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Tag Archives: junta
Myanmar junta frees Australian economist, former UK envoy in mass amnesty
Nov 17 (Reuters) – Myanmar’s ruling military on Thursday freed a former British ambassador, a Japanese filmmaker and an Australian economic adviser to deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi, officials said, among nearly 6,000 prisoners included in a mass amnesty.
Australia said economist Sean Turnell left Myanmar on Thursday and had arrived in neighbouring Thailand, while a diplomatic source confirmed former British envoy Vicky Bowman had also left the country.
Myanmar’s state-run MRTV showed footage of the pair as well as Japan’s Toru Kubota, signing exit documents with officials. The United States said its citizen, Kyaw Htay Oo, was released.
Turnell was arrested a few days after the army seized power from Suu Kyi’s elected government in February last year, ending a decade of tentative democracy.
The coup sparked chaos and a bloody army crackdown on dissent that has drawn international condemnation and fuelled an armed resistance movement against the military.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese thanked the leaders of Thailand and Cambodia for pressuring the military to free Turnell, who was found guilty of a state secrets violation and sentenced in September to three years in jail.
“I’ve just spoken to Sean Turnell, who has been released from 650 days of unfair, unjust imprisonment in Myanmar,” Albanese told reporters in Bangkok, where he is attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.
“He will travel overnight to Australia to be with his family.”
State-controlled media said the amnesty included 5,774 prisoners and foreigners were released “for the relationship with other countries and also for humanitarian purposes”.
Speaking in Bangkok, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the release was “one bright spot in what is otherwise an incredibly dark time.”
“Whether this signals anything more broadly about the intentions of the regime, I can’t tell you – too soon to say.”
‘HOSTAGE TACTICS’
Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government, which backs the resistance movement, said it was heartened by the amnesty, but said the world should not be duped.
[1/2] Mya Aye, a prominent political activist who was imprisoned following the military coup on February 01, 2021, is greeted as he walks free after his release from Insein prison, in Yangon, Myanmar November 17, 2022. Assistance Association for Myanmar Based Independent Journalists/via REUTERS.
“These types of hostage tactics by the junta should not fool the international community into believing that the military has changed its colours,” said Htin Linn Aung, an NUG minister and spokesperson.
A junta spokesperson did not answer Reuters’ calls seeking comment.
Bowman, Britain’s ambassador from 2002-2006 who heads a group promoting ethical business in Myanmar, had been jailed for immigration violations.
Kyaw Htay Oo was detained on terrorism charges, media has reported. Kubota was last month sentenced to 10 years in prison for violating sedition and communications laws.
Human rights groups have said their detentions, as well as thousands of others, were politically motivated. The junta has denied that.
Japan’s chief cabinet secretary Hirokazu Matsuno earlier on Thursday said Japan “will continue to demand Myanmar take specific and appropriate actions to rebuild democratic society, and to solve problems peacefully and seriously.”
Others included in the amnesty were 11 celebrities plus Kyaw Tint Swe, a former minister and a close aide to Suu Kyi, according to state media.
Suu Kyi’s former ruling party spokesperson Myo Nyunt and prominent democracy advocate Mya Aye were among those seen by witnesses leaving the Insein prison in the biggest city Yangon.
“I will be together with Myanmar people no matter what the situation is,” Mya Aye said.
The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), which has been documenting the military’s crackdown, said the junta had freed the foreigners to ease political pressure.
“Yet again, political prisoners are being used as bargaining chips,” it said.
Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch, said people should not be jailed for expressing political views.
“One hopes this release will not be a one-off event but rather the start of a process by the junta to release all political prisoners,” he said.
Reporting by Reuters staff; Writing by Kanupriya Kapoor and Martin Petty; Editing by Lincoln Feast, Simon Cameron-Moore, William Maclean
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Burkina Faso junta leader urges calm after gunshots raise coup fears
OUAGADOUGOU, Sept 30 (Reuters) – Burkina Faso’s military leader said he was in talks to restore calm on Friday after gunfire and a blast in the capital raised fears of a second coup in eight months.
