International Relations

This new sub-section will contain documents and links dealing with global and regional issues from various perspectives - perhaps useful for those thinking about Burma/Myanmar's future in the world. See also the Roots and Resources pages under Development and sustainability
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Websites/Multiple Documents

Source/publisher: Google
Date of entry/update: 2013-06-21
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English
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Source/publisher: Google
Date of entry/update: 2013-06-21
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English
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Source/publisher: Google
Date of entry/update: 2013-06-21
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English
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Description: "We are a community of public scholars and organizers linking peace, justice, and the environment in the U.S. and globally".
Source/publisher: Institute for Policy Studies
Date of entry/update: 2012-01-21
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English
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Description: Articles on this category from BurmaNet News
Source/publisher: BurmaNet News
Date of entry/update: 2016-03-01
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English
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Description: "Myanmar ISIS is a research and policy analysis institute working on international relations and Myanmar foreign policy...What do we do? • Contributes timely inputs, views, research papers and recommendations to support policy and decision-making on bilateral and multilateral issues. • Serves Myanmar?s national interest while promoting peace, friendship and cooperation with other countries. • Organizes and hosts seminars, workshops and debates in Myanmar in cooperation with internationally recognized institutions. • Sends representatives to meetings, seminars, workshops and roundtable discussions organized by other institutes of international studies and think tanks in Asia and other parts of the world. What is our role in Myanmar? While much research is carried out on domestic issues in Myanmar, less is done on foreign policy. Myanmar ISIS is the sole think-tank taking attempting to fulfill the gap. A foreign-policy think-tank can both give foreign actors a better understanding of Myanmar?s stances, policies and actions and provide advice to Myanmar representatives in their decision-making at a regional or global level. What are our goals? • Carry out quality research on international issues relevant for Myanmar • Cultivate a new generation of international affairs experts in Myanmar • Communicate policy-relevant content to decision-makers • Raising awareness of Myanmar ISIS? activities in Myanmar and abroad • Actively maintain contact with other Myanmar governmental institutions, and inform their policies..."...Has aboout 25 publications for doiwnload
Source/publisher: Myanmar-ISIS
Date of entry/update: 2018-03-09
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
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Description: See the current material but also the Archive...The list of "What We?re Reading" (lower right-hand) has useful links to global issues.
Source/publisher: TomDispatch
Date of entry/update: 2013-06-20
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English
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Description: " ZComunications is a massive site with many components. You can access various parts from here, via the links below, that include brief descriptions. In general, however, you will want to bookmark some part of the site, probably either ZNet or ZMag, and enter that part directly rather than via this introductory splash page. From any part, you can get to the rest.!..."
Source/publisher: Z Communications
Date of entry/update: 2013-06-20
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English
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Individual Documents

Description: "After more than two decades under authoritarian rule, the past five years have witnessed profound changes in Myanmar’s domestic politics. Albeit the flawed election in 2010, the newly elected government has symbolized the end of military regime and the restoration of civilian order. Furthermore, the new government has indicated its commitment to advance democratic transition by its progressive policies in liberalizing its economy and domestic press as well as reproaching the opposition leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, as the landmark step toward national reconciliation (Thuzar 2012). As the Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Marty Natalegawa, said after his visit to Myanmar, “Myanmar reform is irreversible” (Thuzar 2012). In order to understand how these reforms have been taking place, this paper will examine both external and internal factors as indispensable parts of these reforms. This paper will specifically focus on how major powers and domestic leadership affect the dynamics of political changes in Myanmar which eventually lead to the current reforms. This paper argues that both major powers and domestic leadership have contributed significantly to the dynamics of political changes in Myanmar. The diverging interests and policies among major powers have resulted in different approaches toward the military regime. While the policies of one major power have weakened the policies of others, these policies in overall have complementary effects in the democratic transition of the country. The engagement policies of China, India and ASEAN, for instance, have been crucial for the survival of the country while sanctions and pressure from US and other western countries have pushed the country forward to democratization. Likewise, different personal leaderships have resulted in different approach to democratization. A more conservative leader such as Than Shwe has succeeded in maintaining order and unity of the country, while the emergence of reformist leader, represented by Thein Sein, has advanced reform and democratization. In order to better elaborate these arguments, this paper will be divided into several parts. The first part will provide the historical background on Myanmar’s domestic politics since its independence to its current reform. The second part, then, will examine major powers’ interests and policies in Myanmar and how these external factors affect the dynamics of political changes in Myanmar. The third part, in turn, will examine the internal factors emphasizing the role of domestic leadership in this reform. Based on these discussions, the last part will conclude the findings by looking ahead the anticipated consequences of the aforementioned factors on the future trajectories of Myanmar’s democracy.....Historical Background: Nation building in Myanmar is perhaps the longest and the bloodiest compared to other countries in Southeast Asia. After gaining independence from Britain in January 4, 1948, Myanmar was torn into chaos under failed trial of multiparty parliamentary democracy in the first fourteen years. At the center, the Anti-Fascist People’s Freedom League (AFPFL) as the previously independent movement “who inherited the state” was apparent to be ideologically heterogeneous and failed to reach agreement on how to run the newly independent Myanmar (T. Than 1993). In the grassroots level, situation was worsening as ethnic minorities such as Karen, Kachin, Mon, and Chin revolted against the government (T. Than 1993). This has not mentioned Muslim Mujaheedin groups and communist elements who attempted to do similar actions (T. Than 1993). Under such circumstances, the government has, from the beginning, relied heavily on military intervention to appease these dissensions (T. Than 1993). While the charisma of U Nu has succeeded in maintaining this fragile regime for the first decade, the 1962 has seen relentless public dissents and significant economic decline. U Nu’s policy of installing Buddhism as state religion, followed by his resignation in early 1962 has exacerbated the situation even further (T. Than 1993). In order to prevent the state from disintegration, the Tatmadaw or Myanmar’s arms forces who previously stayed in the peripheries to halt the flow of Kuomintang refugees in the northern border has moved to the center and taken over the government under the name of Revolutionary Council (RC) (T. Than 1993). The Tatmadaw has learnt that its task was no longer promoting freedom and democracy as it did under British rule, but instead, maintaining peace and the rule of Law (T. Than 1993). Under the constitutional military regime of General Ne Win, the RC has redirected the trajectory of the state from chaotic democracy to the so-called Burmese Way of Socialism (BWS) and renamed the state as the Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma (T. Than 1993). In order to maintain domestic order, the regime has cut off the relations with other states and focused on building socialism under one party system. These two elements, nationalism and domestic order, are key elements in understanding military rule in Myanmar and have characterized most of the subsequent development in its path to democratization. The ratification of new constitution and the general election in 1974 were evidences that Military were not merely struggling for power, but instead, restoring order within the state..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: Sukmawani Bela Pertiwi
2013-00-00
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-19
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf
Size: 191.8 KB
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Description: "59. We condemn in the strongest terms the military coup in Myanmar, and the violence committed by Myanmar’s security forces, and we call for the immediate release of those detained arbitrarily. We pledge our support to those advocating peacefully for a stable and inclusive democracy. Recalling ASEAN’s central role, we welcome its Five Point Consensus and urge swift implementation. We reiterate our commitment to ensuring that neither development assistance nor the sale of arms will benefit the military, and urge businesses to exercise due diligence in their trade and investment in the same vein. We reaffirm G7 unity on pursuing additional measures should they prove necessary. We are also deeply concerned by the humanitarian situation, call for unfettered humanitarian access to vulnerable and displaced populations, support the Humanitarian Response Plan, and encourage others to contribute..."
Source/publisher: The White House (Washington, D.C.)
