freedom of expression were unable to operate inside the country. After the 1988 military takeover, it took two decades before exiled media could return to Myanmar. No one knows how long media agencies will have to wait this time after being forced out by the 2021 coup. To answer that question, we would need to know when the military dictatorship will end in Myanmar. One thing is sure, however: the media will return home when there is a democratically elected government in power in Myanmar..."
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Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
2022-12-09
Date of entry/update: 2022-12-09
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "On November 30, seven students from Dagon University were sen-tenced to death by Myanmar Military Council. The military group's im-position of the death sentence is just trying to kill innocent people using crumbling courts and laws. We, the Students Unions, do not accept the ruling by the courts, which are the pillars of the terrorist military group, and strongly oppose such injustice sentences imposed on innocent uni-versity students. We, the Student Unions, stand together with the students who have been unjustly sentenced, Ko Khant Zin Win, Ko Thura Maung Maung, Ko Zaw Lin Naing, Ko Thiha Htet Zaw, Ko Hein Htet, Ko Thet Paing Oo, Ko Khant Lynn Maung Maung, monitoring all the situations closely. The regime continues to torture and kill innocent students brutally. Also, in July 2022, four pro-democracy activists were hanged by the terrorist military group, and so far, more than 13,000 people have been unjustly arrested, and 2,500 have been imprisoned across the country. We strongly urge the international community, including governments and organizations, to take more focused actions to prevent the killing mechanisms of the military group from continuing to operate. As a whole population, we appeal to overcome fear and participate in the revolution for our student comrades and the unjustly oppressed people..."
Source/publisher: 223 Students' Unions in Myanmar
2022-12-01
Date of entry/update: 2022-12-01
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: " ပြည်သူ့ဒီမိုကရေစီအရေးတော်ပုံတွင် ပါဝင်ကာ စစ်အာဏာရှင်စနစ်ကို ဆန့်ကျင်တိုက်ဖျက်ခဲ့သည့်အတွက် ဒဂုံတက္ကသိုလ်ကျောင်းသားများဖြစ်ကြသည့် ကိုခန့်ဇင်ဝင်း၊ ကိုသူရမောင်မောင်၊ ကိုဇော်လင်းနိုင်၊ ကိုသီဟထက်ဇော်၊ ကိုဟိန်းထက်၊ ကိုသက်ပိုင်ဦး နှင့် ကိုခန့်လင်းမောင်မောင် တို့အား အာဏာသိမ်းဖက်ဆစ်တပ်က နိုဝင်ဘာလ ၃၀ ရက်နေ့တွင် သေဒဏ်ချမှတ်လိုက်ကြောင်း သိရသည်။ ယနေ့ကာလသည် အာဏာသိမ်းဖက်ဆစ်ဘီလူး မင်းအောင်လှိုင် ဦးဆောင်သည့် စစ်အုပ်စုက ပြည်သူလူထုအား အကြမ်းဖက် နှိပ်စက်သတ်ဖြတ်ကာ ဖိနှိပ်အုပ်ချုပ်နေသည့် ကာလဖြစ်သည်။ စစ်အုပ်စုသည် အစုလိုက်အပြုံလိုက် သတ်ဖြတ်မှုများကို ကျူးလွန်လျက်ရှိသည်။ ပြည်သူလူထု၏ အသက်၊ အိုးအိမ်၊ ပိုင်ဆိုင်မှုများကိုလည်း ပေါ်ပေါ်ထင်ထင် ဖျက်ဆီးနေမှု၊ လုယက်နေမှုများမှာ မျက်ဝါးထင်ထင်ပင်ဖြစ်ပါသည်။ ဒဂုံတက္ကသိုလ်ကျောင်းသား (၇) ဦးကို သေဒဏ်ချမှတ်ခြင်းသည်လည်း စစ်အုပ်စု၏ မတရားသဖြင့် တဖက်သတ်စီရင်ချက်ဟုသာ ဗကသများအဖွဲ့ချုပ်မှ ယူဆသည်။ ကျူးလွန်ခဲ့/ကျူးလွန်ဆဲ တရားမဲ့သတ်ဖြတ်မှုများ၊ တရားမဲ့ဖမ်းဆီးထောင်ချမှု အလုံးစုံတို့ကို ဗကသများအဖွဲ့ချုပ်မှ ပြင်းပြင်းထန်ထန် ကန့်ကွက်ရှုတ်ချသည်။ စစ်အုပ်စုအနေဖြင့် ၎င်းတို့ကျူးလွန်သမျှ ဖိနှိပ်မှုတိုင်းအတွက် မုချတာဝန်ခံရမည်။ ဤကာလတွင် စစ်အစိုးရ၊ စစ်အုပ်စု၊ စစ်ဗျူရိုကရေစီယန္တရား (စစ်သုံးစစ်) ဖြင့် အခိုင်အမာ တည်ဆောက်ထားသည့် စစ်အာဏာရှင်စနစ်ကို အမြစ်ဖြတ်ချေမှုန်း သုတ်သင်ရန်မှာ တောင်ပေါ်/မြေပြန့် ဒေသအားလုံးရှိ လူထုလူတန်းစားပေါင်းစုံ အဖိနှိပ်ခံပြည်သူလူထုတရပ်လုံး၏ အရေးအကြီးဆုံး တာဝန်တရပ်ဖြစ်သည်။ ထို့ကြောင့် စစ်အာဏာရှင်စနစ် (စစ်သုံးစစ်) ကို အဖိနှိပ်ခံပြည်သူလူထုတရပ်လုံးက ထိရောက်မှန်ကန်သည့် နည်းလမ်းပေါင်းစုံဖြင့် ဆက်လက်တိုက်ပွဲဝင်ကြပါရန် ကျွန်ုပ်တို့ ဗကသများအဖွဲ့ချုပ်က တိုက်တွန်းနှိုးဆော်အပ်ပါသည်။ ကျွန်ုပ်တို့ ဗကသများအဖွဲ့ချုပ်သည်လည်း တောင်ပေါ်/မြေပြန့် ဒေသအားလုံးရှိ အဖိနှိပ်ခံပြည်သူလူထုနှင့် လက်တွဲကာ စစ်အာဏာရှင်စနစ် (စစ်သုံးစစ်) အား အမြစ်ပြတ်ချေမှုန်းနိုင်သည်အထိ ဆက်လက်တိုက်ပွဲဝင်သွားမည်ဖြစ်ကြောင်း ခေတ်အဆက်ဆက်က ဒီမိုကရေစီတိုက်ပွဲများတွင် မြင့်မြတ်ဂုဏ်ပြောင်စွာ ကျဆုံးသွားခဲ့သည့် ပြည်သူလူထုအား တိုင်တည်ကာ ကတိသစ္စာပြုအပ်ပါသည်။ သေဒဏ်ပေးခြင်း၊ ဖမ်းဆီးနှိပ်စက်သတ်ဖြတ်ခြင်း၊ ရွာလုံးကျွတ် မြို့လုံးကျွတ် မီးရှို့ဖျက်ဆီးခြင်းများဖြင့် တော်လှန်ရေးကို တားဆီး၍ရမည်မဟုတ်။ “စစ်သုံးစစ်ကို အမြစ်ပြတ်ချေမှုန်းကြ” “ပြည်သူ့ဒီမိုကရေစီအရေးတော်ပုံ မုချအောင်ရမည်”..."
Source/publisher: All Burma Federation of Student Unions
2022-12-01
Date of entry/update: 2022-12-01
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "An attack and fire between 18-20 July 2022 allegedly left over 10 dead and homes incinerated across Kyi Su village, Kanbalu Township Sagaing. There are claims these homes were specifically targeted for belonging to Muslim civilians; however, this cannot currently be confirmed. Myanmar Witness has verified the presence of a large fire via NASA FIRMS on 19 July 2022 (figure 3), with additional imagery from 18 August 2022 giving an indication on the level of destruction Kyi Su village sustained (figure 4). Myanmar Witness has also geolocated footage of burned motorcycles and matched them to before and after satellite imagery of the area. Key points: On 18 July 2022, a fire occurred in Kyi Su village, Kanbalu, resulting in the destruction of civilian homes as well as, allegedly, at least 10 human casualties, whose bodies were burned. It cannot be confirmed if this burning occurred pre or post mortem. Other sources claim around 70 people were killed during this incident. Myanmar Witness has identified user-generated content (UGC) depicting burned bodies, although this content cannot be independently verified at this time due its inability to undergo geolocation. Allegations of burned bodies during this event were pervasive, leading Myanmar Witness to include them in this reporting. Myanmar Witness has also geolocated images of burned-out motorcycles in Kyi Su. Myanmar Witness has also investigated claims of troop movements to verify the presence of State Administration Council (SAC) forces at the time of the alleged attack. Although reports of this village, and certain homes within it, being intentionally targeted due to the village’s large Muslim population are startling, Myanmar Witness is unable to verify this at present.....Summary: Local media reports allege that across 18-20 July 2022 the village of Kyi Su was raided by SAC and Pyu Saw Htee forces, involving both ground and aerial based assaults. The reporting specifically mentions the use of two Mi-35 attack helicopters and three Mi-17 transport helicopters; however, a lack of geolocatable UGC depicting these air assets leads this assertion to remain unverified. Reporting from around 18-20 July claims that around ten individuals (at least) were killed, with their bodies being burned by SAC and/or Pyu Saw Htee forces. Myanmar Witness has geolocated footage to verify: ● An area where motorcycles had been burned-out in Kyi Su village Myanmar Witness is actively monitoring: ● The alleged presence of burned bodies following this verified fire incident; ● Conflict around the area to establish if these burnings are a pattern of attacks on the civilian or muslim population in Kanbalu; ● Footage and images related to the burning and destruction of homes in this case; and ● Any evidence that the villages were attacked based on their relation to being Muslimmajority..."
Source/publisher: Myanmar Witness
2022-11-17
Date of entry/update: 2022-11-17
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Description: "ယနေ့ မြန်မာသက္ကရာဇ် ၁၃၈၄ ခုနှစ် တန်ဆောင်မုန်လပြည့်ကျောာ်(၁၀)ရက်၊ ခရစ် သက္ကရာဇ် ၂၀၂၂ ခုနှစ်၊ နိုဝင်ဘာလ ၁၇ ရက် နေ့တွင် ကျရောက်သည့် ပြည်ထောင်စု သမ္မတမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်၏ (၁၀၂) နှစ်မြောက် အမျိုးသားအောင်ပွဲနေ့ အခါသမယတွင် နိုင်ငံသူနိုင်ငံသားအပေါင်း ကိုယ်စိတ်နှစ်ဖြာကျန်းမာ ချမ်းသာပြီး ဘေးအန္တရာယ် အပေါင်းကင်းဝေးအောင်မြင်ပါစေကြောင်း ဆုမွန်ကောင်းတောင်းအပ်ပါသည်။ ပြည်ထောင်စုသမ္မတမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်တွင် အမျိုးသားအောင်ပွဲနေ့ကို နှစ်စဉ် တန်ဆောင်မုန်းလပြည့်ကျော် ၁၀ ရက်နေ့တွင် ကျင်းပပြုလုပ်လေ့ရှိပါသည်။ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ၏ အချုပ်အချာအာဏာဆုံးရှုံးပြီး နယ်ချဲ့ လက်အောက်ခံ ကိုလိုနီဘဝသို့ ကျရောက်ခဲ့ရာမှ နယ်ချဲ့ဆန့်ကျင်ရေးနှင့်အမျိုးသားလွတ်မြောက်ရေးလှုပ်ရှားမှုအဖြစ် မြန်မာသက္ကရာဇ် ၁၂၈၂ ခုနှစ်၊ တန်ဆောင်မုန်း လပြည့်ကျော် ၁၀ရက် (၁၉၂၀ပြည့်နှစ်၊ ဒီဇင်ဘာလ၅ရက်) နေ့တွင် ရန်ကုန်တက္ကသိုလ် အက်ဥပဒေကို တက္ကသိုလ်ကျောင်းသားများက သပိတ်မှောက် ဆန့်ကျင်ခဲ့သည့်နေ့ကို အမျိုးသားအောင်ပွဲနေ့အဖြစ် ဂုဏ်ပြုသတ်မှတ်ခဲ့ကြသည်။ နယ်ချဲ့ဗြိတိသျှအစိုးရသည် တက္ကသိုလ် အက်ဥပဒေကြမ်းကြီးကို ပြည်သူများ ကန့်ကွက်နေသည့် ကြားကပင် ၁၉၂၀ ခုနှစ် စက်တင်ဘာလ (၂၆) ရက်နေ့တွင် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ၏ ဗြိတိသျှ ဒုတိယဘုရင်ခံ ဆာရယ်ဂျီနယ်ကရက်ဒေါက်က ရန်ကုန်အက် ဥပဒေကို ထောက်ခံခဲ့ပြီး၊ အိန္ဒိယဘုရင်ခံ ချမ်းစဖို့ဒ်က အတည်ပြုရန် ထုတ်ပြန်ကြေညာခဲ့ပြန်သည်။ နယ်ချဲ့လက်အောက်မှ ပထမဆုံးအကြိမ်အမျိုးသားလှုပ်ရှားမှုအဖြစ် ၁၂၈၂ ခုနှစ် တန်ဆောင်မုန်းလပြည့်ကျော်(၁၀)ရက်၊ ၁၉၂၀ပြည့်နှစ် ဒီဇင်ဘာ (၅) ရက်တွင် တက္ကသိုလ်ကျောင်းသားကြီးများ ဦးဆောင်သော ပထမ ကျောင်းသားသပိတ် စတင်ခဲ့ရာ နယ်ချဲ့လက်အောက်မှ လွတ်မြောက်လိုသည့် မျိုးချစ်စိတ်ဓာတ်များအစပြုဖြစ်တည်ခဲ့ပြီး မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ အနယ်နယ် အရပ်ရပ်သို့ တစ်ဟုန်ထိုး ပျံ့နှံ့သွားခဲ့သည်။ ထိုအမျိုးသားရေး လှုပ်ရှားမှုကြီးကို အကြောင်းပြု၍ အမျိုးသားအထက်တန်းကျောင်းများ၊ အမျိုးသား ကောလိပ်များ ပေါ်ပေါက်လာခဲ့ပြီး တစ်နိုင်ငံလုံး နယ်ချဲ့လက်အောက်မှ လွတ်မြောက် လိုသော မျိုးချစ်စိတ်များဖြစ်တည်စေခဲ့သည်။ မျက်မှောက်ကာလတွင်လည်း တိုင်ရင်းသား မိဘပြည်သူအပေါင်းတို့သည် စစ်အာဏာရှင်လက်အောက်မှ လွတ်မြောက်ရန် နွေဦးတော်လှန်ရေးကို ဆင်နွှဲနေကြပြီး ဖက်ဒရယ်ကျောင်းများ ထူထောင်ကာ စစ်ကျွန်ပညာရေးကို ချေဖျက် အဆုံးသတ်ရန် ကြိုးစားမှုသည်လဲ တော်လှန်ရေး၏ အစိတ်အပိုင်းတစ်ခုအဖြစ် ပါဝင်လျက်ရှိပေသည်။ ထို့ကြောင့် (၁၀၂) နှစ်မြောက် အမျိုးသားအောင်ပွဲနေ့သည် နယ်ချဲ့အာဏာရှင် စနစ်ကို တိုင်းရင်းသား မိဘပြည်သူအားလုံးက စုစည်းညီညွတ်စွာဖြင့် ဆန့်ကျင်တော်လှန်ခဲ့သည် သာမက လက်ရှိစစ်အာဏာရှင်ကို တော်လှန်နေသည့် နွေဦးတော်လှန်ရေးလှုပ်ရှားမှုကို လည်းအထောက်အကူပြုစေသည်ဟု ယုံကြည်မိပါသည်။ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေး အစိုးရသည် တိုင်းရင်းသားမိဘပြည်သူများနှင့်အတူ အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်အာဏာရှင် လက်အောက်မှ ‌လွတ်မြောက်ရေးအတွက် ပူးပေါင်းကြိုးပမ်း ဆောင်ရွက်လျက် ဖက်ဒရယ်ဒီမိုကရေစီပြည်ထောင်စုတည်ထောင်ရေးကို အလေးပေး ဆောင်ရွက်သွားမည် ဖြစ်ကြောင်း ယနေ့ကျရောက်သော ၁၀၂ နှစ်မြောက် အမျိုးသားအောင်ပွဲနေ့တွင် ထပ်လောင်း၍ သန္နိဋ္ဌာန်ပြုအပ်ပါသည်။..."
Source/publisher: National Unity Government of Myanmar
2022-11-17
Date of entry/update: 2022-11-17
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "London, UK - The 23 October air bombing of a concert in Hpakant, Kachin State, that killed 60 people demands an immediate and harsh response from the international community. The concert was part of a celebration of the anniversary of the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), the political wing of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA). Large parts of the crowd and those killed were civilians. Many more were injured. “The Burmese military knows exactly what they are doing, and we have no doubt this bombing was widespread and systematic attack on civilians, which is clearly a crime against humanity. The junta’s goal remains to terrorize the people and demoralize support for any resistance to their illegitimate rule. This horrifying act is one of the most brazen since the coup, and the international community can no longer sit on their hands while these atrocities occur. The response must be immediate and devastating to the criminal regime,” said BHRN’s Executive Director, Kyaw Win. The attack comes just days before a meeting is scheduled in Indonesia where ASEAN ministers are to discuss a five-point plan which the junta agreed to last year to resolve the conflict in Burma. The Tatmadaw has recently increased its attacks on civilians and should be denied any legitimacy by ASEAN or any other international body. This attack is clearly defying the five-points plan and disregard the efforts of ASEAN leaders. The junta maintains its power through the flow of cash and weapons in the country. The international community must cut their access to these two assets as much as possible. Military interests must be severely sanctioned, and the international community must take greater action to pressure countries to stop providing weapons to the Burmese military. The international community must also consider how to better support the people of Burma in their struggle against the military. No moral nation can remain neutral in a fight between a genocidal military dictatorship and a civilian population. International accountability mechanism cannot protect civilians from airstrike. This is the duty of international community to step in to protect the civilians from being butchered by the junta. Organisation’s Background BHRN is based in London and operates across Burma/Myanmar working for human rights, minority rights and religious freedom in the country. BHRN has played a crucial role in advocating for human rights and religious freedom with politicians and world leaders..."
Source/publisher: Burma Human Rights Network
2022-10-26
Date of entry/update: 2022-10-26
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "Quotes attributed to SAC-M founding members in response to the deadly junta airstrike in Hpakant Township, Kachin State on 23 October: Chris Sidoti: “The Myanmar military is emboldened to commit such heinous and cowardly acts against the Myanmar people and Myanmar’s ethnic minorities in particular, because it knows the international community will not take action to stop it. In failing to act the international community is shielding the Myanmar military generals from accountability. This makes it complicit in the junta atrocity at Hpakant. The International Criminal Court urgently needs to act on the National Unity Government of Myanmar’s article 12(3) declaration so that Myanmar military leaders face justice for their horrific crimes.” Marzuki Darusman: “To launch an airstrike on civilians attending a music concert is the ultimate act of junta cowardice and inhumanity. Sadly, it is entirely consistent with the campaign of scorched-earth that the Myanmar military has been waging against the peoples of Myanmar, including the Kachin, with impunity not just for the last 20 months but for decades. It’s completely unacceptable that ASEAN has wasted 20-months trying to reason with Min Aung Hlaing and persisting with its failed Five Point Consensus while his junta burned Myanmar to the ground and brutalised its people. ASEAN leaders must urgently chart a new course in coordination with the National Unity Government of Myanmar and Ethnic Revolutionary Organizations to end the mass suffering being caused by the junta. The upcoming ASEAN Summit must be a turning point to speedily, effectively and irreversibly lead to the end of the junta’s erratic behaviour and the whole conflict.” Yanghee Lee: “The horrific junta airstrike in Kachin State demonstrates how far Min Aung Hlaing and his barbaric junta are beyond reason. Junta fighter jets deliberately attacked a night time music concert attended by hundreds of civilians knowing it would likely cause catastrophic loss of life, an act that constitutes a war crime. When will the international community, including the UN and ASEAN, stand with the people of Myanmar and support the democratic revolution?”..."
Source/publisher: Special Advisory Council for Myanmar
2022-10-26
Date of entry/update: 2022-10-26
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "On October 23, a music concert was held in Hpakant, Kachin State, as an early celebration of the 62nd anniversary of the founding of Kachin Independence Organization (KIO). In the evening of the commemoration event, the armed wing of the junta forces perpetrated an aerial bombardment with fighter planes, causing the death and injury of many innocent civilians. More than 60 civilians, including ethnic Kachin, are known to have been killed, whilst more than 100 others were injured in the airstrike, based on reports so far. This atrocious and intentional terror attack targeted a crowd of people during a peaceful gathering at a ceremony, and constitutes a crime against humanity and war crime of the junta. The armed wing of the junta subsequently blocked local streets to obstruct those seeking treatment for the injured, a blatant violation of the right to life in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This atrocity demonstrated their intent to make the population submit to military dictatorship through using weapons to sadistically target and indiscriminately kill. The military junta considers the whole of Burma as their enemy. We, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, strongly condemn any act of terror committed by the junta. We implore international actors to take immediate and effective action - to mitigate the armed wing of the junta’s extrajudicial killings, destruction of innocent livelihoods and homes, on daily basis. Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)..."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners
2022-10-25
Date of entry/update: 2022-10-25
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "For Immediate Release Tuesday 25th October 2022 Burma Military Airstrikes Kill At Least 80 - Aviation Fuel Sanctions Needed Now The Women's League of Burma and Burma Campaign UK send condolences to the family and friends of all those who were killed by Burmese military airstrikes in Kachin State on the evening of 23rd October. As around a thousand people attended a music festival to celebrate the founding of the Kachin Independence Organisation, the Burmese military sent jets to bomb the audience. Initial reports are that more than 80 people have been killed. More than 100 were seriously injured. When they tried to reach hospitals for treatment, they were blocked by the Burmese military at Ginsi village and turned back. Three Burmese military jets attacked the music festival, which featured famous Kachin artists such as Aurai and Galau Yaw Lwi. The festival was celebrating the 62nd anniversary of the founding of the Kachin Independence Organisation. Over the past four days, the Burmese military has also been carrying out airstrikes at Kawkereik, Karen State, with reports of two people killed and ten injured, including six children. Since the attempted coup began on 1st February last year, more than a million people have been forced to flee their homes because of attacks by the Burmese military. A large proportion of these people were forced to flee because of airstrikes, or because the threat of airstrikes means it is unsafe to return home. This has created a humanitarian crisis. Women's League of Burma and Burma Campaign UK call on the international community: To immediately impose aviation fuel sanctions on Burma. Limiting the Burmese military's access to aviation fuel will reduce its ability to carry out airstrikes and kill civilians. Enact targeted sanctions against the Burmese military and its proxies to effectively cut off financial flows; Institute a comprehensive global arms embargo, with robust monitoring and enforcement mechanisms, to end the direct and indirect supply, sale, or transfer of all weapons and other equipment that may be used for training, intelligence and military assistance; Refer the situation on human rights in Burma to the International Criminal Court for their crimes against humanity, which have been perpetrated against innocent civilians, including peaceful protests and ethnic groups. The Burmese military are deliberately and indiscriminately targeting civilians with airstrikes as part of their campaign to attempt to terrorise the people of Burma into submission. This is a war crime and a crime against humanity. We have repeatedly called for action to cut the supply of revenue, arms and equipment to the Burmese military. The failure to do so has meant that the Burmese military are still able to carry out airstrikes like the one in Kachin State yesterday. "Every day ethnic communities are the victims of war crimes and crimes against humanity. We are witnessing daily atrocity crimes perpetrated by the same military junta that has already committed genocide. The international community needs to start enforcing international laws and rules with regard to Burma. Decisive action is needed to uphold international law, to preserve international peace and security and to fulfil mandates contained in Resolution 1674 regarding the protection of civilians," said Nang Moet Moet, Joint General Secretary (1) of Women's League of Burma. "The British government, EU and USA have decided that trying to stop airstrikes like this is not a priority, and have failed to act on calls for aviation fuel sanctions. They can and must do more. Imposing sanctions to stop the supply of aviation fuel to the Burmese military is the single most effective action that can be taken to address the humanitarian crisis caused by airstrikes against civilians," said Anna Roberts, Executive Director of Burma Campaign UK..."
Source/publisher: Women’s League of Burma and Burma Campaign UK
2022-10-25
Date of entry/update: 2022-10-25
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "၀၂၂ ခုနှစ်၊ အောက်တိုဘာလ ၂၃ ရက်နေ့ ညတွင် ကချင်ပြည်နယ်၊ ဖားကန့်မြို့၌ ကချင်လွတ်မြောက်ရေးအဖွဲ့ ၏ ဖွဲ့စည်းတည်ထောင်ခြင်း ၆၂ နှစ်မြောက် အကြို တေးဂီတ ဖျော်ဖြေပွဲ ကျင်းပနေစဉ် အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်အုပ်စုမှ တိုက်လေယာဉ်များဖြင့် ဗုံးကြဲ တိုက်ခိုက်မှုကြောင့် အပြစ်မဲ့ ပြည်သူအများအပြား ထိခိုက် ဒဏ်ရာရ၊ သေဆုံးခဲ့ရပါသည်။ ထိုဗုံးကြဲတိုက်ခိုက် သတ်ဖြတ်မှုကြောင့် ယခုအချိန်အထိ အနည်းဆုံး ကချင်တိုင်းရင်းသားများအပါအဝင် ပြည်သူ ၆၀ ကျော်သေဆုံးခဲ့ရပြီး ၁၀၀ ကျော် ဒဏ်ရာရရှိခဲ့ကြောင်း ကနဦး သိရှိရပါသည်။ တေးဂီတပွဲအား လူအများ ငြိမ်းချမ်းစွာ စုဝေးဆင်နွဲနေချိန်တွင် ရက်စက်ကြမ်းကြုတ်စွာ ရည်ရွယ်ချက်ရှိရှိ အစုအလိုက်အပြုံလိုက် တိုက်ခိုက်သတ်ဖြတ်ခြင်းသည် လူသားမျိုးနွယ်စုအပေါ် ကျူးလွန်သည့် ရာဇဝတ်မှု၊ အရပ်သားများကို ပစ်မှတ်ထားတိုက်ခိုက်မှုကြောင့် စစ်ရာဇဝတ်မှု မြောက်ကြောင်း သက်သေခံလျှက်ရှိသည်။ ထို့အပြင် ဒဏ်ရာရ လူနာများအား ဆေးကုသမှု မရနိုင်အောင် စစ်အင်အားဖြင့် လမ်းများပိတ်ဆို့ တားမြစ် ထားခြင်းသည် လူတစ်ဦးချင်း၏ လွတ်လပ်စွာ အသက်ရှင်သန်ခွင့်ရှိရမည် ဟူသည့် အပြည်ပြည်ဆိုင်ရာ လူ့အခွင့်အရေးကြေညာစာတမ်းကို ပြောင်ပြောင်တင်းတင်း ငြင်းဆန် ချိုးဖောက်လိုက်ခြင်းဖြစ်သည်။ အထက်ပါလုပ်ရပ်သည် အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်အုပ်စုက ပြည်သူတရပ်လုံးအား ရန်သူအဖြစ်သတ်မှတ်ကာ လက်နက်အားကိုးဖြင့် လူမဆန်စွာ အနိုင်ကျင့် စော်ကားမှု၊ တရားလက်လွတ် ရမ်းကား သတ်ဖြတ်များ ကျူးလွန်လျှက်၊ တတိုင်းပြည်လုံးကို စစ်ကျွန်အဖြစ် သွတ်သွင်းရန် ကြိုးပမ်းနေမှု၏ လုပ်ရပ်ပင်ဖြစ်သည်။ မိမိတို့ နိုင်ငံရေးအကျဉ်းသားများကူညီစောင့်ရှောက်ရေးအသင်း အနေဖြင့် အာဏာသိမ်းစစ်အုပ်စု၏ အကြမ်းဖက်မှု လုပ်ရပ်မှန်သမျှကို ပြင်းထန်စွာ ကန့်ကွက် ရှုံ့ချလိုက်သည်။ ထို့အတူ ထိုကဲ့သို့ အပြစ်မဲ့ ပြည်သူများ၏ အသက် အိုးအိမ် များကို နေ့စဉ်နဲ့အမျှ တရားလက်လွတ် သတ်ဖြတ် ဖျက်ဆီး နေမှုများအား နိုင်ငံတကာ အသိုင်းအဝိုင်းမှ ချက်ခြင်း ထိရောက်စွာ အရေးယူဆောင်ရွက်ကြပါရန် တိုက်တွန်း တောင်းဆိုလိုက်သည်။..."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners
2022-10-25
Date of entry/update: 2022-10-25
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Size: 349.48 KB
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Description: "၁။ အာဏာသိမ်း စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ စစ်တပ်သည် ၂၀၂၂ ခုနှစ် အောက်တိုဘာလ(၂၃)ရက်နေ့ ည(၈း၃၀)နာရီခွဲ ကျော် အချိန်တွင် ကချင်ပြည်နယ်၊ ဖားကန့်မြို့နယ်၊ အနန့်ပါ တွင် ပြုလုပ်ကျင်းပနေသည့် ကချင်လွတ်လပ်ရေး အဖွဲ့ KIO ဖွဲ့စည်းတည်ထောင်ခြင်း (၆၂)နှစ်မြောက်အထိမ်းအမှတ် အကြိုတေးဂီတ ဖျော်ဖြေပွဲပြုလုပ်ကျင်းပ နေစဉ် ဂျက်တိုက်လေယာဉ်(၃)စင်းဖြင့် လေကြောင်းတိုက်ခိုက်ဗုံးကြဲခဲ့သဖြင့် အပြစ်မဲ့အရပ်သား ပြည်သူလူထုများ၊ အနုပညာရှင်များ (၈၀)ကျော်ခန့် သေဆုံးခဲ့ကြရပြီး ထိခိုက်ဒဏ်ရာရသူ (၁၀၀)ကျော်ကိုလည်း ဆေးကုသခွင့် မရရှိအောင် ဂင်စီကျေးရွာ တွင် ပိတ်ဆို့တားမြစ်သည့်အတွက် အသက်သေဆုံးမည့်အန္တရယ်များ နှင့် ရင်ဆိုင် နေရကြောင်း ကြားသိရပါသဖြင့် ကေအဲန်ယူ-ကရင်အမျိုးသားအစည်းအရုံးအနေဖြင့် ကျန်ရစ်သူ မိသားစုနှင့် သော်လည်းကောင်း၊ ကချင်ပြည်သူ တစ်ရပ်လုံးနှင့်သော်လည်းကောင်း၊ KIO ကချင်လွတ်လပ်ရေး အဖွဲ့နှင့် ထပ်တူ ဝမ်းနည်းကြေကွဲ ရပါသည်။ ၂။ အာဏာသိမ်း စစ်ကောင်စီ သည် တေးဂီတပွဲအား လူအများငြိမ်းချမ်းစွာ စုဝေးဆင်နွဲနေချိန်တွင် ရက်စက် ကြမ်းကြုတ်စွာ လူသားမဆန်စွာဖြင့် ရည်ရွယ်ချက်ရှိရှိ အစီအစဉ်ရှိရှိဖြင့် အစုလိုက် အပြုံလိုက် ဗုံးကြဲတိုက်ခိုက် သတ်ဖြတ်ခြင်းသည် လူသားမျိုးနွယ်စုအပေါ်ကျူးလွန်သည့် ရာဇဝတ်မှု နှင့် အရပ်သားများကို ပစ်မှတ်ထား တိုက်ခိုက်မှုကြောင့် စစ်ရာဇဝတ်မှုမြောက်ကြောင်း သက်သေခံလျက်ရှိသည်။ အာဏာသိမ်းစစ်ကောင်စီ သည် စနစ်တကျ ကျူးလွန်သည့် စစ်ရာဇဝတ်မှုများအတွက် တာဝန်ရှိပြီး ကျူးလွန်ခံရသူ အပြစ်မဲ့ပြည်သူလူထုများ အတွက်လည်း တရားမျှတမှုကို ရရှိရန် တောင်းဆိုပါသည်။ ၃။ အာဏာသိမ်း စစ်ကောင်စီသည် ပြည်တွင်းစစ်တွင် အသုံးမပြုရဟု ပိတ်ပင်တားမြစ်ထားသည့် စစ်ဆင်ရေးသုံး စစ်ဂျက်လေယာဉ်များဖြင့် တော်လှန်ရေးအဖွဲ့အစည်းများ အရပ်သားပြည်သူလူထုများ ဟူ၍ ခွဲခြားမှုမရှိဘဲ ရန်ငါ စည်းခြားလျက် ငါနဲ့မတူ ရန်သူဟူ၍ သိမ်းကြုံးသတ်မှတ်ကာ ပစ်မှတ်ထား ဗုံးကြဲတိုက်ခိုက်သည့် လုပ်ရပ်သည် စစ်ရာဇဝတ်မှု(War Crime)အား ကျူးလွန်ခြင်းဖြစ်သည်။ ၄။ နိုင်ငံတကာအစိုးရများနှင့် နိုင်ငံတကာတရားရေးဆိုင်ရာ ယန္တယားများကလည်း ဤသို့သော နိုင်ငံတကာ လူသားခြင်းစာနာထောက်ထားသည့် ဥပဒေများ (International Humanitarian law) ကို ပြောင်ပြောင် တင်းတင်းကျူးလွန်သူ နှင့် အမိန့်ပေးစေခိုင်းသည့် အာဏာသိမ်းစစ်ကောင်စီအား တာဝန်သိစွာဖြင့် ပြစ်ဒဏ်ပေး အရေးယူ ဆောင်ရွက်ရန် တောင်းဆိုသည်။ ၅။ အာဏာသိမ်းစစ်ကောင်စီသည် ပြည်သူများတို့အား ပစ်မှတ်ထား တိုက်ခိုက်နေခြင်းသည် ၎င်းတို့အာဏာ ဆက်လက်ဆုတ်ကိုင်ရေးကိုသာ ပြုလုပ်နေသည့်အတွက် စစ်တပ်အပေါ် ရွံ့ရှာနာကျည်း မုန်းတီးမှုများကိုသာ ပိုမိုဖြစ်ပေါ်စေပြီး မိမိပြည်သူအား ပြန်လည်သတ်ဖြတ်နေသည့် စစ်တပ်အား တိုင်းရင်းသား ပြည်သူတရပ်လုံးက ပိုမိုစည်းလုံးညီညွတ်စွာဖြင့် အတူတကွ ဝိုင်းဝန်းဆန့်ကျင်မှုပြုကြရန်လိုအပ်ပါသည်။ ၆။ အာဏာသိမ်း စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ ဤသို့သော လုပ်ရပ်များသည် ပြည်တွင်းစစ်အား ပိုမို နက်ရှိုင်းစွာ ဖြစ်ပေါ်ရေးသို့ တွန်းပို့နေသည် နိုင်ငံ၏အလုံးစုံ ပျက်သုန်းရေးသို့ ဦးတည်နေသော လုပ်ဆောင်ချက်များ ဖြစ်ပါသည်။ ထို့ကြောင့် တိုင်းရင်းသား ပြည်သူလူထုတရပ်လုံးအနေဖြင့် ဤသို့သော အာဏာသိမ်းစစ်ကောင်စီ ၏ လူမဆန်သည့် လုပ်ရပ် အား ဝိုင်းဝန်းဆန့်ကျင်ပြီး စစ်အာဏာရှင်စနစ် အမြစ်ဖြတ်ရေးတွင် ပိုမိုပါဝင်တိုက်ပွဲဝင်ရန်ကိုလည်း တိုက်တွန်း ပါသည်။ ၇။ မိမိတို့ ကေအဲန်ယူ-ကရင်အမျိုးသားအစည်းအရုံး အနေဖြင့် (၆၂)နှစ်မြောက် ကချင်လွတ်လပ်ရေးနေ့ တွင် ကချင်ပြည်သူလူထုတရပ်လုံးနှင့်အတူ ထပ်တူထပ်မျှ အထူးဝမ်းနည်းကြေကွဲရပြီး အပြစ်မဲ့လက်နက်မဲ့ အရပ်သား ပြည်သူများတို့အား တတ်စွမ်းသရွေ့ အကာအကွယ်ပေးမှုများ ကို ဆထက်ထမ်းပိုး လုပ်ဆောင်ပေးသွားမည် ဖြစ်ပြီး မဟာလူမျိုးကြီး ဝါဒ နှင့် အာဏာရှင်စနစ် အပြီးပိုင် ချုပ်ငြိမ်းရေးအတွက် တော်လှန်သူအင်အားစုများ အားလုံးနဲ့ အတူ တိုက်ပွဲဝင်သွားမည်ဖြစ်ကြောင်း ထုတ်ပြန် လိုက်ပါသည်။..."