Soldiers and military vehicles took to the deserted streets of Ouagadougou after dawn on Friday, cutting off access to administrative buildings.
By mid-morning, the city, usually buzzing with motorbikes and cars, was quiet. Schools, businesses and banks were shut. State television stopped broadcasting.
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It was not clear if the gunfire near a military base and the explosion were part of a coup attempt, but security sources say there has been frustration within the military at a lack of progress in combating Islamist militants.
Damiba, who took power in a coup in January, urged calm in a statement. Certain members of the armed forces overcome by “moods swings” had created a “confused situation,” he said.
His whereabouts are unknown.
The latest unrest bore the hallmarks of other power grabs that have swept across West and Central Africa over the past two years, undoing years of democratic progress.
The coups have been driven in part by violence committed by Islamist groups who have taken over large areas of northern Burkina Faso and parts of neighbouring Mali and Niger.
Civilian populations have cheered military juntas in the hope that they would be more successful at containing the insurgents than their democratically-elected predecessors.
“If successful, it would mark the sixth unconstitutional takeover in the Sahel in the past two years,” said Eric Humphery-Smith, Senior Africa Analyst at risk intelligence company Verisk Maplecroft.
“If it isn’t, it’s still a damning indictment for the state of democracy in the region.”
As well as Burkina Faso, Mali, Chad, and Guinea have all seen coups since 2020.
INSECURITY
Damiba’s takeover was largely celebrated by Burkinabe fed up with the inability of former President Roch Kabore’s government to rein in militants linked to Islamic State and al Qaeda.
Burkina Faso has become the epicentre of the violence that began in neighbouring Mali in 2012 and has spread across the Sahel region south of the Sahara Desert.
The militants have killed thousands of people in Burkina Faso in recent years.
Damiba had pledged to restore security but attacks have worsened. The army is in disarray and frustrated, security sources say.
Militants have blockaded areas of the north, leaving communities stranded. Government convoys and air drops deliver essential goods to trapped civilians.
This week, unknown assailants killed 11 soldiers in an attack on a convoy taking supplies to a town in northern Burkina Faso. Fifty civilians are missing. read more
Many cities and towns not under siege have seen their populations swell as people flee violence in the countryside.
Protests against the military took place across Burkina Faso this week to demand the government do more to improve the security situation. Much of the country has become ungovernable since 2018.
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Writing by Edward McAllister, Bate Felix and Sofia Christensen, Editing by Angus MacSwan, William Maclean and Toby Chopra
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Han Lay: Myanmar beauty queen who decried junta seeks asylum in Canada
“Everything happened so fast, and I only have a few pieces of clothing,” she told the broadcaster before departing for Canada. But, she said, “I have spoken out for Myanmar wherever I go. Since Canada is a safe place for me, I will have more opportunities to speak out on the issue.”
Han Lay first garnered worldwide attention last year when, at the Miss Grand International beauty pageant in Thailand, she used her time on the stage to speak out against Myanmar’s military rulers.
At the time, the junta, known as the Tatmadaw, had just seized power and anti-military protests were raging. The military and police confronted demonstrators with deadly force. On one particularly bloody day, March 27, security forces killed over 160 protesters.
That same day, Han Lay was on a stage in Bangkok wearing a traditional white gown as one of 20 finalists in the pageant.
“Today in my country, Myanmar, while I am going to be on this stage, there are so many people dying; more than 100 people died today,” she told the audience and cameras, wiping away tears. “I am deeply sorry for all the people who have lost their lives.”
“Every citizen of the world wants the prosperity of their country and the peaceful environment,” she added. “In doing so, the leaders involved should not use their power and selfishness.”
The speech put Han Lay in the spotlight and also drew condemnation and threats on social media, she said. After the pageant, she stayed in Thailand to avoid potential arrest in her home country, where thousands have been injured or killed since the military takeover. Thousands more are in prison, and in July the military junta executed four pro-democracy activists, including two of the resistance’s most prominent leaders.