2021-06-13
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-14
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "The international community must take immediate and collective action to end the Myanmar junta’s widespread and systematic killing of unarmed people, said Fortify Rights today. U.N. member states should ensure those responsible are held accountable for their crimes. The Myanmar military and police shot and killed upwards of 90 women, men, and children today in at least 40 towns and cities throughout the country, according to reports that Fortify Rights has not independently confirmed. Today is Armed Forces Day in Myanmar. “This ongoing, horrific massacre of unarmed, innocent people is the result of years of impunity, and it must end,” said Matthew Smith, Chief Executive Officer of Fortify Rights. “Governments can no longer sit idly by and watch this attack unfold. Inaction is complicity.” On March 26, state-run television MRTV broadcast an ominous warning to protesters, saying, “You should learn from the tragedy of earlier ugly deaths that you can be in danger of getting shot in the head and back.” Eyewitness photographs and videos filmed today show dead bodies, including children, and soldiers firing weapons street-level, dragging lifeless victims away, and brutally beating people. One video shows a close-range killing of an unarmed boy on a motorcycle by Myanmar Army soldiers. The junta’s words and actions indicate coordination in today’s killings and that soldiers were following orders to shoot and kill unarmed protesters, said Fortify Rights. According to media reports and open-source information, security forces killed and injured protesters in at least Mandalay Region, Yangon Division, Kachin State, Tanintharyi Region, Sagaing Region, and other locations throughout the country today. As of the end of the day yesterday, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) reported a death toll of 328 since the military coup d’état on February 1. Today’s bloodshed brings that tally to more than 400 women, men, and children. Security forces have also arbitrarily arrested at least 3,000 people, including children, according to AAPP. On March 26, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar Thomas Andrews called for U.N. member states to hold an “emergency summit,” including the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), China, the U.S., and the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, which comprises elected members of the Myanmar parliament ousted in the February 1 coup d’état. According to media reports, eight countries sent representatives to the Armed Forces Day military parade in Naypyidaw today, including Russia, China, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand. Myanmar’s Civil Disobedience Movement continues to lead a non-violent, peaceful resistance to military rule. Millions of people in the country have protested the military takeover, including throngs of peaceful protesters taking to the streets throughout the country on an almost daily basis, defying the junta’s attempts to terrorize the population. The U.N. Security Council should impose a global arms embargo against the Myanmar military, sanctions against Myanmar military individuals, entities, and assets, and refer the situation in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court. The U.N. General Assembly should also urgently hold an Emergency Special Session to demand collective action in response to the Myanmar military’s widespread and systematic attack on protesters. On March 25, the U.S. Treasury Department issued new sanctions targeting two Myanmar military holding companies—the Myanmar Economic Holdings Public Company Limited (MEHL) and Myanmar Economic Corporation Limited—and the U.K. Foreign Secretary imposed sanctions against MEHL. “Strong, targeted sanctions from the U.S., U.K., and other states are important to isolate the junta and deprive it of resources, but they’re not enough,” said Matthew Smith. “ASEAN must take urgent action, and China, Russia, and others must not be allowed to prevent a more coordinated and far-reaching global response to the horrors unfolding in Myanmar.”..."
Source/publisher: "Fortify Rights"
2021-03-27
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-13
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "May I congratulate you most sincerely on your appointment as a liaison officer by NUG of Myanmar for the Czech Republic. I am confident that our friendly relation will help us to overcome this very difficult situation, which your country currently faces. As you know, the Czech Republic strongly condemns the military coup in Myanmar since its first day. We support legitimately elected leaders, and we call for respect of the results of the November 2020 parliamentary elections. President Win Myint, State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, and all others who have been arrested must be immediately and unconditionally released. Our position is clear: not to recognize the new regime as the government of Myanmar. We urge the immediate restoration of the legitimate civilian government in Myanmar, and the swift opening of parliament with the participation of all elected representatives, as foreseen by the constitution. We support the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH) and we welcome the formation of the National Unity Government (NUG). We have all our communication channels with NUG open and we are determined to further collaborate. Regarding the international recognition, the topic is now being discussed with international lawyers, and we will adopt the most suitable approach to help Myanmar in its democratic effort. Furthermore, I can emphasize that the Czech Republic is very active in international fora, especially in its effort on the extension of sanctions. We also actively cooperate with the Human Right Council, its find-finding mission, to investigate crimes against humanity perpetrated by the military. We consider Myanmar an important partner; our relations have been traditionally friendly, and we are determined to help the Burmese citizens in need. We stand with the people of Myanmar and we remain ready to participate with all means in international efforts to return Myanmar to the path to democracy. Yours sincerely.....ချက် သမ္မတ နိုင်ငံ ဒု နိုင်ငံခြားရေး ဝန်ကြီး မစ္စတာ မာကျင် တလာပါက မိမိတို့ မိတ်ဆွေရင်းချာ ဆက်ဆံရေးမှ တဆင့် သင်၏ နိုင်ငံတွင် လတ်တလောက် ရင်ဆိုင်နေရသော အလွန်ခက်ခဲသည့်အခြေအနေများကို ကျော်လွှားရန် အထောက်အပံ့ဖြစ်မည်ဟု အခိုင်အမာယုံကြည်ကြောင်း ဖော်ပြထားသည်။ ချက်သမ္မတ နိုင်ငံက မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတွင် စစ်တပ်က အာဏာသိမ်းသည့်နေ့ကတည်းကပင် စစ်အာဏာသိမ်းမှုကို ပြင်းထန်စွာ ရှုံ့ချကြောင်း၊ တရားဝင် ရွေးကောက်တင်မြှောက်ခံရသော ခေါင်းဆောင်များကို ထောက်ခံကြောင်း၊ ၂၀၂၀ ခုနှစ် နိုဝင်ဘာလက ကျင်းပခဲ့သော ပါတီစုံအထွေထွေ ရွေးကောက်ပွဲ ရလာဒ်အား လေးစားရေး တောင်းဆိုကြောင်း၊ မတရားသဖြင့် ဖမ်းဆီးထိမ်းသိမ်းခံနေရသော နိုင်ငံတော် အတိုင်ပင်ခံ ပုဂ္ဂိုလ် ဒေါ်အောင်ဆန်းစုကြည်၊ သမ္မတ ဦးဝင်းမြင့်နှင့်တကွသော ကျန် ဖမ်းဆီခံထားရသူအားလုံးအား ခြွင်းချက်မရှိ ချက်ချင်းလွှတ်ပေးရန်လည်း တောင်းဆိုကြောင်း၊ ချက်သမ္မတ နိုင်ငံ ဒုတိယ နိုင်ငံခြားရေး ဝန်ကြီး၏ စာတွင် ဖော်ပြထားသည်။ ချက်သမ္မတနိုင်ငံ၏ ရပ်တည်ချက်က ရှင်းရှင်းလင်းလင်း ရှိကြောင်း၊ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတွင် စစ်ကောင်စီမှ ဖွဲ့စည်းသည့် အစိုးရသစ်ကို အသိအမှတ်မပြုကြေင်း၊ တရားဝင် ရွေးကောက်ခံ အရပ်သား အစိုးရအား ချက်ချင်း အာဏာပြန်လွှဲရန်နှင့် ဖွဲ့စည်းပုံ အခြေခံ ဥပဒေနှင့် အညီ ရွေးချယ်တင်မြှောက်ခံရသော လွှတ်တော်ကိုယ်စားလှယ်များ ပါဝင်တက်ရောက်သည့် ပါလီမန်လွှတ်တော်အစည်းအဝေးများ ပြန်လည် ကျင်းပနိုင်ရန် တိုက်တွန်းပြောဆိုထားသည်။ မိမိတို့ ချက်သမ္မတနိုင်ငံသည် ပြည်ထောင်စု လွှတ်တော် ကိုယ်စားပြု ကော်မတီ CRPH အား ထောက်ခံကြောင်းနှင့် အမျိုးသား ညီညွတ်ရေး အစိုးရ ဖွဲ့စည်းသည်ကို ကြိုဆိုပါကြောင်းလည်း ၄င်းက ဆိုသည်။..."