Source/publisher: Karen National Union
2022-10-25
Date of entry/update: 2022-10-25
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf
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Description: "အောက်တိုဘာလ (၂၃) ရက်နေ့ ည ၈နာရီခွဲဝန်းကျင်တွင် ကချင်လွတ်မြောက်ရေးတပ်မတော်(KIA) တပ်မဟာ(၉) အနန့်ပါ (A Nang Pa) ၌ အောက်တိုဘာလ (၂၅) ရက်နေ့ တွင်ကျရောက်မည့် (၆၂) နှစ်မြောက် ကချင်လွတ်လပ်ရေးအဖွဲ့ချုပ်(KIO) နေ့အထိမ်းအမှတ်ပွဲအကြို တေးဂီတဖျော်ဖြေပွဲ ပြုလုပ်နေစဉ် အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီက ဂျက်လေယာဉ်(၄)စီးဖြင့် ဗုံးကြဲတိုက်ခိုက်မှုခဲ့ရာ အနုပညာရှင်အချို့နှင့် ပြည်သူအများအပြား ထိခိုက်သေဆုံးခဲ့ရသည်ဟု ကနဦး သိရှိရပါသည်။ အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်အုပ်စုသည် ပြည်သူ့အာဏာကို မတရားလုယူခဲ့သည့် ကာလအတွင်း တိုင်းရင်းသား နယ်မြေများ အပါအဝင် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတစ်ဝှမ်းလုံးတွင် ပြည်သူလူထုကို ပစ်မှတ်ထား၍ လေကြောင်းတိုက်ခိုက်မှု အကြိမ်ပေါင်း (၂၄၀) နီးပါးပြုလုပ်ခဲ့ပြီး အဆိုပါ တိုက်ခိုက်မှုများအတွင်း အရပ်သားပြည်သူ(၂၀၀)ကျော် သေဆုံးခဲ့ရကာ ပြည်သူလူထု၏ နေအိမ်များ၊ ဘာသာရေးအဆောက်အအုံများလည်း ထိခိုက်ပျက်စီးဆုံးရှုံးခဲ့ရပါသည်။ အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်အုပ်စုသည် ၂၀၂၂ ခုနှစ် စက်တင်ဘာလ (၁၆) ရက်နေ့တွင် ဒီပဲယင်းမြို့နယ် လက်ယက်ကုန်းကျေးရွာတွင် ကလေးငယ်များစာသင်ကြားနေသော စာသင်ကျောင်းကို စစ်ရဟတ်ယာဉ်များ ဖြင့် ရည်ရွယ်ချက်ရှိရှိ ပစ်ခတ်မှုကြောင့် ကလေးငယ် (၇) ဦးအပါအဝင် စုစုပေါင်း (၁၄) ဦးသေဆုံးခဲ့ရသည့် ဖြစ်ရပ်အပြီး တစ်လကျော်ကာလအတွင်း ပြည်သူအများအပြားရှိနေသော ဂီတဖျော်ဖြေပွဲ ကို ရည်ရွယ်ချက်ရှိရှိဖြင့် လေကြောင်းမှ ဗုံးကြဲကာ လူအစုလိုက်အပြုံလိုက်သတ်ဖြတ်မှုကို ထပ်မံကျူးလွန် လိုက်ခြင်းပင်ဖြစ်သည်။ ဂျနီဗာသဘောတူစာချုပ်၏ ပြဌာန်းချက်တွင် စစ်ရေးစစ်ရာကိစ္စများ၏ အစိတ်အပိုင်း အဖြစ် ပါဝင်ပတ်သက်နေခြင်းမဟုတ်လျှင် အရပ်သားပြည်သူများသည် တိုက်ခိုက်ခံရခြင်းဘေးမှ အကာအကွယ်ရရှိစေရမည်ဟု ပြဌာန်းထားသောကြောင့် အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ လုပ်ရပ်သည် နိုင်ငံတကာ ဥပဒေများကို ချိုးဖောက်နေခြင်းဖြစ်ကြောင်း ပေါ်လွင်ထင်ရှားပါသည်။ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရအနေဖြင့် အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ စစ်ရာဇဝတ်မှု၊ လူအစုလိုက်အပြုံလိုက် သတ်ဖြတ်မှုများအတွင်း ကျဆုံးခဲ့ကြရသော တိုင်းရင်းသားပြည်သူများအတွက် များစွာဝမ်းနည်းကြေကွဲ ရပါကြောင်းနှင့် ကျဆုံးခဲ့သူ ပြည်သူတစ်ဦးတစ်ယောက်ချင်းစီတိုင်းအတွက် တရားမျှတမှုပြန်လည်ရရှိရေး ပြည်တွင်း နှင့် နိုင်ငံတကာ တရားဥပဒေများ နှင့် အညီ အစွမ်းကုန်ကြိုးစားဆောင်ရွက်သွားမည်ဖြစ်ကြောင်း ပြောကြားလိုပါသည်။ အရပ်ဖက်ပစ်မှတ်ကို ရည်ရွယ်ချက်ရှိရှိ တိုက်ခိုက်သော လေကြောင်းတိုက်ခိုက်မှုများ၊ လူအစုလိုက်အပြုံလိုက် သတ်ဖြတ်မှုများ၊ လူသားမျိုးနွယ်စုအပေါ် ကျူးလွန်သည့် ရာဇဝတ်မှုများ၊ စစ်ရာဇဝတ်မှုများကို နေ့စဉ်ရက်ဆက် ကျူးလွန်နေသည့် အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ လုပ်ရပ်များ အမြန်ဆုံးရပ်တံ့နိုင်ရေး ကမ္ဘာ့ကုလသမဂ္ဂအပါအဝင် နိုင်ငံတကာအသိုက်အဝန်းအနေဖြင့် ထိရောက်သော အရေးယူဆောင်ရွက်မှုများ အမြန်ဆုံးဆောင်ရွက်ကြရန်နှင့် လူထုလူတန်းစားအဖွဲ့အစည်း အသီးသီး အနေဖြင့်လည်း နည်းလမ်းပေါင်းစုံဖြင့် အဆိုပါလုပ်ရပ်အား ဆန့်ကျင်ကြောင်း တောင်းဆိုလှုံ့ဆော်မှုများ ပြုလုပ်ပေးကြရန် တိုက်တွန်းလိုက်ပါသည်။..."
Source/publisher: National Unity Government of Myanmar
2022-10-24
Date of entry/update: 2022-10-24
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Description: "We join our Kachin brothers and sisters in their grief on this tragic day. The junta conducted an airstrike with 3 fighter jets in Hpakant, Kachin State on 23 October 2022, targeting a Kachin Independence Organization music festival held to celebrate the 62nd anniversary of the KIO. According to verified reports and sources, at least 50 Kachin people were killed including Kachin celebrities. The fascist military deliberately targeted this ceremony. This is proof that they carry out airstrikes with the express intention of targeting ethnic minorities, activists, and civilians. The military is escalating their air strikes across the country and particularly in Sagaing, Chin, Kayin, Kachin and Rakhine in a deliberate attempt to weaken the people’s defensive war. The terrorist regime is using excessive force, violence and airstrikes in an attempt to maintain their power. My thoughts and prayers are with the victims of the airstrikes in Kachin State. I would like to send my deepest condolences to the victims' family members. I would like to encourage the international community and the UN security council to take immediate action to protect the innocent people of Myanmar from the atrocities and war crimes committed by the junta. With the indifference and inaction of the international community thus far we are losing too many innocent lives. We need immediate tangible action and support from the international community to hold the junta accountable for their crimes. We urge you to collaborate with us to end these tragic attacks once and for all..."
Source/publisher: Ministry of International Cooperation Myanmar
2022-10-24
Date of entry/update: 2022-10-24
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "Responding to the news that Myanmar military air strikes reportedly killed dozens of people including civilians at a concert in Kachin State on Sunday night, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director Hana Young said: “Singers, artists and other civilians are among those reported killed in last night’s air strikes. We fear this attack is part of a pattern of unlawful aerial attacks by the military which have killed and injured civilians in areas controlled by armed groups. “The military has shown ruthless disregard for civilian lives in its escalating campaign against opponents. It is difficult to believe the military did not know of a significant civilian presence at the site of this attack. The military must immediately grant access to medics and humanitarian assistance to those affected by these air strikes and other civilians in need. “Myanmar’s military has been committing widespread atrocities since the 2021 coup, including unlawfully killing, arbitrarily detaining, torturing and forcibly displacing civilians. It has been able to carry out these crimes in the face of an ineffective international response to a human rights crisis that is only worsening. “As officials and leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations prepare to host high-level meetings in the coming weeks, this attack highlights the need to overhaul the approach to the crisis in Myanmar. ASEAN has to step up and formulate a more robust course of action so that military leaders end this escalating repression.” Background: On 23 October, the Myanmar military launched air strikes on a musical performance near A Nan Pa village in Hpakant Township, Kachin State, in the north of the country. The attack reportedly killed dozens of people, but Amnesty could not independently confirm the figures. Among those injured and killed were civilians including prominent artists who were performing at the event. The performance was held as part of celebrations for the 62nd anniversary of the Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO). The KIO is the political wing of the Kachin Independence Army, which controls the area and has clashed with the Myanmar military for decades. The military has increasingly relied on air power as it struggles to retain control of the country since seizing power in a coup on 1 February 2021. In a July report, “Bullets rained from the sky”: War crimes and displacement in eastern Myanmar, Amnesty International found that Myanmar’s military has subjected Karen and Karenni civilians to collective punishment via widespread aerial and ground attacks, arbitrary detentions, often including torture or extrajudicial executions, and the systematic looting and burning of villages..."
Source/publisher: Amnesty International (UK)
2022-10-24
Date of entry/update: 2022-10-24
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "(Yangon) – The United Nations (UN) in Myanmar is deeply concerned and saddened by reports of airstrikes that took place in Hpakant, Kachin State around 8:00PM on 23 October 2022. Initial reports suggest that over 100 civilians may have been affected by the bombing. Numerous fatalities have also been reported. While the UN continues to verify the details of this attack, we offer our deepest condolences to the families and friends of all those who were killed or injured. The UN calls for those injured to be availed urgent medical treatment, as needed. What would appear to be excessive and disproportionate use of force by security forces against unarmed civilians is unacceptable and those responsible must be held to account..."
Source/publisher: United Nations Myanmar
2022-10-24
Date of entry/update: 2022-10-24
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "Kachin Alliance strongly condemns the coup regime’s air strike in A Nang Pa, Hpakant on October 23, 2022 around 8:30 PM local time. The air strike targeted a public cultural event commemorating the founding of the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), and killed scores of civilians, including Kachin artists, businessmen and local elders, and local KIO leaders, and injured many more. In the aftermath of the massacre, families were scrambling to obtain news about their loved ones due a prolonged internet blackout in Hpakant. We are also concerned to learn the report of blocking of medical access to victims of massacre. We are extremely saddened by the loss and suffering of innocent lives. We pay tribute to the commitment and sacrifices of those who were slayed in this brutal and deliberate attack. Our sincerest condolences to the families and loved ones of the victims. You are in our thoughts and prayers. The coup regime, its leader Min Aung Hlaing, and their collaborators will be held responsible for this heinous crime. Peace in Burma is not possible without the annihilation of this coup regime once and for all. We call upon the international community to end the policy of muted response and take serious action against the terrorist regime which has committed every known war crime against the people of Burma..."
Source/publisher: Kachin Alliance
2022-10-24
Date of entry/update: 2022-10-24
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "The Kachin National Organisation (KNO ) condemns the airstrike/massacre carried out by the Burmese military terrorists against the Kachin people who had gathered together to celebrate the 62nd Anniversary o f the founding o f the Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO) Day at the A Nang Pa, Brigade 9 o f the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) on Sunday, 23rd Octobcr 2022. The tragic incident killed over 100 civilians, well known musicians, local officials and officiating personnel from the KIA and KIO. The terrorist military ju n ta restricted and stopped the injured people in Gin Si areas from getting medical treatment at Hpakan and Myitkyina hospitals. The terrorist military cut the phone and internet lines to the area as well. We send our deepest condolences to the family members who lost their loved ones. May their lives, musical and artistic contributions never be forgotten and live on in the hearts and memories o f all Kachin peoples by inspiring others to express their songs, ballads, and art for generations to come. The launching o f an airstrike by the terrorist Burmese Military Junta against a peaceful civilian gathering was a most despicable and cowardly act. Unfortunately, from the beginning, the Burmese Military Junta has been committing genocidal atrocities, war crimes, and crimes against humanity for decades in an attempt to control the political opposition and subjugate the civilian population. It is reported that the Burmese Military Junta has launched over 240 airstrikcs killing over 200 civilians, including women and children, and destroying many homes, public buildings including schools, temples, businesses, and clinics throughout Burma in areas under the control o f the ethnic Burman, Kachin, Karen, Karenni, Shan, Chin, and the Rakhinc. The air strikes violate international law as spelled out in the Geneva Convention regarding the protection o f civilians. We arc calling on all countries to protest against the atrocities. We call on freedom loving nations to support and supply practical anti- air craft equipment and weapons to the Kachin Independence Army and other armed forces fighting against the Burmese military to prevent more such tragic massacres and loss o f life in the future..."
Source/publisher: Kachin National Organization
2022-10-24
Date of entry/update: 2022-10-24
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "In the evening of October 23 2022, terrorist Myanmar military launched targeted airstrikes against civilians who were gathering at a live music event that mark the upcoming 62nd Anniversary of the founding of Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) in Ah Nant Par village of Hpakant Township in Kachin State. Many innocent civilians including prominent Kachin ethnic singers and artists were killed and injured during the indiscriminate arial attacks and deliberate bombing by junta’s fighter jets. The village is located in an area within Kachin’s Hpakant Township where internet and telecommunication blackout have been imposed since August 20, 2021, more than 15 months ago. By the time of the release of this statement, estimated 60 people have died while over 100 injured people are facing a life-threatening situation having been blocked by the terrorist military troops at a checkpoint in Ginsi village to deny them any chance of getting treatment. We, the undersigned resistance forces, would like to declare our position as follow regarding this tragic event. 1. We are deeply sorry for the Kachin people who have suffered from this inhuman attack. 2. We consider this attack by terrorist junta on 62nd anniversary ceremonial event of the KIO as an attack on all revolutionary forces and actors who are engaging in political and armed resistance against the terrorist junta for the establishment of a genuine federal democracy. 3. These deliberate bombing attacks on large civilian gathering which have resulted to mass killing is a serious commission of war crime. Moreover, such targeted mass killing of the Kachin ethnic people in particular during such gathering of ethnic ceremonial event implies that the junta could have genocidal intent. 4. We condemn the terrorist military council in the strongest terms possible for such attack on civilians.5. We are always proud of the commitment and effort of KIO in their struggle for federal democracy and Kachin people’s liberation, and we vow to collaborate more closely with them and increased the intensity of our fight against the military junta. 6. We call on the international governments and community to block supplies of aviation fuel to the terrorist junta, sanction its main source of revenue Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise, step up efforts for stripping of any form of legitimacy and recognition that the junta is receiving on international stage, and urgently and consistently advocate for he people of Myanmar..."
Source/publisher: All Kachin Students’ Federation, Anti Junta Mass Movement Committee, Blood Money Campaign, General Strike Committee, General Strike Committee of Nationalities, Kachin National Youth Network, Kachin State Civilian Movement and Women’s League of Burma
2022-10-24
Date of entry/update: 2022-10-24
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "၁။ ၂၀၂၂ ခုနှစ်၊ အောက်တိုဘာလ ၂၃ ရက်၊ ည (၀၈း၃၀) နာရီအချိန်တွင် ကချင်ပြည်နယ်၊ ဖားကန့်မြို့၌ ကျင်းပနေသည့် “KIO အထိမ်းအမှတ်နေ့” တေးဂီတ ဖျော်ဖြေပွဲသို့ အကြမ်းဖက် စစ်တပ်က တိုက်ခိုက်ရေးလေယာဉ် (၃) စီးအသုံးပြုကာ လေကြောင်းဖြင့် ရည်ရွယ်ချက်ရှိရှိ တိုက်ခိုက်ခဲ့ခြင်းကြောင့် နာမည်ကျော် အဆိုတော်၊ အနုပညာရှင်များအပါအဝင် ကချင်တိုင်းရင်း သားပြည်သူ ၅၀ ဦးထက်မနည်း သေဆုံးခဲ့ကာ ထိခိုက်ဒဏ်ရာရရှိခဲ့သူ အများအပြားရှိကြောင်း သတင်းများအရ ကြားသိရပါသည်။ ယင်းလူမဆန်သော တိုက်ခိုက်မှုကြောင့် သေဆုံးခဲ့ရသူများ၊ မိသားစုဝင်များ၊ ကချင်တိုင်းရင်းသားပြည်သူများနှင့်အတူ ထပ်တူ ဝမ်းနည်းကြေကွဲရပါသည်။ ၂။ လူသတ်ခေါင်းဆောင် မင်းအောင်လှိုင် ဦးဆောင်သည့် အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်တပ်သည် ဒီမိုကရေစီအ‌ရေးလှုပ်ရှားသူများ၊ လူ့အခွင့်အရေးလှုပ်ရှားသူများ၊ အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်တပ်အား ဆန့်ကျင်သူများနှင့် တိုင်းရင်းသားအင်အားစုများအပေါ် ခြိမ်းခြောက်အကြပ်ကိုင်၍ သတ်ဖြတ် တိုက်ခိုက်လျက်ရှိသည့်အပြင် အရပ်သားပစ်မှတ်များကို ရည်ရွယ်ချက်ရှိရှိ တိုက်ခိုက်လျက် ရှိသည်ကို ယင်းဖြစ်ရပ်များက သက်သေခံလျက်ရှိပါသည်။ ၃။ စစ်ကိုင်းတိုင်း၊ ဒီပဲယင်းမြို့နယ်ရှိ စာသင်ကျောင်းအား လေကြောင်းဖြင့် တိုက်ခိုက်ခဲ့မှု နောက်ပိုင်းတွင် ချင်းပြည်နယ်၊ ကရင်ပြည်နယ်၊ ရခိုင်ပြည်နယ်၊ စစ်ကိုင်းတိုင်းနှင့် ကချင်ပြည်နယ် တို့၌လည်း လေကြောင်း အင်အားသုံး၍ တိုက်ခိုက်မှုများ ဆက်တိုက်ပြုလုပ်ခဲ့သည့်နည်းတူ စစ်ကိုင်းတိုင်းနှင့် မကွေးတိုင်းတို့တွင် ပြည်သူများ၏ နေအိမ်များကို မီးရှို့ခြင်း၊ ကျေးရွာနေ ပြည်သူများအား မဟုတ်မမှန် စွပ်စွဲဖမ်းဆီးခြင်း၊ လူမဆန်စွာ သတ်ဖြတ်ခြင်းများကဲ့သို့ စစ်ရာဇဝတ်မှုများနှင့် လူသားမျိုးနွယ်အပေါ် ကျူးလွန်သည့် ရာဇဝတ်မှုများကို ဆက်တိုက် ကျူးလွန်လုပ်ဆောင်လျက်ရှိပါသည်။ ၄။ နိုင်ငံတကာအသိုက်အဝန်းက မြန်မာပြည်သူများအပေါ် အကာအကွယ်ပေးရန် တာဝန် ပျက်ကွက်မှုနှင့် နိုင်ငံတကာ ရာဇဝတ်မှုများ ကျူးလွန်နေသည့် အကြမ်းဖက် လူသတ်စစ်တပ် အပေါ် အရေးယူရန် ပျက်ကွက်နေမှုများကြောင့် စစ်အာဏာရှင်စနစ် ချုပ်ငြိမ်းရေးနှင့် ဒီမိုကရေစီ အရေး ကြိုးပမ်းနေသည့် မြန်မာပြည်သူများသည် ရက်စက်သော အကြမ်းဖက်တိုက်ခိုက် သတ်ဖြတ်မှုများကို နေ့စဉ်ကြုံတွေ့ရင်ဆိုင်နေရပါသည်။ ထို့သို့ အရပ်သားပြည်သူများအပေါ် အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီက စနစ်တကျ ပစ်မှတ်ထား တိုက်ခိုက်ခဲ့မှုများအပေါ် ပြင်းပြင်းထန်ထန် ကန့်ကွက်ရှုတ်ချလိုက်ပြီး ကုလသမဂ္ဂလုံခြုံရေးကောင်စီအပါအဝင် ကမ္ဘာ့ခေါင်းဆောင်များ အနေဖြင့် မြန်မာပြည်သူများ၏ အသက်နှင့် အခြေခံလူ့အခွင့်အရေးများကို ကာကွယ်ပေးရန်၊ ရာဇဝတ်မှုကျူးလွန်သူများကို အမြန်ဆုံး အရေးယူနိုင်ရေးတို့အတွက် မိမိတို့နှင့်အတူ ပူးပေါင်း ဆောင်ရွက်ပေးရန် လေးလေးနက်နက် တောင်းဆိုအပ်ပါသည်။..."
Source/publisher: Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw
2022-10-24
Date of entry/update: 2022-10-24
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Format : pdf
Size: 290.27 KB
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Description: "၂၃.၁၀.၂၀၂၂ ရက်နေ့၊ ည (၈:၃၀) အချိန်ခန့်က ကချင်ပြည်နယ်၊ ဖားကန့်မြို့နယ်၊ ကချင်လွတ်လပ်ရေး တပ်မတော် (KIA) တပ်မဟာ (၉) အနန့်ပါ၌ ၂၅.၁၀.၂၀၂၂ ရက်နေ့တွင် ကျရောက်မည့် (၆၂) နှစ်မြောက် ကချင်လွတ်လပ်ရေးအဖွဲ့ (KIO) အထိမ်းအမှတ်ပွဲ အကြိုအခမ်းအနား တေးဂီတဖျော်ဖြေပွဲ ကျင်းပနေစဉ် အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီက ဂျက်လေယာဉ်များဖြင့် ဗုံးကြဲတိုက်ခိုက်ရာ အနုပညာရှင်အချို့နှင့် ပြည်သူအများ အပြား ထိခိုက်သေဆုံးခဲ့ရသည်ဟု ကြားသိရပါသည်။ ထိခိုက်ဒဏ်ရာရရှိသူ အရပ်သား (၁၀၀) ကျော်ကိုလည်း ဆေးကုသခွင့် မရအောင် ဂင်စီကျေးရွာတွင် အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီက အဝင်အထွက်များကို ပိတ်ပင် နေသောကြောင့် အသက်အန္တရာယ် ရင်ဆိုင်နေရကြောင်း ကြားသိရသည့်အတွက် တရားရေးဝန်ကြီးဌာန အနေဖြင့် များစွာဝမ်းနည်းကြေကွဲ ရပါသည်။ အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ အထက်ပါ လုပ်ရပ်သည် ဂျီနီဗာသဘောတူစာချုပ်၏ ပြဋ္ဌာန်းချက် Common Article 3, Protocol II တွင် ပါဝင်သည့် “စစ်ရေးစစ်ရာကိစ္စများ၏ အစိတ်အပိုင်းအဖြစ် ပါဝင်ပတ်သက်နေခြင်း မဟုတ်လျှင် အရပ်သားပြည်သူများသည် တိုက်ခိုက်ခံရခြင်းဘေးမှ အကာအကွယ် ရရှိစေရမည်” ဟူသော ပြဋ္ဌာန်းချက်ကို ပြောင်ပြောင်တင်းတင်း ချိုးဖောက်ခြင်းဖြစ်ပြီး စစ်ရာဇဝတ်မှုကို ကျူးလွန်ခဲ့ခြင်း ဖြစ်ကြောင်း ထင်ရှားသည်။ အဆိုပါ စစ်ရာဇဝတ်မှု ကျူးလွန်ခြင်းအပေါ် အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ၊ တရားရေးဝန်ကြီးဌာနက အပြင်းအထန် ရှုတ်ချလိုက်သည်။ အထက်ပါ အကြမ်းဖက် လုပ်ရပ်ကို ပြောင်ပြောင်တင်းတင်း ကျူးလွန်ခဲ့သည့် အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီနှင့် လက်အောက်ခံများအားလုံးသည် ခွင့်လွှတ်နိုင်စရာ အကြောင်းလုံးဝမရှိသည့် စစ်ရာဇဝတ်မှုကြီးကို ရည်ရွယ်ချက်ရှိရှိ ကျူးလွန်ခြင်းဖြစ်ပြီး ထိုက်သင့်သည့် ပြစ်ဒဏ်အသီးသီးကို မလွဲမသွေ ကျခံစေရမည်ဖြစ်ကြောင်း သဘောထား ထုတ်ပြန်ကြေညာလိုက်သည်။ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ တရားရေးဝန်ကြီးဌာန..."
Source/publisher: Ministry of Justice - NUG
2022-10-24
Date of entry/update: 2022-10-24
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf
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Description: "ကချင်လွတ်မြောက်ရေးအဖွဲ့ (KIO) အထိမ်းအမှတ် အကြိုနေ့အဖြစ် ဖားကန့်မြို့နယ်၊ အနန်ပါ ကျေးရွာအနီး တေးဂီတဖျော်ဖြေပွဲ ကျင်းပနေစဉ် အောက်တိုဘာလ ၂၃ ရက် ညပိုင်းက စစ်ကောင်စီ လေတပ်မှ ဂျက်တိုက်လေယာဉ် (၃) စီးဖြင့် ဗုံးကြဲတိုက်ခိုက်ခဲ့သဖြင့် ကချင်အနုပညာရှင်များ အပါအဝင် အရပ်သားပြည်သူ အများအပြား သေဆုံး၊ ထိခိုက်ဒဏ်ရာ ရရှိခဲ့ကြောင်း ဝမ်းနည်းဖွယ် ကြားသိရပါသည်။ ထိုသို့ တိုက်ပွဲအချိန်လည်း မဟုတ်ဘဲ အရပ်သားများပါဝင်သော တေးဂီတပွဲ အခမ်းအနားတစ်ခုအား ပစ်မှတ်ထား၍ အစုလိုက်၊ အပြုံလိုက် သတ်ဖြတ်ခြင်းသည် စစ်ရာဇဝတ်မှုများကို ပြောင်ပြောင်တင်းတင်း ကျူးလွန်ချိုးဖောက်နေသည့် စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ အကြမ်းဖက် ဖက်ဆစ်ဝါဒအား ပြသသည့် ထပ်လောင်းသက်သေပင် ဖြစ်ပါသည်။ စစ်ကောင်စီသည် စာသင်ကျောင်းများ၊ ဆေးရုံများ၊ ဘာသာရေး အဆောက်အဦးများ၊ မြို့ပြကျေးရွာ လူနေအိမ်ခြေများ စသည့် အရပ်ဘက်ပစ်မှတ်များအား ရည်ရွယ်ချက်ရှိရှိ လေကြောင်းမှ ဗုံးကြဲတိုက်ခိုက်ခြင်းများကြောင့် နိုင်ငံအနှံ့ အပြစ်မဲ့ အရပ်သားပြည်သူများ နေ့စဉ်နှင့်အမျှ ထိခိုက်သေဆုံးနေကြရပါသည်။ စစ်ကောင်စီ လေတပ်အရာရှိများအနေဖြင့် စစ်ခေါင်းဆောင်များ၏ အမိန့်ကို တသွေမတိမ်း လိုက်နာပြီး အရပ်သားပြည်သူများအပေါ် လေကြောင်းမှ ဗုံးကြဲ တိုက်ခိုက်နေခြင်းများသည် စစ်ရာဇဝတ်မှုများအား ကိုယ်တိုင်ပါဝင်ကျူးလွန်နေခြင်းပင် ဖြစ်ပြီး တချိန်ချိန်တွင် တရားစီရင် အပြစ်ပေးအရေးယူခံရမည် ဖြစ်ကြောင်း သတိပေးလိုပါသည်။ စစ်ကောင်စီလေတပ်၏ ဗုံးကြဲတိုက်ခိုက်မှုကြောင့် ထိခိုက်သေဆုံးခဲ့ရသည့် မိသားစုဝင်များနှင့်အတူ ထပ်တူ ဝမ်းနည်းကြေကွဲရပါကြောင်း နှင့် စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ စစ်ရာဇဝတ်မှုကျူးလွန်နေသည့် လုပ်ရပ်များအား ရှုတ်ချကြောင်း ပြည်သူ့ပန်းတိုင်အဖွဲ့မှ သတင်းထုတ်ပြန်အပ်ပါသည်။..."
Source/publisher: People's Goal
2022-10-24
Date of entry/update: 2022-10-24
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "" စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ လူမဆန်‌သော အကြမ်းဖက်တိုက်ခိုက်မှုကို ကရင်နီအမျိုးသားတိုးတက်ရေး ပါတီ KNPP အနေဖြင့် ပြင်းပြင်းထန်ထန် ရှုံ့ချပါသည်။ ပစ်ခတ်မှု ဖြစ်ပွားခဲ့သည့် နေရာဒေသသည် စစ်ရေးလှုပ်ရှားမှုနှင့် စစ်ပွဲများ ဖြစ်ပွားနေသည့် နေရာဒေသ မဟုတ်သည့်အတွက် စစ်ကောင်စီ အနေဖြင့် တမင်သက်သက် အရပ်သားများကို ပစ်မှတ်ထားတိုက်ခတ်ခြင်း ဖြစ်သလို စစ်ရာဇဝတ်မှု (War Crime) အား ကျူးလွန်ခြင်း ဖြစ်ကြောင်း ထင်ရှားပါသည်။..."
Source/publisher: Karenni National Progressive Party
2022-10-24
Date of entry/update: 2022-10-24
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Description: "Yaw Defense Force (YDF) Deputy Commander Ko Phyo Wai Soe was returning with two comrades from a front-line guerilla operation in Gangaw township when they were ambushed by regime forces on the afternoon of Oct. 9. The three YDF fighters were riding motorbikes when they encountered a group of eight junta policemen near Kyun Khone Thar village, 40 kilometers north of Gangaw town in Magwe Region — a resistance stronghold. Of the three, only Ko Phyo Wai Soe was armed. The YDF deputy commander had only his 9 mm pistol as he and his comrades confronted the heavily armed police squad. He was hit in his chest and thigh, while his comrade Pwar Lay was shot in the head. Both died in the firefight. The third resistance fighter, Naing Thein, managed to escape back to base to deliver news of their deaths. The untimely death of the 21-year-old technological university student-turned-guerrilla leader was a severe blow to fellow YDF fighters and supporters of the armed anti-regime resistance. YDF Commander Ko Myat Thu said Ko Phyo Wai Soe’s passing was a big loss for the resistance force but also further motivation to uproot Myanmar’s military dictatorship as this was what their deputy commander had fought for. “His final words were, ‘I do nothing without the consent of the people,’” Ko Myat Thu said. “We will just try harder to achieve what he wanted.” ‘Outstanding young man’, ‘a person of untold bravery’ At least a dozen local resistance groups, ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) – including the Arakan Army and Chinland Defense Force – and two ministries of the National Unity Government (NUG) have released statements of condolence, praising the YDF deputy commander as “an outstanding young man” and “a person of untold bravery.” In a condolence letter from the NUG’s Ministry of International Cooperation, Union Minister Dr. Sasa described Ko Phyo Wai Soe as “one of the heroes who sacrificed themselves for the future of the country”, calling his death a big loss not only for the YDF but also for the whole of Myanmar. The powerful Arakan Army (AA) ethnic armed group described him as a “model” leader in the country’s fight against the junta, commonly known as “Myanmar’s Spring Revolution.” The AA praised him not only for his talent on the battlefield but for leading the push to reopen schools in areas outside of junta control where the YDF operates. “He was one of the leaders, involved in the revolution since the earliest days. He was decisive and strong-minded in military affairs. I salute him with sadness and praise,” said Ma Grace, platoon commander of the Myaung Women Warriors, a regiment of the Civilian Defense Security Organization Myaung (CDSOM) in Magwe Region. Known as Ko Phyo by his comrades, the deputy commander not only led troops on the ground but also networked and cooperated with other armed groups, including EAOs, since their early days of operation. He forged friendships with many other armed resistance groups that emerged in the region after the February 2021 coup, and as well as with EAOs that had been fighting military dictatorship for decades. Rich kid leading fight against brutal junta YDF is a people’s armed resistance group founded and based in Yaw Territory, Gangaw district, covering the Gangaw, Htilin, Saw and Kyaukhtu townships bordering Chin State. The area is now a hotbed of armed resistance to the junta’s military forces. YDF is among the area’s largest resistance groups formed since last year’s coup, and now boasts 15 units. It was founded just days after the Feb. 1 coup by Ko Phyo, Ko Myat Thu and two other Yaw residents. A university student and the youngest son of a wealthy family, Ko Phyo had a happy life with a bright future until the military takeover. Unlike many rich kids of his age, he loved reading and getting involved in social activities and the student union, his colleagues said. When street protests against the coup first broke out, he and Ko Myat Thu, three years his senior, organized the rallies in Gangaw. From the beginning, Ko Phyo believed that only armed struggle could root out military dictatorship. Having made their decision to resist the coup regime, he and Ko Myat Thu immediately traveled to EAO-controlled areas for basic military training. They returned to Yaw territory a couple of months later, and the YDF was born with support from EAOs in Kachin, Chin and Karen States. The YDF has offered strong resistance to regime forces in several operations and claims to have killed over 700 junta troops. Ko Phyo was responsible for directing most of the battles on the ground. The Irrawaddy is unable to verify the number of casualties claimed. Ko Phyo was also the first to smuggle Pakistan-made automatic rifles through regime checkpoints to resistance fighters in Yaw territory. But still faced with a shortage of automatic rifles, he helped produced homemade guns and was working on manufacturing contact-explosion cannons. But he was constantly at risk of arrest. In September last year, Ko Phyo was returning from a meeting to buy weapons when he was arrested at a junta outpost. Police and military personnel found out he was a YDF member and interrogated him. Ko Phyo told them he was merely a subordinate and had no serious information about the resistance group. Three days of torture followed, during which was stabbed in the ears by a screwdriver, beaten all over his body, and had his crushed by bamboo, Ko Myat Thu recalled. Fortunately, his young age and stoicism convinced his captors he was telling the truth and they released him on parole. Following his release, he spent one month in hospital. When he had recovered from his torture injuries, he headed straight back to the front line and his YDF comrades. Escaping peril until the last fight In February, the YDF joined up with the Myaing People’s Defense Force (Myaing – PDF) to attack a junta outpost in Min Ywar village, Gangaw Township. Though it was described as a police station, the outpost was housing military troops who were waiting for reinforcements before deploying in the area. Led by Ko Phyo, the resistance operation was a success with at least 20 junta forces killed and about 30 injured. But when Ko Phyo was hit by a bullet that pierced his jaw, entered his chest and severed an artery, his comrades thought he would die on the spot. “But though badly injured, he gave a thumbs-up and an order to keep fighting,” said a YDF comrade who was fighting alongside him. Luckily, he survived the battle and recovered from his wounds. Ko Phyo recalled the experience in an online speech to mark the YDF’s one-year anniversary in May. “I was wounded, so our medics rescued me and took me back to the base. My comrades kept fighting for an hour, and we were almost able to capture the station. But reinforcements arrived, so they had to fall back. I still feel regret today about not managing to seize the station,” he said. Ko Myat Thu said injuries to arteries usually take years to heal but Ko Phyo recovered in just three months after a strict regime of daily exercise and determination. However, Ko Myat Thu and other leaders urged him to take a back seat and command from behind the lines rather than fighting on the ground. But he refused and had just resumed front-line action when he was caught in the Oct. 9 ambush with just his 9 mm pistol. This time there was no escape. Another who knew Ko Phyo well was Maung Saungkha, commander of the Bamar People’s Liberation Army (BPLA) resistance group. He expressed his sorrow over losing a revolutionary comrade and seeing yet another young life sacrificed in resisting the military regime. “To achieve our goal, we pay with losses like these. Those of us who remain alive need to keep up the fight to get the genuine federation we expect,” Maung Saungkha told The Irrawaddy, referring to the democratic federal Union that anti-regime forces are fighting for..."
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Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
2022-10-20
Date of entry/update: 2022-10-20
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Topic: 2022-10-19
Topic: 2022-10-19
Description: "ယနေ့နံနက် ဖြစ်ပွားခဲ့သော အင်းစိန်ထောင် တိုက်ခိုက်မှုဖြစ်စဥ်အတွင်း ဗုံးပေါက်ကွဲမှု နှင့် ထောင်လုံခြုံရေးမျှော်စင်ပေါ်မှ ပစ်ခတ်မှုများကြောင့် ထောင်ဝင်စာပို့ဆောင်ရန်နှင့် ထောင်တွင်းရုံးထုတ်သို့ လာရောက်သူအရပ်သားများ ထိခိုက်သေဆုံးမှုများ ဖြစ်ပေါ်ခဲ့ကြောင်း ကြားသိရသည်။ အင်းစိန်ထောင်သည် မတရားအကျဥ်းချခံထားရသော နိုင်ငံရေးအကျဥ်းသားများအပါအဝင် အကျဥ်းသားများအတွက် ထောင်ဝင်စာပေးပို့ရန် လာရောက်သည့် မိသားစုဝင်များ၊ ဥပဒေအထောက်အကူပြုပုဂ္ဂိုလ်များ အပါအဝင် အရပ်သားများ အမြဲလှုပ်ရှားသွားလာနေသည့် နေရာဖြစ်သည်။ ထိုသို့ အများပြည်သူသွားလာနေသည့် နေရာများသည် စစ်ရေးပစ်မှတ်အဖြစ် မသတ်မှတ်သင့်သည့် နေရာများဖြစ်သည်ဟု ယူဆသည်။..."