But on Sept. 21, after a brief trip to Vietnam, Han Lay was denied entry at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport. Thai officials said her Myanmar-issued travel documents were invalid, Reuters reported. She wrote on Facebook the next day that Myanmar police officials were also at the airport and had attempted to reach out to her.
“I will refuse to meet with the Myanmar police by using my human right,” she wrote, adding that she had requested help from Thai authorities and the United Nations.
According to Human Rights Watch, the move was “a deliberate political act by the junta to make her stateless.”
“There is no doubt that what transpired was a trap to try to force Han Lay to return to Myanmar, where she would have faced immediate arrest, likely abuse in detention, and imprisonment,” the group’s deputy Asia director, Phil Robertson, said in a statement Wednesday.
He said that governments should be “on guard” against attempts by Myanmar’s military junta to use “similar tactics against overseas dissidents traveling on Myanmar passports in the future.”
“This is hardly the first time repressive Burmese military dictatorships have sought to use their control over Myanmar passports as a weapon against their own people’s rights to travel internationally,” Robertson said.
Vicky Bowman: Myanmar junta sentences ex-British ambassador to one year in prison
The couple were detained in Yangon last month after being accused by authorities of violating immigration laws. Myanmar military authorities alleged the address Bowman had registered to her visa did not match her residence. Breaches of Myanmar’s Immigration Act carry a maximum sentence of five years in prison.
Bowman’s sentencing follows the announcement by the British government last month of a fresh round of sanctions targeting businesses linked to Myanmar’s junta, which took power in a bloody coup in February 2021.
Her sentencing came the same day as Myanmar’s deposed former leader Aung San Suu Kyi was found guilty of electoral fraud and sentenced to three years in prison with hard labor.
Bowman served as Britain’s top diplomat to the Southeast Asian nation from 2002 to 2006. After completing her posting as ambassador, Bowman remained in the country as the founder of the non-governmental organization Myanmar Center for Responsible Business.
Bowman and her husband Htein Lin, a Myanmar national, were detained by authorities last month.
Htein Lin is a prominent artist and former political prisoner who spent six and a half years behind bars over his role in the student-led uprisings against the old military junta in 1998. He was released in 2004.
A UK Foreign Office spokesperson told CNN that the government would “continue to support Ms. Bowman and her family until their case is resolved.”
Ming Yu Hah, Amnesty International’s deputy regional director for East and Southeast Asia Campaigns, condemned the news in a statement, calling the ruling “extremely concerning.”
“The latest reports on the conviction of the former UK ambassador and her Burmese artist husband are extremely concerning. Myanmar’s military has a notorious track record of arresting and jailing people on politically motivated or trumped-up charges,” Yu Hah said.
Meanwhile, Friday’s verdict against Suu Kyi is the latest in a string of punishments meted out against the 77-year-old and means she now faces 20 years in prison.
However, this is the first time Suu Kyi — a figurehead of opposition to decades of military rule in the country — has been sentenced to hard labor since the coup last year.
Friday’s trial related to the November 2020 general election that her National League for Democracy won in a landslide, defeating a party created by the military. Three months after that election the military seized power to prevent Suu Kyi’s party forming a government, alleging electoral fraud.
Suu Kyi and her party deny those allegations and say they won the election fairly.
Rights groups have repeatedly expressed concerns about the punishment of pro-democracy activists in the country since the coup. In July, the junta executed two prominent pro-democracy activists and two other men accused of terrorism, following a trial condemned by the UN and rights groups.
Myanmar junta detains former UK ambassador Vicky Bowman
Vicky Bowman was taken into custody along with her husband, Myanmar national Htein Lin, on Wednesday night, according to local media outlets and a person in Yangon with knowledge of the situation.
Myanmar’s military government has not announced the detentions. However, local news outlets The Irrawaddy and Myanmar Now and the international news agency Reuters all reported Bowman could be charged under the country’s Immigration Act.
The Irrawaddy reported Bowman and Htein Lin are being held in Yangon’s Insein Prison.
A UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office spokesperson said on Thursday the British government is “concerned” by the arrest of a “British woman” in Myanmar.