Source/publisher: National Unity Government of Myanmar
2021-05-24
Date of entry/update: 2021-05-26
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf pdf
Size: 34.51 KB 117.02 KB
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Sub-title: Resolution Should Be Adopted, Urging States to Halt Arms Transfers
Description: "The United Nations Security Council, entrusted by the UN Charter to be the world’s guardian of international peace and security, has done little to help the people of Myanmar besides issuing statements asking the junta to end the violence and release prisoners. But the UN General Assembly can help motivate the council take action to stem the rampant abuses. In the absence of robust Security Council action, the 193-nation General Assembly should adopt a resolution condemning the junta’s rights violations and calling on all UN members to halt arms transfers to Myanmar. While not legally binding on states, such a resolution would carry significant political weight. As the UN’s most representative body, it would send a powerful signal to the junta and press members of the Security Council to adopt a legally binding resolution – as recently urged by a group of 205 nongovernmental organizations, including Human Rights Watch. Governments should recognize that arms and materiel sold to Myanmar’s military will likely be used to commit abuses against the population. Arms embargoes can help prevent such crimes, a possibility recently highlighted by UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet who warned Myanmar could escalate into a “full-blown conflict” like in Syria. Last week, a scheduled vote on a draft resolution circulated by Liechtenstein calling “for an immediate suspension of the direct and indirect supply, sale or transfer of all weapons and munitions” to Myanmar was postponed. A vote could come as early as this week, though a revised version by members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) removes mention of suspending arms sales. The United States, France, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, and other sponsor countries should work with Liechtenstein to ensure a vote is rescheduled as soon as possible, with the language on halting arms sales. They should not play the game of saying this is a regional issue and hiding behind ASEAN to avoid their own responsibilities; ASEAN is built on the principle of noninterference and will never deliver on Myanmar. Instead, they should lobby UN members to ensure a robust resolution receives support from the General Assembly. Concerned governments should then use the resolution to press the Security Council to act. Inaction by UN member states will only embolden Myanmar’s military and encourage more abuses. General Assembly action is needed now..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch (USA)
2021-05-24
Date of entry/update: 2021-05-26
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Topic: Human rights, Rights and freedom
Sub-title: Thuzar Wint Lwin, in dress of besieged Chin minority, highlights brutal repression since coup in Myanmar
Topic: Human rights, Rights and freedom
Description: "In the months leading up to the Miss Universe pageant, most contestants were busy making promotional films and rehearsing for their moment in the limelight. Thuzar Wint Lwin of Myanmar was on the streets of Yangon, protesting against the country’s brutal army. As the military used increasingly deadly force to crush rallies opposing its February coup, she visited the relatives of those who had been killed, donating her savings. Online, she raised awareness of military violence, despite the risk of retaliation. On Thursday, Thuzar Wint Lwin appeared on stage in Florida, where she sent a powerful message to viewers around the world. Striding out in the traditional dress of the Chin ethnic minority, she unfurled a banner that read: “Pray for Myanmar.” “Our people are dying and being shot by the military every day,” she said in a video message filmed for the pageant. Thuzar Wint Lwin, 22, had been determined to take part in the competition, she said on Facebook, because she wanted to use her platform to “let the world know of our country and how our freedom, human rights and right to live are threatened”. She managed to pass safely through Yangon airport earlier this month. She won the prize for best national costume, for a traditional dress worn by Chin women in north-west Myanmar. The dress, which features intricate weaving, and is worn with a crown of feathers adorned with beads, is associated with the Khwang Cawi festival, when tributes are paid to courageous and admirable women. Dr Sasa, a spokesperson for Myanmar’s national unity government, which was set up by pro-democracy politicians, including some who have been detained, praised Thuzar Wint Lwin “for her bravery in the face of so many obstacles”. Her actions had helped raise awareness of “the plight of Myanmar’s brave citizens under the hand of these cruel terrorist murderers,” he said in a statement. Over recent days, thousands of people in Myanmar’s Chin state have been forced to flee their homes, following escalating fighting between the military and activists opposed to the coup, who have formed the Chinland Defence Force. The group used traditional hunting guns to fight the army in the town of Mindat, while the military fired artillery shells into the town and used helicopters to bring in extra troops. Chinland Defence Force told Reuters earlier this week that it had pulled back to spare civilians from being caught in the crossfire. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said providing humanitarian assistance to people fleeing the violence, or those still in the town, was challenging due to the insecurity. The US condemned the military’s use of violence against civilians, describing it as “a further demonstration of the depths the regime will sink to to hold on to power”. It has tightened sanctions against the ruling generals, placing more members of the junta on a financial blacklist. More than 800 people have been killed by the junta, according to the advocacy group Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. Thousands more have been detained, including elected politicians, pro-democracy activists and protesters. The military has also cracked down on cultural figures who have criticised the coup, announcing wanted lists on military TV in the evenings. Celebrities – from poets to beauty bloggers and influencers – are among those sought or held by security forces. Many are taken during night raids, when security forces stalk the streets and search the homes of anyone they suspect of supporting protesters. There have been repeated reports of torture inside detention facilities. It is not clear where Thuzar Wint Lwin will stay after the pageant. There were unconfirmed reports on social media that the Myanmar regime had issued an arrest warrant since her Miss Universe protest. In an online video message, she said: “Myanmar deserves democracy, and we will keep fighting and I also hope that the international community will give us the help that we desperately need.” Thuzar Wint Lwin was not the only contestant to make a political point at the Miss Universe pageant. Bernadette Belle Ong, who represented Singapore, walked on to the stage wearing a cape in the colours of her country’s flag then turned to reveal the message painted on the back, “Stop Asian Hate”, in a reference to rising numbers of racist attacks on Asian Americans. Lola de los Santos, the Miss Universe contestant for Uruguay, showed support for LGBTQ+ people with a rainbow outfit and a skirt that read: “No more hate, violence, rejection, discrimination.”..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "The Guardian" (UK)
2021-05-19
Date of entry/update: 2021-05-20
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Sub-title: Ma Thuzar Wint Lwin hopes to use her international platform as a pageant contestant to criticize the country’s military coup and support the pro-democracy movement.
Description: "As a girl, Ma Thuzar Wint Lwin would watch the Miss Universe pageant and wish that she could be the one onstage representing her country, Myanmar. She entered her first two contests last year, nervous and excited about what to expect. But she ultimately walked away crowned Miss Universe Myanmar, and this week is competing at the global pageant in Florida. But now representing her country has new meaning. With the military seizing power in a Feb. 1 coup and killing hundreds of protesters, she hopes to use her platform to call attention to Myanmar’s pro-democracy movement and to appeal for international help in freeing elected leaders who have been detained. “They are killing our people like animals,” she said in an interview before leaving Myanmar for the competition. “Where is the humanity? Please help us. We are helpless here.” In a dramatic moment on Thursday during the pageant’s national costume show, she walked to the front of the stage and held up a sign saying, “Pray for Myanmar.” The final competition will be held on Sunday. The military takeover in Myanmar sparked widespread protests with millions of people taking to the streets and a civil disobedience movement and general strike that have largely shut down the economy. The Tatmadaw, as the military is known, has responded with a brutal crackdown, killing more than 780 people and detaining more than 3,900, according to a rights group that tracks political prisoners. In the early weeks of the protest movement, Ms. Thuzar Wint Lwin, 22, joined the demonstrations, where she held signs with slogans such as “We do not want military government,” and called for the release of the country’s civilian leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest since the coup. She handed out water bottles to protesters in Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city, and donated her savings to families whose loved ones were killed. She also expressed her opposition to the junta on Facebook, posting black-and-white photos of herself blindfolded, with tape over her mouth and her hands bound. The military’s onslaught has left the country living in fear, she said. “The soldiers patrol the city every day and sometimes they set up roadblocks to harass the people coming through,” said Ms. Thuzar Wint Lwin, who also goes by the name Candy. “In some cases, they fire without hesitation. We are scared of our own soldiers. Whenever we see one, all we feel is anger and fear.” Every evening on television, the military announces new arrest warrants for celebrities and others who have been critical of the regime. Some of those named have been people Ms. Thuzar Wint Lwin knows. Before leaving for the United States, she watched anxiously to see if her name had ended up on the military’s wanted list. She saw reports of well-known people being detained as they tried to leave the country, so she decided to wear a hoodie and glasses to keep from being recognized at the Yangon airport. “I had to pass through immigration and I was so scared,” she said in an interview from Florida. In criticizing the junta from outside her country, Miss Universe Myanmar is not alone. U Win Htet Oo, one of the country’s best swimmers, said from Australia that he was giving up his dream of going to the Olympics and would not compete under the Myanmar flag until the regime’s leader, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, was removed from power. And the mixed martial arts fighter U Aung La Nsang, an American citizen and one of Myanmar’s most famous athletes, has urged President Biden to help end the suffering of Myanmar’s people. Ms. Thuzar Wint Lwin says she believes that it will not be safe for her to return to Myanmar after speaking out against the regime; she does not know where she will go after the pageant ends. An English major at East Yangon University, her path to the pro-democracy movement can perhaps be traced back to her childhood. She grew up in a middle-class household. Like many parents, her father, a businessman, and her mother, a housewife, dared not discuss the military government that was then in power. One of her early memories was walking with her mother near Sule Pagoda in downtown Yangon in 2007, when monks led nationwide protests against military rule. She was 7. As they neared the pagoda, soldiers broke up the protest by shooting their guns in the air. People started running. She and her mother ran, too. “We were very scared,” she recalled. “We went to a stranger’s house and we were hiding.” Soon after, the military crushed that protest movement by shooting dozens of people. But by 2011, the military began sharing power with civilian leaders and opening the country, allowing cellphones and affordable internet access to flood in. Ms. Thuzar Wint Lwin is part of the first generation in Myanmar to grow up fully connected to the outside world, and for whom a free society seemed normal. In 2015, the country seated democratically elected officials for the first time in more than half a century. “We have been living in freedom for five years,” she said. “Do not take us back. We know all about the world. We have the internet.” November was the first time she was old enough to vote, and she cast her ballot for the National League for Democracy, the party of Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi, which won in a landslide only to have the military overturn the results by seizing power. Before the coup, Ms. Thuzar Wint Lwin’s biggest ordeal came when she was 19 and had surgery to remove precancerous tumors from each breast, leaving permanent scars. She decided against having laser treatment to improve their appearance as a reminder of her success in preventing cancer. “It’s just a scar and I’m still me,” she wrote in a recent post with photographs of the scars. “I met self-acceptance realizing nothing changed who I am and the values I set for myself. Now, when I see those scars, I feel empowered.” She began modeling when she was in high school and, after her father’s retirement, helped support the family. She is one of fewer than a dozen contestants from Myanmar ever to compete in the Miss Universe pageant, which was founded in 1952. During the period from 1962 to 2011, when the Tatmadaw first ruled, Myanmar sent no contestants at all. When Ms. Thuzar Wint Lwin arrived in Florida on May 7, she was told the suitcase with her outfits for the competition had been lost by the airline. Most contestants had already arrived and were busy rehearsing, making videos and having photo shoots. As the week wore on, the bag still hadn’t arrived, but the pageant organizers were helping her with her gown, and other contestants were lending her outfits. Her national costume was among the missing items. People from Myanmar who live in the United States provided her with a stunning replacement of ethnic Chin origin. She wore it on Thursday to the applause of many in the crowd. Soon after landing in Florida, she posted an autobiographical video on Facebook that would be unusual for any beauty pageant contestant: It shows her wearing formal gowns mixed with scenes of people fleeing tear gas and a soldier shooting a man who rode by on a motorbike. “Myanmar deserves democracy,” she says in the video. “We will keep fighting and I also hope that international communities will give us help that we desperately need.”..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "The New York Times" (USA)
2021-05-14
Date of entry/update: 2021-05-17
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "The brave people of Myanmar and the National Unity Government of Myanmar greatly appreciate the International Communities from around the world, and especially our ASEAN brothers and sisters for standing with us at this critical moment in the history of Myanmar. While the fate of our country is in the hands of our people, strong and sustained support from the international community is absolutely crucial to our success. Now, more than ever, the people of Myanmar need your continued friendship and support. I am proud to serve as the Minister of International Cooperation and Spokesperson for the National Unity Government, as I was when previously serving as Myanmar's Special Envoy to the United Nations. It is my job to provide you with the information and assistance that you need to support the people of Myanmar. I am always at your service. The duty of a nation’s military is to defend and protect its people. However, under the command of Min Aung Hlaing, the supposed guardians of our nation are doing precisely the opposite of their duty and continue arbitrarily murdering and detaining without cause the brave and innocent civilians of Myanmar on a daily and hourly basis. The people of Myanmar unanimously consider Min Aung Hlaing and those who report to him as terrorists. It has been over 102 days since Min Aung Hlaing and his gunmen instigated this illegal coup d ’etat and took the nation hostage. Since that day..."