Source/publisher: General Strike Committee, Anti-Junta Mass Movement and General Strike Committee of Nationalities
General Strike Committee
Date of entry/update: 2022-10-19
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Description: "The Myanmar Air Force has ordered several FTC-2000G midrange fighter jets from China, a major arms supplier to the Southeast Asian nation. The Irrawaddy has learned that a group of approximately eight Air Force pilots, eight technicians and at least two armaments officers traveled to China via Kunming in June. China has strict COVID-19 regulations and the Myanmar personnel had to go through quarantine in Kunming. The pilots are known to fly the F-7 interceptor, A-5 bomber and K-8 W trainer and light attack jet for the Myanmar Air Force. The new jet fighters will replace the Myanmar Air Force’s aging F-7s and A-5s. Once they are delivered they are expected to be based at Namsang airbase in Shan State, according to sources familiar with the purchase. It is not yet known when the agreement was reached between Beijing and Naypyitaw. The purchase of Chinese jet fighters may have begun in 2020, but delivery and pilot training were delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and China’s strict policy on containing the disease. The FTC-2000G is an advanced light multi-role trainer/combat aircraft designed and manufactured by Guizhou Aviation Industry Corporation (GAIC) under the supervision of Chinese state-owned aerospace and defense firm Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC). It is the export variant of the Guizhou JL-9 trainer/combat aircraft, which is in service with the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) and the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN). The two-seat jet fighter has training capabilities with attack and fighting capabilities in combat. It can be used to perform pilot flight training, aerial surveillance, patrol missions, reconnaissance, electronic warfare, close-in air support and air escort missions. In April 2020, news emerged in Cambodia and in China’s Global Times that China planned to sell the aircraft to an undisclosed Southeast Asian country. It did not say how many units were to be sold, stating only that the deal was signed in January 2020 and that deliveries would start in early 2021 and be completed after two years. The cost of the jet fighter is around US$8.5 million. The reports identified Cambodia and Myanmar as potential buyers, as both countries are closely aligned with China, both militarily and politically. Well-known middleman The sources stated that Gateways Hong Kong Ltd. was involved in brokering the deal. A key arms broker, Gateways Hong Kong Ltd is also involved in buying spare parts for F-7 and A-5 aircraft. Dr. Naing Htut Aung, a major arms supplier to Myanmar’s military, was also a key weapons dealer for the previous regime led by dictator Senior General Than Shwe. Registered as a director of the Yangon-based International Gateways Group of Companies Ltd., Dr. Naing Htut Aung has had strong ties with successive military leaders, including current Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, sources told The Irrawaddy. He is a key procurer of weapons, spare parts and upgrades for the Navy and Air Force and is an agent for major state-owned Chinese arms producers, said Justice for Myanmar (JFM), an activist group that monitors the military’s businesses, citing a private-sector source with military connections. He was a middleman in the Air Force’s procurement of 16 JF-17 Thunder fighter jets from Pakistan in 2015, and was also a key figure in a joint venture between the Directorate of Myanmar Defense Industries and China National Aero-Technology Import and Export Corporation to produce the K-8 jet trainer and light attack aircraft in Myanmar. His businesses, Gateways International Holding Company and International Gateways Group of Companies, were registered at the same address as Myanmar Consultancy until late 2020..."
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
2022-10-18
Date of entry/update: 2022-10-18
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Description: "The Myanmar regime’s No. 2 man, along with an adviser, a minister and pro-regime media were behind the junta’s decision to take legal action against The Irrawaddy and the BBC Burmese Service for their reporting on last week’s fatal shooting at the base of Kyaik Htee Yoe Pagoda in Mon State. Three Buddhist pilgrims were killed during a firefight between regime troops stationed there and a resistance force on Wednesday. The regime accused an anti-regime People’s Defense Force (PDF) group allied with the Karen National Liberation Army’s Brigade 1, the civilian National Unity Government (NUG) and its parliamentary wing for the attack. It said three people were killed and 19 injured. Local people said the incident began when the resistance group attacked a regime outpost at the site, and the pilgrims were killed when the junta soldiers opened fire in response. The Irrawaddy reported the incident and the BBC Burmese Service interviewed the local resistance group, Thaton PDF, which claimed responsibility for the attack on the outpost but denied opening fire on civilians. The resistance group blamed the junta for the civilian deaths. Other Myanmar media outlets reported the fatal shooting, too. On Friday, the regime announced it would take legal action against the news outlets under the Communications Law, News Media Law and other laws for reporting that security forces opened fire on pilgrims, contradicting its official account. “Pessimistic Irrawaddy and BBC news agencies turned a blind eye to the correct information [which] mentioned security forces opened fire at pilgrims,” the statement said. The Irrawaddy has learned that the junta’s deputy chief, Soe Win, took charge of issuing the orders for legal action to be taken, as junta leader Min Aung Hlaing was in Pyin Oo Lwin at the time. The action against The Irrawaddy came after one of the regime’s advisers, Dr. Yin Yin Nwe, complained about the news outlet’s reporting on the attack on her Facebook page, saying, “This is Fake News! It contradicts all evidence and eyewitness accounts! It is NUG-PDF who murdered our Buddhist pilgrims.” Then, others joined the bandwagon, including regime Minister of International Cooperation Ko Ko Hlaing. He commented under Yin Yin Nwe’s post: “What [matters] is how to counter their black propaganda effectively. I think it is crucial and urgent to do that.” It has been learned that Yin Yin Nwe reported to Soe Win about The Irrawaddy’s story, while pro-regime media organizations Myanmar Hard Talk and Myanmar National Post complained to Chief of Military Security Affairs Lieutenant General Ye Win Oo asking him to take action against the BBC Burmese Service, which has been allowed by the junta to operate inside Myanmar along with 18 other foreign news agencies. Since the coup in February 2021, The Irrawaddy, one of the country’s independent news media outlets, has been targeted by the regime several times for its critical reporting on the junta. Its website has been banned by the regime. In March last year, the military regime sued the news outlet under Article 505 (a) for “disregarding” the armed forces in reporting on the anti-regime protests that were occurring at the time. The police opened a case against The Irrawaddy as a whole rather than individual employees, making it the first news outlet to be sued by the regime after the coup. On two occasions later that year, The Irrawaddy’s office in downtown Yangon was raided by security forces. No one was arrested during the raids, as The Irrawaddy ceased its operation inside Myanmar following the coup. Myanmar has become the world’s second-biggest jailer of journalists since last year’s military takeover, with more than 140 journalists detained. Over 60 remain behind bars and four journalists have died in custody..."
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
2022-10-17
Date of entry/update: 2022-10-17
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Description: "[Warning Graphic] ... According to local news media, on the morning of the 23 May 2022, while families were having breakfast, the military attacked M’dat (မဒပ်) village with artillery shells. A 10-year-old boy and his mother were seriously injured. The child was reportedly in a critical condition, and lost a limb...News sources claimed that the military base of the 274th Light Infantry Battalion in Mindat Town (မင်းတပ်), Mindat Township (မင်းတပ်မိနယ်) was responsible for firing heavy artillery shells at civilian areas that morning... Myanmar Witness collected and analysed open-source footage relating to the incident and made the following conclusions: 1. Myanmar Witness was not able to fully verify the footage of the injured child as being taken in M’dat village. However, possible locations in M’dat village and Mindat Township which are consistent with footage of where a heavily wounded child was taken for medical care were identified...2. There was no verifiable footage of the attack itself to verify how the child’s wounds were incurred, but Myanmar Witness was able to verify the location at which the child was allegedly hit, with what appears to be blood stains on the wall and floor outside of a structure claimed to be the child's home...3. Footage of ammunition reportedly found in M’dat village after the attack are consistent with locally produced 120mm mortar rounds known to be used by the Myanmar military...4. Myanmar Witness verified the presence of a military base within firing range of the village and identified a mortar present at the base, although it was not possible to verify whether it was a model capable of firing these particular rounds...This incident is one of many monitored and analysed by Myanmar Witness, which documents alleged indiscriminate attacks on civilian areas since the coup. Attacks on villages like this are of particular concern as many villages do not have sufficient medical facilities. To read the full report and gain an insight into the techniques used by OSINT investigators, download the full report..."
Source/publisher: Myanmar Witness
2022-09-27
Date of entry/update: 2022-09-27
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "His most recent visit to Russia has made it increasingly clear that junta chief and militarist Min Aung Hlaing is chasing the unrealized dream of his predecessor as military dictator, Than Shwe: to possess a nuclear weapon. Some two decades ago, revealing his desire for an atom bomb as a deterrent against external threats and provocations, Than Shwe told his confidant, then Science and Technology Minister U Thaung, “Ko Thaung, if possible, do make an atom bomb, [I don’t mind] even if it is just the size of a bael fruit.” The military dictator said this during a regular informal evening meeting of generals at the War Office, according to a military official who was in attendance. U Thaung was also a former military officer. Min Aung Hlaing, who was handpicked by Than Shwe, has inherited this dream. During his trip to Russia last week, Min Aung Hlaing again met Alexey Likhachev, director general of Russian state energy company Rosatom. The junta chief previously met him during a weeklong “personal” visit to Russia in July, his second since last year’s coup. On that occasion, the two sides signed memorandums of understanding to cooperate on skills development in nuclear energy in Myanmar, Rosatom said in a release. Last week’s visit saw the regime sign an initial agreement with Russia’s atomic energy agency on the possible implementation of a modular reactor project in Myanmar. Junta spokesman Major General Zaw Min Tun told the press that the project was aimed solely at developing nuclear energy for peaceful use in Myanmar. But it is not the first time the Myanmar military and Rosatom have announced plans to work together on a nuclear project. In 2007 the then military regime led by Than Shwe struck a deal with Rosatom to build a nuclear research center in Myanmar, which Rosatom said would be under the control of the International Atomic Energy Agency. But construction never moved forward amid pushback from the U.S. and other countries. In his speeches, Than Shwe constantly invoked the need for a proper defense capability that would ensure total protection of the country, and to apply science and technology to modernize the military. This perceived need led Than Shwe to approach Russia and North Korea about acquiring technology to produce nuclear energy. Russian and North Korean experts arrived in Myanmar under his rule, and hundreds of Myanmar military officers left for Russian academies to study nuclear science and missile technology. The regime defended its actions by saying the nuclear energy would used for peaceful purposes in the interests of the people—the same justification offered by Min Aung Hlaing’s current regime. The No. 3 man in Than Shwe’s regime, General Shwe Mann, and other military leaders made a secret visit to Pyongyang in 2008 and signed agreements on defense cooperation. In 2012, Shwe Mann, by that time the Speaker of Myanmar’s Lower House under U Thein Sein’s government, said the visit was only intended to study air defense systems, and that only a memorandum of understanding on cooperation between the countries’ militaries was signed during the visit. In 2010, however, Major Sai Thein Win, an engineer in the Myanmar military’s Science and Technology Workshop (known locally as the “nuclear unit”) who received a doctorate in atomic energy in Russia, publicly disclosed information, including photos, showing that the military regime was conducting research, with technological help from North Korea, on possessing nuclear weapons. The nuclear research program was abandoned under U Thein Sein’s quasi-civilian government when the country embarked on its purported “democratic transition” in 2011. Myanmar signed the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in 2016 under the democratically elected government led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy. But since the military coup last year, the two countries have grown closer, with Moscow backing the putsch and Naypyitaw supporting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as both become increasingly isolated internationally under US and European sanctions. Russia has become the regime’s major arms supplier, selling to the regime weapons to crush the resistance movement. Though Min Aung Hlaing publicly says he intends to use nuclear energy peacefully for the socio-economic development of the Myanmar people, it is clear that his real intentions aren’t that simple. He surely feels irritated that the world has shunned him for his coup and subsequent bloody crackdowns on civilians. He may wonder whether possessing militarized nuclear technology would make a difference in that regard—a strategy adopted by North Korea. At the very least, as a military dictator who has demonstrated his total lack of concern for the wellbeing of the people, Min Aung Hlaing’s promise that such technology would be used for peaceful purposes in health and electricity generation is highly suspicious. He clearly believes possessing a nuclear weapon has the potential to guarantee his position as dictator for life..."
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
2022-09-13
Date of entry/update: 2022-09-13
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "Britain has not invited representatives from Russia, Belarus and Myanmar to attend Queen Elizabeth's state funeral due to be held next Monday, a Whitehall source said on Tuesday. Britain, along with its Western allies, has sought to isolate Russia and its ally Belarus on the world stage with economic sanctions and other measures in response to Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. Myanmar and its military have also been the subject of British sanctions as London steps up support for the Southeast Asian country's Rohingya community. About 500 foreign dignitaries are expected to attend Queen Elizabeth's funeral in London, with invites having been sent to the heads of state of most countries with which Britain has diplomatic relations, the BBC said. A host of world leaders from U.S. President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden, to the prime ministers of Canada, Australia and New Zealand have all confirmed attendance for the event, likely to be one of Britain's largest diplomatic gatherings in years..."
Source/publisher: "Reuters" (UK)
2022-09-13
Date of entry/update: 2022-09-13
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Sub-title: Vladimir Putin met with Chairman of the State Administration Council, Prime Minister of the Caretaker Government, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar Min Aung Hlaing on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum.
Description: "President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Mr Prime Minister, colleagues, friends, I am delighted to meet you. Myanmar is our long-standing and reliable partner in Southeast Asia. I believe that next year we will mark 75 years of our diplomatic relations. Our relations are developing positively. The volume of our trade and economic ties is still modest in absolute figures, but the trend is very good: it has increased by 140 percent in the first six months of this year. You visited our country several times in various capacities. This time you have come as Prime Minister of the Caretaker Government and Chairman of the State Administration Council. I know that you have a packed agenda in Russia, which includes a visit to the Vostochny Space Launch Centre. I would like to thank you for accepting our invitation to the Eastern Economic Forum. I am very glad to see you. Welcome. Chairman of the State Administration Council of Myanmar Min Aung Hlaing (retranslated):I am glad to see you too, and I would like to thank you for organising this meeting. Mr President has pointed out correctly that next year we will mark the 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations, which is a major celebration for us. Of course, since the establishment of diplomatic relations we have seen periods of growth and pauses, but 20 years ago our cooperation started developing intensively, and it continues in the same manner now. Your country is a great historic power. Almost 30 years ago, you had a difficult period as well, but you have overcome it, and with your assistance the country has been developing intensively, and we can see that growth pace. I am proud of you that under your leadership Russia has become a number one country in the world, if I may say so. We would like to describe you not as the leader of Russia but the leader of the world, because you are monitoring and masterminding stability in the world. If I may, I would like to share some information with you. Vladimir Putin: I will be delighted..."
Source/publisher: Official Internet Resources of the President of Russia
2022-09-07
Date of entry/update: 2022-09-07
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Sub-title: အမည်ပျက်စာရင်း ကြေညာခြင်းနှင့် ဝန်ထမ်းအဖြစ်မှ ထုတ်ပစ်ခြင်း
Description: "၁။ ပြည်ထောင်စုသမ္မတမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်၊ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရသည် နိုင်ငံ့ဝန်ထမ်းများ အနေဖြင့် အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ လက်အောက်တွင် ဆက်လက်တာဝန်ထမ်းဆောင်ခြင်းမပြုဘဲ ဓမ္မဘက်မှရပ်တည်၍ ပြည်သူနှင့်တစ်သားတည်းဖြစ်စေရန်နှင့် အမိန့်အာဏာဖီဆန်ရေးလှုပ်ရှားမှု(CDM) တွင်ပါဝင်ကြစေရန် အကြိမ်ကြိမ် ဖိတ်ခေါ်ကမ်းလှမ်းခဲ့ပြီး ဖြစ်ပါသည်။ ၂။ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ၊ ပြည်ထောင်စုဝန်ကြီးချုပ်ရုံး အနေဖြင့်လည်း ၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ်၊ အောက်တိုဘာလမှ စတင်၍ အမိန့်အာဏာဖီဆန်ရေးလှုပ်ရှားမှု(CDM)တွင်ပါဝင်ခဲ့ကြပြီး ဝန်ကြီးဌာန မဖွဲ့စည်းရသေးသော ဌာနအသီးသီးမှ နိုင်ငံ့ဝန်ထမ်းသူရဲကောင်းများ၏ လူမှုဖူလုံရေး၊ ဘေးကင်းလုံခြုံရေး နှင့် ဖိအားကင်းစင်ရေးတို့အတွက် အလေးထားဆောင်ရွက်လျက်ရှိပါသည်။ ၃။ သို့ဖြစ်ပါ၍ တရားမဝင် အာဏာသိမ်းစစ်ကောင်စီ၏ လက်အောက်တွင် ဆက်လက်တာဝန် ထမ်းဆောင်နေသော ရန်ကုန်နှင့် မန္တလေး မြို့တော်စည်ပင်သာယာရေးကော်မတီ ဌာနပေါင်းစုံ၏ ဒုတိယညွှန်ကြားရေးမှူးချုပ်မှ ဦးစီးအရာရှိအဆင့်ထိ Non-CDM ဝန်ထမ်းများသည် (က) မြို့နေပြည်သူများအပေါ် သစ္စာစောင့်သိမှုမရှိဘဲ စစ်ကောင်စီအလိုကျ တာဝန်ထမ်းဆောင် နေခြင်း၊ (ခ) စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ တပ်ဖွဲ့ဝင်များလုံခြုံရေးအတွက် ပြည်သူ့ဘဏ္ဍာငွေဖြစ်သည့် စည်ပင် ဘတ်ဂျက်များဖြင့် လုံခြုံရေးဘန်ကာအဆောက်အဦများ အခိုင်အမာတည်ဆောက်ပေးခြင်း၊ (ဂ) စစ်ကောင်စီအား ဆန့်ကျင်သည့်ပြည်သူများအား အလွယ်တကူ ဖမ်းဆီးနှိပ်စက် သတ်ဖြတ် နိုင်ရန်အတွက် CCTV များအား ယခင်ကထက် အဆင့်မြှင့်တင်ကာတပ်ဆင်ပြီး စစ်ကောင်စီ အလိုကျ ဆောင်ရွက်ပေးနေခြင်း၊ (ဃ) တော်လှန်ရေးတွင်ပါဝင်နေသော ပြည်သူများအား စစ်ကောင်စီနှင့် ပူးပေါင်းကာ ကူညီ ဖမ်းဆီးပေးခြင်း၊ (င) စစ်ကောင်စီမှ ကော်မတီရှိ Non-CDM ဝန်ထမ်းများအား ရာထူးတစ်ဆင့်တိုးပေး၍ ခိုင်းစေခြင်းများကို လိုလားကျေနပ်စွာရယူပြီး ပြည်သူ့မျက်နှာမကြည့်ဘဲ တက်ကြွစွာ တာဝန်ထမ်းဆောင်နေခြင်း၊ (စ) တိုင်းပြည်အဘက်ဘက်မှ ယိုယွင်းပျက်စီးနေသည်ကို သိပါသော်လည်း ၎င်းတို့၏ အကျိုး စီးပွားအတွက် အခွင့်ကောင်းယူကာ ပြည်သူ့ဘဏ္ဍာငွေများကို သုံးဖြုန်းနေခြင်း၊ (ဆ) စည်ပင်သာယာ မြေလွတ်မြေရိုင်းများအား စစ်ကောင်စီနှင့် ပူးပေါင်းကာ အလွဲသုံးစား ပြုလုပ်၍ ရောင်းချနေခြင်း၊ (ဇ) ပြည်သူများ ဆင်းရဲဒုက္ခရောက်နေချိန်တွင် ပြည်သူကို သစ္စာဖောက်၍ အကြမ်းဖက် စစ်ကောင်စီအား သစ္စာခံကာ အခွန်အခများ တင်းကြပ်စွာ ကောက်ခံနေခြင်း၊ (ဈ) ပြည်သူ့သစ္စာခံ CDM ဝန်ထမ်းများအား ဖိနှိပ်ခြိမ်းခြောက်ဖမ်းဆီးခြင်းများကို စစ်ကောင်စီနှင့် ပူးပေါင်းကာ ကျူးလွန်နေခြင်း၊ (ည) ရန်ကုန်တိုင်းနှင့် မန္တလေးတိုင်းတို့တွင် စစ်ကောင်စီဝင်များ ခေါင်းထောင်နေသည့် အဓိကအချက်မှာ မြို့တော်စည်ပင်ဝန်ထမ်းများက စစ်ကောင်စီနှင့်ပူးပေါင်းဆောင်ရွက် နေခြင်းများကြောင့်ဖြစ်ခြင်း၊ စသည့်အမျိုးမျိုးသော ဖိနှိပ်မှုများကို ကျူးလွန်နေသောကြောင့် အဆိုပါ “ရန်ကုန်နှင့် မန္တလေးမြို့တော်စည်ပင်သာယာရေး ကော်မတီဌာနပေါင်းစုံ၏ ဒုတိယညွှန်ကြားရေးမှူးချုပ်မှ ဦးစီးအရာရှိအဆင့်ထိ Non-CDM ဝန်ထမ်းများအားလုံး” အား အမည်ပျက်စာရင်းသွင်းလိုက်ပြီး ဝန်ထမ်းအဖြစ်မှ ထုတ်ပစ် (Dismiss) လိုက်သည်။..."
Source/publisher: Office of the Prime Minister of the Union
2022-09-02
Date of entry/update: 2022-09-02
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Sub-title: The bodies of the victims, who were all related, showed evidence of torture, sources said
Description: "Two brothers aged 14 and 15 were among seven people tortured and murdered by junta troops in Sagaing Region’s Shwebo Township on Sunday, according to local sources. The victims, who were all related, were residents of Wun Gyi, a village of around 100 households located in Khin-U Township, near the border with Shwebo. According to a relative, they were detained while travelling together to Thabeikkyin Township in Mandalay Region, where they planned to look for work at a gold mine. “This is a farming village, but a lot of people here also work at the gold mines when they’re not farming. It’s sad to see kids being killed like that,” said the relative. The victims were identified as Min Nyi, 14, Zaw Hein, 15, Kyaw Thu Hein, 19, Phyo Ngwe Soe, 19, and Min Ko, Thura Tun and Nine Nine, who were between the ages of 20 and 22. All were male. Min Nyi and Zaw Hein were both in the seventh grade and had a one-year-old sister, said the relative, who did not want to be named. A resident of Wun Gyi who also spoke on condition of anonymity said that the bodies of the victims had multiple gunshot wounds and showed evidence of torture. “The bodies were riddled with bullets and were all badly bruised. I’m certain they were brutally tortured,” said the villager, who was part of a team that searched for the victims after they were abducted. “We were afraid the military would arrive while we were retrieving the bodies, which were scattered around the road, so we couldn’t get a close look at them. But each one had at least three or four bullet wounds,” he added. According to a member of a local defence force, the seven victims were taken into custody near a high school in the town of Shwebo, but their bodies were found on Monday in Khin-U Township. “They were just dumped in a field near Ywar Thar. They were regular villagers who went out to work to make ends meet,” he said, adding that the site was around 5km north of a military recruitment and training centre. Myanmar Now tried to contact police in Shwebo for comment, but all calls went unanswered. Residents of Wun Gyi confirmed that the seven boys and young men killed on Sunday were the village’s first casualties since last year’s coup, which has met with strong resistance in Sagaing and other parts of the country..."
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Source/publisher: "Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
2022-08-17
Date of entry/update: 2022-08-17
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Description: "Myanmar’s military regime has extended emergency rule for another six months, a tacit admission that its coup has failed. On Sunday, the regime summoned a meeting of the National Defense and Security Council (NDSC), the highest authority in Myanmar. Under the 2008 military-drafted constitution, the chief of the Myanmar military can order a state of emergency for one year and then renew the order twice more for a period of six months each time. The latest extension means the state of emergency will last for at least two years, a sign that coup leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing has failed to restore normalcy to the country. Last February, the military seized power in a coup, justifying its power grab by alleging massive voter fraud in the 2020 general election which Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) Party won in a landslide. Min Aung Hlaing’s laughable statistics Min Aung Hlaing told the NDSC meeting that there have been over 7,000 mine blasts, 6,000 attacks and 1,000 arson attacks by the parallel National Unity Government and its armed wing, the People’s Defense Forces, in the 18 months since the putsch. If those figures are regarded as true, it shows that the military, which swallows up the lion’s share of the country’s annual budget, is disproportionately weak. Sagaing Region saw the most resistance activity with over 4,000 attacks, according to the junta boss, while Yangon saw nearly 2,500 attacks, Mandalay over 2,000 attacks and Magwe over 1,300 attacks. Stability has yet to be restored in those regions. Over 3,000 civil servants, including administrative staff as well as junta supporters, have been killed since the coup and around 3,000 more injured, said Min Aung Hlaing. It appears that he has included slain members and supporters of the military’s proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) in those figures. When UDSP Chair U Than Htay met the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Special Envoy on Myanmar last month, he told him that more than 1,800 USDP members had been killed by anti-regime forces. But Min Aung Hlaing made no mention of the air and artillery strikes, arbitrary killings and arson attacks carried out by his soldiers. More than 2,000 people have died at the hands of the junta, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, and some 15,000 have been detained since the coup. Across the country, over 1.2 million people are currently displaced, including nearly 866,400 people displaced by the conflict since the military takeover, said the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Myanmar. The coup leader made himself a laughing stock as he told the NDSC meeting that Myanmar has run a US$1 billion trade surplus under his rule. Myanmar is dependent on imports and has always run a trade deficit under successive governments. Thanks to Min Aung Hlaing’s wild monetary policies, Myanmar is now facing a severe shortage of US dollars and Myanmar’s currency the kyat has slumped against the greenback, with the exchange rate hitting around 2,800 kyats to a dollar in the open market now. Sham NDSC, sham election After reading out those statistics at the NDSC meeting, Min Aung Hlaing proposed extending military rule for another six months and the country’s acting president U Myint Swe, a former Lieutenant General, nodded in agreement. Since the coup, the nominal president has only appeared in public three times, when Min Aung Hlaing held three NDSC meetings to declare and renew the state of emergency in an effort to pretend that the coup is in accordance with law. Another person who has only appeared at NDSC meetings is former Lower House speaker T Khun Myat. He has been involved in politics since the 2008 constitution was drafted, and will go down in Myanmar history as a politician who cares only about keeping his seat in parliament, regardless of the country’s situation under successive governments, whether Senior General Than Shwe’s former junta, U Thein Sein’s quasi-civilian government, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s NLD government or the current regime. All the other NDSC members are generals. Even the foreign minister, which is supposed to be a civilian position in the NDSC, is a former colonel. So the meeting was just a sham to fool people into believing that emergency rule was extended in accordance with law. Also a sham is the proposed election that the regime has promised to hold in August next year. Few people believe that any poll staged by the junta will be free and fair. The regime has appointed U Thein Soe as the chairman of Union Election Commission to oversee the upcoming election. The former Major General previously oversaw the 2010 general election, which is widely believed to have been rigged in favor of the USDP. The NLD, which enjoys overwhelming popular support in Myanmar, has said that it will boycott the proposed junta-organized election. As the regime is planning to introduce proportional representation in the upcoming election, it will need time to educate voters about the new system and, even in normal times, one year is not enough time to do that, said observers. At the NDSC meeting, Min Aung Hlaing said that the Myanmar military will serve as the guardian of the country. Acting President U Myint Swe also asked the military to serve as the guardian for the country’s interests. Min Aung Hlaing has denied staging a coup, and has insisted instead that the Myanmar military is only playing the role of an interim government under the constitution until the next election. His lie will soon be exposed as, according to the constitution, no military chief can hold power under emergency rule for more than two years..."
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
2022-08-03
Date of entry/update: 2022-08-03
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Description: "Russia is a major supplier of military hardware to the Myanmar regime, and enhanced military-to-military ties, which began even before the junta seized power in February 2021, have only been stepped up since the coup. With the arrival of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Naypyitaw on Wednesday for talks with junta leaders, The Irrawaddy revisits this commentary originally published in March of this year, shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, examining the implications of the junta and Moscow’s show of mutual support. The generals who have engaged in brutal atrocities and applied a scorched earth strategy in Myanmar will surely be following the news from Ukraine closely. The immediate question that arises is, do they want Russian President Vladimir Putin and his invading army to succeed? Perhaps. As the invasion of Ukraine was beginning, Myanmar, a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), sounded decidedly out of step with the rest of the world when a spokesperson for Myanmar’s military council voiced support for Putin’s aggression, offering two reasons. “No. 1 is that Russia has worked to consolidate its sovereignty,” he said. “I think this is the right thing to do. No. 2 is to show the world that Russia is a world power.” Of course, this is garbage. The junta’s quick show of support for Russia’s aggression is hardly surprising; Russia is a major supplier of military hardware to the regime, and enhanced military-to-military ties have been cemented since the coup. Moscow sent a high-level military delegation led by Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to Myanmar two weeks before last year’s coup. Moscow knew of the coup in advance and promised to supply arms, training, hardware and surveillance technology to the regime. Since the coup, the two sides have exchanged numerous visits. Indeed, the relationship has grown worryingly warm. However, this Russia-Myanmar friendship doesn’t include the Myanmar people. For their part, the oppressed people of Myanmar loathe both Russia and China, and whoever else supports the regime. On March 27 last year, the regime celebrated Armed Forces Day, which historically has marked the day the people took up arms against the occupying Japanese in the 1940s. On the same day, the regime’s forces slaughtered more than 100 people across the country, making it the bloodiest single day since the generals seized power less than two months earlier. By that point, the international community including most Western nations had long since condemned the military regime, but Russian Deputy Defense Minister Colonel General Alexander Vasilyevich Fomin chose to travel to Naypyitaw to attend the 76th annual Armed Forces Day commemorations. Soon citizens, farmers, schoolteachers and children were bearing the brunt as Russian-made jet fighters and helicopters were deployed to drop bombs and fire missiles and machine guns at them. Many have died since the regime launched a brutal war against its own people. Not only Russian but also Chinese-made weapons have killed many innocent people in Myanmar. They, too, are implicated in the post-coup human tragedy in Myanmar. Like Putin and his army, Min Aung Hlaing and his soldiers behave like foreign invaders, but they do so in their own country. The regime faces strong resistance, encountering many form of protest as well as armed rebellion across the country. A year after attempting to stage a coup, the Myanmar regime still does not control the country or the people. Did Min Aung Hlaing underestimate the Myanmar people? Since Russia launched its invasion, Ukraine’s people have displayed great bravery. This has been well noted in the international community; the reaction from the West has been tough and Russia is being cut out of the global financial system. Both Senior General Min Aung Hlaing and Putin have underestimated the people they seek to subdue, and the resistance to their aggression. Should Putin fail to assert control over Ukraine, Min Aung Hlaing’s “grand strategy” of bringing Russia into Myanmar’s political landscape after the takeover will seem as delusional as his coup plan itself. He must be worried. Days after the invasion of Ukraine, after the spokesman expressed the regime’s stance in support of Moscow, top brass in Myanmar held a meeting to discuss the crisis in Ukraine and its impact on and consequences for Myanmar. The generals are worried about the West’s financial sanctions—Myanmar’s arms dealers have bank accounts in Russia—and the supply of hardware will slow. Since the coup, the West, including the US and the EU, has imposed stiff sanctions on the Myanmar military, state-owned companies and business cronies of the regime, but more needs to be done. At the meeting, it is understood that the generals were also curious about China’s position on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Details are sketchy but it seems they were mostly interested in China’s strategic goals, and how they—and future China-Myanmar relations—might be impacted if Russia botches its invasion of Ukraine. In its public pronouncements, the Chinese government has urged all sides to de-escalate tensions in Ukraine. Since the military takeover in Myanmar on Feb. 1, China has repeatedly insisted that the armed forces’ seizure of power from the democratically elected government is Myanmar’s internal affair, including at the UN Security Council (UNSC) and at Human Rights Council meetings. The Myanmar people dislike China and its stance toward the coup, just as they dislike Russia for the same reason. Since the coup, China has faced massive anti-China protests in Myanmar and boycotts of Chinese products. China-backed factories in Myanmar have been torched and threats against China-backed gas pipelines issued. Beijing has voiced serious concern over the security of its pipelines; anti-junta groups in Myanmar have countered by saying that whether or not they are blown up is an “internal affair”, mocking China’s own rationale for blocking other nations’ attempts at the UN to condemn the military takeover. In the meantime, the generals are likely to beef up security for Chinese interests and projects in Myanmar, and Min Aung Hlaing will do whatever is necessary to accommodate both Russia and China. At the end of the day, his aim is to rule the country with his blood-soaked hands, and he will make friends with either Russia or China in order to achieve this. There is some pride at stake for Min Aung Hlaing in Putin’s invasion of Ukraine: The general wants to show the people of Myanmar, and especially his opponents, that his allies are winners. If things go badly for Putin, the Myanmar people will feel vindicated and Min Aung Hlaing and his hardline thugs will feel they have attached themselves to the losing side. Since the coup, Myanmar has quickly descended into chaos. As the human and economic costs of the long and bloody coup attempt mount it will only become more difficult for the regime to exert control and consolidate its grip on the country. Min Aung Hlaing’s regime sees Myanmar’s citizens as enemies; therefore, its coup has failed. Lacking legitimacy, the regime in Myanmar today is a pariah. If murderer-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing and his military are allowed to win, the Myanmar people will forever remain slaves, subject to tyranny. Dark days lie ahead for both Ukraine and Myanmar. The resistance in Ukraine has already earned the admiration of the entire world, just as the efforts of Myanmar’s various resistance forces, including groups engaged in armed rebellion, have surprised many at home and abroad. Knowing they would be fired upon, a group of Ukrainian soldiers guarding a military facility on Snake Island in the Black Sea told a Russian warship to “go fuck yourself”. In Myanmar last year, protesters, faced with rows of soldiers and tanks, exclaimed: “Fuck the coup!” We cannot allow Min Aung Hlaing or Putin to succeed, or let one feel vindication in the success of the other..."
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Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
2022-08-04
Date of entry/update: 2022-08-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "BACKGROUND ON ANU 2009 MYANMAR/BURMA UPDATE CONFERENCE: Preparations are under way for the first elections in Myanmar/Burma since 1990, to be held in 2010 as part of the military regime’s “Road Map for Democracy”. The conditions under which the elections will be held are far from favourable, although the laws and procedures under which they will be conducted have not yet been announced. Political controls remain repressive, freedom of expression and assembly does not exist, and international access is restricted by government controls as well as sanctions. Nevertheless, is this a turning point for Myanmar/Burma? Presenters at the Australian National University 2009 Myanmar/Burma Update conference examined these questions and more. Speakers were leading experts from the United States, Japan, France, and Australia, as well as from Myanmar/Burma.....ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: We greatly appreciate the ongoing and generous support of the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), without whose financial support the 2009 Australian National University Myanmar/Burma Update Conference would not have been possible. AusAID’s encouragement has gone much further that just providing financial support, and helped organizers improve the focus and structure on the conference. We are also grateful for the steadfast backing we have always received from the Department of Political and Social Change, in the ANU College of Asia and the Pacific, especially from the current and former Heads of Department, Paul Hutchcroft and Ed Aspinall, respectively. Finally, we thank the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) in Singapore, which was once again prepared to publish the conference papers, and copy-editor John Owen for his prompt and fine copy-editing. Last but not least, this publication would not have amounted to anything without the willingness of the contributors to devote time and thought to their chapters, which makes this project worthwhile..."