“We are in contact with the local authorities and are providing consular assistance,” the spokesperson said.
Bowman served as the UK’s top diplomat in Myanmar from 2002 to 2006 and has since remained in the country as the founder of the non-government organisation Myanmar Center for Responsible Business.
On Wednesday the UK announced a fresh round of sanctions targeting businesses linked to Myanmar’s junta, which took power in a bloody coup in February 2021.
On Thursday the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said the measures were being taken “to target the military’s access to arms and revenue.”
Among the firms on the sanctions list are the Star Sapphire Group of Companies, International Gateways Group of Companies and Sky One Construction Company.
The UK government highlighted that the sanctions were being taken exactly five years after a series of brutal attacks carried out by the Myanmar military on Rohingya communities living in the country’s Rakhine state.
The Rohingya, a predominantly Muslim group in Myanmar’s majority Buddhist state, have suffered decades of persecution.
The UK government also announced its intention to intervene in a legal case that will determine whether Myanmar breached its obligations under the United Nations’ Genocide Convention regarding the military’s acts against the Rohingya in 2016 and 2017.
“Our decision to intervene in The Gambia v. Myanmar case and a further round of sanctions sends a strong signal of our continued support to seek accountability for the atrocities in 2017 and also restrict the military junta’s access to finance and the supply of arms,” UK Minister for Asia Amanda Milling said.
Milling reiterated the UK’s condemnation of “the Myanmar Armed Forces’ horrific campaign of ethnic cleansing” five years on from the campaign’s launch.
Myanmar junta executes democracy activists in first such killings in decades | Myanmar
Myanmar’s junta has executed four prisoners, including a former lawmaker from Aung San Suu Kyi’s party, state media said on Monday, in the country’s first use of capital punishment in decades.
Phyo Zeya Thaw, a former lawmaker from Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) who was arrested in November, was sentenced to death in January for offences under anti-terrorism laws. Prominent democracy activist Kyaw Min Yu – better known as “Jimmy” – received the same sentence from the military tribunal.
The two other men and sentenced to death for killing a woman they alleged was an informer for the junta in Yangon.
The four were executed for leading “brutal and inhumane terror acts”, the Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper said. The paper said the executions were carried out “under the prison’s procedure” without saying when or how the four men were killed.
The junta has sentenced dozens of anti-coup activists to death as part of its crackdown on dissent after seizing power last year, but Myanmar has not carried out an execution for decades.
The junta was heavily criticised by international powers when they announced last month their intention to carry out the executions.
United Nations secretary general António Guterres condemned the junta’s decision at the time, calling it “a blatant violation to the right to life, liberty and security of person”.
Phyo Zeya Thaw had been accused of orchestrating several attacks on regime forces, including a gun attack on a commuter train in Yangon in August that killed five policemen. A hip-hop pioneer whose subversive rhymes irked the previous junta, he was jailed in 2008 for membership in an illegal organisation and possession of foreign currency.
He was elected to parliament representing Aung San Suu Kyi’s NLD in the 2015 elections, which ushered in a transition to civilian rule.
The country’s military alleged voter fraud during elections in 2020 – which the NLD won by a landslide – as justification for its coup on 1 February last year.
Aung San Suu Kyi has been detained since then and faces a slew of charges in a junta court that could see her face a prison sentence of more than 150 years.
Kyaw Min Yu, who rose to prominence during Myanmar’s 1988 student uprising against the country’s previous military regime, was arrested in an overnight raid in October.
Fearing junta, hundreds of Myanmar parents disown dissident children
Feb 7 (Reuters) – Every day for the last three months, an average of six or seven families in Myanmar have posted notices in the country’s state-owned newspapers cutting ties with sons, daughters, nieces, nephews and grandchildren who have publicly opposed the ruling military junta.
The notices started to appear in such numbers in November after the army, which seized power from Myanmar’s democratically elected government a year ago, announced it would take over properties of its opponents and arrest people giving shelter to protesters. Scores of raids on homes followed.