Source/publisher: Ministry of International Cooperation Myanmar
2021-04-14
Date of entry/update: 2021-05-15
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "A high-end office block in Myanmar linked to the country's military leaders is seeing an exodus of international organisations. Coca-Cola, the World Bank and McKinsey have told the BBC they have moved out or are reviewing their leases at the Sule Square complex in Yangon. The United Nations said the complex was built on land owned by the military. Myanmar's military seized power from the democratically elected government in February. It has been 100 days since the early morning coup, sparking mass protests across the country in which hundreds have died. How Myanmar coup caused its healthcare to vanish Could sanctions on Myanmar's military ever work? Myanmar coup: What is happening and why?. However, even before they took power on 1 February, Myanmar's military - which initially ruled the country for almost half a century after seizing power in 1962 - owned large areas of land and controlled companies involved in everything from mining to banking. The land on which the building stands was leased from the military, according to a 2019 United Nations fact-finding mission report. Last month, activist group Justice for Myanmar called on 18 tenants of the complex of offices and shops in the heart of Myanmar's commercial hub Yangon to stop indirectly supporting the army. "Sule Square has big-name tenants that continue to lease office space in the building, indirectly supporting the army," Justice for Myanmar said in a report. According to news agency Reuters, six of the companies have said they have moved out or were reviewing their plans, but only one mentioned the military link. Other firms cited various reasons, including business prospects. In a statement via email, Coca-Cola told the BBC that it would not renew its lease when it ends in the middle of next month due to "changing business requirements". "Our office-based employees at Coca-Cola Limited (Myanmar) will continue to work from home for the rest of 2021 as part of overall safety measures. We will be communicating our new office location at a later date," it added. In a statement sent to the BBC, consultancy McKinsey & Company said: "We no longer have space in a serviced office leased in Sule Square. We terminated our lease in early 2021." Reuters said it is not currently using its Sule Square office and was reviewing its tenancy. A spokesperson for the World Bank Group, which also has an office in the complex, told the BBC that it was "assessing the situation in Myanmar, according to internal policies and procedures". Norway's state-owned telecoms operator Telenor said it had known that the military owned the land Sule Square is built on before it moved in but it had picked the location due to a number of reasons, including safety. Telenor has not said whether or not it plans to move out of the building. Sule Square, which is close to the historic Sule Pagoda in Yangon, opened in 2017. It was developed by a local affiliate of Hong Kong listed Shangri-La Asia, which also manages the building and a neighbouring hotel. Shangri-La said in 2017 that it had invested $125m (£88.5m) in the development.
Source/publisher: "BBC News" (London)
2021-05-12
Date of entry/update: 2021-05-12
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "1. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs under the illegitimate State Administrative Council (SAC) of Myanmar suspended the Myanmar diplomats who joined the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) in Washington D.C. and Geneva on 22 and 23 April 2021 respectively. 2. On 23 April 2021, the diplomatic passports of the CDM diplomats and their family members from Geneva, Washington D.C., Tel Aviv and Ottawa were declared null and void. 3. Improperly, the passports of the CDM diplomats in Geneva and Washington D.C. have been revoked before the dismissal. Unethically, the passports of the CDM diplomats in Tel Aviv and Ottawa were declared null and void while they are not even suspended from their work yet. 4. Likewise, the passports of the CDM diplomats in Berlin, Tokyo and Los Angeles and their family members had been declared null and void immediately after being dismissed during March 2021. Similarly, the passports of Ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun, Permanent Representative of Myamnar to the United Nations and his family members were also declared null and void in early March 2021. 5. The National Unity Government of Myanmar wishes to reaffirm that the State Administrative Council (SAC) of Myanmar is an illegal terrorist group, and their announcements are also illegal. 6. In this light, the NUG urges the respective host governments not to acknowledge the SAC's announcement of revoking the diplomatic passports of those Myanmar diplomats and family members..."
Source/publisher: Ministry of Foreign Affairs - Myanmar - NUG
2021-04-26
Date of entry/update: 2021-05-10
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Sub-title: The world’s action – or inaction – will have an impact far beyond Myanmar’s own borders.