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Source/publisher: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies Singapore
2010-00-00
Date of entry/update: 2022-08-03
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Description: "၂၀၂၂ ခုနှစ် ဇူလိုင်လ ၂၃ ရက်နေ့ နံနက်ပိုင်းတွင် အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်အုပ်စု၏ ဝါဒဖြန့်ချိရေး လမ်းကြောင်းများမှနေ၍ ဦးကျော်မင်းယု(ခ) ဦးဂျင်မီ ၊ ဦးဖြိုးဇေယျာသော် ၊ ဦးလှမျိုးအောင် နှင့် ဦးအောင်သူရဇော်တို့အား ပြစ်ဒဏ်စီရင်ဆောင်ရွက်ပြီးဖြစ်သည်ဟု ထုတ်ပြန်ကြေညာခဲ့သည်ကို တွေ့ရှိရပါသည်။ အဆိုပါ ထုတ်ပြန်မှုနှင့် ပတ်သက်ပြီး အင်းစိန်အကျဉ်းထောင်သို့ သွားရောက်စုံစမ်းမေးမြန်းသော မိသားစုဝင်များကို အကျဉ်းထောင်အာဏာပိုင်များက ထုတ်ပြန်ချက်အတိုင်းဖြစ်သည်ဟု အတည်ပြုခဲ့ပြီး ကျန်ရစ်သော ရုပ်ကလာပ်များကိုလဲ ပေးအပ်နိုင်ခြင်းမရှိကြောင်း အကြောင်းပြန်ခဲ့သည်ဟု သိရှိရပါသည်။ ၈၈ မျိုးဆက် ကျောင်းသားခေါင်းဆောင်တစ်ဦးဖြစ်ပြီး ၈၈ မျိုးဆက် ငြိမ်းချမ်းရေးနှင့် ပွင့်လင်းလူ့အဖွဲ့အစည်း၏ ထူထောင်သူတစ်ဦးလဲဖြစ် မြန်မာ့ဒီမိုကရေစီအရေး တက်ကြွလှုပ်ရှားသူ တစ်ဦးလဲဖြစ်သည့် ဦးကျော်မင်းယု(ခ) ဦးဂျင်မီ နှင့် အမျိုးသားဒီမိုကရေစီအဖွဲ့ချုပ် အဖွဲ့ဝင်တစ်ဦးဖြစ်ပြီး ပြည်သူ့လွှတ်တော်ကိုယ်စားလှယ် တစ်ဦးဖြစ်ခဲ့သည့် ဦးဖြိုးဇေယျာသော် အပါအဝင် ဦးလှမျိုးအောင်နှင့် ဦးအောင်သူရဇော်တို့အား တရားဥပဒေမဲ့စွာ သတ်ဖြတ်ခဲ့သည့် အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ လုပ်ရပ်သည် ဥပဒေအရ၊ လူ့ကျင့်ဝတ်စံနှုန်းများအရ မည်သည့်နည်းနှင့်မျှ လက်သင့်ခံနိုင်ဖွယ်မရှိသောလုပ်ရပ်ဖြစ်ကာ အဆိုပါ ကိစ္စရပ်တွင် တာဝန်ရှိသူ တစ်ဦးတစ်ယောက် မကျန် တာဝန်ယူမှု၊ တာဝန်ခံမှုရှိစွာဖြင့် တရားဥပဒေနှင့်အညီ အပြစ်ပေးအရေးယူခံရစေရေးအတွက် အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ အနေဖြင့် နိုင်ငံရေးနည်းလမ်း၊ နိုင်ငံခြားရေးနည်းလမ်း၊ စစ်ရေးနည်းလမ်း စသည့် နည်းလမ်းပေါင်းစုံဖြင့် ထိရောက်ပြင်းထန်သော တုံ့ပြန်ဆောင်ရွက် မှုများကို စနစ်တကျ စီစဉ်ဆောင်ရွက် သွားမည်ဖြစ်သည်။ အကျဉ်းထောင်အတွင်း တရားမဲ့သတ်ဖြတ်ခံခဲ့ရသူများအပါအဝင် နွေဦးတော်လှန်ရေးကာလ တလျောက် အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ မတရား ဖမ်းဆီး နှိပ်စက် သတ်ဖြတ်မှုများကြောင့် ကျဆုံးခဲ့ကြရသည့် နွေဦးသူရဲကောင်းအားလုံးတို့၏ ရင်းနှီးပေးဆပ်ခဲ့မှုများအတွက် ကျန်ရစ်သူ မိသားစုများ၊ မိတ်ဆွေသူငယ်ချင်းများ အားလုံးနှင့်ထပ်တူ ပူဆွေးဝမ်းနည်းရပါကြောင်း ဖော်ပြလျက် ဦးညွတ်အလေးပြုအပ်ပါသည်။ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေး အစိုးရအနေဖြင့် ကျဆုံးသွားကြသော နွေဦးသူရဲကောင်းများ၏ ကျေးဇူးဂုဏ်ကို ဦးထိပ်ပန်လျက် အကြမ်းဖက် ဖက်ဆစ်ဝါဒ မြန်မာ့မြေပေါ်မှ အပြီးတိုင် အမြစ်ပြတ်ပျောက်ကွယ်သွားစေရေးကို ပြည်သူလူထုနှင့်အတူ တွဲလက်မြဲမြံစွာဖြင့် အဆုံးတိုင် တိုက်ပွဲဝင်သွားမည်ဟု သန္နိဌာန်ပြုပါသည်။ ပြည်သူများ၊ မြေပြင်တွင် အသက်စွန့် တိုက်ပွဲဝင်နေကြသည့် တော်လှန်ရေးရဲဘော် ရဲဘက်များအားလုံး သည်လည်း ပူဆွေးဝမ်းနည်းစိတ်၊ နာကျင်ခံပြင်းစိတ်များကို စိတ်ခွန်အားများအဖြစ်ပြောင်းလဲပြီး တော်လှန်ရေးကို ကျရာနေရာမှပါဝင်ကာ အောင်မြင်ပြီးဆုံးသည်အထိ မဆုတ်မနစ် တိုက်ပွဲဝင်သွားကြမည်ဟု ယုံကြည်ပါသည်။ ဒီမိုကရေစီအရေးတက်ကြွလှုပ်ရှားသူ တော်လှန်ရေးခေါင်းဆောင်များအား ယခုကဲ့သို့ တရားမဲ့ကျူးလွန် သတ်ဖြတ်သည့် အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်တပ်၏ လုပ်ရပ်သည် နိုင်ငံ၏အကျပ်အတည်းကို နိုင်ငံရေးနည်းလမ်းဖြင့် ငြိမ်းချမ်းစွာ အဖြေရှာရန် လုံးဝဆန္ဒမရှိသည်ကို ထပ်မံသက်သေထူပြသခြင်း ဖြစ်ပေသည်။ အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်တပ်အား အပြုသဘောဖြင့် ဆက်ဆံချဉ်းကပ်ခြင်းသည် လက်ရှိရင်ဆိုင်နေရသည့် မြန်မာ့နိုင်ငံရေးအကျပ်အတည်းကို ပြေလည်စေမည့် အဖြေဖြစ်နိုင် လိမ့်မည်ဟု ယုံကြည်နေသူများအနေဖြင့်လည်း အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ခေါင်းဆောင်တို့၏ သဘောထား အမှန်ကို နားလည်သဘောပေါက်ကြသင့်ပြီဖြစ်သည်။ ဒီမိုကရေစီနှင့် လူ့အခွင့်အရေးကို လေးစားတန်ဖိုးထားကြသော နိုင်ငံတကာအဖွဲ့အစည်းများနှင့် မိတ်ဖက် နိုင်ငံများအနေဖြင့် အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်အုပ်စု၏ ရက်စက်ကြမ်းကြုတ်သော လုပ်ရပ်များ ရပ်တန့်ပြီး နောင်အနာဂတ်တွင် ယခုကဲ့သို့ကျူးလွန်မှုများ ထပ်မံပေါ်ပေါက်ခြင်းမရှိစေရန်အတွက် မြန်မာပြည်သူလူထု၊ ပြည်ထောင်စုလွှတ်တော် ကိုယ်စားပြုကော်မတီ၊ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအတိုင်ပင်ခံကောင်စီ၊ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ၊ တိုင်းရင်းသားညီနောင်အင်အားစုများ၊ ဒီမိုကရေစီအရေး လှုပ်ရှားရုန်းကန်နေကြသူများနှင့် အတူရပ်တည်ပြီး မြန်ဆန်ထိရောက်သော အကူအညီများ ပေးခြင်းဖြင့် လူသားမျိုးနွယ်စု တစ်ခုလုံးအပေါ်ခြိမ်းခြောက်လျက်ရှိသည့် အကြမ်းဖက် ဖက်ဆစ်စနစ်ကို အဆုံးသတ်ပေးကြရန် တိုက်တွန်းပြောကြားလိုက်သည်။..."
Source/publisher: National Unity Government of Myanmar
2022-07-25
Date of entry/update: 2022-07-25
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "၁။ စစ်အာဏာရှင်များအား ဆန့်ကျင်တော်လှန်သူများဖြစ်ကြသည့် ကိုကျော်မင်းယု (ခ) ကိုဂျင်မီ၊ ကိုဖြိုးဇေယျာသော်၊ ကိုလှမျိုးအောင်၊ ကိုအောင်သူရဇော် တို့အား သေဒဏ်စီရင်လိုက် ကြောင်း သတင်းထုတ်ပြန်ခဲ့မှုအပေါ် ပြည်ထောင်စုလွှတ်တော်ကိုယ်စားပြုကော်မတီအနေဖြင့် များစွာ တုန်လှုပ်မိပြီး ၎င်းတို့၏ မိသားစုဝင်များ၊ မြန်မာပြည်သူလူထုတို့နှင့်အတူ များစွာ ဝမ်းနည်းကြေကွဲရပါသည်။ ၂။ လူသတ်ခေါင်းဆောင် မင်းအောင်လှိုင် ခေါင်းဆောင်သည့် အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်တပ် သည် နိုင်ငံတော်၏ အာဏာအား လက်နက်အားကိုးဖြင့် ဥပဒေမဲ့ လုယူထားသော တရားမဝင် အကြမ်းဖက်အုပ်စုသာ ဖြစ်ပါသည်။ ၎င်းတို့သည် ပြည်သူလူထု၏ အခွန်ဘဏ္ဍာဖြင့် ဝယ်ယူ ထားသည့် လက်နက်အားကိုးဖြင့် မြန်မာပြည်သူများအပေါ်၌ ယင်းကဲ့သို့ လူမဆန်သော ဖိနှိပ် သတ်ဖြတ်မှုများကို အစဉ်တစ်စိုက် လုပ်ဆောင်နေလျက်ရှိသည်။ နိုင်ငံတကာအသိုက်အဝန်း အနေဖြင့် ဒီမိုကရေစီအား ထိန်းသိမ်းကာကွယ်ရန် စစ်အာဏာရှင်များအား ဆန့်ကျင်တိုက်ပွဲ ဝင်နေကြသည့် မြန်မာပြည်သူများအား ထိရောက်စွာ အားပေးထောက်ခံရန်နှင့် ပံ့ပိုးကူညီ ပေးရန်လည်း အထူးလိုအပ်ပါသည်။ ၃။ ထို့ပြင် ဥပဒေမဲ့ အာဏာလုယူထားသည့် အကြမ်းဖက်လူသတ်စစ်အုပ်စုအား သက်ဆိုးရှည်စေမည့် မည်သို့သော ပူးပေါင်းဆောင်ရွက်မှုမျိုးမျှ လက်တွဲလုပ်ဆောင်ခြင်းမပြုဘဲ ပိုမိုထိရောက်သော သံတမန်ရေး၊ စီးပွားရေး ဖိအားပေးမှုတို့ကို တိုးမြှင့်လုပ်ဆောင်သွားရန် အထူးတိုက်တွန်းအပ်ပါသည်။ နိုင်ငံတကာအသိုက်အဝန်း၏ တုံ့ပြန်ဆောင်ရွက်ချက်တို့သည် မြန်မာပြည်သူတို့၏ အသက်ပေါင်းများစွာကို ကယ်တင်နိုင်လိမ့်မည်ဖြစ်ပြီး ယင်းသည် ကမ္ဘာ့ နိုင်ငံများက ဒီမိုကရေစီအား မည်မျှ တန်ဖိုးထားသည်ကိုလည်း သက်သေပြခြင်းပင် ဖြစ်ပါသည်။ ၄။ ပြည်ထောင်စုလွှတ်တော်ကိုယ်စားပြုကော်မတီအနေဖြင့် ကိုကျော်မင်းယု (ခ) ကိုဂျင်မီ၊ ကိုဖြိုးဇေယျာသော်တို့ အပါအဝင် ဒီမိုကရေစီအား ကာကွယ်ရန် ကြိုးပမ်းသူများအပေါ် အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ကောင်စီက သေဒဏ်စီရင်ခဲ့မှုအပေါ် ပြင်းပြင်းထန်ထန် ကန့်ကွက်ရှုတ်ချပြီး လူသတ်ခေါင်းဆောင် မင်းအောင်လှိုင် ခေါင်းဆောင်သည့် အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်အုပ်စု၏ ကျူးလွန်ခဲ့ သည့် ရာဇဝတ်မှုများအတွက် အပြစ်ပေးအရေးယူဆောင်ရွက်နိုင်ရေး မြန်မာပြည်သူလူထုနှင့် အတူ ဆက်လက်ကြိုးပမ်းဆောင်ရွက်သွားမည် ဖြစ်ကြောင်း ထုတ်ပြန်အပ်ပါသည်။..."
Source/publisher: Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw
2022-07-25
Date of entry/update: 2022-07-25
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "Thai Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai told the country’s media that Myanmar had promised to send a written apology to Bangkok for the incursion by a Myanmar Air Force MiG-29 fighter jet into Thai airspace over Tak Province’s Phop Phra district on June 30. Don met his Myanmar junta counterpart, Wunna Maung Lwin, during the 7th Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Bagan, Myanmar on Monday. The duo also discussed a number of issues including the intrusion into Thai airspace by the Myanmar jet, according to the Bangkok Post. The Thai minister said Wunna Maung Lwin expressed regret over the incident, saying it was unintentional and that his government would send an official letter of apology. Last week, the Royal Thai Air Force scrambled two F-16 jet fighters after an aircraft, believed to be a Russian-made MiG-29 of the Myanmar Air Force, intruded into Thai airspace over the western province of Tak while conducting an air strike against anti-regime rebels and anti-coup forces positioned near the border. For the past two weeks, Myanmar’s military regime has conducted massive airstrikes against resistance forces attempting to seize the junta’s strategic Ukayit Hta military outpost in Waw Lay in Karen State’s Myawaddy Township. On Thursday last week, the Myanmar jet fighter intruded into Thai airspace several times as it conducted a mission over Ukayit Hta to assist ground troops. The heavy air strikes have prevented ethnic Karen and joint resistance forces from capturing the strategic outpost, and according to Karen insurgent leaders, have effectively made it impossible for their forward forces to retreat. The Thai government has downplayed the incursion. Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha said it was not a big deal as the Myanmar jet did not intend to intrude into Thai airspace but was merely trying to make a turn. Some Thai MPs have asked the government to clarify why the Myanmar jet fighter was allowed to enter Thai airspace while attacking resistance forces and civilians on the border. Don said his Myanmar counterpart had given him a guarantee that there would be no repeat of the incident. It is unclear how the regime intends to honor the guarantee, however, as its forces are still attacking and bombing ethnic insurgents, resistance forces and villages along the Thai border. Thai troops are now patrolling the area on the border where the incursion took place last week. Under an agreement reached by the Thai-Myanmar Township Border Committee, if artillery shells land on the Thai side of the border, Thailand will fire smoke grenades as a warning. If the shelling continues in a way that could endanger Thai people, the Thai side is authorized to return fire with live ammunition, the Bangkok Post quoted Don as quoted saying. Just a day before the incursion, coup leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing met with a Royal Thai Army general to discuss stability and anti-terrorism in border areas, among other issues. A Myanmar junta media mouthpiece said the Thai general “paid respect” to Min Aung Hlaing, who staged a coup last year and continues to face strong resistance to his rule. Junta-controlled newspapers said Min Aung Hlaing received the Thai military delegation headed by Lieutenant General Apichet Suesat in the Myanmar capital Naypyitaw. The delegation was in the country to attend the 34th meeting of the Thailand-Myanmar Regional Border Committee hosted by Myanmar. The meeting was held in the Shan State capital Taunggyi, but the Thai delegation was invited to meet Min Aung Hlaing in Naypyitaw. Lt-Gen Apichet is the commander of the Third Army Region (TAR), which encompasses border areas in northern Thailand neighboring Myanmar. The TAR has been one of the most active commands in terms of dealing with the fallout from the conflict in frontier areas inside Myanmar following last year’s coup, as well as dealing with illegal migrants from Myanmar who slip across the border into Thailand in search of work. Thailand shares a more than 2,400-km-long frontier with Myanmar. Since the coup, the Myanmar Air Force has effectively deployed jet fighters and helicopters to continue to bomb and attack civilian populations and resistance fighters. Over the past two decades it has purchased advanced fighters mainly from Russia and China. Since 2000, Myanmar’s military leaders have sought to replace the Air Force’s aging jet fighters with modern ones. Myanmar’s military acquired 12 Russian MiG-29 jet fighters in 2001, following clashes with Thai forces in northern border regions. The Thais at the time deployed US made F-16s jet fighters and apparently alarmed the Myanmar military leaders with their air defense capabilities. Last week, this publication also reported that Russia delivered the first two of six new Su-30 jet fighters to Myanmar in March. The Su-30 is a twin-engine, two-seat supermaneuverable fighter jet developed by Russia’s Sukhoi Aviation Corporation. It is a multirole fighter for all-weather, air-to-air and air interdiction missions. The multirole fighters were used by Russia in Syria in 2015. Russia agreed to sell six Su-30 fighter jets to the Myanmar military in 2018..."
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
2022-07-07
Date of entry/update: 2022-07-07
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "ခေတ်အဆက်ဆက် စစ်အာဏာရှင်များသာ မအုပ်ချုပ်ခဲ့လျှင် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံသည် ကမ္ဘာတွင် အချမ်းသာဆုံးသောနိုင်ငံ တစ်နိုင်ငံဖြစ်နေတာကြာပြီ။ အကြမ်းဖက် စစ်ခေါင်းဆောင် အာဏာရှင် နေဝင်းက မတ်လ၊ (၂) ရက်နေ့၊ ၁၉၆၂ ခုနှစ်တွင် ပြည်သူ့အာဏာကို စစ်လက်နက်များ အသုံးပြုပြီး မသိမ်းခဲ့လျှင် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံသည် အာဆီယံတွင်သာမကပဲ ကမ္ဘာ့အလယ်တွင် အချမ်းသာဆုံး၊ အကောင်းဆုံးနိုင်ငံ တစ်နိုင်ငံဖြစ်မည်ကို မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ၏ အရင်က ချမ်းသာကြွယ်ဝမှုများက သက်သေ ပြနေပါသည်။ အကယ်၍ လွန်ခဲ့သော နှစ်ပေါင်း (၆၀)တွင် ဤကဲ့သို့သော အကြမ်းဖက် စစ်ခေါင်းဆောင်များ မထွန်းကားခဲ့လျှင် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံသည် G7 တွင် ပါဝင်သောနိုင်ငံ၊ အာရှတိုက် တစ်ခုလုံးကို အကျိုးပြုသော နိုင်ငံ၊ အဖွံ့ဖြိုးဆုံး၊ အတိုးတက်ဆုံးနိုင်ငံဖြစ်မည်ကို မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ၏ ချမ်းသာကြွယ်ဝခဲ့သော သမိုင်းက သက်သေပြ လျက်ရှိပါသည်။ လွန်ခဲ့သော နှစ်(၆၀) ဇူလိုင်လ (၇)ရက်နေ့၊ ၁၉၆၂ ခုနှစ်တွင် ငြိမ်းချမ်းစွာ ဆန္ဒပြနေသော ကျောင်းသားများကို အကြမ်းဖက် ဖြိုခွင်းခဲ့သည်။ ကျောင်းသားတွေ အမြတ်တနိုးထားရာ ကျောင်းသားသမဂ္ဂ အဆောက်အအုံကို ဗုံးဖောက်ခွဲ ဖျက်စီးခဲ့သည်။ ဤသွေးစွန်းခဲ့သော နေ့ရက်ကို ဆဲလ်ဗင်း ဇူလိုင်ဟု သတ်မှတ်ကာ နှစ်စဉ်အောက်မေ့ သတိရခဲ့ကြသည်။ ဤအကြမ်းဖက် စစ်ခေါင်းဆောင်များသည် ကျွန်ုပ်တို့ ဘိုးဘွားခေတ်၊ မိဘခေတ်၊ ယခု ကျွန်ုပ်တို့ ခေတ်အထိ ခေတ်အဆက်ဆက် ကျွန်ုပ်တို့ မြန်မာပြည်သူများကို ခေါင်းပုံဖြတ်ခြင်း၊ ရက်စက်ခြင်း၊ သတ်ဖြတ်ခြင်း၊ မုဒိမ်းကျင့်ခြင်း၊ အစုလိုက်အပြုံလိုက်သတ်ဖြတ်ခြင်း၊ ရွာများကို မီးရှို့ဖျက်ဆီးခြင်း၊ ဖိနှိပ်ချုပ်ခြယ်ခြင်း၊ နိုင်ငံ၏ ချမ်းသာကြွယ်ဝမှုများကို ခိုးယူခြင်း၊ ၎င်းခိုးယူထားသည့် ငွေဖြင့် စစ်လက်နက်များကို ဝယ်ယူခြင်း၊ ၎င်းဝယ်ယူ ထားသည့် စစ်လက်နက်များဖြင့် ပြည်သူများ၏ နေရပ်များကို လေယာဉ် ဖြင့် ဗုံးကြဲခြင်း၊ အောက်ခြေမြေပြင်တွင် စစ်လက်နက်အမျိုးမျိုးဖြင့် တိုက်ခိုက်ခြင်း၊ သတ်ဖြတ်ခြင်း စသည့် ရာဇဝတ်မှု အမျိုးမျိုးကို သမိုင်းတလျှောက် ကျူးလွန်ခဲ့ကြသည်။ အကြမ်းဖက် စစ်ခေါင်းဆောင်များသည် မြန်မာ နိုင်ငံ လွတ်လပ်ရေးမရခင်ကတည်းကပင် မြန်မာပြည်သူလူထုကို စစ်ကျွန်ဘဝအောက်ထားဖို့ရန်အတွက် ရည်ရွယ်ချက်ရှိရှိ ပြင်ဆင်လုပ်ဆောင်လာခဲ့ပါသည်။ လွန်ခဲ့သော နှစ်ပေါင်း (၆၀) ကိုနောက်လှည့်ကြည့် လိုက်လျှင် ကမ္ဘာကို ထမင်းကျွေးနိုင်သော မြန်မာနိုင်ငံကို တွေ့ရမည်။ ကိုးရီးယားကျွန်းဆွယ်တွင် စစ်ဖြစ်တုန်းက စားစရာ ဆန်မရှိသောကြောင့် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံက ပို့ပေးခဲ့ရဖူးသည်။ လွန်ခဲ့သော နှစ်ပေါင်း (၆၀) ကို နောက်လှည့်ကြည့်လိုက်လျှင် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ ၏ ပညာရေးစနစ်၊ ချမ်းသာကြွယ်ဝမှုကို စင်ကာပူနိုင်ငံ ကတောင် အားကျရပြီး မြန်မာနိုင်ငံကဲ့သို့ ဖြစ်ချင်ခဲ့သည်။ စစ်ခေါင်းဆောင်များ၏ ရက်စက်ယုတ်မာခြင်းကြောင့် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံသည် ယခုဆိုလျှင် ထမင်းငတ်နေသော နိုင်ငံဖြစ်နေပါသည်။ ယခုဆိုလျှင် စင်ကာပူနိုင်ငံနှင့် နှိုင်းယဉ်လို့ မရသော နိုင်ငံဖြစ်နေပါသည်။ ယခုဆိုလျှင် အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ခေါင်းဆောင် မင်းအောင်လှိုင်နှင့် သူ၏အပေါင်း အပါများ၏ ရက်စက်ကြမ်းကြုတ်ခြင်း၊ အကြမ်းဖက်ခြင်းကြောင့် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတွင် နေ့စဉ်နေ့တိုင်း သွေးမြေခလျက်ရှိပါသည်။ အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်ခေါင်းဆောင် ဦးဆောင်သောအကြမ်းဖက် စစ်သား များ၏ ရက်စက်ယုတ်မာမှုများကြောင့် မြန်မာနိုင်လူဦးရေ ထက်ဝက် (၂၇)သန်း ခန့်သည် ငတ်မွတ် ခေါင်းပါးခြင်းကို ရင်ဆိုင်ကြုံတွေ့နေကြရသည်။ ၎င်းအနက် မြန်မာပြည်သူ (၁၅) သန်း ကျော်သည် အကူအညီမရှိလျှင် မဖြစ်တော့သည့် အခြေအနေကို ရောက်ရှိနေကြသည်။ ၁.၂ သန်းခန့် ရှိသော မြန်မာပြည်သူလူထု သည် အိုးမဲ့အိမ်မဲ့ဖြစ်နေကြပြီး တောတောင်ထဲရှိ ဒုက္ခသည် စခန်းများတွင် သောင်တင်နေကြသည်။ လူနေအိမ်များ၊ စာသင်ကျောင်းများ၊ ဘုရားကျောင်းများ အပါအဝင် အိမ်ခြေ ၂ သောင်းကျော်ကိုလည်း မီးရှို့ဖျက်ဆီးခဲ့ကြသည်။ မီးလောင်နေသော မြန်မာနိုင်ငံကို မီးငြိမ်း စေဖို့ရန် ကျွန်တော်တို့ ပြည်သူလူထု တစ်ဦးချင်းစီတိုင်းမှာ တာဝန်ရှိသကဲ့သို့ သက်ဆိုင်ရာ အပြည်ပြည်ဆိုင်ရာ အဖွဲ့အစည်းများနှင့် အစိုးရများတွင်လည်း တာဝန်ရှိပါသည်။ သွေးထွက်နေသော မြန်မာနိုင်ငံကို သွေးတိတ်စေဖို့ရန်အတွက် ကျွန်တော်တို့ တစ်ဦး ချင်းစီတိုင်းတွင် တာဝန်ရှိသကဲ့သို့ အပြည်ပြည်ဆိုင်ရာ အဖွဲ့အစည်းများ၊ အစိုးရများတွင်လည်း တာဝန်ရှိသည်။ ကျွန်တော်တို့အားလုံးသည်ကျွန်တော်တို့ကို သတ်ဖြတ် နေသော စစ်ခေါင်းဆောင် များကို အနိုင်မရမချင်း ဆက်လက်ချီတက်တော်လှန်မည် ဖြစ်သလို အပြည်ပြည်ဆိုင်ရာ အဖွဲ့အစည်းများ၊ အစိုးရများအနေဖြင့်လည်း အကြမ်းဖက် စစ်ခေါင်းဆောင်များနှင့် ၎င်းတို့၏ အပေါင်းအပါများကို ပြင်းထန်စွာ ဒဏ်ခတ်ပိတ်ဆို့ အရေးယူပြီး မြန်မာပြည်သူလူထု၏ လွတ်လပ်ရေးနှင့် ဖက်ဒရယ်ဒီမိုကရေစီအရေး အတွက် တော်လှန်ရေးကို အားပေးကူညီထောက်ပံ့ရန် တာဝန်ရှိ ပါသည်။ ယူကရိန်း တစ်နိုင်ငံကို ရုရှားက အကြမ်းဖက်ခြင်းကြောင့် တစ်ကမ္ဘာလုံး လက်ရှိတွင် စားဝတ်နေရေး ခေါင်းပါးပြီး ကမ္ဘာ့စီးပွားရေး၊ အစားအစာလုံခြုံရေး စသည့်တို့ကို ထိခိုက်နေသည်မှာ အားလုံးအသိ ပင်ဖြစ်သည်။ ထိုကဲ့သို့ပင် မြန်မာပြည်သူလူထု၏ တော်လှန်ရေးသည် ကမ္ဘာ့စားဝတ်နေရေး ဖူလှုံရေး၊ လုံခြုံရေး၊ စီးပွားရေး၊ လွတ်လပ်ရေး တို့အတွက် အရေးကြီးသည်ကို အပြည်ပြည်ဆိုင်ရာ ခေါင်းဆောင်များ၊ အဖွဲ့အစည်းများနှင့် အစိုးရများက သိနှင့်ပြီးသား ဖြစ်ပါသည်။ ထို့ကြောင့် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ၏ အရေးတော်ပုံ အောင်မြင်နိုင်ရေးအတွက် မြန်မာပြည်သူလူထု တစ်ဦးချင်းစီတွင် တာဝန်ရှိသကဲ့သို့ အပြည်ပြည်ဆိုင်ရာ အဖွဲ့အစည်းများ၊ အစိုးရများ၊ ခေါင်းဆောင်များတွင်လည်း တာဝန်ရှိသည်။ ၎င်းသမိုင်းကပေးသော တာဝန်များကို ကျွန်တော်တို့တတွေ ကျေပွန်စွာထမ်းရွက်ဖို့ အလွန့်အလွန် အရေးကြီးပါသည်။ မြန်မာပြည်သူလူထု၏ နွေဦးတော်လှန်ရေးသည် နှစ်ပေါင်း (၆၀)ကြာအမှောင်ထုကြီးကို နိဂုံးချုပ်စေ ရပါမည်။ အကြမ်းဖက် စစ်အာဏာရှင် စနစ်ကို အမြစ်ပြတ်ချေမှုန်းပြီး မြန်မာနိုင်ငံကို မြန်မာပြည်သူ ပြည်သားအားလုံး အတွက်ဖြစ်သော ဖက်ဒရယ် ဒီမိုကရေစီနိုင်ငံအဖြစ် တည်ထောင်ခြင်းကလွဲလို့ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ အနာဂတ်အတွက် အခြားနည်းလမ်းမရှိပါ။ ခေတ်အဆက်ဆက် အကြမ်းဖက် စစ်ခေါင်းဆောင်များ၏ ရက်စက်ကြမ်းကြုတ်ခြင်းနှင့် ၎င်းတို့၏ အာဏာရှင်စနစ်ကို အမြစ်ပြတ် ချေမှုန်းနိုင်သောနေ့သည် နွေဦးတော်လှန်ရေး အောင်မြင်သောနေ့ဖြစ်သည်။ ထိုနေ့သည် မြန်မာပြည်သူလူထုအားလုံးအတွက် ဖက်ဒရယ်ဒီမိုကရေစီနိုင်ငံ စတင်တည်ထောင်သော နေ့ဖြစ်သည်။ ထိုနေ့ရက်သို့ မရောက်မချင်း နောက်မဆုတ် လက်မမြှောက်ပဲ အတူတကွ ချီတက်ကြမည်။ အကောင်းသည် အဆိုးကို အနိုင်ရသကဲ့သို့ ကျွန်တော်တို့ မြန်မာပြည်သူလူထုများသည် အကြမ်းဖက် စစ်ခေါင်းဆောင်များကို မုချအောင်နိုင် ရမည်။ ဓမ္မသည် အဓမ္မကို အနိုင်ရသကဲ့သို့ မြန်မာ့နွေဦး တော်လှန်ရေးသည် မုချအောင်ရမည်။ လူ့အခွင့်အရေးကို အပြည့်အဝ ခံစားခွင့်ပေးနိုင်သော ဖက်ဒရယ်ဒီမိုကရေစီ စနစ်သည် လူ့အခွင့်အရေးကို ချိုးဖောက်ဖျက်ဆီးနေသော အကြမ်းဖက် စစ်အာဏာရှင်စနစ်ကို မုချအနိုင်ရလိမ့်မည်။..."
Source/publisher: Ministry of International Cooperation Myanmar
2022-07-07
Date of entry/update: 2022-07-07
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "၁။ အာဏာတည်မြဲရေးအတွက် ပြည်သူလူထုအား ဖိနှိပ်မှုအမျိုးမျိုးဖြင့် အုပ်ချုပ်နိုင်ရန် ကြိုးပမ်းခဲ့ကြသည့် စစ်အာဏာရှင်များက ၁၉၆၂ ခုနှစ်၊ ဇူလိုင်လ ၇ ရက်နေ့တွင် ယင်းတို့အား ဆန့်ကျင်တော်လှန်ခဲ့ကြသည့် ကျောင်းသားလူငယ်များအား သွေးချောင်းစီးအောင် ဖြိုခွင်း သတ်ဖြတ်ခဲ့သည့် ဝမ်းနည်းဖွယ်အဖြစ်အပျက်သည် ယနေ့ဆိုလျှင် နှစ်ပေါင်း (၆၀) ပြည့်မြောက် ခဲ့ပြီ ဖြစ်ပါသည်။ ၂။ စစ်အာဏာရှင်နေဝင်းဦးဆောင်သော အာဏာသိမ်းအစိုးရသည် တက္ကသိုလ် ကျောင်းသားထုအား ဖိနှိပ်ချုပ်ချယ်သည့် ကျောင်းဆောင်စည်းကမ်းသစ် (၂၂) ချက်ကို ထုတ်ပြန် ခဲ့ရာ မတရားမှုကိုလက်ခံနိုင်ခြင်းမရှိသော ကျောင်းသားထုနှင့်ကျောင်းသားသမဂ္ဂတို့က ၎င်းကိစ္စ ကို ဆန့်ကျင်ကန့်ကွက် ဆန္ဒပြခဲ့ကြပါသည်။ ထို့ကြောင့် ၁၉၆၂ခုနှစ်၊ ဇူလိုင်လ၊ ၇ရက်နေ့တွင် စစ်တပ်သည် လက်နက်သုံး၍ အင်အားအလုံးအရင်းဖြင့် သွေးချောင်းစီးအောင် ဖြိုခွဲရာ ကျောင်းသားများ ရာချီသေဆုံးခဲ့ကြရပြီး ကျောင်းသားသမဂ္ဂ အဆောင်ကိုလည်း ဗုန်းခွဲဖျက်စီးခံ ခဲ့ကြပါသည်။ ထိုအချိန်မှစ၍ စစ်အစိုးရအဆက်ဆက်သည် ကျောင်းသားသမဂ္ဂများကို တရားဝင် ရပ်တည်ခွင့်မပေးဘဲ ကွယ်ပျောက်သွားစေရန် ကြိုးပမ်းခဲ့ကြပါသည်။ ၃။ မည်သို့ပင် ဖိနှိပ်ချုပ်ချယ်ပိတ်ပင်ခဲ့သော်လည်း ကျောင်းသားသမဂ္ဂများသည် ထိုအချိန် မှစ၍ ခေတ်အဆက်ဆက်တွင် ဒီမိုကရေစီအရေး၊ ပညာရေး၊ ငြိမ်းချမ်းရေး၊ ကျောင်းသားများ၏ အခွင့်အရေးအား ကာကွယ်နိုင်ရေးတို့အတွက် စစ်အာဏာရှင်များ၏ မတရားသော ဖိနှိပ်မှုများကို ရဲရဲဝံ့ဝံ့ ဆန့်ကျင်တော်လှန်ခဲ့ကြပါသည်။ ၄။ ကျောင်းသားပြည်သူများက စုပေါင်းအားဖြင့် အသက်သွေးချွေးများစွာ စတေး၍ ခက်ခဲပင်ပန်းစွာရယူခဲ့ရသည့် မြန်မာ့ဒီမိုကရေစီဖွံ့ဖြိုးမှုတို့အား လက်နက်အားကိုးဖြင့် သိမ်းယူရန် ကြိုးပမ်းခဲ့သည့် လူသတ်‌‌ခေါင်းဆောင် မင်းအောင်လှိုင်ဦးဆောင်သော စစ်အာဏာသိမ်းအုပ်စုအား ဆန့်ကျင်တော်လှန်နေသည့် မြန်မာ့နွေဦးတော်လှန်ရေးခရီးကြမ်းတွင်လည်း ကျောင်းသားလူငယ် တို့သည် အရေးပါသော အခန်းကဏ္ဍတွင် ပါဝင်လျက်ရှိပါသည်။ ၅။ အာဏာရှင်များအား ခေတ်‌အဆက်ဆက်တွင် နည်းလမ်းမျိုးစုံဖြင့် ဆန့်ကျင်တော်လှန် ခဲ့သည့်နည်းတူ ယနေ့အချိန်တွင်လည်း နည်းပညာ၊ ကျွမ်းကျင်မှုတို့အပြင် ခက်ခဲကြမ်းတမ်းသော လက်နက်ကိုင်ခုခံဆန့်ကျင်ရာတွင်လည်း အင်အားကြီးသောအစုအဖွဲ့အဖြစ် ရပ်တည်လျက်ရှိ ပါသည်။ စစ်အာဏာရှင်တို့က အလိမ်အညာလှည့်ဖြားမှုများဖြင့် တော်လှန်ရေးအရှိန်ကျသွား စေရန် နည်းအမျိုးမျိုးဖြင့် ကြိုးပမ်းလုပ်ဆောင်နေသော်လည်း ကျောင်းသားလူငယ်များ၏ ပြင်းပြသောစိတ်ဓာတ်၊ ခိုင်မာသော လုံ့လအားစိုက်မှုတို့အား များစွာဂုဏ်ယူလေးစားပါကြောင်း ဖော်ပြအပ် ပါသည်။ ၆။ အကြမ်းဖက် စစ်အာဏာရှင်တို့သည် မသမာသော လုပ်ရပ်အမျိုးမျိုးဖြင့် တော်လှန်ရေး ပျက်ပြားစေရန် ကြိုးပမ်းနေစေကာမူ တိုင်းရင်းသား ပြည်သူများနှင့်အတူ ဒီမိုကရေစီအရေးအတွက် ဆက်လက်ပါဝင်ဆင်နွှဲသွားကြမည့် ကျောင်းသားလူငယ်တို့နှင့် မိမိတို့အားလုံး၏ ထပ်တူညီသော ဆန္ဒဖြစ်သည့် ဖက်ဒရယ်ဒီမိုကရေစီနိုင်ငံတော်ကြီးဆီသို့ ယုံကြည်ချက်အပြည့် အဝဖြင့် ဆက်လက်ချီတက်ကြပါစို့ဟု တိုက်တွန်းရင်း ဤသဝဏ်လွှာအား ပေးပို့အပ်ပါသည်။..."