Lin Lin Bo Bo, a former car salesman who joined an armed group resisting military rule, was one of those disowned by his parents in about 570 notices reviewed by Reuters.
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“We declare we have disowned Lin Lin Bo Bo because he never listened to his parents’ will,” said the notice posted by his parents, San Win and Tin Tin Soe, in state-owned newspaper The Mirror in November.
Speaking to Reuters from a Thai border town where he is living after fleeing Myanmar, the 26-year-old said his mother had told him she was disowning him after soldiers came to their family home searching for him. A few days later, he said he cried as he read the notice in the paper.
“My comrades tried to reassure me that it was inevitable for families to do that under pressure,” he told Reuters. “But I was so heartbroken.”
Contacted by Reuters, his parents declined to comment.
Targeting families of opposition activists was a tactic used by Myanmar’s military during unrest in 2007 and the late 1980s but has been used far more frequently since the Feb.1, 2021 coup, according to Wai Hnin Pwint Thon, senior advocacy officer at rights group Burma Campaign UK, which uses the old name for the former British colony.
Publicly disowning family members, which has a long history in Myanmar’s culture, is one way to respond, said Wai Hnin Pwint Thon, who said she was seeing more such notices in the press than in the past.
“Family members are scared to be implicated in crimes,” she said. “They don’t want to be arrested, and they don’t want to be in trouble.”
A military spokesperson did not respond to Reuters questions for this story. Commenting on the notices in a news conference in November, military spokesperson Zaw Min Tun said that people who made such declarations in newspapers could still be charged if found to be supporting opposition to the junta.
VIOLENT CRACKDOWN
Hundreds of thousands of people in Myanmar, many of them young, took to the streets to protest the coup a year ago. After a violent crackdown on demonstrations by the army, some protesters fled overseas or joined armed groups in remote parts of the country. Known as People’s Defence Forces, these groups are broadly aligned with the deposed civilian government.
Over the past year, security forces have killed about 1,500 people, many of them demonstrators, and arrested nearly 12,000 people, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a monitoring group. The military has said those figures are exaggerated.
Journalist So Pyay Aung told Reuters he filmed riot police using batons and shields to break up protests and livestreamed the video on the Democratic Voice of Burma, a news website. After authorities came searching for him, he said he hid in different locations in Myanmar before fleeing to Thailand with his wife and infant daughter. He was disowned by his father in November.
“I declare I am disowning my son because he did unforgivable activities against his parents’ wills. I will not have any responsibilities related to him,” said a notice posted by his father, Tin Aung Ko, in the state-owned Myanma Alinn newspaper.
“When I saw the newspaper that mentioned cutting ties with me, I felt a little sad,” So Pyay Aung told Reuters. “But I understand that my parents had fears of pressure. They might have worries of their house being seized or getting arrested.”
His father, Tin Aung Ko, declined to comment.
Two parents who disowned their children in similar notices, who asked not to be named for fear of attracting the attention of the military, told Reuters the notices were primarily intended to send a message to authorities that they should not be held responsible for their children’s actions.
“My daughter is doing what she believes, but I’m sure she will be worried if we got into trouble,” one mother said. “I know she can understand what I have done to her.”
Lin Lin Bo Bo said he hopes to one day go home and support his family. “I want this revolution to be over as soon as possible,” he told Reuters.
Such a reunification may be possible for some families torn apart in this way, according to Wai Hnin Pwint Thon, the rights activist.
“Unless they do it properly with lawyers and a will, then these things don’t really count legally,” she said of the disowning notices. “After a couple of years, they can go back to being family.”
So Pyay Aung, the journalist, said he fears his split with his parents is permanent.
“I don’t even have a home to go back to after the revolution,” he told Reuters. “I am so worried all the time because my parents are left under the military regime.”
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Reporting by Wa Lone and Reuters staff
Writing by John Geddie
Editing by Bill Rigby
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Myanmar coup anniversary: One year on, resistance against the junta is stronger than ever
“It is a failed coup,” said Yanghee Lee, co-founder of the Special Advisory Group on Myanmar and former UN special rapporteur for human rights in the country. “The coup has not succeeded in the past year. And that is why they are taking even more drastic measures to finish out the coup.”