Description: "With Myanmar’s post-coup crisis dragging into its third month, security forces commanded by the coup leader Sen. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing show no sign of abating in their brutal suppression of the anti-coup protests that have erupted across the country since early February. Despite their massive numbers, protestors have been highly disciplined and peaceful. It was only after the security forces began using excessive and lethal force that a small pocket of them resorted to handmade weapons such as Molotov cocktails and outdated hunting guns to defend themselves, with many more realizing that armed resistance was their only remaining option. If the security forces have shown troublingly little respect for international norms in their treatment of civilians and activists, no less troubling has been the response from the international community in the face of what is fast becoming a “bloodbath,” in the words of Christine Schraner Burgener, the United Nations special envoy to Myanmar. In other words, although the people of Myanmar are the ones at the receiving end of all these atrocity crimes, the fact that they are ongoing and the perpetrators remain undeterred points to a collective failure on the part of the international community to uphold the norms to which it has committed itself, and sends a very dangerous message to current and would-be strongmen. As many have now warned, with the ever-more-real possibility of the country being plunged into a full-fledged civil war, the kind worse than what we have seen in the past 70 years, time is fast running out for the international community to act. The international community must wake up to the depth and extent of the reign of terror Min Aung Hlaing has unleashed in his ruthless attempt to crush opposition and assert his illegal and unconstitutional rule. His security forces have been given a free pass to kill unarmed civilians, to arrest and torture people at will, and to loot and destroy private property. According to the monitoring organization the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), as of April 21, the junta’s security forces had killed at least 739 civilians, some murdered in the most horrific manner. Among those killed are 50 children; the latest victim was a 7-year-old girl, who was shot dead at her home in Mandalay. As reported by the investigative journal Myanmar Now, there have been several documented cases in which an activist arrested overnight has turned up dead the next morning. In yet another but definitely not isolated incident, an armed police officer made a passer-by crawl on his hands and knees in a disturbingly dehumanizing manner. So far, at least 3,331 people, including State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint and other elected MPs, politicians, student leaders and human rights activists, remain under detention, some in undisclosed locations. On March 27 alone, at least 114 civilians in 44 towns across the country were killed by the junta. Junta forces have gone so far as exhuming and dragging away bodies. On March 28, they burned a man alive. Enjoying this article? Click here to subscribe for full access. Just $5 a month. Before the coup, U.N. investigators had found a genocidal intent in the crimes committed against the Rohingya people by the security forces commanded by the same general Min Aung Hlaing. During their so-called “clearance operations” in August 2017, at least 6,700 were killed, mass rapes and arson were committed, and more than 700,000 people were forced to flee to Bangladesh. Furthermore, the U.N. Fact Finding Mission reported in September 2018 that the military has likely committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in Kachin, Shan, and Rakhine states, and in April 2020, the U.N. Special Rapporteur reported that “possible war crimes and crimes against humanity were ongoing in Rakhine and Chin States.” Myanmar is today facing charges of genocide for the violence at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands. Due to ongoing aerial bombing and offensives targeting civilians and their facilities across the country, thousands of Karen people are fleeing to neighboring Thailand, where there has arisen an urgent humanitarian situation. All this is to say that Min Aung Hlaing and his State Administration Council (SAC) are fast turning Myanmar into a “human rights ground zero.” From mass murder to torture to arbitrary arrests to killing children to shooting at medics providing emergency care to the wounded, almost every article in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is being violated or is under threat. In the borderland areas where ethnic armies have been fighting for their right to self-determination for the past 70 years, aerial bombings by his forces are deliberately targeting civilian populations and facilities, adding to the war crimes and crimes against humanity against minority peoples, and the genocide or ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya people that the military has already committed. For those foreign states claiming that they have a policy of working with only “states” as opposed to “governments” – if they mean by any chance that the SAC is the state in question – they must get their facts right. The SAC cannot even fulfil its basic duty as a state, namely, to provide security to its people. Nor can it provide basic services like healthcare with many civil servants having joined the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) to protest the military’s illegal, illegitimate, and increasingly bloody coup. So far as Ming Aung Hlaing’s coup regime is recognized as Myanmar’s de facto or de jure government, it must also be recognized that it is actively committing mass atrocities against its own population. Therefore, for foreign nations to recognize the SAC as the “state” would make a mockery of their commitment to uphold human rights and international law, as the latter is showing absolutely no respect for these. On the other hand, the newly formed National Unity Government, which it is imperative for the international community to recognize as the legitimate government for no other reason than that it receives overwhelming support from the people, cannot yet protect the people. Thus, the onus is now on the international community to protect the civilian population in Myanmar before the forces of SAC commit further atrocities against them, and sink the country deeper into chaos. What is lacking for urgent international intervention, whether in the form of R2P or otherwise, is not evidence on the ground but political will at the U.N. and in the capitals of the most powerful nations on earth. As part of their “statement diplomacy,” foreign missions based in Myanmar have joined a chorus of other diplomatic voices in calling for restoration of democracy among other things in the country. With so much emphasis being put on restoration of what existed before the coup, it should be clear that what the pro-democratic forces inside Myanmar want is not a status quo ante in which the military enjoys a privileged role in politics without being accountable to the people or any elected body. Differently put, what we had pre-coup was a military dictatorship with some democratic characteristics. In the meantime, as another massacre in Bago in which junta’s forces have killed more than 80 protesters shows, Min Aung Hlaing is in no way backing down. Furthermore, letting the generals off the hook for the most atrocious crimes would make a farce of global justice, and more importantly, would utterly fail the people of Myanmar in their search for justice. Meanwhile, the pro-democracy protesters remain as determined as ever to see the end of Min Aung Hlaing’s illegal and brutal reign. Many of those we have spoken to have told us that they are prepared to fight until the end using every means at their disposal. Sanctions, with their ineffectual record from the past, imposed by the U.S., U.K., and EU on the junta’s top generals and its economic complex are failing to deter them. As Min Aung Hlaing’s forces continue to commit mass murders and carry out summary arrests at the sites of urban protest and his bombs rain down on villages in the borderlands, friends of the Myanmar people might have to prepare themselves to contemplate more coercive measures, such as arming the resistance movement, including the ethnic armed organizations that are already in the fight. As the former U.S. ambassador to Myanmar Scot Marciel wrote recently on his Twitter account, “the Tatmadaw is beyond reason. I see no value in dialogue with them until and unless they recognize they cannot win and make clear they are looking for a way out.” The people of Myanmar have shown their bravery, but will the rest of the world rise to the occasion? The clock is ticking..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "The Diplomat" (Japan)