Source/publisher: Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw
2022-07-07
Date of entry/update: 2022-07-07
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "ယနေ့ ဇူလိုင်လ (၇) ရက်နေ့သည် ဗမာနိုင်ငံလုံးဆိုင်ရာကျောင်းသားသမဂ္ဂများအဖွဲ့ချုပ် အပါအဝင် စစ်အာဏာရှင်စနစ်ကို တပ်ဦးမှ တော်လှန်ခဲ့ကြသော ကျောင်းသားလူငယ်သူရဲကောင်းများစွာ သန္ဓေတည်ရာ အမိတက္ကသိုလ်မြေတွင် ကျောင်းသားတို့သွေးမြေခခဲ့ရသည့် ဆဲဗင်းဂျူလိုင် ကျောင်းသားအရေးတော်ပုံ နှစ်(၆၀) ပြည့်မြောက်သည့် အခါသမယဖြစ်သည်။ လွတ်လပ်မှု၊ ညီမျှမှု၊ တရားမျှတမှု နှင့် အမှန်တရားအတွက် အသက်နှင့်ဘဝကို ပဓာနမထားပဲ ခေတ်အဆက်ဆက် ယုံကြည်ရဲရင့်စွာဖြင့် စနစ်ဆိုးများကို တော်လှန် တိုက်ပွဲဝင်ခဲ့ကြသော ကျောင်းသားလူငယ်တော်လှန်ရေး ရဲဘော်အပေါင်းအား အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရက လေးစားစွာဖြင့် ဦးညွတ်ဂုဏ်ပြုအပ်ပါသည်။ ၁၉၆၂ မတ်လ (၂) ရက်နေ့တွင် အာဏာရှင်ဗိုလ်ချုပ်နေဝင်းဦးဆောင်သော တော်လှန်ရေးကောင်စီက လူထုတရားဝင်ရွေးကောက်ထားသော အစိုးရကို လက်နက်အားကိုးဖြင့်ဖြုတ်ချ၍ အာဏာသိမ်းယူ လိုက်ပြီးနောက် တက္ကသိုလ်အက်ဥပဒေကို ဖျက်သိမ်းကာ တက္ကသိုလ်ကျောင်းသားများအား ဖိနှိပ်ချုပ်ချယ် နှိပ်ကွပ်သည့် လုပ်ရပ်များကို စတင်ခဲ့သည်။ ၎င်းတို့အာဏာတည်မြဲရေးအတွက် တက္ကသိုလ်၏ အသက်ဝိဉာဉ် ဖြစ်သော လွတ်လပ်ငြိမ်းချမ်းမှုကို ကန့်သတ်ထိမ်းချုပ်လိုသည့် စစ်အာဏာရှင်၏လုပ်ရပ်ကို လက်မခံပဲ ကျောင်းသားထုတစ်ရပ်လုံးက အုံကြွဆန့်ကျင်ခဲ့ကြရာ စစ်အာဏာရှင်၏ လက်ပါးစေတပ်များက ပညာတတ်နိုင်ငံရေးခေါင်းဆောင်များ သန္ဓေတည်ရာ အမိတက္ကသိုလ်မြေကိုသွေးစွန်းစေခဲ့ပြီး သမဂ္ဂ အဆောက်အအုံကို ဖြိုဖျက်ခဲ့ကြပေသည်။ စစ်အာဏာရှင်များ၏ လက်နက်အားကိုး၍ အနိုင်ကျင့်ဗိုလ်ကျ စိုးမိုးလိုသည့် ယုတ်ညံ့သောစိတ်နှင့် ဖိနှိပ်ချုပ်ချယ်မှုကို မလိုလားပဲ လွတ်လပ်ငြိမ်းချမ်းစွာ ပွင့်လန်းတိုးတက် ချင်ကြသော ကျောင်းသားလူငယ်များ၏ လွတ်လပ်သော စိတ်တို့သည် ခေတ်အဆက်ဆက် ဆန့်ကျင်ဘက် ဖြစ်ခဲ့ပြီး စစ်အာဏာရှင်အဆက်ဆက်သည် ကျောင်းသားထု၏ သမဂ္ဂစိတ်ဓါတ်အား ဖြိုဖျက်နိုင်စွမ်း မရှိခဲ့ကြသည်ကို ယခုနွေဦးတော်လှန်ရေးတွင် ရှေ့တန်းမှ တော်လှန်တိုက်ပွဲဝင်နေကြသော လူငယ်ထုက သက်သက်ပြလျက်ရှိပေသည်။ သမိုင်းခေတ်များအတွင်း အသိဉာဏ်ကင်းမဲ့ပြီး လက်နက်အားကိုးသော စစ်အာဏာရှင်များက တိုင်းပြည်၏အနာဂတ် ကျောင်းသားလူငယ်များအား အကြောင်းမဲ့ သတ်ဖြတ်ညှင်းပမ်းမှုများကို ရပ်တန့်နိုင်ခြင်းမရှိခဲ့ပဲ ၂၁ ရာစုအထိ ဆက်လက်ကျူးလွန်နေကြခြင်းမှာ ကျူးလွန်သူ စစ်အာဏာရှင် များသည် အပြစ်ပေးခံရခြင်းမှ ကင်းလွတ်ခဲ့ကြခြင်းကြောင့်ဖြစ်ကြောင်း ထင်ရှားပေသည်။ သို့ဖြစ်ပါ၍ မြန်မာ့သမိုင်းကို အရုပ်ဆိုးအကျည်းတန်စေသည့်၊ လက်နက်မဲ့ကျောင်းသားလူငယ်များကို လက်နက်ဖြင့် အနိုင်ကျင့် သတ်ဖြတ်မှုကို အားပေးသည့် စစ်အာဏာသိမ်းမှုများကို အပြီးသတ်အမြစ်ဖြတ်၍ နောင်အနာဂတ်တွင် မည်သည့်အခါမှ ထပ်မံပေါ်ပေါက် လာမှုမရှိစေရေး နှင့် ရာဇဝတ်မှုကျူးလွန်ခဲ့ကြသော စစ်အာဏာရှင်များ အပြစ်ပေးအရေးယူခံရမှုကို သေချာစေရေး ယခုနွေဦးတော်လှန်ရေးတွင် ရည်မှန်းချက်ထားကာ ကျောင်းသားထု၏ သမဂ္ဂစိတ်ဓါတ်၊ ပြည်သူလူထုတစ်ရပ်လုံး၏ စိတ်ပိုင်းဖြတ်ချက်၊ တိုင်းသားလူမျိုးပေါင်းစုံမှ ခေါင်းဆောင်များအားလုံး၏ အတွေ့အကြုံတို့ ပေါင်းစပ်ကာ အစွမ်းကုန်ကြိုးပမ်းဆောင်ရွက်သွားမည်ဟု မမေ့အပ်သော ဆဲဗင်းဂျူလိုင် အရေးတော်ပုံကို ဦးညွတ်ရင်း သန္နိဌာန်ပြုအပ်ပါသည်။ ..."
Source/publisher: National Unity Government of Myanmar
2022-07-07
Date of entry/update: 2022-07-07
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Description: "This speech is to honor the hero Salai Tin Maung Oo from Chin State, who was brutally tortured and executed by dictator Ne Win in 1976 at the age of 25. He is a hero of the nation, hero of freedom and federal democracy, who has sacrificed his life for the sake of the nation and the people of Myanmar. He had shown massive courage and bravery for freedom. Today, we are seeing this darkest moment again in our history. Our nation is full of young people like Salai Tin Maung Oo, who are willing to give their lives for the freedom and federal democratic union future of the country. They don't want to live under oppressive, brutal military regime anymore. They have said enough is enough, especially the young generation of Myanmar, Gen Z, who most of them are now members of PDF and freedom fighters of ethnic armed organizations. If you look at 10 months ago, we had nothing. But now, there is already 267 freedom fighters’ battalions, who are willing to sacrifice their lives for the future of Myanmar. If you look at local defense forces, together with NUG, more than 500 groups have come together to defend the country from the fascist military. That is the big number of young people like Salai Tin Maung Oo. In Chin state alone, there are now more than 20 Chinland Defense Forces, more than 20,000 young men and women like Salai Tin Maung Oo in Chin state, fighting for self-determination, freedom and federal democracy. It is the same across Myanmar, it is the same across other states like Kachin, Karenni, Karen, Shan, Mon, Rakhine, Chin. Most of them are young people, fighting for freedom and democracy, fighting for the future federal union of Myanmar where they will flourish and thrive. But now, when they look at the hands of brutal military regime, all they see is death, destruction, loss. There is nothing more hopelessness and helplessness than what the military brings to the country and the people they swore to protect and serve. That is exactly what Salai Tin Maung Oo was against. He gave hope to young people, he gave hope for the future of Myanmar, and he will be remembered by all the people of Myanmar like Martin Luther King Jr. Even though he is not with us today, he is always in our thoughts, our hearts, our prayers. His visions, his sacrifices and his missions are still with us. We must accomplish the mission that Salai Tin Maung Oo has left us to accomplish. I also would like to take this opportunity to salute the brave young men and women of Myanmar, for their love of peace, their love of freedom, their love of federal democracy. Better tomorrows are coming soon, where freedom is awaiting us, where the true federal democratic union is forming, where everybody will have rights to be respected, promoted, and protected regardless of race, religion, culture, gender, background and ethnicity. And this is exactly what is signed in Pin Laung Agreement. Equality, self-determination, freedom, what Salai Tin Maung Oo had given up his life for, what the young people of Myanmar today are sacrificing their lives for. I want to urge the international communities, our neighbors, United Nation and the leaders of the world, to recognize the words of the young people of Myanmar. The desire of Salai Tin Maung Oo must come to reality sooner than later. We must do everything in our power to make freedom come soon, to make federal democracy flourish sooner than later, before more precious lives of young people are taken. May the revolution succeed; the revolution is succeeding. May God bless you; may God bless Myanmar..."
Source/publisher: Dr. Sasa via Ministry of International Cooperation Myanmar
2022-06-23
Date of entry/update: 2022-06-23
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "Myanmar troops swap slaughter stories Evidence of atrocities revealed on a soldier’s lost cell phone Editor's note: This story contains images and descriptions that some readers may find disturbing. Reader discretion is advised. By Khin Maung Soe and Nayrein Kyaw for RFA Burmese Two armed men stand behind a tangle of bodies leaking blood which congeals in the dust. Each of the five victims is blindfolded, hands tied behind their back, and appear to have been killed by gunfire or a blade to the throat. The armed men – one with his rifle slung over his shoulder and the other smoking a cigarette – strike a nonchalant pose that is recorded for posterity in a series of grisly photos captured on a soldier’s phone. These graphic images are among a cache of files recently obtained by RFA Burmese that document atrocities apparently committed by soldiers during military operations in Myanmar’s war-torn Sagaing region. The files include a video in which those two same armed men brag about how many people they have killed, and how they have killed them. The content was retrieved from a cell phone that was found by a villager in Sagaing’s Ayadaw township where the military had been conducting raids amid an offensive against the anti-junta People’s Defense Force (PDF) paramilitary group. An intermediary who obtained the video and photos forwarded them to RFA in Washington. detainees Among the many images is one of about 30 men with their hands tied behind their backs on the grounds of a monastery. Among the many images is one of about 30 men with their hands tied behind their backs on the grounds of a monastery. Two of them appear to be the same men who are seen dead in the photos taken a day later of the five victims of execution. Another series of photos shows a young man with his arms bound behind him, his face puffy and bloodied. An outstretched hand holds his chin up, forcing him to look into the camera, while a second hand holds a knife to his chest over his heart. men-interrogation The images also include many ‘selfie’ photos of a soldier, seemingly the phone’s owner. He also features in the video and the photos of the dead bodies. The 10 1/2-minute video shows him and two other men mugging for the camera and chatting in crude terms about the number of people they have killed and what they did with the bodies. The phone’s owner, who wears a wide smile and sometimes slurs his words, has a hand grenade pinned to his chest. More armed men can be seen in the background. “You said you killed 26 people. How did you kill them? Just shooting them with a gun?” asks the phone’s owner of one of his fellow soldiers. “Of course, we killed them with our guns. But not with our hands,” the soldier responds. “For us, we even killed a lot by slitting their throats. I, myself, killed five,” the phone’s owner says. “I have never [slit throats],” the third soldier chimes in. The second soldier then reconsiders his personal tally of death. “I think eight,” he says. “I killed eight [by slitting throats].” Clues in the images A closer look at the photos provides proof that these men serve in Myanmar’s military. Soldiers in the photos sport the arm badge of the Myanmar Army and, in at least one photo, the Northwest Military Command based in Sagaing. Soldiers are seen with bamboo baskets normally used as backpacks by junta soldiers. Numbers on rifle butts in the photos even help identify one military unit. RFA asked Capt. Lin Htet Aung, a defector from the military who has joined the anti-junta Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM), about the evidence. He said the numbers “708” and “4” seen on the guns indicate they are from the 4th Company of the Light Infantry Battalion 708 (708 LIB). The battalion belongs to the Yangon-based Military Operations Command No. 4 (MOC-4) which has been deployed to Sagaing and Magway regions and may be involved in joint operations there, he said. rifle When contacted about the material recovered from the cell phone, junta Deputy Information Minister Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun told RFA that authorities had opened a probe into the matter. “Regarding these incidents, we can respond only after investigation in the field,” he said. “We are now investigating it.” The statements made by the men in the video appear in line with reports of attacks on civilians by junta troops in Sagaing and elsewhere in Myanmar, amid military offensives against the PDF, ethnic armies, and other anti-junta forces. There have been widespread reports of soldiers arbitrarily detaining residents during village raids, looting their homes, setting buildings ablaze, and torturing, raping, and murdering inhabitants they accuse of assisting the armed resistance. The junta has previously denied such allegations or attributed the incidents to the PDF. Sagaing region, home to around 5.3 million people, has seen some of the worst fighting between the military and the opposition since the junta seized power in February 2021. Thai NGO Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma) says junta authorities have killed nearly 2,000 people in Myanmar since the coup, including at least 683 in Sagaing. truck In photos from the phone, soldiers have the arm badge of the Northwest Military Command, which is based in Sagaing region. The images obtained by RFA provide a rare glimpse into the lives of perpetrators of the ongoing atrocities in Myanmar under junta rule. While the victims of raids have documented the aftermath of such incidents, it is rare to hear directly from those responsible, speaking in detail about how they committed the acts and attempting to justify them. A careful review of the data from the images found they had been taken on a Chinese-made OPPO phone. The photo of the young man being interrogated at knifepoint was taken on April 28, 2022, while the photo of the bound captives was taken on May 10, and the photos of the five execution victims were taken on May 11. Local media reports suggest killings by the military took place in Ayadaw township around the time the photos were taken. According to a May 11 Facebook post by the Ayadaw Post, junta troops entered Ayadaw’s Chin Pin village, shot six guards, and abducted 30 people on May 7. But reporting by RFA indicates the photos may actually have been taken in neighboring Ye-U township. One of the slain men in the May 11 photo was wearing a t-shirt advertising a grocery store in the township. murder This photo (blurred to cover the graphic scene) shows the phone owner and a man who also appeared in the video standing next to five slain men lying in pools of blood. Two of the slain men also can be seen in the photo from the previous day showing about 30 men with their hands tied behind their backs on the grounds of a monastery. A resident of Ye-U told RFA that the May 10 image of the 30 men with their hands tied appears to have been taken at Mon Taing Pin monastery in the township. A separate source also confirmed that another photo, taken April 26 and showing a roofed walkway, resembles a pagoda at Wet Phyu village, which lies 17.5 miles (28 kilometers) to the west of Mon Taing Pin. RFA is not naming these and other sources for safety reasons. RFA previously reported that 27 people were killed in Ye-U township’s Mon Taing Pin and In Pin villages some time between May 10 and May 12. Villagers said the incident began late on May 9, when Mon Taing Pin village came under fire from small arms, artillery and mortars. Initially, two PDF members guarding the village were killed in the gunfire before the military raided it. One villager in Mon Taing Pin said the soldiers rounded up several dozen men from the village, aged between about 20 and 60, and they were detained in the monastery. He said the men were beaten up and killed and then put inside houses in the village which were set on fire. Photos provided to RFA by residents of the aftermath of the incident included images of razed buildings, human remains nearly completely incinerated by fire, bloated corpses, and the lower part of a severed torso – the legs of which had also been removed and left at the scene. map Boasting of killing Details about the disposal of victims’ bodies provided by the three soldiers in the video found on the cell phone sound strikingly similar to the state of the remains discovered in Ye-U township last month. And the lack of emotion in the soldiers’ voices as they discuss the incident suggests that killing has become normal behavior for them. “Seriously. I have killed people before. And I don’t like blood. It’s nauseating, though I killed them. Cut them in three parts,” the phone’s owner says. “I killed those whom I caught. And the sergeant told us to cut them in three pieces and bury them,” the soldier who claims to have killed more than two dozen people responds. The phone’s owner goes on to describe covering up his handiwork, using slurred speech that suggests he isn’t sober. “One guy had his head blown off at the back. He had burns all over his body and his skin was peeling off. Yuck, it was horrible,” he says. “I had to cut off the head, bro. I had to chop it off [and it took] five or six tries … Pieces of flesh came out, like pork. But human flesh is yellowish.” He goes on to brag that he is “an expert in killing.” selfies The photos on the phone include many selfies of a soldier, who appears to have been the phone owner. He also is seen in the video and the photos of the slain men. But the boasting is intermingled with more plaintive comments, in which the soldiers compare themselves to “driftwood,” obliged to follow orders, and lament that they could be killed at any time. “Do you know why I didn’t complain then [when we had to cut up the bodies]? [Our superiors] were leading the fight and I didn’t want to say anything. Otherwise, there’s no need to cut off their heads,” the phone’s owner says at one point. “What is life? It’s a fight. You win or you die. But our lives don’t seem to matter whether we live or not … [This video is] just for the record. We’re brothers. If I get killed, you won’t see me anymore, but you can remember me with this.” Reports of the military’s targeting of civilians since the coup led to U.S. sanctions last year against the 33rd Light Infantry Division (33 LID) and the 77th Light Infantry Division (77 LID) of Myanmar’s Army over “excessive force, including killings” following their deployment to Mandalay and Yangon, respectively. The 33 LID was also the target of U.S. sanctions in 2018 “for engaging in serious human rights abuse” against the ethnic Rohingya during alleged “terrorist” clearance operations a year earlier in Rakhine state. Atrocities committed by soldiers from the 33 LID and the 99 LID during that campaign, which forced more than 740,000 Rohingya to flee across the border to Bangladesh and was subsequently designated an act of genocide by Washington, were documented in a groundbreaking investigative report by Reuters news agency in June 2018..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "RFA" (USA)
2022-06-19
Date of entry/update: 2022-06-19
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Sub-title: Locals describe the capture of villagers—including children—by junta soldiers who force them to serve as human shields and porters before they are murdered
Description: "Junta forces reportedly killed 10 villagers, including two children, in recent days in Sagaing Region, where the military continues to carry out fierce assaults on the civilian population in an attempt to overpower the resistance stronghold. Eight of the victims were from Ta Ohn, a village five miles east of Shwebo Township’s administrative centre, which was attacked and looted by a 100-soldier column on June 9. Embedded in the unit were members of the Pyu Saw Htee militia, armed and trained by the Myanmar army, locals said. The bodies of seven villagers were not found until Monday, in a stream more than one mile away from the community where they lived. “The bodies were badly decomposed. I think they shot them on the hill and dragged them into the swamp,” a villager told Myanmar Now, adding that locals were unable to retrieve and bury the corpses due to the continued junta occupation of the area. The victims, who are believed to have been forced to act as human shields and porters for the military column, were identified as Thein Tan, 50; Kyaw Lin, 45; Sein Mahn, Maung Htoo and Win Shwe, all aged 40; Pho Htoo, who was in his 30s; and 20-year-old Ye Wai Lin. Another local man, 50-year-old Hnin Maung, was shot dead and his body burned inside Ta Ohn, the villager said, citing eyewitnesses. Locals explained that the troops detained multiple residents at the village’s monastery, including women and children. Myanmar Now was unable to confirm the total number of civilians who were abducted. “The villagers had nowhere to run when the military entered, firing their guns. They captured everyone that fled and made them stay inside the village. That’s how they detained so many people,” another villager said. He said that at least nine of those who were taken by the junta were forced to carry supplies on June 10 and 11 while soldiers raided the neighbouring villages of Ohn Pauk, Maung Tat, Ti Pin and finally Se Gyi, where they were last seen alive by eyewitnesses on June 12. There, the troops torched five homes identified by the accompanying Pyu Saw Htee members as allegedly belonging to members of the local anti-junta People’s Defence Force (PDF), a Se Gyi resident told Myanmar Now. “Everyone had to flee. Some fled on carts while some fled on motorcycles. We had to leave everything behind as they started firing heavy weapons,” he said. “I don’t think words can do justice for what I’m feeling right now. I want revenge but I have no weapon in my hands. It’s really heartbreaking and I feel powerless.” The seven men from Ta Ohn are believed to have been killed at a site one mile from the village of Se Gyi. The identities of the remaining two individuals who were captured with them were not known at the time of reporting, as well as whether they were still alive. Mawlaik Township Two other murders took place in northwestern Sagaing’s Mawlaik Township, where teenagers staying in an IDP camp near Ma Gyi Tan village were abducted in a junta raid on the site on June 8 and subsequently killed, their bodies found later that day. “The children were captured and forced to carry the soldiers’ bags and guide them around the area before ultimately getting killed,” a 50-year-old woman from the area told Myanmar Now. They were identified as Sithu and Phyo, both in ninth grade, but whose exact ages were not known. Moe Di, spokesperson for the Mawlaik PDF—which clashed with the junta column in question on the day of the raid on the camp—confirmed the death of the two boys, saying that their bodies were found with knife wounds and their hands tied behind their backs. Myanmar Now was unable to obtain photos of the victims due to the ongoing military-imposed internet blackout on much of Sagaing. The military unit combined with another coming from Kalay to the south, forming a new column of some 150 troops in Mawlaik on June 10 before focusing their assaults on villages on the western shore of the Chindwin River, Moe Di explained. A PDF member was killed in a battle which took place with the Myanmar army that day, but the resistance group was not able to inflict any casualties, the spokesperson said, adding that his fighters were forced by heavy artillery fire to retreat. “We had to withdraw because there was no way for us to defend against such a weapon,” Moe Di said, adding that clashes were still ongoing at the time of reporting. Hundreds of homes were burned by the military over the next four days, including almost all of the residences in the village of Ma Gyi Tan, as well as houses in Yuwa and Tat Kone, locals said. Some 5,000 residents from a total of five communities were forced to flee the arson attacks—which the military has repeatedly denied perpetrating nationwide—to the eastern shores of the Chindwin. The telecommunication cuts have meant that an assessment of the extent of the damage was still ongoing at the time of reporting. Depayin Township A 30-year-old man in Depayin Township narrowly escaped death during a military raid on his village of Muu Kan Gyi on Tuesday, describing to Myanmar Now how he hid and witnessed more than 75 troops burning 200 other residences. “I could see them from the house I was hiding in. They seemed to be enjoying torching the houses,” he said. The building in which he had sought refuge reportedly failed to catch fire. “One of the army officers they called Kyaw Tun gave them permission to burn the house and two soldiers came inside to torch it,” the man recalled. “I could smell alcohol on them while I was hiding under the bed. I would have been killed if they found me.” He emerged after the troops left the following morning to find that his own house had been destroyed, along with his food stores. “I wish nothing but death on them,” he said of the junta troops. “They’re funded by our tax money, and they are terrorising us.” Locals said that the same junta column that torched Muu Kan Kyi had previously burned the villages of Ywar Soe and Pauk Chaing in neighbouring Shwebo Township over the weekend, and had gone on to occupy the communities of Ti Pin and Htoo Gyi, all located along the eastern bank of the Muu River. A local anti-junta defence force, Min Ma Naing Thein Nghat, reportedly tried to drive out the unit from the village of Ye Kyi Wa, across the Muu River from Muu Kan Gyi—which is situated on the western shore—but they ultimately were forced to retreat by the difference in firepower, the guerrilla group’s leader said. “They relentlessly fired both 60mm and 40mm shells at us from the other side of the river. That’s why we had to withdraw,” he told Myanmar Now, adding that a 30-year-old resistance fighter was killed in the clash. The leader emphasised the need for the civilian National Unity Government to arm forces like Min Ma Naing Thein Nghat, noting that there was only one gun for every three members of his group. “We have to face the junta with handmade rifles and 10 to 15 bullets while 100 percent of the junta personnel are armed with a rifle each,” he explained. “If only they could arm us properly, there isn’t any reason we wouldn’t win over the military.”..."
Source/publisher: "Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
2022-06-19
Date of entry/update: 2022-06-16
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Description: "The use of the death penalty in Myanmar has increased at an alarming rate under military rule, with nearly 90 people sentenced to death by military tribunals since the coup last year, rights group Amnesty International said. Based on media reports and some of the other limited number of sources available, including military-controlled state media, AI said that at least 86 death sentences have been handed down since February 2021. The majority of those were against anti-regime resistance members or people with ties to the resistance movement. Myanmar has been in social and political turmoil since the coup due to popular resistance against the regime. The junta has responded with heavy-handed tactics. From 2017-20 in Myanmar, during which the elected National League for Democracy (NLD) government was in office, the number of death penalty cases averaged fewer than 10 per year; since the coup that number has increased by about eight times. In 2020 there was only one death penalty case. Shortly after the coup, martial law was imposed in Hlaing Tharyar, Shwe Pyi Thar, North Okkalar, North Dagon, South Dagon and Eastern Dagon (Seikkan) townships. Most of the death sentences were imposed in these townships. The military transferred the civilian cases to special and military tribunals through summary proceedings in which the defendant did not have the right to appeal. Most of the death sentences were imposed arbitrarily—several without the defendants being present, according to the AI statement. “Available information indicates that the proceedings were summary, with the defendants unable to access legal representation,” the rights group said. Those sentenced to death include a former member of Parliament from the National League for Democracy (NLD), Ko Phyo Zeyar Thaw, and 88 Generation student leader Ko Jimmy. They were arrested in Yangon last year and sentenced to death on Jan. 21, 2022 for aiding and abetting the armed resistance movement in the city. In Myanmar, the death penalty has become “a tool for the military in the ongoing and widespread persecution, intimidation and harassment of and violence on protestors and journalists,” AI said. Before February 2021, the death sentence in Myanmar was sporadically imposed in murder cases, and usually commuted through mass pardons. AI said that according to reports on the sentences, at least 26 defendants were tried and convicted while not being present; at least two were teenagers at the time of the alleged offense; and one man was reported as having a severe mental (psychosocial) disability. Since the coup on Feb. 1, 2021, about 1,085 people have been sentenced to prison in Myanmar and an estimated 1,864 people killed by the junta, according to data from the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, which documents fatalities and arrests at the hands of the military regime’s forces..."
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
2022-05-30
Date of entry/update: 2022-05-30
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Description: "Six years ago, army chiefs and senior members of the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) initiated a mission to smear National League for Democracy (NLD) leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and other NLD figures. Their mission began after the NLD won a landslide victory in the 2015 general election. Now, following last year’s coup, the mission continues. Ahead of the 2015 poll, military and USDP leaders deliberately inflamed religious and racial sentiments to prevent an outright NLD victory in the election. Often, the NLD was portrayed as a pro-Muslim party whose rise to power would mean the fall of Buddhism in Buddhist-majority Myanmar. Nationalist groups like the Association for Protection of Race and Religion, better known by its Burmese acronym Ma Ba Tha, engaged in campaigns to slander the NLD, amid a growing wave of Buddhist nationalism in the country. Their actions did have some impact on the NLD, but not to the extent of undermining public trust in Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, or in reducing the public’s love, respect and support for the woman who has dedicated her life to the cause of democracy. People who wanted change voted for her and the NLD in the 2015 election. After the poll, military and USDP leaders reviewed the USDP’s defeat. They realised that people support the NLD because of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s reputation and prestige. They have since systematically attempted to defame Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and other NLD leaders. They believe that if they can damage the name of a politician, public trust in him or her will decline. Army officers from the Office of Military Security Affairs and police from Special Branch were assigned with keeping an eye on cabinet ministers and NLD lawmakers. The Office of Military Security Affairs was also tasked with spreading doctored narratives and fake news, mixed with real facts about NLD ministers and lawmakers, on social media. In cooperation with so-called Myanmar experts who had returned from foreign countries to Myanmar, military leaders spread misinformation about Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and NLD leaders among Myanmar people living overseas. Moreover, media agencies were established for that purpose. Silent Talk media, which is headed by former military intelligence officer Ye Moe Oo, was sponsored by a pro-military businessman. Admiral Moe Aung funded The Fifth Wave media outlet and the Thayninga Institute of Strategic Studies, a think-tank formed by ex-military officers, according to those who have worked for those media outlets. Funded by some USDP leaders, People Media and Bullet Journal, led by former military officer U Hla Swe, are well-known media outlets which primarily featured news reports and opinion pieces deemed to be defamatory to NLD leaders and lawmakers. Some reports were truthful, but some were falsified. Those media outlets sponsored by the military and the USDP kept a low-profile under the NLD government. But since the coup, they are out in the open and asking questions in support of the military regime at junta press conferences. Through those media outlets and Facebook, which is virtually synonymous with the internet in Myanmar, the military and the USDP spread false narratives that the peace process and the economy barely achieved progress under the NLD government. The Office of Military Security Affairs and Special Branch searched for any information about NLD members that could do damage to the party’s reputation. They then forwarded the information to military-linked media which turned them into stories mixed with misinformation. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and NLD leaders kept their noses clean during their tenure. Former President U Htin Kyaw handed an envelope enclosing the list of his assets to the Union Parliament when he assumed office, and he did not take it back when he stepped down so that his wealth before and after his presidency could be checked. However, USDP president U Thein Sein took back his envelope when he left office. When making official foreign trips, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and President U Win Myint never used money from state funds for themselves, and returned any surplus funds along with receipts and financial statements. Under the NLD government, businessmen who usually accompanied senior government figures on visits to foreign countries under the previous government were not allowed to join government delegations. Government officials are entitled to a quota of fuel provided monthly from state funds. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and her government leaders always returned their monthly leftovers. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi exercised zero tolerance for corruption and extramarital affairs among her government ministers. Lawmakers who had affairs or were involved in sex scandals were not selected as candidates for the 2020 general election. The NLD government also reformed the Anti-Corruption Commission and amended the Anti-Corruption Law to make it tougher on bribery and corruption. As a result, departments long known to be corrupt reported a significant increase in revenue. The revenue from municipal works, which is a major source of income for region and state governments, increased almost three times compared to the revenue under U Thein Sein’s government. That revenue benefitted the country’s infrastructure. In the 2020 general election, the NLD repeated its victory of 2015. But the military seized power on the pretext that the election was marred by fraud. It then made further attempts to destroy Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s reputation. Her power is not in weapons and her wealth is not about money. The strength of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi lies in the public support and esteem for her. The military accused her of corruption and imprisoned her so as to defame her. It also charged NLD party and government leaders under the Anti-Corruption Law and put them behind bars. In one of the corruption cases brought against Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, she was accused of accepting gold and US dollars from former Yangon Region Chief Minister U Phyo Min Thein. She was sentenced to prison, even though there was no evidence. U Phyo Min Thein, who is too sick to stay in jail, was forced to testify against her. His wife reportedly took poison as she did not want to make a false statement. But she was saved by the military regime. Army chiefs who have accused Daw Aung San Suu Kyi of corruption are some of the wealthiest people in Myanmar. Junta leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing’s son and daughter are now on the list of the richest people in Myanmar following their father’s coup. Offspring of other military leaders as well as USDP leaders are also very wealthy. But their official salaries are chicken feed compared to the value of the cheapest luxury car in their fleet of vehicles. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has only one house which she inherited from her parents. President U Win Myint does not even own a house. But military and USDP leaders have luxury homes in Yangon, Naypyitaw and Pyin Oo Lwin, and fleets of luxury cars. Those who have amassed material wealth through dishonest means have accused and imprisoned Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who is rich only in integrity. They attempted to defame Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and undermine public trust her. But the Myanmar people do not believe their lies..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
2022-05-17
Date of entry/update: 2022-05-17
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "For the Myanmar people, the junta’s promised new election is nothing more than an attempt to legitimize military rule in Myanmar, and so the people won’t accept or participate in the regime’s so-called poll even if it happens. The people have clearly demonstrated that stand ever since last year’s coup by displaying placards during mass protests saying “Reject the coup, Respect our votes”. No one can have any trust in any election held by the military regime which rejected the outcome of the 2020 general election, robbed the people of their votes and brutalized their lives. Yet the junta and its accomplices still believe that they can trick the people again with a sham election and so prolong their rule. When Myanmar’s voters cast their votes in the November 2020 general election, they expected more of the new, democratic Myanmar. But their hopes and expectations were shattered when the Myanmar military seized power on February 1, 2021 claiming the poll was marred by “widespread electoral fraud”. That was despite the international and domestic election observers who said the vote was free and fair. Soon after the putsch, coup leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing announced a five-point roadmap, which included reforming the Union Election Commission (UEC) and pledging to hold a “free and fair” election and then handing over power to the winning party. Subsequently, he packed the UEC with his own handpicked men to oversee any post-coup voting and annulled the results of the 2020 election won by the Daw Aung San Suu Kyi-led National League for Democracy (NLD) party in a landslide. The junta-run UEC is now led by U Thein Soe, a former Judge Advocate-General in the military, who previously oversaw the 2010 general election, a poll that was widely regarded as rigged. Junta spokesperson Major General Zaw Min Tun said last week that the regime was making strenuous efforts to hold an election soon. “We are working to hold a general election in every part of the country,” he said, while calling on the public and stakeholders to work together with the murderous junta to make the new vote happen. Dr. Lian Mmung Sakhong, vice chairman of the Chin National Front, one of the ethnic armed organizations which has allied with Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government (NUG), responded that the regime’s plan is simply an attempt to extend its rule for as long as possible. “An election has just been held. They annulled it as they couldn’t accept [the result] and now want to hold a new one to make people vote only for them. It is totally intolerable,” the ethnic leader, who also heads the NUG’s federal ministry, told The Irrawaddy. The military’s proxy and allied parties suffered humiliating defeats in the 2020 general election. Those parties will contest the junta’s election and the regime will make sure that one of them, or a coalition of them, will win. It is also widely believed that junta chief Min Aung Hlaing wants to be an “elected” president, and so will be nominated for the presidency by the military’s proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party. The NUG knows how previous military regimes held sham elections, as in 2010, and in a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, the NUG’s acting president Duwa Lashi La warned people not to trust the junta. “They have never kept their promises,” he said, referring to the coup leader’s promise to hold a credible poll and hand over power to the winning party. Since the coup, the regime has also been working on disbanding the NLD, by far the country’s most popular political party, over alleged electoral violations and has jailed its leaders and senior members, including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, on spurious charges. Ko Tayzar San, one of the most prominent anti-regime protest leaders, said that no one can deny that the NLD is the party which achieves the most public support or that the 2020 election reflected the general will of the public. The NLD has won landslide victories in every election it has contested. In the 2020 poll it won 82 per cent of all elected seats. He said that the people see clearly that the junta’s proposed poll is a fake election designed to solidify the dictatorship and that they won’t accept or take part in it. “We, the people, strongly oppose the coup and won’t accept any election to be held by them [the junta] at all,” said Ko Tayzar San. He also reminded any countries who support the illegitimate junta’s plan that they are going against the will of the Myanmar people. Late last month, the ambassadors of China and India held separate meetings with the junta-run UEC to discuss the regime’s planned new election. During the meetings, the ambassadors revealed their interest in the electoral processes of the junta’s planned poll. “I would like to say to the two countries to stop their direct or indirect support to the terrorist military and respect the voices of Myanmar people,” Ko Tayzar San said. Sai Leik of the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD), one of Myanmar’s strongest ethnic political parties, also told The Irrawaddy that the party hasn’t taken part in the junta’s organized electoral process since the coup, including meetings with the UEC. Founded in 1988, the SNLD won the largest number of seats after the NLD in the 1990 general election, the results of which were ignored by former dictator Than Shwe. Along with the NLD, the SNLD boycotted the rigged 2010 election. In 2020, it won the third-highest number of elected seats. Like the NLD, the SNLD has been threatened with disbandment by the junta-run UEC. Sai Leik of the SNLD said no election can be possible until the regime has been brought to justice for its brutality and violence against civilians. Over 1,800 people, including more than a hundred children, have been killed by junta forces since the coup, while over 13,000 people have been arrested for opposing the regime. Junta arson attacks have destroyed over 11, 000 civilian houses in an effort to terrorize the population. At the same time, the resistance movement is waging armed struggle against the regime. Last year, Min Aung Hlaing suggested that the new election could be held sometime in 2023. But after renewing the state of emergency again in February this year for another six months, the junta chief said that the election would take place when the situation in the country was “peaceful and stable” Political analyst U Than Soe Naing said that the junta’s planned election is less likely to happen in 2023, given the escalating armed resistance against the regime. Even if the regime makes it happen, it won’t be free and fair, he added. “It would just become a state-sponsored fabrication plotted by the junta and its allied parties who have never won in any free and fair elections in Myanmar,” said U Than Soe Naing..."