Experts say the junta’s attempts to gain full control are being frustrated by the Myanmar people as they carry out one of the biggest and most unified resistance movements the country has seen in its long history of democratic struggle against military rule.
On Tuesday, a “silent strike” is planned across the country to mark the anniversary, with residents urged to stay indoors and businesses to close their doors. The military has warned it will arrest those who protest under laws such as sedition and terrorism.
The junta says it is fighting terrorists, promising a return to peace, but resistance fighters say the junta is using increasingly brutal tactics to force compliance, suggesting the crisis is set to extend well into its second year.
CNN reached out to Myanmar’s military spokesperson for comment on the allegations of mass killings and war crimes against civilians in this story but did not receive a response.
Military abuses ‘amount to war crimes’
When tanks rolled into the capital, Naypyidaw, on February 1, 2021, many feared violence would follow. But few could have predicted the suffering, death and displacement of the past year.
More than 400,000 people have been displaced in fighting across the country since the coup, according to UN figures — many of them fleeing across borders to India or Thailand, or forced to hide in the jungle.
Atrocities allegedly committed by troops include a massacre on Christmas Eve in Kayah state, also known as Karenni, where at least 35 bodies were found burned beyond recognition — including two staff members with international aid group Save the Children. Another mass killing was reported in western Chin state in January, where 10 villagers were found, their bodies gagged and blindfolded, according to the Chin Human Rights Organization.
“They are killing, the brutality — there is no rule of law,” said a spokesman for the Karenni Nationalities Defense Force (KNDF), a coalition of armed resistance groups in Kayah state, who didn’t want to be named for safety reasons.
CNN cannot independently verify the incidents.
Hotspot areas have emerged across the country, particularly in Myanmar’s west and south, where local armed resistance groups and ethnic armies are waging battles against the military in a bid to defend their communities.
In mountainous Chin state, the town of Thantlang was the site of a months-long offensive by the junta. Over the course of three months from September, the town’s entire population of more than 10,000 people was forced from their homes and at least 800 houses and structures were burnt, the Chin Human Rights Organization said.
The military has repeatedly blamed resistance forces for setting fire to villages and towns — including Thantlang. “Chin terrorist groups had attacked the security forces first and had burned down the town themselves,” the junta said in January.
But those in the state say the attacks are part of a scorched earth campaign of violence that the military has long used against ethnic people, most notably the alleged genocide that forced hundreds of thousands of Rohingya to flee Rakhine state in 2016 and 2017.
“They are designed to displace the population, wipe out the area so they have physical control and deprive the resistance of supplies,”said Salai Za Uk Ling, deputy director of the Chin Human Rights Organization.
“It’s really an intentional forced displacement where they are trying to wipe out the population.”
The former UN special rapporteur for human rights in Myanmar said the military’s actions in areas such as Kayah, Chin, Kayin (Karen) states and Sagaing and Magway regions amount to “war crimes.”
A stretched military
The military has labeled the resistance forces as “terrorist groups.” In state media, it says it is using “the least force,” is complying with “existing law and international norms” and is committed to establishing peace and holding elections in 2023.
But witnesses say the reality on the ground could not be more different.
Former soldier Kuang Thu Win, 32, defected from his post in December, taking his wife and 2-month-old baby to safety in an undisclosed location. He told CNN he felt “shameful for being a soldier.”
Kuang Thu Win said that once a town or village is labeled as “an enemy,” then everything or everyone in that location is treated as such. “During fighting, they would assume whoever they saw was enemies and shoot them,” he said. And if they took prisoners, he said, soldiers would “give many reasons” to kill them.
“Like the prisoners tried to escape or they tried to grab the guns, that’s why they had to shoot and kill,” he said.
Kuang Thu Win, who served at the Tactical Command Post in the Chin state town of Matupi, said the operations are intended to give the army “control over a region.” Often villages are burned to stop resistance forces from using the houses as a base to attack military troops or as an act of revenge for heavy casualties, he said.