2021-04-23
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-25
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "Your Excellencies, In alignment with the upcoming Special ASEAN Summit on Myanmar on 24 April 2021, we, the undersigned 744 individuals, 402 civil society organisations in Myanmar and 444 in other Southeast Asian nations and globally, call on the ASEAN, its leaders and Member States to come up with an effective and sustainable strategy jointly with the United Nations Security Council, the United Nations Human Rights Council, the International Criminal Court (ICC), and other international community actors in addressing the illegitimate and brutal coup and atrocity crimes committed by the military junta in Myanmar. We welcome the decision to hold the Special ASEAN Summit on Myanmar, based on the proposal made by President Joko Widodo of the Republic of Indonesia to discuss the worsening situation in Myanmar following the violent crackdown against peaceful protesters and the terror campaign against civilians launched by the junta. The decision hopefully constitutes a precedent and reflects the commitment of ASEAN Member States leaders to address Myanmar’s appalling situation using its highest-level policy-making body. However, in view of ASEAN Member States’ differing positions on the coup in Myanmar, we remain extremely concerned that the ASEAN Summit’s response might be to consider the crisis as solely within Myanmar’s domestic affairs and therefore deciding to refrain from any meaningful action in line with the “ASEAN Way” of non-interference and overzealous respect for ‘state sovereignty’. The differing positions of ASEAN Member States have made it difficult for ASEAN to reach a consensus and resulted in equivocations and delayed responses from ASEAN, while the military junta continued its deliberate, murderous attacks on Myanmar’s people, including various violence against women and girls, much to our sorrow and anger. As evidenced from the outputs produced by the Informal ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting (IAFMM), ASEAN responses fall well short of meeting the will of the people of Myanmar. The chair’s statement of the IAFMM meeting neither specifically publicly called out the junta’s brutality nor called for stronger cooperation with the UN Security Council and Human Rights Council. Further, it also fails to mention ASEAN’s commitment to supporting targeted economic sanctions against military personnel and business entities and global arms embargo and referral of the Myanmar situation to the ICC. With the different interests and political will of ASEAN Member States at the moment, we are concerned to what extent the Special ASEAN Summit can create an immediate and meaningful intervention to resolve the situation of Myanmar. ASEAN’s collective and meaningful action to uphold democracy is warranted at this time. Any decision by the ASEAN leaders to treat the military junta as the legitimate representative of Myanmar in the Summit will serve to legitimize the military junta’s crimes and will thus damage not only the relationship of ASEAN with the peoples of Myanmar but the people’s movement for democracy and human rights in the region as a whole. Further, the ASEAN and its Member States must recognise the legitimacy of the National Unity Government (NUG), the legitimate and democratically-elected government of Myanmar, given that it represents 76% of elected Members of the Union Parliament, ethnic leaders, the civil disobedience movement, and general strike committees endorsed by the people of Myanmar. Therefore, Myanmar must be represented by the NUG; not by the illegal junta who is trying to take full control of the country through its unprecedented brutality. As we send this letter to the ASEAN Leaders, the violence and killings by the Myanmar military against protesters and supporters continue with no sign of abating. The junta have so far arbitrarily killed 739 and arrested 3,331 people, including women, elderly people and children.[1] In Karen and Kachin ethnic areas, the junta has been bombing villages, displacing more than 30,000 villagers.[2] In these bombing attacks, civilians including children lost their lives as well as faced difficulties not only about their safety, but also for health, shelter and food. Among those fleeing were women, children, elderly and pregnant women who are due to give birth. There was also a case of a woman who gave birth to her child while she was fleeing. Given the gravity of the situation, the increasing number of victims, and the impact of the crisis on the region’s security and political stability, we strongly urge ASEAN to take firm and effective actions to address the Myanmar coup through the Special ASEAN Summit. We urge all ASEAN leaders to listen to, strongly consider, and to heed the aspirations and will of the peoples of Myanmar. The voices of Myanmar people who have risked their lives in defense of democracy and justice must be the anchor, the conscience, behind any modality and outcome of the Special ASEAN Summit on Myanmar.....၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ် ဧပြီလ ၂၄ ရက်နေ့တွင် ကျင်းပပြုလုပ်မည့် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံဆိုင်ရာ အာဆီယံအထူး ထိပ်သီးအစည်းအဝေးနှင့်အညီ အာဆီယံခေါင်းဆောင်များနှင့် အဖွဲ့ဝင်နိုင်ငံများကို မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတွင် ဖြစ်နေသည့် တရားမဝင် ရက်စက်သော အာဏာသိမ်းမှုနှင့် စစ်အုပ်စုက ကျူးလွန်သော ရက်စက်ကြမ်းကြုတ်သည့် ရာဇဝတ်မှုများကို ကိုင်တွယ်ဖြေရှင်းရာတွင် ကုသသမဂ္ဂ လုံခြုံရေးကောင်စီ၊ ကုလသမဂ္ဂ လူ့အခွင့်အရေး ကောင်စီ၊ နိုင်ငံတကာ ရာဇဝတ်တရားရုံး (ICC) နှင့် အခြားသက်ဆိုင်ရာ နိုင်ငံတကာအသိုင်းအဝိုင်းများနှင့်အတူ ထိရောက်ခိုင်မာသော မဟာဗျူဟာတစ်ခုကို ပူးတွဲလုပ်ဆောင်ရန် အောက်တွင် လက်မှတ်ရေးထိုးထားသော တစ်သီးပုဂ္ဂလ ၇၄၄ ဦး၊ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံမှ အရပ်ဘက်လူထုအဖွဲ့အစည်း ၄၀၂ ဖွဲ့နှင့် အခြား အရှေ့တောင်အာရှနိုင်ငံများမှ အရပ်ဘက်လူထုအဖွဲ့အစည်း ၄၄၄ ဖွဲ့တို့က တောင်းဆိုလိုက်သည်။ အင်ဒိုနီးရှားနိုင်ငံ သမ္မတ ဂျိုကို ဝီဒိုဒို (Joko Widodo) ၏ အဆိုပြုချက်အပေါ် အခြေခံပြီး မြန်မာနိုင်ငံအတွင်း ငြိမ်းချမ်းစွာ ဆန္ဒပြသူများအပေါ် စစ်အုပ်စုမှ လုပ်ဆောင်သော အကြမ်းဖက် ဖြိုခွဲမှုများနှင့် အရပ်သားများအပေါ် ကြောက်မက်ဖွယ် တိုက်ခိုက်မှုများဖြစ်ပွားခဲ့သည့်နောက်ပိုင်း ပိုမိုဆိုးရွားလာနေသော အခြေအနေများကို ဆွေးနွေးရန်အတွက် အာဆီယံအထူးထိပ်သီးအစည်းအဝေးကို ကျင်းပပြုလုပ်ရန် ဆုံးဖြတ်ချက်ကို မိမိတို့မှ ထောက်ခံကြိုဆိုသည်။ ယင်းဆုံးဖြတ်ချက်သည် အာဆီယံအဖွဲ့ဝင်နိုင်ငံ ခေါင်းဆောင်များမှ ၎င်းတို့၏ အမြင့်ဆုံးအဆင့် မူဝါဒရေးဆွဲချမှတ်သည့်အဖွဲ့ကို အသုံးပြုပြီး မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတွင် ဖြစ်ပေါ်နေသော ဆိုးရွားလှသည့် အခြေအနေများကို ကိုင်တွယ်ဖြေရှင်းရန် ကတိကဝတ်ပြုမှုကို ထင်ဟပ်သည့်အပြင် လိုက်နာရမည့်ထုံးတမ်းစဉ်လာဖြစ်လာလိမ့်မည်ဟု မျှော်လင့်ပါသည်။ သို့ရာတွင် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံရှိ အာဏာသိမ်းမှုအပေါ် အာဆီယံအဖွဲ့ဝင်နိုင်ငံများ၏ မတူကွဲပြားနေသော ရပ်တည်ချက်များကို ကြည့်ခြင်းအားဖြင့် အာဆီယံထိပ်သီးအစည်းအဝေးမှ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ၏ အကြပ်အတည်းကို ပြည်တွင်းရေးသာဖြစ်ပြီး “အာဆီယံနည်း” အရ ဝင်ရောက်စွက်ဖက်မှု မပြုခြင်းနှင့် နိုင်ငံ၏ အချုပ်အခြာအာဏာအပေါ် အလွန်အကျွံ လေးစားမှုတို့ကြောင့် အဓိပ္ပါယ်ပြည့်၀သော အရေးယူ ဆောင်ရွက်မှု လုပ်ဆောင်ခြင်းမှ ရှောင်ကြဥ်သွားမည်ကို မိမိတို့မှ စိုးရိမ်မိပါသည်။ စစ်အုပ်စုမှ မြန်မာပြည်သူများအပေါ် တမင်ရည်ရွယ်သော သတ်ဖြတ်တိုက်ခိုက်မှုများ ဆက်လက် လုပ်ဆောင်နေချိန်တွင် အာဆီယံအဖွဲ့ဝင်နိုင်ငံများအကြား မတူကွဲပြားသော ရပ်တည်ချက်များက အာဆီယံအတွက် ဘုံသဘောတူညီချက် ရရှိရန် အခက်အခဲဖြစ်စေပြီး မရေရာမှုများကို ထွက်ပေါ်စေခြင်းနှင့် အာဆီယံ၏ တုံ့ပြန်မှုများ နှောင့်နှေးကြန့်ကြာနေမှုသည် မိမိတို့အား ဝမ်းနည်း အမြတ်ဒေါသ ဖြစ်စေပါသည်။ အာဆီယံနိုင်ငံခြားရေးဝန်ကြီးများ၏ အလွတ်သဘော အစည်းအဝေး (IAFMM) မှ ထွက်ပေါ်လာသော ရလဒ်များက ဖော်ပြနေသည်မှာ အာဆီယံ၏ တုံ့ပြန်မှုသည် မြန်မာပြည်သူများ၏ ဆန္ဒနှင့် ကိုက်ညီမှု မရှိပေ။ IAFMM အစည်းအဝေး ဥက္ကဌ၏ ကြေညာချက်သည် စစ်အုပ်စု၏ ရက်စက်ယုတ်မာမှုများကို တိကျစွာ လူသိရှင်ကြား ဝေဖန်ရှုတ်ချခြင်း မရှိသကဲ့သို့ ကုလသမဂ္ဂ လုံခြုံရေးကောင်စီနှင့် ကုလသမဂ္ဂ လူ့အခွင့်အရေးကောင်စီများနှင့် ပိုမိုအားကောင်းသော ပူးပေါင်းဆောင်ရွက်ရေးအတွက် တောင်းဆို ခဲ့ခြင်းလည်း မရှိပေ။ ထို့အပြင် အာဆီယံသည် စစ်အုပ်စု ခေါင်းဆောင်များနှင့် စီးပွားရေးလုပ်ငန်းများအပေါ် ပစ်မှတ်ထား စီးပွားရေးအရေးယူပိတ်ဆို့မှုများ၊ ကမ္ဘာတစ်ဝှမ်း လက်နက်ခဲယမ်း ပိတ်ဆို့မှု နှင့် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ အခြေအနေကို နိုင်ငံတကာရာဇဝတ်တရားရုံး (ICC) သို့ လွှဲပြောင်းရေး တောင်းဆိုချက်များအပေါ် ထောက်ခံရေး ၎င်း၏ ကတိကဝတ်ကို ဖော်ပြရန်လည်း ပျက်ကွက်ခဲ့သည်။ လက်ရှိအချိန်တွင် အာဆီယံအဖွဲ့ဝင်နိုင်ငံများ၏ မတူညီသော အကျိုးစီးပွားနှင့် နိုင်ငံရေးစိတ်ဆန္ဒများ ရှိနေခြင်းကြောင့် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ၏ အခြေအနေကို ဖြေရှင်းရန် အာဆီယံအထူးထိပ်သီးအစည်းအဝေးမှ လျင်မြန်ပြီး အဓိပ္ပာယ်ပြည့်ဝသော ကြားဝင်ဖြေရှင်းမှုကို မည်သည့်အတိုင်းအတာအထိ ဖော်ဆောင်နိုင်မည် ဆိုသည့်အပေါ် မိမိတို့မှ စိုးရိမ်ပူပန်သည်။ ယခုအချိန်တွင် ဒီမိုကရေစီ ထိန်းသိမ်းရေးအတွက် အာဆီယံ၏ အဓိပ္ပါယ်ပြည့်ဝသော