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Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
2022-05-06
Date of entry/update: 2022-05-06
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Description: "Russia’s war against Ukraine is bound to create a crisis for Myanmar’s military and its arms procurement programs. Both Russia and Ukraine have been among the main suppliers of military hardware to Myanmar, but that is bound to change. Ukraine, a country now ruled by a democratic government supported by the West, will not like to be seen as a supporter of a brutal military dictatorship in Southeast Asia. And Ukraine, too, now needs to rebuild and strengthen its arms industries in order to support and supply its own armed forces who are engaged in a war with Russia that may not end anytime soon. That said, Ukraine’s role as an arms exporter to Myanmar was never as significant as Russia’s. However, according to the United Nations Independent Fact-finding Missions of Myanmar, since 2015 Ukrainian entities have sold BTR-4 armored personnel carriers, MMT-40 light tanks and 2SIU self-propelled howitzers to Myanmar, and have even looked into the possibility of those weapons being manufactured jointly with Myanmar’s defense industries. Ukrainian-produced BTR-4s were seen in Yangon both before and after last year’s February 1 coup. The main suppliers, the fact-finding missions say, were Ukroboronprom and Ukrspecexport, Ukraine’s two main arms producers. Asked by the German international broadcaster Deutsche Welle last year on August 27 if they would stop cooperating with the Myanmar military post-coup, a spokesperson for Ukroboronprom replied that they export war material “in accordance with Ukrainian law and international obligations” and that the military technical cooperation agreement, which was signed in 2015, was still valid under the new junta. But that agreement may end soon, and in any case there is no way Ukrainian companies would be able to ship weapons to Myanmar under present circumstances. Russian arms imports are far more important to the Myanmar military and soared in the years before the invasion of Ukraine. The agreements with Russia were part of an effort to offset the previously heavy dependence on China, which was seen by high-ranking Myanmar military officers as a threat to the country’s sovereignty. In addition to Russia being the source of MiG-29 fighter jets, Hind Mi-35 helicopter gunships, transport helicopters, Yak-130 ground attack aircraft and light armored vehicles, over 7,000 Myanmar military officers and military-connected scientists have studied in Russia since the early 1990s. They can be found at the Omsk Armour Engineering Institute, the Air Force Engineering Academy in Moscow, the Nizhniy Novgorod Command Academy, and the Kazan Military Command Academy, while some are serving as cadets with the Russian Air Force. Days before last year’s coup, Russian Defense Minister General Sergei Shoigu paid a visit to Myanmar to finalize preparations for the delivery of Russian-made radar equipment, PantsirsS1 surface-to-air missile systems, and Orlan-10E surveillance drones. The friendship continued even after the coup. Russia’s deputy defense minister, Alexander Fomin, had private talks with junta leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing in late March last year and was guest of honor at the Armed Forces Day celebrations in Naypyitaw on March 27. Russia’s state-run Tass news agency quoted Fomin as saying that Myanmar was “a reliable ally and a strategic partner of Russia in Asia.” In a video shown on the Russian Defense Ministry’s Zvezda TV, Fomin was seen shaking hands with Min Aung Hlaing after having received a medal and a ceremonial sword from the coup leader. In June, Min Aung Hlaing flew to Moscow where he did not meet Russian strongman Vladimir Putin but held talks with Nikolai Patrushev, the secretary of Russia’s Security Council. Reuters reported on June 21: “Defense ties between the two nations have grown in recent years with Moscow providing army training and university scholarships to thousands of soldiers, as well as selling arms to a military blacklisted by several Western countries for alleged atrocities against civilians.” During his visit to Moscow, Min Aung Hlaing also attended a religious ceremony at the Myanma Theravada Buddha Vihara Monastery in Moscow, to which he and his family are among the donors. The monastery is located 14 kilometers east of downtown Moscow and was opened on 1 July 2015 to serve Myanmar military officers undergoing training in Russia. In early September, Min Aung Hlaing’s deputy, Vice Senior General Soe Win, traveled to Moscow together with the Sitagu Sayadaw, once a well-respected Buddhist leader and now a puppet of the military. The occasion was to attend the closing ceremony of the 2021 International Army Games, an annual Russian military sports event organized by Russia’s Ministry of Defense. The 84-year-old monk stayed at the Myanma Theravada Buddha Vihara Monastery while photos published in the junta’s mouthpiece, the Global New Light of Myanmar, showed Soe Win sitting together with senior Russian military officers watching what was called “a competition of tank squads from the Russian Federation, China, Kyrgyzstan and Azerbaijan.” Future arms deals were also most certainly on the agenda. Given the close relationship between Moscow and Naypyitaw, it is not surprising that Myanmar’s military leaders have sided with Russia in the conflict in Ukraine, as junta spokesman Major General Zaw Min Tun did in an interview with the Myanmar service of Voice of America on February 24: “No. 1 is that Russia has worked to consolidate its sovereignty…I think this is the right thing to do. No. 2 is to show the world that Russia is a world power.” On February 27, Myanmar Alin, the Myanmar-language version of the Global New Light of Myanmar, published a two-page commentary titled “Lessons from Ukraine for those who haven’t learned from history” by a writer using the pseudonym ‘Myint Myat’. The article referred to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as a “puppet of the West”, while Putin was praised as a “visionary leader” who had had the “foresight to quietly build up his country’s military and economic strength.” But such shows of support for Putin’s invasion of Ukraine may have no impact on a desired, continuous supply of military hardware from Russia. Since the invasion, Russia has become subject to economic and financial sanctions including the exclusion of several major Russian banks from the SWIFT messaging transfer system, with the only exception being payments for energy imports. Those restrictions will make it almost impossible for the Myanmar military to pay for Russian arms purchases. Nor is Russia likely to accept barter deals similar to those that the Myanmar military had with North Korea, a major arms supplier in the early 2000s: rice for guns. Some outside observers have speculated that China will fill the gap, but Chinese arms exporters also want to get paid in cash, and hard currency is in short supply in crisis-ridden Myanmar. Chinese credits and loans may make up for that, but then there is the perennial question of dependence on China, which the Myanmar military for a long time has tried to reduce. Opening up the country and normalizing relations with the West in 2011/2012 was an outcome of that policy, and so were the efforts to diversify arms purchases by reaching out to countries such as Russia and Ukraine. At this crucial juncture in the Ukrainian war and with Myanmar facing bankruptcy, the North Koreans are reported to have returned, and that will make it possible for the Myanmar military to, once again, use a barter system to keep the guns flowing into the country. According to well-placed inside sources, cordial relations between Pyongyang and Naypyitaw were actually revitalized as early as shortly after last year’s coup — and that relationship was made public in a curious article in the Global New Light of Myanmar on April 17 this year. The headline read “Foreign embassy families participate in Thingyan festival at Yangon Mayor’s Maha Thingyan Pandal.” But the text, and the photo, that was published under the headline, showed only one such group of “foreign embassy families”: The North Korean ambassador Jong Ho Bom and his companions who, according to the paper, were “cordially greeted” by Soe Thein, the junta-appointed Chief Minister of Yangon Region. At the time of his appointment in February this year, Soe Thein was also the deputy managing director of the military-owned conglomerate Myanmar Economic Holdings Limited (MEHL). He has also served as the Defence Ministry Auditor General, so he is a person well-versed in the art of striking arms deals with foreign countries. It is still not certain exactly what shape the renewed military relationship with North Korea will take. Missile development is one area that has been suggested by sources. Relations between Myanmar and North Korea were cordial until October 1983, when North Korean agents detonated a bomb in Yangon, killing 18 visiting high-ranking South Korean officials, as well as three Myanmar citizens. Contacts between Myanmar and North Korea resumed in 1993 with a series of secret meetings between diplomats from both countries in Thailand’s capital Bangkok. In June 1999, the Director of Procurement of the Armed Forces visited Pyongyang, followed by another secret trip in November 2000. In July 2003, a group of technicians from North Korea was seen at the Monkey Point naval base in Yangon, and aircraft from North Korea’s national airline Air Koryo were observed landing at military airfields in central Myanmar. The official re-establishment of ties came in April 2007. Confirmed arms shipments from North Korea to Myanmar were first limited to conventional weapons and technology transfers, including a major purchase of 130mm Type 59 field guns in 1999. It was also confirmed that North Korean tunnelling experts arrived in June 2006 at the new capital Naypyitaw, where the country’s military government is reported to have built an extensive underground bunker complex. In 2008, Myanmar took delivery of 30 units of 240-mm truck-mounted multiple launch rocket systems from North Korea, weapons that were first used in the war in Kachin State in 2012 and later, in 2019, against the Arakan Army in Rakhine State. In November 2008, a high-level Myanmar delegation led by General Shwe Mann, then number three in Myanmar’s military hierarchy and now an opposition politician, visited North Korea where they were taken to see defense industries and radar stations and expressed interest in buying radar systems and surface-to-air missiles, as well as more sophisticated artillery from Pyongyang. There were also, at that time, unexplained visits by North Korean freighters to Myanmar ports, which raised suspicions of potentially more sophisticated arms deliveries. It is now clear that those shipments were connected to Myanmar’s secret missile programs. Myanmar began receiving ballistic missile technology from North Korea in 2008, and over 20 Korean missile specialists were in the country until early 2015. Most of the raw materials for the missile project were produced in Myanmar, with some parts imported from North Korea via China, and with North Korean specialists providing expertise. None of the Myanmar officers involved in the projects spoke Korean, but some of the North Koreans, who were in Myanmar for years, are said to be fluent in the Burmese language. While they always kept a low profile in Myanmar, it was not unusual to see them dining at the Pyongyang Koryo restaurant, a North Korean eatery in Yangon that was eventually closed in 2018. It is uncertain whether some of them have come back since the coup, but technology and know-how are certainly being transferred, the sources say. It is also known that 31 Myanmar military technicians were sent to North Korea for a two-month training course in 2015, well after Myanmar’s then President U Thein Sein had announced in 2012 that the country had severed relations with North Korea, so despite official assurances, military-to-military relations were never completely severed. Myanmar’s military partnership with North Korea was one of the most important issues that prompted the United States and the West to change its Myanmar policy from that of isolation and boycotts to engagement in the early 2010s. Normal relations could only be restored if Myanmar severed its relations with North Korea — and when that was done under ex-general U Thein Sein’s presidency between 2011-2016, Myanmar changed from being an international outcast to becoming the darling of the West. Last year’s bloody coup has set the clock back to where it was during the darkest years of absolute military rule, and with it has come the imposition of new sanctions imposed by the West. It is, as always, difficult to predict what the Myanmar military intends to do when it comes to arms purchases. There may be no doubt that China will take advantage of the military’s predicament and offer everything and anything in providing transfers and financial assistance but — given the traditional Sinophobic mindset of Myanmar’s military leaders — it is plausible to assume that they are looking for alternatives. Seen in the context of the Ukrainian war and Myanmar’s severe financial difficulties, it would make sense for the generals to turn an old trusted ally: the North Koreans. That is already happening, and we can only wait and see to what extent the generals are prepared to go in that relationship — and how the outside world is going to react to a renewed alliance between Pyongyang and Naypyitaw..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
2022-05-04
Date of entry/update: 2022-05-04
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Description: "Few people in the West or even in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) know who is who when it comes to the ministers of Myanmar’s junta. But one minister they should know is U Ko Ko Hlaing, as he is the military regime’s Minister for International Cooperation and the junta’s point man for dealing with the international community. U Ko Ko Hlaing is also the chair of the Working Committee on Supervision of United Nations (UN) Agencies and International Non-Governmental Organizations in Myanmar. In addition, he is the head of the Task Force on Humanitarian Assistance, meaning that the 65-year-old oversees international aid efforts in Myanmar. His recent visitors include David Carden, the deputy humanitarian coordinator for the UN in Myanmar. If those jobs were not enough, in February the former Lieutenant Colonel also led Myanmar’s defense at the International Court of Justice in the Netherlands against allegations of genocide committed by the Myanmar military. Furthermore, he was among the few people ASEAN’s Special Envoy for Myanmar, Prak Sokhonn, met when he was in Myanmar last month. The envoy discussed humanitarian assistance issues with U Ko Ko Hlaing. He impressed the special envoy’s delegation with his friendliness and his 75-minute long discussion with the envoy was praised for being fruitful. But what foreign visitors don’t know is that U Ko Ko Hlaing has been a staunch apologist for not only this military dictatorship but the previous one as well. He is infamous among the Myanmar people, many of whom refer to him scornfully as “Frog and Fish Catcher Ko Ko Hlaing” or “Candle Ko Ko Hlaing”. Looking back at his career, it is easy to understand why that is. Junta leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing has appointed a number of ministers and advisors who previously served in U Thein Sein’s quasi-civilian government. U Ko Ko Hlaing, who served as the chief political advisor to U Thein Sein, is one of them. He is also a confidant of former dictator Senior General Than Shwe. U Ko Ko Hlaing graduated from the 18th intake of the Defense Services Academy, and he and two of his classmates are reportedly regular visitors to Than Shwe’s residence in the Myanmar capital Naypyitaw. One of those classmates is U Than Htay, the current chair of the military’s proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party. The other is retired Lieutenant General Wai Lwin, who served as defense minister in U Thein Sein’s administration and organized pro-military rallies in Yangon ahead of Min Aung Hlaing’s February 1, 2021 coup. U Ko Ko Hlaing did not hold high military or civil positions in Than Shwe’s regime, unlike his two classmates, but he played an important part in the regime’s propaganda efforts as a writer and researcher. In 2004, he resigned as a Lieutenant Colonel from the research department of the defense ministry and transferred to the Information Ministry. Under Information Minister U Kyaw Hsan in the regime’s State Peace and Development Council government, he served as an advisor to the information ministry, often publishing pro-military books as well as newspaper articles. One of his most notorious articles concerned Cyclone Nargis, which in May 2008 swept through Ayeyarwady Region and southern Myanmar, killing over 138,000 people and destroying and damaging some 750,000 buildings. In the immediate aftermath of the worst recorded natural disaster in Myanmar’s history U Ko Ko Hlaing, writing under the pseudonym ‘Hlaing Aung’, wrote that the Shwedagon Pagoda – Myanmar’s most sacred Buddhist site – could now be seen clearly from a distance and worshipped with ease, thanks to Nargis having blown down so many trees in Yangon. At the time, U Ko Ko Hlaing was living near Shwedagon Pagoda in Bahan Township. But while he was enjoying the view of the Shwedagon from his home, hundreds of thousands of residents in the hard-hit Ayeyarwady Region were left homeless by Nargis and were struggling without food and shelter amid the rotting corpses of humans and animals. To make matters worse, U Ko Ko Hlaing argued in his article that as the Ayeyarwady Region is rich in fertile soil and water resources, its shattered residents could catch frogs and fish to eat along with the vegetables that grow in the region. Defending the xenophobic refusal of Than Shwe’s regime to allow international aid into Myanmar, U Ko Ko Hlaing said that the meals he suggested were tasty and nutritious and more than enough for Nargis refugees to survive on, so they had no need for chocolate bars donated by the international community. The article was published in the regime-run English-language newspaper, The New Light of Myanmar, and attracted hordes of disparaging remarks from both local and international readers. Despite that, U Ko Ko Hlaing continued to be favored by the generals and, in 2011, was appointed as chief political advisor to then President U Thein Sein. Later, his wife Daw Thida Tin transferred from the education ministry to the information ministry. She is currently serving as Deputy Director-General of the Information and Public Relations Department. From being a propagandist who dared not use his real name and was told what to write by the military regime, U Ko Ko Hlaing became an important figure as a presidential advisor. But his old habit of defending the boss he served was far from over. When Myanmar experienced long and frequent power cuts in 2014, U Ko Ko Hlaing again aroused controversy by saying: “I want to say with goodwill. Why don’t you switch off lights and light candles at your homes? Everything will be fine then.” After U Thein Sein’s government lost the 2015 general election to the National League for Democracy (NLD), U Ko Ko Hlaing left Naypyitaw to serve as an advisor to the Myanmar Study Department of Yunnan University in Kunming, China. From there, he criticized the NLD government’s handling of Chinese investments, and was personally engaged in promoting the interests of Chinese companies in Myanmar. He returned to Naypyitaw when Min Aung Hlaing appointed him as Minister for International Cooperation Minister. U Ko Ko Hlaing is just a year older than the coup leader, who graduated from the Defense Services Academy in 1977, a year after U Ko Ko Hlaing became a commissioned officer. U Ko Ko Hlaing has continued his propaganda efforts for his new boss, doing his best to cover up the regime’s human rights violations. After many people died in July and August last year due to the regime’s weak handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, he wrote a number of articles blaming striking health workers and western countries for failing to provide vaccines. “I don’t want to complain, but I have to. Western countries that have long said that Myanmar is on the verge of collapse due to COVID-19 and is in urgent need of international assistance have not yet provided a single dose of COVID-19 vaccines. The US$350 million lent by the International Monetary Fund to remedy the COVID-hit economy was part of the US$1 billion frozen by Uncle Sam. Nearly US$300 million in loans long promised by the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank for the health of the people and agriculture has been stalled in the name of sanctions,” he wrote in junta-controlled newspapers. Earlier this year in February, in another sign of the regime’s faith in him, U Ko Ko Hlaing was chosen to lead Myanmar’s defense of the Myanmar military at the International Court of Justice in the Netherlands against genocide allegations. In short, if you mention international cooperation minister U Ko Ko Hlaing to any ordinary Myanmar people you meet, you will see puzzlement on their faces as they have no idea who he is. But if you try “Frog and Fish Catcher Ko Ko Hlaing” or “Candle Ko Ko Hlaing”, they will reply: “Yes, the regime’s stooge”. The international community needs to be mindful, too, that the façade of ‘friendly’ minister U Ko Ko Hlaing hides a long-time apologist for military dictatorships..."
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
2022-04-28
Date of entry/update: 2022-04-28
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Description: "Today marks the eighth anniversary of the death of former political prisoner, founding member of the National League for Democracy, and Hantharwaddy journalist U Win Tin. For his fearless behavior to free people in Burma from the military dictatorship, U Win Tin was set up with false charges by the then military junta and given extensive prison sentences. During his time in prison, the journalist was tormented in many ways and on constant basis, both mentally and physically. He was evicted from his apartment. He was revoked of his right to receive pension. He also lost all his teeth due to the torturous interrogation sessions. He was denied nourishment with hard rice and raw soup for his teeth-less mouth. U Win Tin developed stomach problems for which he was denied treatment for five whole years. The prison refused to let him seek treatment for heart issues which became a chronic issue and eventually led to his death. He documented everything he experienced inside the prison for almost 20 years, with no one to contact, and enduring isolation inside his cell. In his autobiographical book “What’s that? A Human Hell”, readers understand the hellish experience U Win Tin endured. After he was released from the prison, he wore the prison uniform – blue shirt and longyi – to his death to make a statement, campaigning for the release of all political prisoners. All domestic and international supporters of Burma’s democratic movement symbolically adorn the blue shirt on April 21, to campaign for the release of political prisoners still inside Burma. It has been over a year since the military junta attempted to illegally seize power in a coup d’état. People’s resistance, in many shapes and forms, has continued for over a year. 10,271 political prisoners, 996 of whom have been sentenced whilst 9,275 await trial, remain unlawfully detained since the Spring Revolution. The terrorist group has been arbitrarily detaining, torturing and imprisoning dissidents, so they can have power. The unconditional and immediate release of all political prisoners is the first step to move Burma forward into a federal democracy. We urge international leaders like at the UN, EU, ASEAN, US, Japan, and South Korea to put further pressure on the junta to release all political prisoners. We also request people in Burma to remember that political prisoners remain behind bars and suffer brutal oppression by the junta. Do not forget them or their family members who face grueling challenges. Please help them as much you can..."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners
2022-04-21
Date of entry/update: 2022-04-22
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Description: "ယနေ့ ဧပြီလ ၂၁ ရက်နေ့သည် နိုင်ငံရေးအကျဉ်းသားဟောင်း၊ အမျိုးသားဒီမိုကရေစီအဖွဲ့ချုပ်-နာယက၊ သတင်းစာဆရာကြီး ဟံသာဝတီဦးဝင်းတင် ကွယ်လွန်ခဲ့တာ ၈နှစ် ပြည့်မြောက်သည့်နေ့ ဖြစ်ပါသည်။ မြန်မာပြည်သူလူထုတရပ်လုံး စစ်အာဏာရှင်အောက်မှ လွတ်မြောက်ရေးအတွက် ရဲရင့်ပြောင်မြောက်စွာ တိုက်ပွဲဝင်ခဲ့သည့် ဆရာကြီးအား စစ်အာဏာရှင်တို့က မတရားအမှုဆင်ကာ ဖမ်းဆီးပြီး နှစ်ရှည်ထောင်ဒဏ် ချမှတ်ခဲ့သည်။ ဆရာကြီးသည် အကျဉ်းထောင်တွင်း နေထိုင်စဉ် ကာလတလျှောက်တွင်လည်း အမျိုးမျိုးသော စိတ်ပိုင်းဆိုင်ရာ၊ ရုပ်ပိုင်းဆိုင်ရာ နှိပ်စက်ညှဉ်းပန်းမှုများ တောက်လျှောက်ခံခဲ့ရသည်။ အိမ်ခန်းက ဖယ်ပေးခဲ့ရ သည်။ အငြိမ်းစားလစာ ရိက္ခာခံစားခွင့် ဆုံးရှုံးခဲ့ရသည်။ ထောက်လှမ်းစစ်ကြောရေးလက်ချက်ဖြင့် သွားများ အားလုံး ပြောင်သလင်းခါခဲ့ရသည်။ ထောင်ဆန်ကြမ်းထမင်းနှင့် ထောင်ဟင်းရွက်ပြုတ်ရည်ကို မသေရုံတမယ် သွားဖုံးနှင့်မြုံခဲ့ရသည်။ အစာအိမ်ရောဂါစွဲခဲ့ရသည်။ အူကျရောဂါကို ငါးနှစ်တိတိ ကုသခွင့်မပေး၊ နှလုံးရောဂါ ကို ကုသခွင့်မပေးသည့်အတွက် သေရာပါ နာတာရှည်ဖြစ်သွားခဲ့ရသည်။ နှစ်နှစ်ဆယ်နီးနီး မည်သူနှင့်မျှ ဆက်သွယ်ခွင့်မရဘဲ တစ်ဉီးတည်း တိုက်ပိတ်ခံရသည်ကို ဆရာကြီး ကိုယ်တိုင်ရေးသားထားသည့် ဘာလဲဟဲ့ လူ့ငရဲစာအုပ်တွင် ဖေါ်ပြထားခဲ့သည်။ သို့သော်လည်း ထိုကဲ့သို့ ဆိုးရွားလှသော ငရဲခန်းကို မကြောက်မရွံ့ ရဲရင့်စွာ ကျော်ဖြတ်ခဲ့သည်ကိုလည်း ထိုစာအုပ်တွင် လေ့လာကြရမည်ဖြစ်သည်။ ဆရာကြီးသည် အကျဉ်းထောင်မှ လွတ်မြောက်ပြီးနောက် နိုင်ငံရေးအကျဉ်းသားများ လွတ်မြောက်ရေး အတွက် လှုပ်ရှားမှုတစ်ခုအနေဖြင့် အကျဉ်းထောင် ဝတ်စုံဖြစ်သည့် အပြာရောင်အင်္ကျီနှင့် ပုဆိုးကို ကွယ်လွန် သည်အထိ ဝတ်ဆင်သွားခဲ့သည်။ ပြည်တွင်း၊ပြည်ပရှိ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ ဒီမိုကရေစီရေးလှုပ်ရှားမှုကို ထောက်ခံအားပေးသူများအနေနှင့်လည်း နှစ်စဉ် ဧပြီလ ၂၁ ရက်နေ့တွင် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံရှိ နိုင်ငံရေးအကျဉ်းသားများ လွတ်မြောက်ရေးအတွက် အပြာရောင် အင်္ကျီများ ဝတ်ဆင်ခြင်း သင်္ကေတပြုကာ လှုပ်ရှားမှုများ ပြုလုပ်ခဲ့ကြသည်။ ၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ် ဖေဖေါ်ဝါရီလ ၁ ရက်နေ့တွင် စစ်အုပ်စုမှ အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်အုပ်စုမှ မတရားအာဏာလုခဲ့သည်မှာ တစ်နှစ်ကျော်ကြာခဲ့ပြီဖြစ်ပြီး ယနေ့တွင် အာဏာလုမှုကို ဆန့်ကျင်တိုက်ပွဲဝင်ခဲ့ကြသဖြင့် အကျဉ်းထောင် အသီးသီး၌ မတရားဖမ်းဆီးထိန်းသိမ်းခံနေရသူပေါင်း အနည်းဆုံး (ထောင်ဒဏ်ချမှတ်ပြီး ၉၉၆ ဦး + ထောင်တွင်းမှတရားရင်ဆိုင်နေရသူ ၉၂၇၅ ဦး) (၁၀၂၇၁)ဦး ရှိနေပြီဖြစ်သည်။ အကြမ်းဖက်အာဏာလုစစ်အုပ်စုက ၎င်းတို့အာဏာတည်မြဲရေး အတွက် ဆန့်ကျင်တော်လှန်သူမှန်သမျှကို နည်းမျိုးစုံဖြင့် မတရားဖမ်းဆီးညှဉ်းပန်းနှိပ်စက်ကာ အကျဉ်းထောင်တွင်း၌ ချုပ်နှောင်ထားလျက်ရှိသည်။ နိုင်ငံရေးအကျဉ်းသားအားလုံး ခြွင်းချက်မရှိ ချက်ချင်းလွှတ်ရန်မှာ ဖက်ဒရယ်ဒီမိုကရေစီနိုင်ငံတော် တည် ဆောက်ရေးအတွက် ပထမဆုံးခြေလှမ်းဖြစ်သည်။ ထို့ကြောင့် ကုလသမဂ္ဂ၊ ဥရောပသမဂ္ဂ၊ အာဆီယံ၊ အမေရိကန်၊ ဂျပန်နှင့် တောင်ကိုရီးယားအပါအဝင် နိုင်ငံတကာခေါင်းဆောင်များအနေဖြင့် အကြမ်းဖက် အာဏာလု စစ်အုပ်စုအပေါ် လုံလောက်သော ဖိအားပေးမှုများ လုပ်ဆောင်ရန် တိုက်တွန်းအပ်ပါသည်။ ပြည်သူများအနေဖြင့်လည်း အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်အုပ်စုနှင့် ၎င်း၏ယန္တရားများက အကျဉ်းထောင်တွင်းရှိ နိုင်ငံရေး အကျဉ်းသားများကို နည်းမျိုးစုံသုံးကာ ညှဉ်းပန်းနှိပ်စက်၊ ဖိနှိပ်လျက်ရှိသည်ကို သတိမူပြီး နိုင်ငံရေး အကျဉ်းသားများနှင့် ၎င်းတို့မိသားစုများ၏ စွန့်လွှတ်အနစ်နာခံမှုနှင့် ပေးဆပ်မှုများကို မမေ့လျော့ဘဲ တတ်နိုင်သမျှ ဝိုင်းဝန်းကူညီပေးပါရန် တောင်းဆိုအပ်ပါသည်။..."
Source/publisher: Assistance Association for Political Prisoners
2022-04-21
Date of entry/update: 2022-04-22
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Description: "Myanmar’s junta leader Min Aung Hlaing, whose regime has killed more than 1,700 civilians, has awarded himself two honorary titles which are traditionally given to those who make huge contributions to the country. On Sunday, to mark Myanmar’s new year, the regime announced its honorary titles and medals for outstanding work for the country during the 75 years since independence. Min Aung Hlaing gave himself the two highest titles — Sadoe Thiri Thudhamma and Sadoe Maha Thray Sithu. The list was dominated by dictatorial figures. Ne Win, the first military dictator who led the 1962 coup, was posthumously named Agga Maha Thray Sithu, the second-highest honor. Former military dictator Than Shwe, who picked Min Aung Hlaing as his successor as commander-in-chief, was given the same title. Former president and general U Thein Sein was not mentioned as he already had the Agga Maha Thray Sithu. Former brigadier general Kyaw Zaw, a central figure in the independence struggle and establishment of the armed forces, has previously only received a lower Thray Sithu honor. He was one of the 30 comrades who led the struggle against British colonial rule and the Kuomintang invasion. Former prime ministers U Nu and U San Yu and the leader of the 1988 military reshuffle Senior General Saw Maung were awarded the Agga Maha Thiri Thudhamma and Agga Maha Thray Sithu on Sunday. However, former military intelligence general Khin Nyunt, who was purged by Than Shwe in 2004 and now suffers from Alzheimer’s, was overlooked. Former lieutenant generals Aye Ko and Tun Yi, who were Ne Win’s deputies, were both awarded the Maha Thray Sithu. Former vice-senior general Maung Aye, Than Shwe’s deputy, received no award on Sunday. The current junta’s acting president, U Myint Swe, was awarded the Sadoe Thiri Thudhamma. Late influential Buddhist monk Myaing Gyi Ngu Sayadaw U Thuzana, Karen National Union chairman Saw Mutu Say Poe, Restoration Council of Shan State leader Yawd Serk and some other leaders of ethnic armed groups were given Wunna Kyawhtin medals for their outstanding performances, which is normally given to leading artistic and literary figures. U Hla Maung Shwe, a former adviser to the Myanmar Peace Center, was given the Wunna Kyawhtin medal. Many artists, including some from the colonial era, were given posthumous medals. The regime also awarded honorary titles on March 27, Armed Forces Day, which marks the anniversary of armed resistance against Japanese occupation..."
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
2022-04-18
Date of entry/update: 2022-04-18
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "၁။ ၂၀၀၉ ခုနှစ်၊ ဧပြီလ (၁၀) ရက်တွင် စတင်တည်ထောင်သော ရက္ခိုင့်တပ်တော် (၁၃) နှစ်ပြည့် အထိမ်းအမှတ်နေ့သို့ ဂုဏ်ယူစွာဖြင့် ဤသဝဏ်လွှာကို ပေးပို့အပ်ပါသည်။ ၂။ အမျိုးသားတန်းတူရေးနှင့် ကိုယ်ပိုင်ပြဌာန်းခွင့်အလို့ငှာ တပ်တော်တစ်ရပ်ကို တည်ထောင်ပြီး နောက် ရဲရင့်ထက်မြက်မှု၊ စွန့်လွှတ်ပေးဆပ်မှုများစွာဖြင့် တိုက်ပွဲဝင်လျက်ရှိသော ရက္ခိုင့်တပ်တော် ခေါင်းဆောင်များ၊ ရဲဘော်များအားလုံးကို လေးစားဂုဏ်ပြုအပ်ပါသည်။ ၃။ ယနေ့အချိန်တွင် ပြည်ထောင်စုသားအားလုံး၏ ဘုံရန်သူဖြစ်လျက်ရှိသော ဖက်ဆစ်ဝါဒီများကို ဆန့်ကျင် တိုက်ဖျက်ရာတွင် ရက္ခိုင့်တပ်တော်သည် ပြည်သူ့ကာကွယ်ရေးတပ်မတော် အပါအဝင် တိုင်းရင်းသားတော်လှန်ရေးအဖွဲ့အားလုံးနှင့် လက်တွဲလျက် အတူတကွကြိုးပမ်းလိမ့်မည်ဟု ယုံကြည် ပါကြောင်းနှင့် ရက္ခိုင်အမျိုးသားတို့၏ ကြီးမြတ်သောနိုင်ငံရေး မျှော်မှန်းချက်များလည်း ပြည့်ဝ အောင်မြင် ပါစေကြောင်း ဆုမွန်ကောင်းတောင်းလိုက်ပါသည်။..."
Source/publisher: Ministry of Defence - National Unity Government of Myanmar
2022-04-10
Date of entry/update: 2022-04-10
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Sub-title: Min Aung Hlaing also urges ethnic minorities not to support militias opposed to army rule
Description: "Myanmar’s top general has vowed to intensify action against homegrown militia groups fighting the military-run government, saying the armed forces would “annihilate” them. Gen Min Aung Hlaing, speaking at a military parade marking Armed Forces Day on Sunday, also urged ethnic minorities not to support groups opposed to army rule and ruled out negotiations with them. The military seized power last year from the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. Security forces have since used lethal force to suppress mass nationwide protests, resulting in the deaths of more than 1,700 civilians, according to a detailed tally compiled by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. Forced to turn away from peaceful protests, many of those opposed to military rule took up arms, forming hundreds of militia groups called People’s Defence Forces – better known as PDFs. In some parts of the country, they’ve joined forces with well-organised, battle-hardened ethnic armed groups, which have been fighting for greater autonomy for decades. Min Aung Hlaing, addressing thousands of military personnel during the parade in the capital Naypyidaw, said he would not negotiate with “terrorist groups and their supporters for killing innocent people” and threatening peace and security. He said the military, known as the Tatmadaw, “will annihilate them to (the) end”, according to an official translation of his speech. His government has declared major resistance organisations – regardless of whether they are directly engaged in armed struggle – as terrorist groups. Membership or even contact with them carries harsh punishment under law. “I would like to highlight that there are no governments or armies worldwide that negotiate with any terrorist groups,” he said. Despite a huge advantage in equipment and numbers, Myanmar’s military has struggled to crush the new militia units. Outgunned and outmanned, the PDFs have relied on support from local communities and knowledge of the terrain to carry out often surprisingly effective attacks on convoys, patrols, guard posts, police stations and isolated bases in remote areas. The military is currently conducting operations in Sagaing, in central Myanmar, and in Kayah State, in the country’s east, using airstrikes, artillery barrages and the burning of villages. The army recently seems to have expanded its offensive into Chin State in the west and Kayin State in the south-east as well. Last year’s Armed Forces Day was the single bloodiest since the military’s seizure of power on 1 February 2021. Security forces across the country opened fire on demonstrators, killing as many as 160 people. Anti-military protests were held on Sunday despite the risks in Yangon, the country’s biggest city, and elsewhere. To avoid arrest or injury, urban street protests usually involve flashmobs, which quickly disperse before security forces crack down. The main opposition group, the self-styled National Unity Government, urged people to join a “power strike” on Sunday night by switching off the lights and their televisions for 30 minutes while the military parade was broadcast on state-run TV channels. The group said the strike was also intended to protest daily power outages. The blackouts started several months ago, and the government blames them on high gas prices and damage to power lines caused by sabotage. The US, European Union and 20 other countries issued a statement marking Armed Forces Day by recalling “those killed and displaced by violence over the last year, including at least 100 people killed on this day alone one year ago”. It called on the military to cease its violence and return to democratic rule, and urged countries not to supply arms to Myanmar. The US, UK and Canada on Saturday imposed the latest in a series of coordinated sanctions on senior military officials and business leaders who allegedly act as arms dealers for Myanmar’s army..."