CNN cannot independently verify the incidents.
Far from being a sophisticated force, analysts and those on the ground say the Myanmar military now finds itself stretched and engaging in skirmishes with resistance groups on multiple fronts across the country.
Called People’s Defense Forces (PDFs), many of these armed militia groups formed in the months after the coup and some are aligned with the National Unity Government, a body of ousted lawmakers and ethnic leaders that considers itself the legitimate government of Myanmar.
Local advocacy group Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) has documented 1,503 people killed by junta troops since February 1 last year and 11,838 people arrested, with widespread reports of abuse, torture and extrajudicial killings. The junta disputes the figures and it is unclear exactly how many people have been killed in separate clashes between the military and resistance groups.
In many areas, the resistance forces are holding their own despite being outgunned, as they know the local terrain and have stronger relations with the communities.
“Recently, at least, there’s definitely been an upsurge in the number of air strikes and attacks by helicopters, which is really one of the main advantages that (the military has) over the PDFs,” said Kim Jolliffe, an independent Myanmar researcher focusing on security, human rights, and ethnic politics.
But Jolliffe said the military attacks are indiscriminate and designed to sow fear.
“That’s basically the only weapon they have on this to win the psychological war,” he said.
Lee, of the Special Advisory Group on Myanmar, is calling for the international community to designate Myanmar’s military as a terrorist group.
“They’re not a national military. And they should be identified and called by their proper name, and that would be an armed group … These are the actions of a terrorist group,” she said.
The resistance movement endures
As the junta attempts to forcibly bring the country under its control, it has inadvertently united many of Myanmar’s diverse groups against it.
The anti-coup resistance — known as the Spring Revolution — has caught the generals off guard by its strength and determination.
Across the country, hundreds of thousands of ordinary people continue to support the Civil Disobedience Movement, which aims to destabilize the junta through economic disruption, mass boycotts of military-affiliated businesses, walkouts, and general strikes.
Many people are donating what little money they have to resistance groups and initiatives, activists say.
Residents have refused to pay their electricity bills as a way to avoid giving money to the junta, underground pirate radio stations are broadcasting anti-coup messages and others have prevented junta officials from taking up posts in local administrations — a major mechanism through which the central government governs the population.
They do this despite the daily risk of arrest, beatings and torture.
“I have never seen this kind of unity in our history,” said Khin Sandar, a Myanmar-based activist. “We believe that we will win this time. We never think we will lose … Whether we die or whether you die, this is our slogan,” she said.
Ye Myo Hein, executive director of the Tagaung Institute of Political Studies and a fellow with the Asia Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, said the resistance movement has forced the military to change how it operates.
“The military thought it could very easily crack down on the resistance movement,” Ye Myo Hein said.
“In the past, their strategy and objective was how to control the country. Now they are focused on how survive.”
What the future holds
After a year of violence, hope that the UN Security Council or other international actors will intervene in Myanmar has all but evaporated.
Khin Sander, the activist, said the international community has failed the people. “We haven’t seen any concrete action from the international community so we have to defend ourselves. It is the only way to live,” she said.
Last year, the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada imposed sanctions on Myanmar’s military leaders, but members of the resistance say it’s not enough.
Defense forces, activists, and rights groups are urging the international community to block the flow of arms and cash to the junta. They say they desperately need humanitarian corridors and no-fly zones so aid can be distributed and displaced people and civilians can find a way out.
Last week, Human Rights Watch called for sanctions to block foreign currency payments to the junta from Myanmar’s lucrative natural gas industry.
Major energy companies are already pulling out. French firm TotalEnergies and US energy giant Chevron say they are withdrawing from Myanmar because of the deteriorating situation. And last week, Australian gas producer Woodside Petroleum joined them in making exit plans.
Myanmar’s military leaders want international recognition, but so far, the UN has prevented the junta from taking a seat at the world body.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) excluded Min Aung Hlaing from attending its October summit over his failure to implement a five-point consensus that included stopping the violence and allowing dialogue.
However, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen holds the ASEAN chair this year, and he’s indicated he wants to engage not isolate the junta, according to Reuters.