စုပေါင်းအရေးယူဆောင်ရွက်မှုကို လိုအပ်သည်။ လာမည့် ထိပ်သီးအစည်းအဝေးတွင် အာဆီယံ ခေါင်းဆောင်များမှ စစ်အုပ်စုအား မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ၏ တရားဝင်သော ကိုယ်စားလှယ်အဖြစ် သတ်မှတ်ဆက်ဆံရန် ဆုံးဖြတ်ပါက စစ်အုပ်စု၏ ရာဇဝတ်မှုများကို တရားဝင်စေမည်ဖြစ်သဖြင့် အာဆီယံနှင့် မြန်မာပြည်သူတို့၏ ဆက်ဆံရေးကိုသာမက ဒေသတွင်းတစ်ခုလုံး၏ ဒီမိုကရေစီနှင့် လူ့အခွင့်အရေးလှုပ်ရှားမှု ကိုလည်း ပျက်စီးစေလိမ့်မည်။ ထို့အပြင် အာဆီယံနှင့် ၎င်း၏ အဖွဲ့ဝင်နိုင်ငံများအနေဖြင့် ရွေးကောက်တင်မြှောက်ခံထားရသည့် ပြည်ထောင်စုလွှတ်တော်ကိုယ်စားလှယ် ၇၆%၊ တိုင်းရင်းသား ခေါင်းဆောင်များ၊ လူထုအာဏာဖီဆန်ရေး လှုပ်ရှားမှုနှင့် အထွေထွေသပိတ်ကော်မတီများဖြင့် ပါဝင်ဖွဲ့စည်းထားသော မြန်မာပြည်သူများ ထောက်ခံ ထားသည့် တရားဝင် ဒီမိုကရေစီနည်းကျ ရွေးကောက်တင်မြှောက်ခံ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ၏ အစိုးရဖြစ်သည့် အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ၏ တရားဝင်မှုကို အသိအမှတ်ပြုရမည်။ ထို့ကြောင့် အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေး အစိုးရကသာ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံကို ကိုယ်စားပြုရမည်ဖြစ်ပြီး ဆိုးရွားလှသည့်ရက်စက်ကြမ်းကြုတ်မှုများမှတစ်ဆင့် နိုင်ငံကို အပြည့်အဝ ထိန်းချုပ်နိုင်ရန် ကြိုးစားနေသည့် တရားမဝင် စစ်အုပ်စုက မဖြစ်ရပေ။ ဤစာကို အာဆီယံခေါင်းဆောင်များထံ ပေးပို့သည့်အချိန်တွင်ပင် ဆန္ဒပြသူများအပေါ် လုပ်ဆောင်နေသော စစ်အုပ်စု၏ အကြမ်းဖက်မှုများနှင့် သတ်ဖြတ်မှုများသည် လျော့နည်းလာမည့်လက္ခဏာ မရှိဘဲ ဆက်လက်ဖြစ်ပွားနေသည်။ လက်ရှိအချိန်ထိတွင် စစ်အုပ်စုမှ လူဦးရေ ၃,၂၂၉ ဦး မတရားဖမ်းဆီး ထိန်းသိမ်းထားပြီး လူပေါင်း ၇၃၇ ဦးကို သတ်ဖြတ်ခဲ့ကာ ထိုအထဲတွင် အမျိုးသမီး၊ သက်ကြီးရွယ်အိုများနှင့် ကလေးများ ပါဝင်သည်။[1] ကရင်နှင့် ကချင် တိုင်းရင်းသား နယ်မြေများတွင် စစ်အုပ်စုက ကျေးရွာများအား ဗုံးကြဲတိုက်ခိုက်ခြင်းကြောင့် အရပ်သားပေါင်း ၃၀,၀၀၀ ကျော် ထွက်ပြေးတိမ်းရှောင်နေကြရသည်။[2] ထိုဗုံးကြဲ တိုက်ခိုက်မှုများတွင် ကလေးငယ်များအပါအဝင် အရပ်သားများ အသက်ဆုံးရှုံးရမှုများအပြင် ၎င်းတို့၏ လုံခြုံမှုအတွက်သာမက ကျန်းမာရေး၊ နေထိုင်ရေးနှင့် အစားအသောက်တို့အတွက်ပါ အခက်အခဲများ ကြုံတွေ့ရသည်။ ထိုထွက်ပြေးရသူများထဲတွင် အမျိုးသမီးများ၊ ကလေးငယ်များ၊ သက်ကြီးရွယ်အိုများနှင့် မွေးဖွားခါနီး ကိုယ်ဝန်ဆောင်အမျိုးသမီးတို့ ပါဝင်သည်။ ထိုအထဲတွင် ထွက်ပြေးတိမ်းရှောင်ရင်း မီးဖွားခဲ့ရသော အမျိုးသမီးတစ်ဦး၏ ဖြစ်ရပ်လည်း ရှိခဲ့သည်။ အခြေအနေ၏ ဆိုးရွားမှု၊ ကျူးလွန်ချိုးဖောက် ခံနေရသူ အရေအတွက် များပြားလာမှုနှင့် ဒေသတွင်း လုံခြုံရေးနှင့် နိုင်ငံရေးတည်ငြိမ်မှုတို့အပေါ် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ အကြပ်အတည်း၏ သက်ရောက်မှုကြောင့် အာဆီယံထိပ်သီး အစည်းအဝေးမှတစ်ဆင့် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ စစ်အာဏာသိမ်းမှုကို ဖြေရှင်းရန်အတွက် အာဆီယံအနေဖြင့် ခိုင်မာထိရောက်သော အရေးယူဆောင်ရွက် မှုများ လုပ်ဆောင်ရန် မိမိတို့မှ တိုက်တွန်း တောင်းဆိုသည်။ အာဆီယံ ခေါင်းဆောင်များမှ မြန်မာပြည်သူများ၏ ရည်မှန်းချက်များနှင့် စိတ်ဆန္ဒကို နားထောင်ပြီး အလေးအနက်ထား ထည့်သွင်းစဥ်းစားလုပ်ဆောင်ရန် မိမိတို့မှ တိုက်တွန်းတောင်းဆိုသည်။ ဒီမိုကရေစီနှင့် တရားမျှတမှု ကာကွယ်ရာတွင် ၎င်းတို့၏ အသက်များကို စတေးထားသော မြန်မာပြည်သူများ၏ အသံများသည် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံဆိုင်ရာ အာဆီယံအထူးထိပ်သီးအစည်းအဝေး၏ လုပ်ဆောင်မှုပုံစံနှင့် ရလဒ်များ၏ အခြေခံကျောရိုး ဖြစ်ရမည်။..."
Source/publisher: 744 individuals, 402 civil society organisations in Myanmar, 444 in other Southeast Asian nations and globally via "Progressive Voice"
2021-04-23
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-23
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "The international community needs new ways of working together to respond to the violence deployed against protesters in Myanmar. Since the military seized power on 1 February 2021, over 600 people have been killed. As of 10 April, over 2800 are in detention, have outstanding charges or are evading arrest. Communities across the country continue to protest, despite increasingly lethal violence. The international community continues to make statements denouncing the use of violence against protestors. They encourage regional efforts to support peaceful resolution and a return to the democratic transition. But protesters don’t want a return to the previous situation — they are calling for fundamental political change. The Myanmar military (Tatmadaw) has entrenched its position. More lethal force and violence is expected. It is time for ASEAN and the UN to collaborate on developing a joint mechanism to coordinate regional and international diplomatic efforts, and provide humanitarian assistance to respond to the deteriorating situation. ASEAN is constrained by its consensus-based approach to decision-making and limited investment in regional institutional architecture. The divergence of opinion over the situation in Myanmar between member states is well documented. This limits ASEAN from acting collectively. But treating ASEAN as an enforcement mechanism in the ways that some in the international community have suggested misses the point. ASEAN has evolved as a forum for dialogue at the regional level. Its successes have been in initiating and contributing to the sustainable development of its member states, while engaging extra-regional players. The UN has several constraints working in Southeast Asia, the most prominent being that many countries in the region prefer a localised approach to peace and security. The UN has strengthened its position in the region by partnering with ASEAN in several key areas, notably in disaster management and emergency response. A greater focus on these successes is needed to develop an ASEAN–UN partnership. A joint mechanism would build on past successes. There have been notable developments since the signing of the ASEAN Agreement on Disaster Management and Emergency Response in 2008, suggesting that a more coordinated approach is possible between global and regional organisations. In October 2016, the UN Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and the ASEAN Secretary-General met alongside the UN General Assembly and the annual ASEAN–UN Secretariat-to-Secretariat Dialogue. They agreed to capture and institutionalise practical, experience-based arrangements. This notably took shape in the response to the 2018 Sulawesi Earthquake in Indonesia. The Indonesian government mandated that the ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance on Disaster Management (AHA Centre) be the platform through which international partners and the private sector coordinate their humanitarian efforts. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs worked in the AHA Emergency Operations Centre to facilitate coordination between ASEAN and the UN. The experience was commended and pointed to as a new way of working between the two entities. There remains a lack of significant investment in regional institutions, limiting both their mandate and their capacity. The ASEAN Charter remains the lynchpin for upholding the ASEAN community and provides the foundation for action. But it lacks triggers to initiate substantive responses and relies on the convening of an ASEAN Leaders Summit to address member states that fall foul of their commitments. And the ASEAN Secretariat only has a few hundred employees — limiting its ability to implement its broad-based mandate effectively. Forging an ASEAN–UN partnership could help coordinate diplomatic efforts and deliver humanitarian assistance to people in Myanmar. It could draw on the expertise of the 6600 ASEAN citizens currently staffing the United Nations system to create a joint mechanism anchored in the ‘ASEAN way’ that combines the trust of ASEAN with the capacity of the United Nations. In response to the devastating impact of Cyclone Nargis in 2008, ASEAN established the ASEAN Humanitarian Taskforce. The taskforce was made up of the ASEAN member states chaired by the ASEAN Secretary-General and an advisory group made up of Myanmar’s neighbouring countries, the UN, the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. It facilitated engagement between parties and provided a model for an ASEAN–UN mechanism. A partnership between ASEAN and the United Nations will provide a more coordinated international response to the increasingly fraught situation in Myanmar. If ASEAN leadership fails, it will fall upon the wider international community and individual ASEAN members — undermining the organisation’s regional centrality. A path that does not engage ASEAN faces numerous hurdles and diverging interests. It is time to move beyond broad commitments to region-led approaches. Actors must find innovative ways of collaborating if regional and international efforts are to support people in Myanmar..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "East Asia Forum" (Australia)
2021-04-14
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-16
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Topic: Aung San Suu Kyi, democracy, international relations, politics, Rohingya, diplomacy, tradition, culture
Sub-title: In countries undergoing a transition to democracy, deeply engrained social and intellectual tendencies are often at odds with idealistic international political norms.