Source/publisher: "The Guardian" (UK)
2022-03-28
Date of entry/update: 2022-03-28
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "The Myanmar military regime has destroyed more than 100 Buddhist and Christian religious buildings in resistance strongholds in the country’s northwest, heartland and southeast since the coup last year. Since late last year, the junta has conducted artillery and airstrikes on civilian areas in Chin State and Sagaing and Magwe regions, as well as in Kayah State. It has been facing strong resistance from local people in all those areas. The regime’s attacks on civilian targets in predominantly Buddhist and Christian areas haven’t spared religious buildings, in which people often taken shelter when clashes erupt. In predominantly Christian Chin State, nearly 35 churches and 15 affiliated buildings were destroyed in junta attacks between February 2021 and January 2022, according to the Chin Human Rights Organization. In mostly Christian Kayah State in southeastern Myanmar, about 12 churches were destroyed in the same period, the Karenni Human Rights Group said. In May last year, the regime forces’ continuous shelling of the Sacred Heart Church in Kayah State’s capital Loikaw killed four people taking shelter there, not to mention causing damage to the religious building. The junta’s claim that the building harbored resistance fighters was largely denied by people there. The attack prompted Myanmar’s Cardinal Charles Maung Bo to request that the regime refrain from targeting religious buildings. But the regime forces ignored the cardinal’s request, shelling one of the main churches in Kayah State’s Demoso Township, the Queen of Peace Church, on June 6. A Karenni Christian leader said the regime had shelled churches even during times when there was no fighting between junta and resistance forces. Sometime it attacked religious buildings located away from the combat areas, he said. “They are attacking the churches intentionally to suppress the spirit of Christian people by attacking their sacred churches. I condemn their bad intentions,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons. Thantlang has been the worst-affected area in Chin State in Myanmar’s northwest, suffering artillery and arson attacks by the regime 26 times since September last year, forcing residents to desert the town. During the attacks, a Chin pastor was shot dead and his wedding ring cut from his finger by Myanmar junta soldiers when he went outside to help put out fires caused by the military’s shelling. Aerial pictures of the smoldering town with smoke snaking upward to the sky shocked the world. Three churches in the town caught on fire on Oct. 29 alone. On Nov. 1, Washington condemned the Myanmar junta’s horrific use of violence in Chin State. The targeting of churches in Kayah and Chin states reflects the regime’s frustration at not being able to assert control in the states despite almost 10 months of intense fighting against Karenni and Chin resistance fighters, during which the regime has resorted to using airstrikes and heavy weapons including artillery. Additionally, the regime’s forces—who have vowed to protect Buddhism—have destroyed and launched arson attacks on Buddhist monasteries, especially in Sagaing and Magwe regions, two strongholds of anti-regime armed resistance in Myanmar’s heartland. Based on media reports, at least 30 Buddhist monasteries in Sagaing Region and 20 in Magwe Region, which are predominantly Buddhist regions, have been destroyed, raided and looted by regime soldiers since April last year. During clearance operations in the areas where they suspect locals of harboring resistance forces, junta troops have used heavy weapons and conducted arson attacks on monasteries, as well as destroying property and stealing valuables while quartered in the buildings. Early this month, as many as six people died when the monastery they were sheltering in was shelled in Latpandaw Village in Sagaing Region’s Yinmabin Township. The same township suffered the regime’s brutality in late February when soldiers raided Chin Phone Village’s monastery and detained over 80 primary schoolchildren as human shields for 36 hours. “When the abbot of the monastery tried to negotiate with the regime forces, they pointed a gun at the monk and wouldn’t let him out of the monastery,” a villager recalled. The regime forces turned the Buddhist monastery into an interrogation center and tortured and killed nine people including a 19-year-old woman, and stole 50 million kyats donated to the monastery by villagers. U Waryama, a striking Buddhist monk and member of the Spring Revolution Sangha Network, said that while the regime made a lot of noise about protecting and promoting Buddhism, it never failed to show its true colors whenever its power was challenged. “They build pagodas and monasteries to show they are the guardians of Buddhism but will not hesitate to kill monks if they pose a threat to their power,” the monk said..."
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
2022-03-28
Date of entry/update: 2022-03-28
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Description: "In the early years of Myanmar’s independence, March 27 was called Resistance Day. It was held to commemorate the day in 1945 when Aung San and the soldiers of his Burma National Army turned their guns against their former Japanese allies. But perhaps in an attempt to honor the military and not offend the Japanese, it was in the mid-1950s changed to Resistance Day (Armed Forces Day), a name that was retained until the 1988 pro-democracy uprising, when it became Armed Forces Day (Resistance Day) and, under the rule of former dictator General Than Shwe, only Armed Forces Day. The crucial event in 1945 was mentioned only in passing, and, when the celebrations were held for the first time in the new capital Naypyitaw on March 27, 2006, columns of soldiers marched past newly erected, larger than life statues of the three most prominent warrior kings in Myanmar history: Anawratha, Bayinnaung and Alaungpaya. That those dead kings are a living force was clear from the speech Than Shwe delivered on that day: “Our Tatmadaw [armed forces] should be a worthy heir to the traditions of the capable tatmadaws established by the noble kings Anawratha, Bayinnaung and Alaungpaya.” Democratic reforms were certainly not on his mind, a fact reflected in the name of the new capital. “Naypyitaw” means “capital” or “place of a king” in old-fashioned usage. Even “tatmadaw” literally means “royal force.” Anawratha was the founder of the first Burmese, or Myanmar, Empire in 1044 AD, while Bayinnaung was the country’s most celebrated warrior king. During his reign, which lasted from 1551 to 1581, he conquered most of the Irrawaddy plain, parts of the Shan plateau and territories as far east as Chiang Mai in present day Thailand. Alaungpaya reigned in the 18th century and was the first king of the Konbaung Dynasty, the third and the last of the Myanmar empires. Myanmar’s military rulers have never explained why the date March 27 would bind those three kings together, but today, the armed forces as an institution, not any past resistance against the Japanese occupiers, is what matters. It could be equally important to maintain a blemish-free relationship with the Japanese right wing, which in the post-independence era—and especially after the 1962 coup—has had cordial ties with the Myanmar military. In 1954, Myanmar signed a peace treaty with Japan and, as part of the agreement, Tokyo agreed to pay US$200 million in war reparations as well as an annual grant of US$5 million for technical assistance. That assistance continued even after democracy was abolished in 1962 and replaced by military rule. Given the economic decline that followed General Ne Win’s 1962 coup and the introduction of the so-called “Burmese [Myanmar] Way to Socialism”, many scholars argue that the Ne Win regime would have folded without it. Tokyo’s willingness to continue economic assistance to Myanmar could be attributed to the influence of an informal lobby in Japan. For many years, it was led by Nobusuke Kishi, prime minister from 1957-60, and his private secretary and son-in-law, Shintaro Abe, foreign minister from 1983-86. Shintaro Abe’s son, Shinzo Abe, was prime minister from 2006-07 and again from 2012-20. Another influential Japanese belonging to the Myanmar Lobby was Tadashi Ohtaka, Japan’s ambassador to Myanmar from 1987-90 and whose wife served as chairperson of the Japan-Burma Association (now renamed the Japan-Myanmar Association). During his tenure as ambassador, Ohtaka was the only diplomat given regular access to the then dictator, Ne Win. The Japan-Burma Association counted among its members 11 Japanese trading companies allowed to operate in Yangon and various companies involved in aid projects in the country. Following years of economic decline, Myanmar’s economy took a slight turn for the better in the 1970s because of rapid expansion in agriculture and increased foreign assistance, mainly from Japan. Myanmar was the eighth-largest recipient of Japanese aid in the 1960s; by 1980, it had become the fourth-largest. Japanese aid peaked at US$244 million, or 6.3 percent of all Japanese overseas assistance. With Japanese aid pouring in for civilian projects, the dictatorship could spend more money and resources on building up the armed forces. By the time of the 1962 coup, there were about 100,000 soldiers under Ne Win’s command. In the 1980s, the number had increased to approximately 190,000. More indigenous defense industries were established, and new weapons were produced with assistance from Fritz Werner, a German company. By the mid-1980s, a new economic crisis was looming in Myanmar. Japanese aid had kept the country afloat, but, in the end, it failed to revitalize inefficient, state-run enterprises. Worse, Myanmar’s foreign-debt level went through the ceiling. In March 1988, the Japanese decided that economic pragmatism had to take precedence over longstanding personal ties. Tun Tin, then minister of planning and finance, was told during a visit to Tokyo that Japan would reconsider its relations with Myanmar unless fundamental economic reforms were instituted. That was the first time the Japanese unilaterally demanded policy changes on the part of an aid recipient, underlining the importance Tokyo placed on its special relationship with the Myanmar government. Japan’s new policy on aid, cut off months later in response to the killing of thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators, apparently rocked Myanmar’s generals. Japanese pressure is widely believed to be the main influence behind the then junta’s decision to scrap the “Burmese Way to Socialism” and adopt more market-friendly policies. The opportunity to restore relations came at the time of Emperor Hirohito’s funeral in February 1989. According to Myanmar expert David Steinberg: “In order to avoid having the Burmese sit beside unrecognized delegations such as the Palestine Liberation Organization, a decision was made on Feb. 17 to recognize the new [military] government.” That also opened the floodgates for more Japanese involvement. Western sanctions and boycotts had left a vacuum filled by China, which much to Tokyo’s chagrin replaced Japan as Myanmar’s closest foreign ally. In May 1990, the director of the Japanese Foreign Ministry’s First Southeast Asia Division, Maraharu Kohno, stunned Myanmar’s pro-democracy activists and exiles in Japan by saying at a lecture in Tokyo, “Can we automatically equate military rule with human-rights repression?…I’m not sure [in any case] that repression of human rights in Myanmar is as extensive as reported in the West…because Myanmar has not yet reached the stage of democracy. National security should come first.” Japan may have refrained from funding new aid schemes, but it allowed old ones to continue and support was also provided through UN projects in the country. In 2003, the Japanese even invited Myanmar’s military intelligence chief-turned-prime minister, General Khin Nyunt, to attend the Japan-ASEAN Summit in Tokyo. No real change took place until after the 2010 election and ex-General Thein Sein’s appointment as president in February 2011. Japan along with Western countries normalized relations with Myanmar. The informal Myanmar Lobby went to work again, and a key person all along has been Yohei Sasakawa. In 2013, the then Shinzo Abe government appointed him Special Envoy of the Government of Japan for National Reconciliation in Myanmar, a post he has retained even after Senior General Min Aung Hlaing’s ill-fated attempt to seize power on Feb. 1 last year. Sasakawa is the son of Ryoichi Sasakawa, once a far-right politician who flew to Italy in 1939 to meet his personal hero, Benito Mussolini. Years later, he expressed regret about not meeting another European leader at that time: “Hitler sent me a cable asking me to wait for him, but unfortunately I didn’t have time.” Ryoichi Sasakawa was imprisoned by the Americans after World War II, but released in 1948 when the occupiers needed the extreme right to counter Japan’s leftist movement. In the 1950s, Ryoichi Sasakawa managed to secure a monopoly on the only legally permitted gambling in Japan: motorboat racing. As a result, he became immensely wealthy, continued to back extreme right-wing causes, and built up a charity, now called the Nippon Foundation, which gave vast amounts of money to the World Health Organization to help eradicate leprosy. The once-Class A War Criminal in Sugamo Prison in Tokyo became a philanthropist and passed away in 1995 at the age of 96. By then, his son Yohei, after serving as chairman of the Japan Motorboat Racing Association, had become president of the Nippon Foundation. The Nippon Foundation has been involved in several, largely unsuccessful, attempts to get some kind of peace process going between the military and Myanmar’s many ethnic armed organizations while the Japanese government has cultivated links with the military top brass. In October 2019, Min Aung Hlaing visited Japan at the invitation of Japan’s Ministry of Defense. Japan also initiated a program in which cadets from Myanmar receive combat training, which continues even after last year’s military intervention. On March 20 last year, Human Rights Watch said in a statement: “It’s mind boggling that Japan is providing military training to Myanmar cadets at the same time as its armed forces are committing crimes against humanity against Myanmar’s people.” A spokesman for the Japanese Ministry of Defense, however, told Reuters that any move to cut the partnership with Myanmar’s military could result in China winning more clout. Shinzo Abe is no longer Japan’s prime minister but his younger brother, and Nobusuke Kishi’s grandson, Nobuo Kishi, currently serves as minister of defense. In December 2021, the 87-year-old former cabinet minister and chairman of the Japan-Myanmar Association, Hideo Watanabe, who once campaigned to bring billions of dollars of investment from some of Japan’s leading companies to Myanmar, urged Tokyo to endorse the new military regime. He caused an even bigger outrage than the Defense Ministry spokesman by saying that Min Aung Hlaing has “grown fantastically as a human being,” while praising his “democratization efforts.” Watanabe’s son Yusuke Watanabe managed on May 26 last year to get an opinion piece published by the website The Diplomat in which he argued that “Japan must position itself as a bridge between the Tatmadaw and the United States and other democratic countries rather than blindly aligning itself with the Western policy of regime change… Leveraging its decades-long economic cooperation, Japan can now directly work with the Tatmadaw to reverse China’s geoeconomic influence.” He also wrote that he is one of the few foreigners who is “in constant contact with Myanmar’s current de facto leader, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing…my enduring engagement with him underscores Japan’s near century-long special relationship with Myanmar.” That “special relationship”—when it comes to aid, investment and involvement in the so-called peace process—has so far resulted in little more than making sure that the Myanmar military remains firmly entrenched in power. Than Shwe and now Min Aung Hlaing may conveniently forget to dwell on the anti-Japanese resistance in 1945 and, instead, praise the old warrior kings Anawratha, Bayinnaung and Alaungpaya, because they know full well that it is the Japanese far-right that since 1962 has been a main benefactor and supporter of continuous military rule in Myanmar..."
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Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
2022-03-25
Date of entry/update: 2022-03-25
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Description: "၁။ ၁၉၈၈ ခုနှစ်၊ မတ်လ (၁၃) ရက်နေ့တွင် စစ်အာဏာရှင်နေဝင်း၏ အကြမ်းဖက် စစ်တပ်မှ တက္ကသိုလ်ပရဝုဏ်အတွင်း၌ပင် ပစ်သတ်ခဲ့ခြင်းကြောင့် ရန်ကုန်စက်မှုတက္ကသိုလ် ကျောင်းသားများဖြစ်သည့် ကိုဖုန်းမော်နှင့် ကိုစိုးနိုင်တို့ ကျဆုံးသွားခဲ့ရာ ယနေ့ဆိုလျှင် (၃၄) နှစ် ပြည့်မြောက်ခဲ့ပြီ ဖြစ်ပါသည်။ ခေတ်အဆက်ဆက် စစ်အာဏာရှင်များ၏ လူမဆန်သော လုပ်ရပ်များကြောင့် ကျဆုံးသွားခဲ့ရသည့် တိုင်းပြည်၏ အနာဂတ်မျိုးဆက်သစ် ကျောင်းသား လူငယ်များအတွက် အထူးဝမ်းနည်းရပါကြောင်း ယနေ့အခမ်းအနားမှတဆင့် ပြောကြား လိုပါသည်။ ၂။ တရားမျှတမှု၊ လွတ်လပ်မှု၊ အခြေခံအခွင့်အရေးများအတွက် ဆန့်ကျင်တော်လှန်ခဲ့ ကြသည့် ခေတ်အဆက်ဆက် တော်လှန်ရေးများတွင် ရဲရင့်မှု၊ သတ္တိနှင့် ဥာဏ်ပညာရှိမှုတို့ဖြင့် တက္ကသိုလ်ကျောင်းသားလူငယ်များက ဦးဆောင်ကြိုးပမ်းခဲ့ကြသည်မှာ သမိုင်းစာမျက်နှာများ တွင် ဂုဏ်ယူစွာ တွေ့မြင်နိုင်သကဲ့သို့ ယနေ့ နွေဦးတော်လှန်ရေးတွင်လည်း Generation Z ဟု လူသိများသည့် မျိုးဆက်သစ်ကျောင်းသားလူငယ်များ၏ တက်ကြွသော ပါဝင်မှုသည်လည်း တိုင်းပြည်အနာဂတ်အတွက် အားတက်ဖွယ် ဖြစ်ပါသည်။ ၃။ နှစ်ပေါင်းများစွာကြာ စစ်အာရှင်အုပ်စုက တိုင်းပြည်နှင့် လူမျိုးဘဝ ဖွံ့ဖြိုးတိုးတက် ရေးထက် ၎င်းတို့ အာဏာတည်မြဲရေးအတွက် လက်နက်အားကိုးဖြင့် ပြည်သူလူထုအား မတရားအုပ်ချုပ်ခဲ့ခြင်းကြောင့် ကျောင်းသားလူငယ်များသည် စစ်အာဏာရှင်များက တားဆီး ပိတ်ပင်မှုများကြားမှပင် ပညာသင်ယူကြရင်း စစ်အာဏာရှင်ဆန့်ကျင်ရေးစိတ်ဓာတ်ကိုလည်း သမိုင်းစဉ်တစ်လျှောက် လက်ဆင့်ကမ်းနိုင်ခဲ့ကြပါသည်။ ၄။ နှစ်ပေါင်းများစွာကြာ ကြိုးပမ်းခဲ့ကြသည့် မြန်မာ့ဒီမိုကရေစီခရီးလမ်းတွင် အသက်၊ သွေး၊ ချွေးများဖြင့် စွန့်လွှတ်ပေးဆပ်ခဲ့ကြသော ဒီမိုကရေစီသူရဲကောင်း ကျောင်းသားလူငယ် များအား အသိအမှတ်ပြု တန်ဖိုးထားပြီး ယနေ့ကျောင်းသားလူငယ်များသည် သမိုင်းပေး တာဝန်များကို ထမ်းရွက်လျက် အနာဂတ်ဖက်ဒရယ်ပြည်ထောင်စု တည်ဆောက်ရေးနှင့် တိုင်းပြည်ဖွံ့ဖြိုးတိုးတက်ရေးတို့တွင် ဦးဆောင်သွားကြရမည့် မျိုးဆက် ဖြစ်ပါသည်။ ၅။ လွန်ခဲ့သော (၃၄) နှစ်ကသို့ပင် ယနေ့အချိန်တွင်လည်း လူသတ်ခေါင်းဆောင် မင်းအောင်လှိုင် ဦးဆောင်သည့် အာဏာသိမ်းစစ်တပ်က မြန်မာပြည်သူတို့အပေါ်၌ ဥပဒေမဲ့ ဖမ်းဆီးချုပ်နှောင်ခြင်း၊ သတ်ဖြတ်ခြင်း၊ နေအိမ်ပိုင်ဆိုင်မှုတို့ကို သိမ်းဆည်းခြင်း၊ မီးရှို့ဖျက်ဆီး ခြင်းတို့ကို လူမဆန်စွာ ကျူးလွန်လျက်ရှိပြီး ပြည်သူတို့၏ လွတ်လပ်မှု၊ တရားမျှတမှု၊ နိုင်ငံသား အခွင့်အရေးစသည်တို့သည် လက်နက်အားကိုးဖြင့် ပိတ်ပင်တား ဆီးခြင်း ခံနေရပြီး ဆုံးရှုံးနေ သည့် လူ့အခွင့်အရေးများ ပြန်လည်ရရှိရေး မိမိတို့က စည်းလုံးညီညွတ်စွာ ဆက်လက်ကြိုးပမ်း သွားကြရမည် ဖြစ်ပါသည်။ ၆။ ခေတ်အဆက်ဆက် အသက်၊ သွေး၊ ချွေးများဖြင့် ကြိုးပမ်းခဲ့ကြသည့် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ၌ စစ်အာဏာရှင်များ အပြီးတိုင်း ပပျောက်ရေး၊ ဒီမိုကရေစီနှင့် လူ့အခွင့်အရေးများ အပြည့်အဝ ရရှိရေး၊ မိမိတို့၏ ဘုံရည်မှန်းချက်ဖြစ်သည့် အနာဂတ်ဖက်ဒရယ်ပြည်ထောင်စု ပေါ်ပေါက်ရေး တို့အတွက် ကျောင်းသားလူငယ်များ၊ ပြည်သူလူထုများ၊ တော်လှန်ရေးအင်အားစု၊ တိုင်းရင်း သား တော်လှန်ရေးအင်အားစုများဖြင့် အတူတကွ ဆက်လက် လက်တွဲကြိုးပမ်းသွားမည် ဖြစ်ပြီး အနာဂတ်မျိုးဆက်သစ်များအတွက် ငြိမ်းချမ်း၍ ဖွံ့ဖြိုးတိုးတက်သော အနာဂတ် နိုင်ငံ တော်သစ်တည်ဆောက်ရေး ဝိုင်းဝန်းကြိုးပမ်းသွားကြပါစို့ဟု တိုက်တွန်းရင်း သဝဏ်လွှာ ပေးပို့ အပ်ပါသည်။ ပြည်ထောင်စုလွှတ်တော်ကိုယ်စားပြုကော်မတီ..."
Source/publisher: Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw
2022-03-13
Date of entry/update: 2022-03-13
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "ပြည်ထောင်စုသမ္မတမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော် အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ နိုင်ငံခြားရေးဝန်ကြီးဌာန ကိုဖုန်းမော်၊ ကိုစိုးနိုင် ကျဆုံးခြင်း (၃၄) နှစ်ပြည့် နှစ်ပတ်လည်နေ့အခမ်းအနားသို့ပေးပို့သည့် သဝဏ်လွှာ ၂၀၂၂ ခုနှစ်၊ မတ်လ (၁၂) ရက်..."
Source/publisher: Ministry of Foreign Affairs - Myanmar - NUG
2022-03-12
Date of entry/update: 2022-03-12
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "We, the undersigned 116 Myanmar civil society organizations (CSOs), urgently call for the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) to explore all possible routes to seek accountability for Myanmar through the establishment of a jurisdiction for atrocity crimes mandated by the UN. We express our disappointment at the resolution of the HRC on 24 March 2021 and Special Session resolution on 12 February 2021, and call for the adoption of a robust resolution on Myanmar during the 49th Regular Session of the Council that reflects the gravity of the crisis Myanmar is facing and focuses on efforts to finally establish a jurisdiction to prosecute international crimes. The UN continues to fail the people of Myanmar by allowing justice and accountability to languish, and in some instances failed to call out impunity entirely, thereby further emboldening the Myanmar military. For over 15 years, the UN HRC has passed over 20 resolutions on Myanmar, mandating monitoring, documentation and reporting on human rights violations by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar. Most importantly, in March 2017, the UN HRC created the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar (IIFFMM) which found credible evidence of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the Myanmar military. Following the findings of the IIFFMM, the UN HRC, in 2019, established the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM) to collect, consolidate, preserve and analyze evidence of the most serious international crimes and violations of international law in Myanmar and prepare files for criminal prosecution. The wealth of information documented and reported by these different mechanisms point to the entrenched impunity of the Myanmar military for grave international crimes. Despite the overwhelming evidence of grave crimes that continue to be committed by the military with complete impunity, none of these mechanisms are mandated to or have jurisdiction to initiate judicial proceedings to hold the military accountable. Unless a full jurisdiction for Myanmar is established, accountability and justice remain distant for victims of the world’s most heinous crimes. The human rights situation in Myanmar has reached its nadir, in which the military junta routinely commits extrajudicial killings, airstrikes, massacres, sexual and gender-based violence, mass arbitrary arrests, torture in detention and other atrocities against the people of Myanmar with total impunity. In September 2021, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, Mr. Tom Andrews, stated that “the junta, in sum, directed its forces to engage in widespread and systematic attacks against the people of Myanmar. There was therefore a compelling case that the military junta was committing crimes against humanity”. Following the massacre of at least 42 people including children and two Save the Children staff members in Karenni State on Christmas Eve, the Security Council issued a statement stating that there is a “need to ensure accountability for this act.” The HRC must immediately act to seek all possible ways for the UN to establish jurisdiction to prosecute grave crimes in Myanmar. The work of the IIMM must be put to use, perpetrators must be held to account, and end the cycle of impunity. The UN must not continue to respond with a business as usual approach to grave violations of human rights in Myanmar, and take up its responsibility to promote and protect human rights. It cannot be reiterated enough, that the same military that perpetrated genocide against the Rohingya in 2017 and grave atrocity crimes against ethnic communities for decades, is now committing crimes against humanity and war crimes carte blanche across the country. To date, the military junta has slain 1,603 people, including at least 100 children – with hundreds more killed in addition to this number as a result of ground attacks and fierce targeted airstrikes. From 1 February 2021 to 25 February 2022, there have been total of 9,441 armed clashes and attacks involving civilians, forcing communities to flee for safety or over the border into India or Thailand. As of end of 31 January, 2022, there are estimated over 811,900 internally displaced people across Myanmar. In their craven effort to suppress the Spring Revolution, the military junta has arbitrarily arrested 12,534 people, while 9,507 remain in detention, and continue to be subjected to torture, death, starvation, deprivation of healthcare, food and water and sexual and gender-based violence. The Myanmar people are determined to end the military tyranny and bring the country back to the path towards democracy. For this, the support of the international community and particularly the UN is crucial. Yet, amidst all that has happened during this crisis, the UN has continued to fail to take meaningful actions to halt the military junta’s brutal campaign of terror. The UN’s engagement in Myanmar remains fraught with systemic failures, continuing a legacy of ineffectuality over the past decades, which came to the fore prominently leading up to and during the Rohingya genocide, all of which were detailed in the Rosenthal Report. Among other conclusions, the report found UN Agencies in Myanmar chose to keep quiet about the genocidal atrocities being committed in Rakhine State, in the hope of maintaining access and continuing their programs. Many issues and recommendations outlined within the Rosenthal Report to this day remain unaddressed by the UN. Thus, it is vital that reporting continues to ensure that concrete actions are taken to address the report’s findings, as the present unfolding crisis in Myanmar is partly borne out by the failures of the UN to swiftly act to hold the Myanmar military to account for its past crimes. Moreover, with the current crisis continuing to unfold, it is extremely important for the people of Myanmar to have their legitimate representative at the UN. The UN General Assembly deferred its credentials decision on Myanmar, unequivocally rejecting the military junta’s attempt to claim the seat, leaving Ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun to continue as Myanmar’s UN representative. The ambassador, appointed by the National Unity Government (NUG), must be allowed to take his rightful seat to represent Myanmar at the UN Human Rights Council. Leaving Ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun from representing Myanmar in the 49th Regular Session of the Human Rights Council is not acceptable and would deny the people of Myanmar their legitimate representative. The UN must fully support the will of the people of Myanmar for a federal democracy, and bring about justice and accountability, and end the impunity of the Myanmar military. The path forward in achieving this must be through the establishment of a jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute international crimes. Therefore, we call on the Human Rights Council to: Explore all possible routes to seek accountability for Myanmar through the establishment of a jurisdiction for atrocity crimes mandated by the UN. Recommend the UN Security Council to adopt a resolution referring the situation in Myanmar to the ICC. Call on the ICC to accept the declaration lodged by the Myanmar government, the NUG, under Article 12(3) of the Rome Statute accepting the Court’s jurisdiction with respect to international crimes committed in Myanmar territory since 1 July 2002. Support Ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun, appointed by the NUG whose credential has been retained by the UNGA, to represent Myanmar at the HRC..."