Analysts say that if international bodies fail to take action, Myanmar’s situation is likely to get worse in the year ahead.
“The international community needs to really start to do some soul searching. Do they want to cooperate, engage as business as usual with a terrorist group or not? Or do they want to put them in a different category in terms of their interactions or engagements?” Lee said.
People in Kayah state — and other bombarded districts — continue to contend with daily air strikes and clashes, threatening their lives and livelihoods.
The KNDF spokesperson said he has little hope for the year ahead.
But they, like others across Myanmar, will keep fighting in the hope of taking back their country and forming a democratic, federal state.
“We will take back step by step, slow and slowly,” he said. “We will continue, day by day. We are getting stronger. We are winning day by day.”
Salai TZ contributed reporting.
Myanmar a no-show at summit after ASEAN sidelines junta boss
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Oct 26 (Reuters) – A Southeast Asian summit started on Tuesday without military-ruled Myanmar, after its junta refused to send a representative following its leader’s exclusion for ignoring a peace roadmap agreed six months ago.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) had said it would accept a non-political representative from Myanmar, but the junta said on Monday it would only agree to its leader or a minister attending.
Myanmar’s absence was not mentioned by either Brunei, the ASEAN chair, or the 10-member bloc’s secretary-general, at the opening of the virtual meeting.
ASEAN decided to sideline from the summit junta chief Min Aung Hlaing, who led a Feb. 1 coup against an elected government, for his failure to cease hostilities, allow humanitarian access and start dialogue with opponents, as agreed with ASEAN in April.
After Tuesday’s leaders meeting, Malaysian Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said on Twitter he fully supported Brunei’s decision on Myanmar’s representation, while Thai counterpart Prayuth Chan-ocha said ASEAN’s dealings with Myanmar were crucial for its reputation and a test of its resolve.
“ASEAN’s constructive role in addressing this situation is of paramount importance and our action on this matter shall have a bearing on ASEAN’s credibility in the eyes of the international community,” Prayuth said, according to his office.
The sidelining of Min Aung Hlaing was a huge insult to the junta and a rare, bold step by a regional grouping known for its code of non-interference and engagement.
Myanmar’s military, which ruled the country for 49 of the past 60 years, objected strongly, accusing ASEAN of departing from its norms and of allowing itself to be influenced by other countries, including the United States.
ASEAN made the call days after its special envoy Erywan Yusof said he would not be given access to all parties in the country, including ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who is charged with multiple crimes.
‘TRUST ASEAN’
Prayuth, a former coup leader in Thailand, urged Myanmar to follow its commitments and for Erywan to visit soon and make an “important first step in the process of confidence-building”.
Prayuth “expressed hope that Myanmar will trust ASEAN in helping Myanmar to achieve peace and harmony, as well as to return to the democratic process.”
Myanmar security forces have killed more than 1,000 civilians and detained thousands more, subjecting many to torture and beatings, according to United Nations envoys, who say the army’s excessive use of force has displaced tens of thousands of people.
Myanmar has rejected that as biased and exaggerated by unreliable sources and says the conflict is being stoked by “terrorists” allied with a shadow National Unity Government (NUG).
U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan met on Monday with representatives of the NUG, an alliance of pro-democracy groups, local militias and ethnic minority armies formed after the coup. read more
ASEAN leaders were due also to collectively meet leaders of the United States, China and South Korea.
U.S. President Joe Biden will attend a joint session of the ASEAN summit by video link.
Michael Vatikiotis, Asia Director of the Geneva-based Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, said Myanmar’s junta “probably cares about being frozen out of the summit”, although it has a history of enduring international isolation.
“The question now is whether regional leaders will agree to engage with the parallel National Unity Government more formally, as the U.S. and EU has started to do,” he said.
Reporting Ain Bandial in Bandar Seri Begawan; Additional reporting by Tom Allard, A. Ananthalakshmi in Kuala Lumpur, Panu Wongcha-um in Bangkok; Writing by Kay Johnson and Martin Petty; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore
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