Topic: Aung San Suu Kyi, democracy, international relations, politics, Rohingya, diplomacy, tradition, culture
Description: "“The mix within her of global human rights icon and steely Burmese politician is bound to be uneasy.” So wrote Mr William Burns, former deputy secretary of state in the Obama administration, of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in his contemporaneous notes on meeting her in Myanmar (The Back Channel: A Memoir of American Diplomacy and the Case for Its Renewal. NY: Random House, p. 270). This prescient conclusion captures the essence of Aung San Suu Kyi’s dilemma, and that of much of the Western world, in balancing international opinions and policies with Burmese political realities. She considers herself, as she has stated, a politician not an icon. She is, however, both. This unease has been dually fostered: in the West by Myanmar’s egregiously discriminatory and disastrous policy of ethnic cleansing (some claim genocide) against the Rohingya Muslim minority, but in Myanmar itself – where anti-Rohingya sentiment is virtually ubiquitous and repressive legislation against them enforced – by her administration’s lack of economic progress for those most in need. Among the urban and intellectual community, there is further disquiet because of the use of anti-democratic legislation, some of it dating from British colonial rule and continued under military autocracies. Although reports indicate her falling, if not failing, reputation, she remains relatively popular..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Frontier Myanmar" (Myanmar)
2019-11-01
Date of entry/update: 2019-11-01
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "“In order to facilitate investment, businesses need political stability. And in that sense, Mandalay is the perfect place to offer this condition,” Mandalay Chief Minister Zaw Myint Maung told an audience of European investors and businesses. The European Chamber of Commerce in Myanmar (EuroCham) in collaboration with the Mandalay Region Chamber of Commerce (MRCCI) organised the forum “Business Climate in Upper Myanmar” on May 21. Many European businesses see Mandalay’s location and access to Upper Myanmar as a key asset but raise concerns about the opaque bureaucracy and shortage of skilled labour. “Mandalay is at the crossroads between big Asian players, like China and India, and [the city] could become a main trading and communications centre,” said Fabian Lorenz, attorney-at-law, Luther Law Firm Limited. The availability of raw materials and labour in Mandalay offers a vast potential for development and investment, he added. This includes agriculture, food processing and manufacturing..."
Source/publisher: "Belt & Road News" (China)
2019-05-25
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-25
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "They may not be the first two countries that come to mind when people think of the Pilbara, but last week Australia’s ambassadors to Myanmar and Kuwait visited the region. The visits were part of the Australian Government’s Global Heads of Mission Meeting, in which all ofAustralia’s heads of mission headed to Canberra to consider Australia’s response to foreign trade, development policy challenges and opportunities. They then travelled to locations around regional Australia to help the community understand how the Australian Government’s work overseas delivers benefits to all, and to listen and respond to local perspectives. Australia’s ambassador to Myanmar Andrea Faulkner visited Karratha and said WA was the State which had the most, in a business sense, to do with her patch. “There’s real opportunities in Myanmar for the oil and gas sector,” she said “Woodside is Australia’s biggest investor in Myanmar. “They’re involved in exploration of LNG on the West coast.” While in Karratha, Ms Faulkner met with the Murujuga Aboriginal Corportation, Yara Pilbara, Woodside, the City of Karratha, the Pilbara Development Commission, Bush Lolly Cafe, Karratha Senior High School, Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation and Rio Tinto..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: The West Australian (Australia) via "Pilbara News"
2019-09-22
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-23
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "Myanmar's natural gas export hit 3.5 billion U.S. dollars in the first 11 months (Oct.-Aug.) of the fiscal year 2018-2019 ending September, according to the Ministry of Commerce Wednesday. The natural gas export during the period increased by 430 million U.S. dollars compared with the corresponding period of the previous fiscal year. Natural gas represents one of the major export items of Myanmar and over 20 percent of the country's export earning came from the sale of natural gas. There are several gas fields in Myanmar, of which Yadana and Yetagun were discovered in the early 1990s. The Yadana natural gas project, located offshore in the Andaman Sea, is being carried out by the TOTAL company of France with its pipeline supplying gas to Thailand so as the Zawtika project in the gulf of Mottama. The Shwe natural gas field, lying offshore Rakhine state, was found in 2014 and gas from the field was mainly exported to China..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Xinhua" (China)
2019-09-18
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-18
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Topic: Myanmar has held investment and business forums with Japan, South Korea, China, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong and Singapore among Asian countries, and the US, UK, Czech, Hungary and Australia among Western nations.
Topic: Myanmar has held investment and business forums with Japan, South Korea, China, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong and Singapore among Asian countries, and the US, UK, Czech, Hungary and Australia among Western nations.
Description: "Since last year, Myanmar officials responsible for drumming up foreign investment have been shuttling between Naypyitaw and Asian countries to pitch the government’s latest legal, procedural, and institutional reforms to potential investors as part of efforts to revitalize the country’s economy. State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi often highlights foreign direct investment (FDI) as a key driver of Myanmar’s economy. Starting last year, both abroad and at home, Myanmar has held investment and business forums with Japan, South Korea, China, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong and Singapore among Asian countries, and the US, UK, Czech, Hungary and Australia among Western nations. Between January and September this year, the government organized a Union-level investment summit in Naypyitaw and four major investment forums in Yangon and Mandalay regions, and in Rakhine and Chin states, inviting both local and foreign investors to attend. This is part of the government’s investment promotion plan, which has emphasized East Asian countries since the country’s image took a battering in the wake of the 2017 Rohingya crisis in Rakhine State, which turned off Western investors..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy"
2019-09-12
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-12
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "Myanmar rolled out a new Companies Law in 2018 to attract more foreign direct investment (FDI) into the country. The new law, which replaced rules made more than a century ago, was one of several initiatives to reform the economy. While the economy had picked up pace, experts cautioned that Myanmar’s FDI targets in 2019 might fall short..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "CNA"
2019-08-01
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-06
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Sub-title: Myanmar has accumulated US$10.2 billion in debt owed to more than 20 countries and multilateral organisations, the Joint Public Accounts Committee of the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw noted in a report on the Union budget for the 2017-18 fiscal year.
Description: "The committee said the Ministries of Home Affairs; Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation; Transport and Communication; Electricity and Energy and; Industry took the largest loans. According to the report, loans rose by more than US$1 billion (K1.587 trillion), or 11.5pc, between fiscal 2016-17 and 2017-18. Of the total loan amount as of March 2018, loans from China formed the biggest amount totaling US$4 billion. Some US$1.11 billion has been repaid. The Export-Import Bank of China(Exim China) was the creditor for the majority of the loans taken out by the Ministries of Electricity and Energy; Defence; Industry and; Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation. Examples of loans from Exim China include the Ministry of Electricity and Energy’s Thout Yay Khat 2 project with Shwe Swan-in Co Ltd where the firm still owes US$5.2 million in capital and a further US$2.7 million to the ministry. A long-planned caustic soda plan project for which Myanmar Economic Holdings Ltd (MEHL) had signed a 690-million-yuan loan with Exim China in June 2010 remains unbuilt despite 276 million yuan having been spent and MEHL having transferred the No 3 Heavy Industries Enterprise to implement the project. To-date, the government has repaid 289 million yuan in capital and interest and only expressions of interest have been invited for the project..."
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Source/publisher: "Myanmar Times"
2019-08-20
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-20
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi made her first diplomatic visit to Cambodia this week, underscoring the similarities between two countries that find themselves increasingly isolated from the international community. According to the Cambodian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Suu Kyi arrived in Cambodia on April 29, flying from Beijing where she and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen attended the second Belt and Road Forum. While the statement claimed the visit would strengthen cooperation within Asean – the Association of Southeast Asian Nations – Myanmar and Cambodia have been stumbling blocks to the bloc’s effectiveness, with both seen as being more loyal to China..."
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Source/publisher: "South China Morning Post"
2019-04-30
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-18
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: Sir Humphrey explains
Source/publisher: BBC
1984-00-00
Date of entry/update: 2016-07-02
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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