Source/publisher: 116 Myanmar Civil Society Organizations
2022-03-07
Date of entry/update: 2022-03-07
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "သို့ ကုလသမဂ္ဂလူ့အခွင့်အရေးကောင်စီ၏ အဖွဲ့ဝင်နိုင်ငံများ နှင့် လေ့လာသည့်နိုင်ငံများ အိတ်ဖွင့်ပေးစာ ကုလသမဂ္ဂလူ့အခွင့်အရေးကောင်စီအနေဖြင့် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံအတွင်းရှိ ဆိုးရွားလှသော ရာဇဝတ်မှုများကို တရားစွဲဆိုနိုင်ရန်အတွက် တရားစီရင်ရေးစနစ် တည်ထောင်ရေး နည်းလမ်းများ ရှာဖွေရန် ၂၀၂၂ ခုနှစ် မတ်လ ၇ ရက် လေးစားရပါသော ဂုဏ်သရေရှိလူကြီးမင်းများရှင်/ခင်ဗျား မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတွင် ဖြစ်ပေါ်နေသော ဆိုးရွားလှသည့် ရာဇဝတ်မှုများအတွက် ကုလသမဂ္ဂမှ လုပ်ပိုင်ခွင့်အာဏာ အပ်နှင်းထားသော တရားစီရင်ရေးတစ်ရပ် တည်ဆောက်ပြီး တာဝန်ယူမှု တာဝန်ခံမှု ရှိလာစေရေး ဖြစ်နိုင်သော လမ်းကြောင်းများအားလုံးကို ရှာဖွေရေး ကုလသမဂ္ဂလူ့အခွင့်အရေးကောင်စီ (United Nation Human Rights Council – UNHRC) မှ ရှာဖွေဖော်ထုတ်သွားရန် အောက်တွင်လက်မှတ်ရေးထိုးထားသော မြန်မာအရပ်ဘက်လူထုအဖွဲ့အစည်း (CSO) ၁၁၆ ဖွဲ့မှ အရေးတကြီး တောင်းဆိုလိုက်သည်။ မိမိတို့အနေဖြင့် ၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ် ဖေဖော်ဝါရီလ ၁၂ ရက်နေ့တွင် ပြုလုပ်သည့် အထူးအစည်းအဝေး၏ ဆုံးဖြတ်ချက် နှင့် ၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ် မတ်လ ၁၄ ရက်နေ့တွင် ချမှတ်သည့် UNHRC ၏ ဆုံးဖြတ်ချက် တို့အပေါ် စိတ်ပျက်ရကြောင်း ဖော်ပြလိုပြီး ယခုပြုလုပ်နေသည့် ၄၉ ကြိမ်မြောက် UNHRC ၏ ပုံမှန်အစည်းအဝေးတွင် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ လက်ရှိရင်ဆိုင်နေရသော အကျပ်အတည်း၏ နက်ရှိုင်းမှုကို ထင်ဟပ်သည့် ခိုင်မာသော ဆုံးဖြတ်ချက်တစ်ခုကို ချမှတ်ရန်နှင့် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံရှိ နိုင်ငံတကာ ရာဇဝတ်မှုများကို တရားစွဲဆိုနိုင်မည့် တရားစီရင်ရေးတစ်ရပ် တည်ဆောက်နိုင်ရေး ကြိုးပမ်းအားထုတ်မှုများအပေါ် အ‌လေးပေးလုပ်‌ဆောင်ရန် တောင်းဆိုသည်။ ကုလသမဂ္ဂသည် တရားမျှတမှုနှင့် တာဝန်ယူမှု တာဝန်ခံမှု မရှိစေခြင်းအားဖြင့် မြန်မာပြည်သူများအပေါ် ဆက်လက်ပျက်ကွက်နေပြီး တချို့ဖြစ်စဥ်များတွင် ပြစ်ဒဏ်ကင်းလွတ်ခွင့် ရနေမှုအပေါ် ထုတ်ဖော်ပြောဆိုရန်ပင် လုံးဝပျက်ကွက်နေခဲ့ခြင်းများကြောင့် မြန်မာစစ်တပ်ကို ပိုမိုအတင့်ရဲလာစေသည်။ လွန်ခဲ့သည့် ၁၅ နှစ်ကျော်ကာလအတွင်း UNHRC သည် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံနှင့်ပတ်သက်၍ ဆုံးဖြတ်ချက် ၂၀ ကျော် ချမှတ်ခဲ့ပြီး ကုလသမဂ္ဂလူ့အခွင့်အရေးဆိုင်ရာမဟာမင်းကြီးရုံး (Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights – OHCHR) နှင့် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ လူ့အခွင့်အရေးအခြေအနေဆိုင်ရာ အထူးကိုယ်စားလှယ် (Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar) တို့အား လူ့အခွင့်အရေး ချိုးဖောက်မှုများကို လေ့လာစောင့်ကြည့်ရန်၊ မှတ်တမ်းတင်ရန် နှင့် အစီရင်ခံရန် တို့အတွက် လုပ်ပိုင်ခွင့်အာဏာ ပေးအပ်ခဲ့သည်။ ထို့အပြင် အရေးကြီးဆုံး အချက်တစ်ခုမှာ ၂၀၁၇ ခုနှစ် မတ်လတွင် UNHRC က မြန်မာနိုင်ငံဆိုင်ရာ လွတ်လပ်သော နိုင်ငံတကာ အချက်အလက်ရှာဖွေရေးမစ်ရှင် (Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar – IIFFMM) ကို ဖွဲ့စည်းပေးခဲ့ပြီး ယင်း IIFFMM က မြန်မာစစ်တပ်မှ လူမျိုးတုံးသတ်ဖြတ်မှု၊ စစ်ရာဇဝတ်မှုများနှင့် လူသားမျိုးနွယ်အပေါ် ဆန့်ကျင်သော ရာဇဝတ်မှုများကို ကျူးလွန်ထားသည်ဟု ယုံကြည်ရနိုင်ဖွယ် အထောက်အထားများကို ရှာဖွေတွေ့ရှိခဲ့သည်။ IIFFMM ၏ တွေ့ရှိချက်များနောက်ပိုင်း ၂၀၁၉ ခုနှစ်တွင် UNHRC သည် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတွင် အဆိုးရွားဆုံးသော နိုင်ငံတကာရာဇဝတ်မှုများနှင့် နိုင်ငံတကာဥပဒေ ချိုးဖောက်မှုများဆိုင်ရာ အထောက်အထားများကို သိမ်းဆည်းရန်၊ စုစည်းရန်၊ ထိန်းသိမ်းရန်နှင့် ခွဲခြမ်းစိတ်ဖြာသုံးသပ်မှု လုပ်ဆောင်ရန်၊ နှင့် ရာဇဝတ်မှုဆိုင်ရာ တရားစွဲဆိုမှုများ လုပ်ဆောင်နိုင်ရန်အတွက် အချက်အလက်‌များကို ပြင်ဆင်ထားရန် တို့အတွက် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံဆိုင်ရာ လွတ်လပ်သောနိုင်ငံတကာစုံစမ်းစစ်ဆေးရေယန္တရား (Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar – IIMM) ကို ဖွဲ့စည်းပေးခဲ့သည်။ ဤမတူကွဲပြားသော ယန္တရားများမှ မှတ်တမ်းတင် အစီရင်ခံထားသည့် ပြည့်စုံလုံလောက်သော အချက်အလက်များက မြန်မာစစ်တပ်မှ ကျူးလွန်နေသည့် ဆိုးရွားသော နိုင်ငံတကာ ရာဇဝတ်မှုများသည် ပြစ်ဒဏ်ပေး အရေးယူခြင်း မခံရဘဲ ကင်းလွတ်ခွင့်ရနေမှု အမြစ်တွယ်နေခြင်းကြောင့် ဖြစ်သည်ကို ထောက်ပြနေသည်။ မြန်မာစစ်တပ်သည် ပြစ်ဒဏ်ပေးအရေးယူခံရမှု ကင်းလွတ်စွာဖြင့် ထိုဆိုးရွားသော ရာဇဝတ်မှုများကို ဆက်လက်ကျူးလွန်နေကြောင်း ခိုင်မာသည့်အထောက်အထားများ ရှိနေသော်လည်း ယင်းယန္တရားများကို စစ်တပ်မှ တာဝန်ယူ တာဝန်ခံလာစေရေး အရေးယူနိုင်သော တရားဥပဒေကြောင်းဆိုင်ရာ လုပ်ငန်းစဉ်များ ဆောင်ရွက်နိုင်သည့် လုပ်ပိုင်ခွင့်အာဏာ သို့မဟုတ် တရားစီရင်ပိုင်ခွင့် ပေးထားခြင်း မရှိပေ။ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံအတွက် ပြည့်ဝသော တရားစီရင်ရေးစနစ်ကို မတည်ဆောက်နိုင်ပါက ကမ္ဘာပေါ်တွင် အဆိုးရွားဆုံးသော ရာဇဝတ်မှုများကို ရင်ဆိုင်ခံစားနေရသည့် ကျူးလွန်ခံရသူများအတွက် တာဝန်ယူမှု တာဝန်ခံမှုနှင့် တရားမျှတမှု ရရှိနိုင်ရေးမှာ ဆက်လက်အလှမ်းဝေးနေမည် ဖြစ်သည်။ မြန်မာစစ်အုပ်စုသည် မြန်မာပြည်သူများအပေါ် ဥပဒေမဲ့သတ်ဖြတ်ခြင်း၊ လေကြောင်းဖြင့် တိုက်ခိုက်ခြင်း၊ အစုလိုက်အပြုံလိုက် သတ်ဖြတ်ခြင်း၊ လိင်ပိုင်းဆိုင်ရာနှင့် ကျား-မအခြေပြု အကြမ်းဖက်မှုများ ကျူးလွန်ခြင်း၊ အစုလိုက်အပြုံလိုက် မတရားဖမ်းဆီးချုပ်နှောင်ခြင်း၊ အကျဥ်းထောင်များတွင် ညှဥ်းပန်းနှိပ်စက်ခြင်းနှင့် အခြားသော ရက်စက်ကြမ်းကြုတ်မှုများကို ပြစ်ဒဏ်ပေးအရေးယူခံရမှု ကင်းလွတ်စွာဖြင့် ပုံမှန်ကျူးလွန်နေသည်ဖြစ်ရာ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံရှိ လူ့အခွင့်အရေးအခြေအနေသည် အောက်ဆုံးအဆင့်သို့ ရောက်ရှိနေပြီ ဖြစ်သည်။ ၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ် စက်တင်ဘာလတွင် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံလူ့အခွင့်အရေးအခြေအနေဆိုင်ရာ အထူးကိုယ်စားလှယ် မစ္စတာတွမ် အင်ဒရူးစ်က “ခြုံငုံပြီး ပြောရမယ်ဆိုရင် စစ်အုပ်စုဟာ သူ့ရဲ့ တပ်ဖွဲ့တွေကို မြန်မာပြည်သူတွေအပေါ် ကျယ်ကျယ်ပြန့်ပြန့်နဲ့ စနစ်တကျတိုက်ခိုက်ဖို့ ညွှန်ကြားထားတာ ဖြစ်တယ်။ အဲဒါကြောင့် ဒီဖြစ်ရပ်ဟာ စစ်အုပ်စုအနေနဲ့ လူသားမျိုးနွယ်အပေါ် ဆန့်ကျင်တဲ့ ရာဇဝတ်မှုတွေကို ကျူးလွန်နေတယ်ဆိုတာ ထင်ရှားတဲ့ ဖြစ်ရပ်တစ်ခု ဖြစ်တယ်” ဟု ဖော်ပြခဲ့သည်။ ခရစ္စမတ် အကြိုနေ့တွင် ကရင်နီပြည်၌ ကလေးများနှင့် Save The Children အဖွဲ့မှ ဝန်ထမ်းနှစ်ဦး အပါအဝင် အနည်းဆုံး လူ ၄၂ ဦးကို အစုလိုက်အပြုံလိုက်သတ်ဖြတ်မှု ဖြစ်ပွားပြီးနောက်တွင် ကုလသမဂ္ဂလုံခြုံရေးကောင်စီက “၎င်းအပြုအမူအတွက် တာဝန်ယူမှု တာဝန်ခံမှု ရှိလာစေရေး သေချာစွာလုပ်ဆောင်ရန် လိုအပ်သည်” ဟု ဖော်ပြထားသည့် ထုတ်ပြန်ကြေညာချက် တစ်စောင်ကို ထုတ်ပြန်ခဲ့သည်။ UNHRC အနေဖြင့် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံအတွင်းရှိ ဆိုးရွားသော ရာဇဝတ်မှုများအတွက် တရားစွဲဆိုနိုင်ရန် ကုလသမဂ္ဂမှ တရားစီရင်ရေးတစ်ခု တည်ထောင်နိုင်ရေး ဖြစ်နိုင်သမျှ နည်းလမ်းများ ရှာဖွေပြီး ချက်ချင်းလုပ်ဆောင်ရမည်။ IIMM ၏ လုပ်ဆောင်ထားချက်များကို အသုံးပြုရမည်ဖြစ်ပြီး ကျူးလွန်သူများကို အရေးယူမှုများ လုပ်ဆောင်ခြင်းအားဖြင့် ပြစ်ဒဏ်ပေး အရေးယူခံရမှု ကင်းလွတ်ခွင့်ကို အဆုံးသတ်ရမည် ဖြစ်သည်။ ကုလသမဂ္ဂအနေဖြင့် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံအတွင်းရှိ ဆိုးရွားသော လူ့အခွင့်အရေးချိုးဖောက်မှုများကို ယခင်လုပ်နည်းအတိုင်း ချဥ်းကပ်တုံ့ပြန်ခြင်းမျိုး ဆက်မလုပ်ဘဲ လူ့အခွင့်အရေးကို ကာကွယ်မြှင့်တင်ပေးရမည့် ၎င်း၏တာဝန်ဝတ္တရားများကို ဝင်ရောက်လုပ်ဆောင်ရပါမည်။ ၂၀၁၇ ခုနှစ်တွင် ရိုဟင်ဂျာများအပေါ် လူမျိုးတုံးသတ်ဖြတ်မှုနှင့် တခြားတိုင်းရင်းသား ပြည်သူလူထု အသိုင်းအဝိုင်းများအပေါ် ဆယ်စုနှစ်များစွာ ရက်စက်ကြမ်းကြုတ်သော ရာဇ၀တ်မှုများကို ဤတစ်ခုတည်းသော စစ်တပ်က ကျူးလွန်ခဲ့ခြင်းဖြစ်ပြီး ၎င်းတို့သည် ယခုအခါ လူသားမျိုးနွယ်အပေါ်ဆန့်ကျင်သော ရာဇ၀တ်မှုများနှင့် စစ်ရာဇ၀တ်မှုများကို နိုင်ငံတစ်ဝှမ်းတွင် ကျူးလွန်နေကြောင်း ထပ်ခါတလဲလဲ ပြောနေရုံဖြင့် လုံလောက်နိုင်မည် မဟုတ်ပေ။ လက်ရှိအချိန်အထိ စစ်အုပ်စုသည် အနည်းဆုံး ကလေး ၁၀၀ ဦးအပါအဝင် လူဦးရေ ၁,၆၀၃ ဦးကို သတ်ဖြတ်ခဲ့ပြီးသည့်အပြင် မြေပြင်တိုက်ခိုက်မှုများနှင့် လေကြောင်းမှတစ်ဆင့် ကြောက်မက်ဖွယ် ပစ်မှတ်ထား တိုက်ခိုက်မှုများကြောင့် နောက်ထပ်သော ရာပေါင်းများစွာမှာလည်း ထပ်မံသေဆုံးကြရသည်။ ၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ် ဖေဖော်ဝါရီလမှ ၂၀၂၂ ခုနှစ် ဇန္နဝါရီလအထိ လက်နက်ကိုင်တိုက်ခိုက်မှုနှင့် အရပ်သားများအပေါ် တိုက်ခိုက်မှု‌ စုစုပေါင်း ၉,၄၄၁ ကြိမ် ဖြစ်ပွားခဲ့ပြီး အရပ်သားပြည်သူများမှာ ၎င်းတို့၏ လုံခြုံရေးအတွက် ထွက်ပြေးတိမ်းရှောင်နေကြရကာ အိန္ဒိယနိုင်ငံ သို့မဟုတ် ထိုင်းနိုင်ငံ အတွင်းများသို့ ထွက်ပြေးတိမ်းရှောင်ရမှုများကို ဖြစ်ပေါ်စေသည်။ ၂၀၂၂ ခုနှစ် ဇန္နဝါရီလ ၃၁ ရက်နေ့အထိ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတစ်ဝှမ်းတွင် ပြည်တွင်းနေရပ်စွန့်ခွာထွက်ပြေးတိမ်းရှောင်ရသူ ဦးရေ ၈၁၁,၉၀၀ ကျော်ရှိပြီဟု ခန့်မှန်းသိရှိ ရသည်။ နွေဦးတော်လှန်ရေးအား နှိမ်နှင်းရန် ပြင်းထန်သော ကြိုးပမ်းအားထုတ်မှုများတွင် စစ်အုပ်စုသည် လူပေါင်း ၁၂,၅၃၄ ဦးကိုဖမ်းဆီးခဲ့ပြီး ၉,၅၀၇ ဦးတို့မှာ ဆက်လက်ထိန်းသိမ်းခြင်း ခံရကာ ညှဉ်းပန်းနှိပ်စက်မှု၊ သေဆုံးမှု၊ ငတ်မွတ်မှု၊ ကျန်းမာရေးစောင့်ရှောက်မှုဆိုင်ရာ ငြင်းပယ်မှု၊ အစာရေစာဖြတ်တောက်မှုနှင့် လိင်ပိုင်းဆိုင်ရာနှင့် ကျား-မအခြေပြု အကြမ်းဖက်မှုများကို ဆက်လက်ခံစားနေကြရသည်။ ထိုရက်စက်ကြမ်းကြုတ်သည့် ကျူးလွန်မှုများအားလုံးကို လုပ်ဆောင်နေသော်လည်း အားကောင်းပြီး စည်းလုံးညီညွတ်သည့် ခုခံတော်လှန်ရေး လှုပ်ရှားမှုကြောင့် စစ်အုပ်စုသည် နိုင်ငံအပေါ်တွင် နိုင်ငံရေး၊ စီးပွားရေး သို့မဟုတ် နယ်မြေထိန်းချုပ်မှုကို မရနိုင်ဘဲ ဖြစ်နေသည်။ မြန်မာပြည်သူများသည် စစ်အာဏာရှင်စနစ် ချုပ်ငြိမ်းရေးနှင့် နိုင်ငံကို ဒီမိုကရေစီလမ်းကြောင်းပေါ် ပြန်လည်ရောက်ရှိရေးအတွက် လုပ်ဆောင်ရန် စိတ်ပိုင်းဖြတ်ထားကြသည်။ ထိုသို့လုပ်ဆောင်ရာတွင် နိုင်ငံတကာ အသိုင်းအဝိုင်းနှင့် အထူးသဖြင့် ကုလသမဂ္ဂ၏ ပံ့ပိုးကူညီမှုသည် အလွန်ပင်အရေးကြီးသည်။ သို့ရာတွင် ယခုအကျပ်အတည်းအတွင်း ဖြစ်ပွားခဲ့သည့် အရာအားလုံး ရှိနေသည့်တိုင် ကုလသမဂ္ဂအနေဖြင့် စစ်အုပ်စု၏ ရက်စက်ကြမ်းကြုတ်သော အကြမ်းဖက်လှုပ်ရှားမှုကို ရပ်တန့်ရန် အဓိပ္ပါယ်ရှိသော အရေးယူဆောင်ရွက်မှုများ လုပ်ဆောင်ရန် ဆက်လက်ပျက်ကွက်နေခဲ့သည်။ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံနှင့်ပတ်သက်လျှင် ကုလသမဂ္ဂ၏ ထိတွေ့ဆက်ဆံမှုများသည် စနစ်ကျသောပျက်ကွက်မှုများ နှင့် ပြည့်နှက်နေပြီး ရိုဟင်ဂျာများအပေါ် လူမျိုးတုံးသတ်ဖြတ်မှု ဖြစ်ပေါ်ရန် ဦးတည်နေချိန်နှင့် ဖြစ်နေသည့်ကာလတွင် ထင်ရှားစွာ မြင်တွေ့ရသော ဆယ်စုနှစ်ပေါင်းများစွာ ထိရောက်မှုမရှိသည့် အစဉ်အလာ ဆက်လက်ရှိနေမှုကို Rosenthal အစီရင်ခံစာတွင် အသေးစိတ်ဖော်ပြထားသည်။ အခြားသော ကောက်ချက်ချမှုများထဲတွင် တွေ့ရှိရသည့်အချက်တစ်ခုမှာ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံရှိ ကုလသမဂ္ဂအေဂျင်စီများသည် ၎င်းတို့၏ လုပ်ငန်းအစီအစဉ်များ ရှေ့ဆက်လုပ်ဆောင်နိုင်ရေး မျှော်လင့်ချက်ဖြင့် ရခိုင်ပြည်နယ်တွင် ကျူးလွန်ခဲ့သည့် လူမျိုးတုံးသတ်ဖြတ်မှုမြောက်သော ရက်စက်ကြမ်းကြုတ်မှု များအပေါ် နှုတ်ဆိတ်နေရန် ရွေးချယ်ခဲ့ခြင်းပင် ဖြစ်သည်။ Rosenthal အစီရင်ခံစာထဲတွင် ဖော်ပြထားသော ကိစ္စရပ်များနှင့် အကြံပြုတိုက်တွန်းချက်များကို ကုလသမဂ္ဂအနေဖြင့် ယနေ့တိုင်အောင် ကိုင်တွယ်ဖြေရှင်းသည့် ဆောင်ရွက်မှု မရှိသေးပေ။ သို့ဖြစ်၍ မြန်မာစစ်တပ်၏အတိတ်တွင် ကျူးလွန်ခဲ့သော ရာဇ၀တ်မှုများအပေါ် လျင်မြန်စွာ အရေးယူဆောင်ရွက်မှု လုပ်ဆောင်ရန် ကုလသမဂ္ဂ၏ ပျက်ကွက်ခဲ့မှုများက မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတွင် လက်ရှိဖြစ်ပွားနေသည့် အကျပ်အတည်း၏ အကြောင်းရင်း တစ်စိတ်တစ်ပိုင်း ဖြစ်သောကြောင့် အစီရင်ခံစာ၏ တွေ့ရှိချက်များကို ကိုင်တွယ်ဖြေရှင်းရန် လိုအပ်သော အရေးယူဆောင်ရွက်မှုများ လုပ်ဆောင်ရန် လိုအပ်ကြောင်းကို ဆက်လက်အစီရင်ခံတင်ပြသွားရန် အလွန်ပင် အရေးကြီးသည်။ ထိုမျှသာမက လက်ရှိအကျပ်အတည်း ဆက်လက်ဖြစ်ပွားနေခြင်းကြောင့် မြန်မာပြည်သူများအတွက် ကုလသမဂ္ဂတွင် ၎င်းတို့၏ တရားဝင်ကိုယ်စားလှယ် ထားရှိနိုင်ရန်မှာ အလွန်ပင်အရေးကြီးသည်။ ကုလသမဂ္ဂ အထွေထွေညီလာခံသည် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ၏ ကိုယ်စားလှယ် စိစစ်လက်ခံရေး ဆုံးဖြတ်ချက်ကို ရွှေ့ဆိုင်းလိုက်ပြီး မြန်မာစစ်အုပ်စု၏ နေရာရယူရေး ကြိုးပမ်းမှုကို ပြတ်ပြတ်သားသား ပယ်ချကာ သံအမတ်ကြီး ဦးကျော်မိုးထွန်းကို မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ၏ ကုလသမဂ္ဂ ကိုယ်စားလှယ်အဖြစ် ဆက်လက်ထားရှိခဲ့သည်။ သံအမတ်ကြီးကို အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ (National Unity Government – NUG) က ခန့်အပ်ထားခြင်းဖြစ်ပြီး ၎င်း၏ တရားဝင်ရပိုင်ခွင့်ဖြစ်သော UNHRC တွင် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံကို ကိုယ်စားပြုခွင့် ပေးရမည်ဖြစ်သည်။ UNHRC ၏ လက်ရှိ ၄၉ ကြိမ်မြောက် အစည်းအဝေးတွင် ဦးကျော်မိုးထွန်းမှ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံအား ကိုယ်စားပြုရေးကို ဖယ်ချန်ထားခြင်းမှာ လက်ခံနိုင်စရာမရှိဘဲ ယင်းမှာ မြန်မာပြည်သူများ၏ တရားဝင်ကိုယ်စားလှယ်ကို ငြင်းပယ်လိုက်ရာရောက်သည်။ ဖက်ဒရယ်ဒီမိုကရေစီအတွက် မြန်မာပြည်သူများ၏ သဘောထားဆန္ဒ၊ တရားမျှတမှုနှင့် တာဝန်ယူမှု တာဝန်ခံမှု ရှိလာစေရေးလုပ်ဆောင်ရန် နှင့် မြန်မာစစ်တပ်၏ ပြစ်ဒဏ်ပေးအရေးယူခံရမှု ကင်းလွတ်နေခြင်းကို အဆုံးသတ်ရန် တို့အတွက် ကုလသမဂ္ဂမှ အပြည့်အဝ ပံ့ပိုးကူညီ‌ရမည်။ သို့ဖြစ်ရာ မိမိတို့သည် လူ့အခွင့်အရေးကောင်စီအား အောက်ပါအချက်များကို တောင်းဆိုလိုက်သည်။ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံရှိ ရက်စက်ကြမ်းကြုတ်သည့် ရာဇဝတ်မှုများအတွက် ကုလသမဂ္ဂမှ လုပ်ပိုင်ခွင့်အာဏာ အပ်နှင်းထားသော တရားစီရင်ရေးကို တည်ထောင်ခြင်းမှတစ်ဆင့် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံအတွက် တာဝန်ယူမှု တာဝန်ခံမှု ဖော်ဆောင်နိုင်ရန် ဖြစ်နိုင်ခြေရှိသော လမ်းကြောင်းများအားလုံးကို ရှာဖွေရန်၊ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ၏ အခြေအနေကို ICC သို့ လွှဲပြောင်းနိုင်ရန်အတွက် ကုလသမဂ္ဂလုံခြုံရေးကောင်စီမှ ဆုံးဖြတ်ချက်တစ်ခု ချမှတ်ရေး အကြံပြုတိုက်တွန်းရန်၊ ၂၀၀၂ ခုနှစ် ဇူလိုင်လ ၁ ရက်နေ့မှစတင်၍ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံပိုင်နက်အတွင်း ကျူးလွန်ခဲ့သော နိုင်ငံတကာ ရာဇ၀တ်မှုများနှင့်စပ်လျဉ်း၍ ICC တရားရုံး၏ တရားစီရင်ပိုင်ခွင့်အာဏာကို လက်ခံခြင်းအားဖြင့် ရောမသဘောတူစာချုပ် အပိုဒ် ၁၂(၃) အရ မြန်မာအစိုးရဖြစ်သော NUG မှ တင်သွင်းသည့် ကြေညာစာတမ်းကို လက်ခံရေး ICC အား တောင်းဆိုရန်၊ ကုလသမဂ္ဂအထွေထွေညီလာခံမှ ဆက်လက်အတည်ပြုထားသော NUG မှ ခန့်အပ်ထားသည့် သံအမတ်ကြီး ဦးကျော်မိုးထွန်းကို လူ့အခွင့်အရေးကောင်စီတွင် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံကို ကိုယ်စားပြုနိုင်ရန်အတွက် ပံ့ပိုးပေးရန်။..."
Source/publisher: 116 Myanmar Civil Society Organizations
2022-03-07
Date of entry/update: 2022-03-07
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "Editor’s Note: This post is the fourteenth installment in an ongoing series, Chronicle of a Coup, comprised of reports written from within Myanmar by Christopher J. Walker (a pseudonym), a longtime resident, which together sketch one person’s first-hand account of the weeks and months following the February 1, 2021, military coup. A selection of his reports will be posted weekly, every Friday. A chronological archive is also available here. Tea Circle is grateful to Christopher for sharing his personal account of life under military rule in Myanmar. Recognizing that his voice is one of many, we encourage other authors to submit their own accounts. This morning in a neighbouring township, a small bomb went off in the offices of the oakkahta. In a previous report I mentioned that the okkahta is the highest-ranking government official in every ward or quarter, ordinarily an elected position with a five-year term. Following the coup, all such officials who would not support the military regime were thrown out and, in most cases, replaced by retired military officers. It turns out that the bomb was merely a diversion. When the new oakkahta left his home to check on the situation, he was gunned down by a shot to the head and died immediately in the street. Although no group has claimed responsibility, I have heard on many occasions that those who accepted such appointed positions would be dealt with severely. I already know that something similar is being planned for our quarter’s oakkahta, but I have no idea what it might be and no desire whatsoever to find out. These newly installed oakkahtas are primarily informers for the junta and do little else. In the past the elected oakkahtas had many local responsibilities, but these days, as a show of resistance, nobody goes to their offices anymore. If anyone does, his or her name is circulated within the quarter. Many will be very happy that this military-appointed oakkahta was killed today, but I don’t understand why he had to die. There are other deterrents short of murder that could have been employed to send a grim message of admonition to all such oakkahtas. Then again, he could have been killed by the secret police for being a double agent, which would explain the execution-style murder. It’s hard to say, but head shots are the regime’s modus operandi. There is one upside to this tragedy. A squad of 15 soldiers has now been assigned to protect the oakkahta in our quarter, and I’m sure that the same has been done in many others. If nothing else, the execution will have resulted in the redeployment of hundreds of soldiers who have been responsible for arresting, beating, torturing and shooting innocent civilians, from patrolling the streets to guard duty. Held hostage by money | May 17, 2021 In my experience the Burmese have long distrusted banks, which is quite understandable. As the country’s experiment with quasi-democracy evolved, I once or twice broached the topic of banking with employees at my office, explaining the benefits of developing a relationship with an accredited lender in case at some future point they wanted to make a major purchase like a car or a home. I always had reservations about suggesting this, not because there might have been a coup in the future, but rather on account of my own distaste for any institution operated by the exceedingly wealthy. But to explain all of that in translation would have been an impossible task. Fortunately, no one took my advice and so none of them have money now stranded in a Burmese bank. But there are millions of ordinary citizens who do, and consequently the wealthy few have, in a sense, become the unsuspecting adversaries of the many. Wealthy Burmese tend to diversify their savings by keeping money in both private and government accounts. Over the last five years, as the troubled democracy project unfolded, many of them leaned toward government banks because of the greater options they offered and better investment returns. These are the people who have the most money to lose. Therefore, it is these same people who most want some semblance of government stability, believing that will give them easier access to their money. Currently there is a severe limit on how much anyone can withdraw each month, the equivalent of about US$450. We have heard that government banks will not permit greater withdrawals until at least June. Even then, online applications are required, and, if approved, customers are given an appointment and have to go into the bank to withdraw their money. The reality is a sad one. Generation Z is not about to back down. But a return to stability will require the wealthy to surrender to the military regime. With the capitulation and compliance of the upper classes, there is a chance that some kind of stability can be restored, although at a very great cost—namely, the loss of personal freedoms and the most basic human rights. However the Generals try to package “stability,” we now know very clearly the depths of depravity to which they are quite willing to sink in order to get their way. Unfortunately, with their money in mind, many in the upper-middle and wealthy classes will consciously or subconsciously accept whatever rosy picture the junta will attempt to paint. And once the wealthier classes join in, the poorer classes will be forced to follow because they need to eat. Generation Z will be left out on a limb. As with so many things in this life, it all comes down to the money, which is, ultimately, the reason we are in the midst of this ghastly coup to begin with. We pray before the altar of money. Many have sold their hearts and minds for it. The picture is bleak, yet there is no limit to what can be accomplished when people are willing, even under the harshest of conditions, to take care of one another. All for $34 | May 18, 2021 A good friend and neighbour stopped by today for a visit. He was on his way home after trying unsuccessfully to withdraw money from an ATM at the nearby Ayeyarwady (AYA) Bank, the only one that from the earliest days of the coup actively tried to help people. One of the problems people face with ATMs is that they never know which machines will have money, because the amount that a bank can dispense in a day is limited by the junta. In some instances, we have heard, there is a daily limit on the number of people that an ATM can serve. It’s common these days that when someone notices a machine being filled, calls go out or posts will appear on Facebook, followed by a stampede to that particular branch. And because so few machines are filled with money, there are always very long queues. AYA is a private bank and takes a more humane approach. On its Facebook page it posts the branches throughout the city where its ATMs will be filled. Knowing this, our friend went early to the nearby branch listed. When he arrived he learned that the ATM had not yet been filled, so he went to wait in a nearby tea shop. When he returned at 9 am a long queue had already formed. He was to be customer #85. The assignment of numbers is handled by the customers themselves; bank staff do not bother. Having assigned numbers is helpful because people can wait in a shady spot until theirs is up. There is an unspoken rule that, if you get in line with two or more debit cards, they must be for your accounts and not those of another person. Previously a group of people would hire a professional “squatter” who would wait in line with five or ten cards from different account holders. When someone’s number neared the ATM he would call the account holder who would then, essentially, jump the queue, infuriating those who had been waiting, sometimes for hours. More than 120 people were in line. Our friend waited and waited and finally #84 was at the ATM. But his hopes were dashed when the man announced that he couldn’t get any money. The machine was empty. So, tomorrow, our friend will have to try his luck again. This is exactly the sort of thing that people go through on a daily basis merely to withdraw their own money from a bank. He could have gone inside the bank for his money, but doing so would have required him first to complete an online application and then, if his application were approved—meaning the bank was satisfied that he was not in any way supporting the civil disobedience movement—he might have been given an appointment to come to the bank to withdraw his money. The process typically takes some days, usually at least a week. If his application is not approved, he would not be informed. Before the coup, customers were permitted to take from an ATM an amount equivalent to US$700-800 per day. Now? They’re allowed to withdraw from any one account a maximum of $115 per week, up to four times a month. When my neighbour had finished relating his story I couldn’t resist asking him how much he was trying to withdraw. His answer: US$34, which was all that remained in that account. He does have other money in a government bank, but no corresponding ATM card. To withdraw his money from that bank he will have to fill out an application, but at the moment the bank is not accepting any until “sometime in June.” Dāna | May 18, 2021 The junta is obviously, and for myriad reasons, desperate for funds, which has created havoc within the financial system. And there’s been an unforeseen cultural consequence of this. The military regime is determined to smash all resistance. We see it in the daily upsurge in arrests, beatings, torture and murder. While much of this is an ideological battle, what has become patently clear is that it is also a struggle between those who want to provide humanitarian aid to their brothers and sisters, and those trying to put a stop to it at all costs. As I have previously noted, the simple act of handing someone a cup of rice can result in arrest, and the person receiving the gift might also be detained. Discretion, therefore, has become of utmost importance. While it is struggling to obtain money for itself, the junta is also conducting an equally dedicated campaign to keep it out of people’s hands by, for instance, rationing withdrawals from banks and ATMs. The regime is well aware that money is changing hands between ordinary citizens and those involved in the civil disobedience movement (CDM). Sums, both large and small—some even less than US$1.00—are being donated to the CDM every day. These small amounts carry great meaning and are a joy to behold. Of course there are those who have no money to spare, but they find other ways to help. I recently chatted with someone about raising funds to help the Burmese cause, which is, of course, essential and very much appreciated. However, because of the inherent danger, it is not only critical that every link along the chain of support remains absolutely anonymous, but any help provided must now remain unmentioned and unacknowledged—no recognition and rarely a thank-you. Owing to the generosity of our supporters, we can direct most of our financial assistance to others, often to people whom we don’t know except by aliases and reputations; and we in turn are frequently helped by strangers who selflessly put themselves at great risk. This requisite anonymity in giving has now become the norm, although it is somewhat at odds with how the traditional culture of dāna has manifested in the past. Giving, or dāna, has for centuries been an integral element of Burmese society. Dāna is a Pali word that connotes, especially, the virtue of giving, of unattached and unconditional generosity or charity, in which right volition plays a key role. When the volition is most pure, one gives expecting nothing in return, not even a thank-you. Dāna can be offered both materially and immaterially, as with a donation of time or participation, and is widely practised not only in support of monastic institutions, but of countless nonprofits and other good causes as well. The public display of donors’ names is a common phenomenon in Myanmar. Years ago when I first toured the country and made donations to an organization or a monastery, someone would always insist that I have my photo taken handing over the money. To my astonishment and chagrin, when next I visited I would find that photo or my name on a plaque hanging on a wall. This left me feeling exceedingly uncomfortable, and at times I withheld donations because of it. Fortunately, over the years I have learned ways to work around such awkward situations. In the present circumstances all of this is changing. Instead of public recognition, strict anonymity has now become the established donation practice. Still, sometimes we witness smiles or tears of gratitude. At other times we might see a cellphone video of young people at a demonstration wearing donated protective headgear and running shoes instead of flip-flops, or of doctors applying complimentary bandages to a wounded body. Or maybe thanks comes by way of a glass of sugarcane juice. Occasionally, I get a phone call in the middle of the night merely to say thank you for finding this safe place to sleep. People helping people—that is the noblest dāna of all..."
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Source/publisher: Tea Circle (Myanmar)
2022-03-04
Date of entry/update: 2022-03-06
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "Antagonism and mutual distrust between the Burmese armed forces (or Tatmadaw) and the civilian sphere have long characterized Myanmar’s post-independence politics. Since the 1950s, Tatmadaw publications DQG RI¿FLDO GLVFRXUVHV KDYH URXWLQHO\ DFFXVHG FLYLOLDQ SROLWLFLDQV DQG parliamentarians in particular, of having drawn the country from one crisis to another (Mya Win 1992; Min Maung Maung 1993). In its own words and propaganda works, the Tatmadaw likes to position itself as the sole cohesive, dedicated and disciplined state institution able to safeguard the unity of the nation, protect its integrity and bring about political stability (Selth 2002; Callahan 2000, 2009; Kyaw Yin Hlaing 2009; Maung Aung Myoe 2009; Nakanishi 2013). Across time and place, the contempt for disruptive and chaotic parliamentarian politics as well as the divisive essence of civilian affairs has long been underscored by civil-military scholarship as a legitimate incentive for the intervention of coup-prone or “praetorian” armies (Huntington 1957; Finer 1975; Nordlinger 1977)..."
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Source/publisher: Academia.edu (San Francisco)
2015-08-21
Date of entry/update: 2022-03-04
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "Exactly sixty years ago on this day - March 2 - General Ne Win launched a coup d’etat against the democratically elected government of U Nu, unleashing a repressive dictatorship that isolated Myanmar from the rest of the world, wrecked the economy, and crippled the wellbeing of the people of Myanmar. Ne Win established a governing council whose members were drawn almost exclusively from the armed forces and effectively set the stage for succeeding generations of power-hungry coup makers: Senior General Saw Maung and his deputy Than Shwe in 1988 and Senior General Min Aung Hlaing in 2021. What is most tragic about this latest coup is that Myanmar was on track to make genuine progress: though reform was still crippled by the 2008-military drafted constitution and stagnant mindsets, Myanmar was becoming reintegrated into the international community, and people’s standards of living were gradually improving. The Tatmadaw was once respected given its role in Myanmar’s independence; today it is a menace to the wellbeing of the Myanmar people. In no world can a military force legitimately step in to fill the role that should be played by democracy - a role that should reflect the will of the people. The world cannot let this latest coup set the stage for another fifty years of authoritarian rule in Myanmar and reverse the hard work of generations of activists and changemakers..."
Source/publisher: Ministry of International Cooperation Myanmar
2022-03-02
Date of entry/update: 2022-03-03
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Description: "Sixty years is considered an auspicious life cycle in many countries in East Asia. After weathering five rounds of 12 zodiac signs, one enters a state of revered age, with the social respect and wisdom those advanced years are supposed to bestow. It is a happy event. On March 2, Myanmar may commemorate, but not celebrate, the 60th anniversary of the 1962 military coup that brought the Myanmar military into power it has never relinquished. The completion of that life cycle is supposed to be a celebratory event. On this occasion it is not. Through direct rule by decree, by inventing three political parties under its authority, by writing a constitution and then coercing its acceptance, by empowering itself through legal procedures under the 2008 constitution, and by manipulating electoral results, the military has remained in effective control over those societal elements it regards as essential to its interests. On the cusp of its 60th anniversary, it extended its domination through last year’s disastrous February 1 coup. The perpetuation of its influence and authority, however much disputed by the populace, will continue, forcing the state into further decline. Six decades of military control, three generations, may set some sort of sad regional or world record for military-controlled governance. When not enforcing its self-determined mandate by direct authority, it founded three political parties to do its bidding: the Burma Socialist Programme Party, the National Unity Party, and the Union Solidarity and Development Party. None of them had even the semblance of democratic authority. All had very substantial active duty or retired military personnel in positions not only of leadership but among the ranks as well. The year 1962, however, was not the origin of military power in Burma. It came with independence in 1948 and countering ethnic and political rebellions. The first “constitutional coup” in 1958, in which the military took power with the forced approval of the civilian government that was facing civil war within the ruling party, lasted 18 months. It was autocratic in its control but generally well-regarded, as it stemmed political and economic decline. At the close of that period, the military stepped down and allowed free elections in which its favored party lost, and U Nu ruled for about two years until the 1962 coup. That may be a unique instance of military-induced unmanaged elections. But military rule does not mean stasis. Deterioration of the state began shortly after the 1962 coup when the “Burmese Way to Socialism” failed, as did a 1988 people’s revolution against the military. Even the military, while in control, from about 2010 began to realize the need for change and reform, and the efforts by President and former general U Thein Sein were well received both domestically and internationally. He did little, however, to placate ethnic minority rebellions and calls for a federal administrative structure, but progress was evident including broader rights for its citizens and the sharing of some power in 2016 with the elected opposition, the civilian-led National League for Democracy (NLD). The international media has called attention to the recent worldwide waves of military coups, especially in Africa, citing Myanmar as one of a group. But to attribute Myanmar’s fourth coup in 2021, following those of 1958, 1962 and 1988, as simply an example of a worldwide trend is to misunderstand the nature of the internal problems facing the state. History tempers and shapes current dilemmas and requires analysis. Myanmar has unique issues that must be addressed. Ethnically diverse Myanmar has been held together by the military tenaciously, and often crudely and unthinkingly, trying to control the country against the vociferous tendencies of various ethnic peoples with justified beliefs that they have been maltreated and denigrated by the ethnic Bamar majority government. The articulated primary objective of the military has always been national unity. Yet their inept actions have weakened the chance of achieving the very goals that it set for the state. There is no indication that they have changed their approach. Ironically, the present coup has forced the NLD civilian opposition that won the November 2020 elections to expand what observers regard as their previous reluctance to pursue federal minority power. Its National Unity Government has brought more ethnic representation into its tentative opposition organization, but even if it were to assume power, how much of that would remain is questionable. Although the military has promised a return to multi-party politics in 2023, most observers believe that whatever electoral system evolves, it will be manipulated, and whatever parties are permitted to run, it will not be a true democratic state; the military will assure that its control would continue to protect its, and what it regards as the state’s, interests. Elections alone do not a democracy make. Foreign observers should recognize that the amelioration or solution to Myanmar’s governance problems will not come from external interventions. Humanitarian aid should be forthcoming at this dire time. But they should understand that this coup has historical roots that will affect the future, and whatever that future may be, the military will play some important role. But the Burmese peoples, including the military, must ensure that this role is appropriate for a modern state in which the people and their rights are the basis on which government and authority must be built. David I. Steinberg is distinguished professor of Asian studies emeritus, Georgetown University. He was resident in Burma during the first and second military coups..."
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Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
2022-03-01
Date of entry/update: 2022-03-02
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "Regime forces killed at least nine people during raids in upper Myanmar villages and detained over 80 primary schoolchildren as potential human shields. The children, who were released on Monday, were detained for around 36 hours at a Buddhist monastery in Chin Pone Village in Sagaing Region’s Yinmabin Township, after the village and adjacent area were targeted by junta soldiers airlifted by helicopter and indiscriminate airstrikes. During the raid, the children, who were all under the age of 12 with many around five to seven-years-old, were detained while attending a kindergarten at the monastery. An adult who was detained with the children told The Irrawaddy on Monday that they tried to evacuate the children to the basement of the monastery when the helicopters landed, but were detained by junta forces. “They pointed guns at us. We had to beg them not to shoot kids,” said the adult. Villagers and local People’s Defense Force (PDF) fighters said the regime troops took the children hostage so they could be used as human shields in case of attacks by PDFs. Some villagers were also arrested during the raid. They were interrogated and beaten by the junta soldiers, who asked them about local resistance fighters. At least nine people were killed in the raid and some villagers reportedly remain under arrest. One local said that they found six bodies near a primary school, one near the monastery and two more on the outskirts of the village. “Almost all were killed by one shot to the head,” he said. Only one of the victims has been confirmed to be a Chin Pone villager, he added. Junta forces reportedly threatened to burn down Chin Pone Village during the raid if the villagers who had fled didn’t return. Some parents have yet to be reunited with their children, despite them being released. Regime troops are suspected of taking four villagers when they left the village on Monday afternoon. “We are still looking for the children who are missing,” a PDF member said. Nearby Thapyayaye Village was attacked with airstrikes on Monday. In a statement released on Monday, the parallel civilian National Unity Government’s Ministry of Women, Youths and Children said they condemned in the strongest possible terms taking children hostage, as well as teachers and their parents. “Children have a primary claim to protection under international law, and their abduction and hostage-taking comprises a grave violation,” the ministry said. Since last year’s coup, military regime forces have killed at least 1,582 innocent civilians and arrested over 12,000 people..."
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
2022-02-28
Date of entry/update: 2022-03-01
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Description: " Myanmar's military junta expressed Thursday its support for Russia's invasion of Ukraine, placing itself at odds with most of the world community which has condemned the military action and moved to introduce crushing sanctions on Moscow. In an interview with VOA Burmese, General Zaw Min Tun, a spokesperson for Myanmar's military council, cited the reasons for the military government’s support of the action by Russian President Vladimir Putin. "No. 1 is that Russia has worked to consolidate its sovereignty," he said. "I think this is the right thing to do. No. 2 is to show the world that Russia is a world power." Coup leader Min Aung Hlaing visited Russia in June last year and there are strong ties between the Burmese and Russian militaries. Russia is one of the few countries to have defended the military council that seized power in a Feb. 1, 2021, coup, overthrowing the civilian government and detaining de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other high-ranking officials. Since then, U.N. and Burmese experts have repeatedly called for a ban on arms sales to the military council, but Russia has ignored the call. As justification for the February takeover, military officials claimed widespread fraud in a November 2020 general election, which Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy won in a landslide. The international and local election observers verified that the 2020 vote was mostly free and fair except for negligible discrepancies. Suu Kyi has faced a raft of charges since she was taken into custody when the military seized power. She has already been sentenced to six years' imprisonment after being convicted of illegally importing and possessing walkie-talkies and violating coronavirus restrictions. She is also being tried on the charge of violating the Official Secrets Act, which carries a maximum sentence of 14 years. Australian economist Sean Turnell, who was her adviser, is a codefendant. On the first anniversary of the coup, the United States announced more sanctions on individuals and entities associated with the regime. Among those sanctioned were Union Attorney General Thida Oo, Supreme Court Chief Justice Tun Tun Oo and Chairman of the Anti-Corruption Commission Tin Oo. Two entities sanctioned are KT Services & Logistics Company Limited and the Directorate of Procurement of the Commander-In-Chief of Defense Services, which the U.S. says support the military regime. The country gained independence from Britain in 1948. It was ruled by the armed forces from 1962-2011, when a new government began returning to civilian rule..."
Source/publisher: "VOA" (Washington, D.C)
2022-02-25
Date of entry/update: 2022-02-25
Grouping: Individual Documents
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