Myanmar pro-democracy artists vow: 'We will win'

RTE

Jackie Fox

Sunday, 30 May 2021

The Hunger Games' three-fingered salute has become one of the major symbols for the pro-democracy movement since the coup

On 1 June, it will be four months since a military coup overthrew Myanmar's elected government.

Tens years of democratic reforms have been upended and bloody attempts to silence opposition have shocked the world.

Those on the front line attempting to stand up to the regime are trying to delicately navigate through a new life of protest and safety.

Australia faces fresh call for action on Myanmar with Turnell still in jail

brisbane times

Chris Barrett
May 31, 2021

Singapore: Australia is facing a renewed call to introduce fresh sanctions on Myanmar’s military government with Sydney economist Sean Turnell still languishing in prison nearly four months after he was detained in the days after a coup.

The Australian Council for International Development has illustrated contrasting responses of different countries to the bloody takeover in a document delivered to Foreign Minister Marise Payne.

Sean Turnell with Aung San Suu Kyi

The analysis chart spells out how the United States, UK, Canada and the European Union have sanctioned junta chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing and a combined 38 senior figures in the aftermath of the February 1 coup. All but Canada have also black-listed military conglomerates Myanmar Economic Corporation and Myanmar Economic Holdings Limited.

They Call It ‘Insane’: Where Myanmar Sends Political Prisoners

The New York Times

Richard C. Paddock
Published May 29, 2021Updated May 30, 2021
阅读简体中文版閱讀繁體中文版

Insein prison in Yangon, Myanmar, in 2020. It became infamous for its harsh conditions and the torture of prisoners during a half-century of military dictatorship.Credit...Ye Aung Thu/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

For 134 years, Insein Prison has stood as a monument to brutality. Since the Feb. 1 coup, journalists, elected leaders and pro-democracy protesters have been held in the aging facility.

The prison was already packed, its population more than double its 5,000-person capacity. Recent prisoners include two American journalists and an Australian economic adviser. Hundreds of pro-democracy protesters have also been crammed in, some with fresh gunshot wounds.

Bangladesh may be forced to recognize Myanmar’s national unity government

ARAB NEWS

DR. AZEEM IBRAHIM
May 28, 2021

Rohingya refugees receive aid distributed by local organizations at Balukhali makeshift refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, Sept. 14, 2017. (Reuters)

As Bangladesh continues to struggle to provide adequately for the Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar, near the border with Myanmar, the best possible solution for everyone involved — from the Rohingya themselves to their hosts — would be if the refugees could safely return home to their ancestral lands. But, whereas the previous government of Myanmar under Aung San Suu Kyi at least pretended it was interested in allowing the Rohingya to return, the new military junta has already indicated it will stop pretending altogether.

Beyond the Coup: Can the United Nations Escape Its History in Myanmar?

JUST SECURITY

Ambassador Kelley Currie
May 27, 2021

(Editor’s Note: This article is part of a Just Security series on the Feb. 1, 2021 coup in Myanmar. The series brings together expert local and international voices on the coup and its broader context. The series is a collaboration between Just Security and the International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School).

When Myanmar’s ambassador to the United Nations Kyaw Moe Tun took the floor of the General Assembly on Feb. 26 to condemn the weeks-old military coup and announce his loyalty to the elected government, he not only shocked all those tuning in who expected a pro forma defense of the Tatmadaw’s power grab and denunciation of U.N. interference. He also provided Myanmar’s democratic movement a potentially powerful new tool, both to help secure their legitimacy, and to shift the historic dynamics of U.N. failure in Myanmar. To make the most of this tool, the nascent National Unity Government (NUG) must quickly learn how to work with the U.N. system and leverage it for its intrinsic utility as well as to build out their footprint internationally. To date, the results have been mixed, but there are signs that the NUG is learning. Whether these efforts ultimately will be effective also depends on whether the U.N. system can learn from its own failures in Myanmar and make the necessary course corrections at this pivotal moment.

Internet ‘Whitelist’ Highlights Myanmar Military’s Wishful Economic Thinking

THE I DIPLOMAT

Sebastian Strangio
May 26, 2021

Facebook and Twitter are out. A suite of business applications and messaging services are in.

Myanmar’s military junta has drawn up a list of more than 1,200 online services and domain names to which it plans to grant the public access under its embryonic system of internet controls. A copy of this “whitelist,” which was given recently to local internet service providers and telecoms companies, was obtained by Nikkei Asia and published yesterday.

Since seizing power on February 1, Myanmar’s military has drastically tightened its controls over the internet in a bid to quash the rising protests against its coup. It has ordered the blocking of websites and the virtual private networks that are used to circumvent such blocks. It has also instituted nightly internet blackouts and cut off mobile data.

Japan should not follow the Western policy on Myanmar: Diplomat op-ed

Reuters
May 26, 2021,

Military troops and police go on patrol at Kayah state, eastern Myanmar, Sunday, May 23, 2021

Japan should play a bridging role to Myanmar's junta rather than following the Western policy of regime change, said a senior official at the Japan-Myanmar Association, which has strong ties with Myanmar's military.

"I argue that Japan must position itself as a bridge between the Tatmadaw and the United States and other democratic countries rather than blindly aligning itself with the Western policy of regime change," Yusuke Watanabe, the association's secretary general, said in an opinion piece for the Diplomat magazine.

On Myanmar, Japan Must Lead by Example

THE I DIPLOMAT

By Yusuke Watanabe
May 26, 2021

“Japan must position itself as a bridge between the Tatmadaw and the United States and other democratic countries rather than blindly aligning itself with the Western policy of regime change.”

 As the inimitable Shwedagon Pagoda blazed in the sun in all its glory, I blithely set about my morning stroll in Myanmar’s budding former capital, Yangon, scarcely expecting the impending cataclysm. It was the fateful early morning of February 1, when the country’s decade-long democratization progress screeched to a sudden halt. The sight of military vehicles inundating Yangon’s bustling morning traffic aroused in me an eerie sense of déjà vu vividly colored by the memories of Myanmar’s past crucibles.

Cultural memory centre for Rohingya community launched

FE Financial Express

FE Online Report
Published: May 25, 2021

The UN migration agency and Rohingya community have jointly launched the Rohingya Cultural Memory Centre (RCMC), one of the first significant attempts to comprehensively document and preserve the heritage of the Rohingya people.

The multidisciplinary initiative provides an online community space, interactive gallery, digital archive, and web-based exhibition for the Rohingyas, read a media statement on Tuesday.

Where Poets Are Being Killed and Jailed After a Military Coup

The New York Times

By Hannah Beech
May 25, 2021

Poetry remains alive in Myanmar, where unconventional weapons are being used to fight a military that has killed about 800 people since it staged a coup on Feb. 1.Credit...The New York Times

More than 30 poets have been imprisoned since the military seized power in Myanmar, a country where politics and poetry are intimately connected.

After the first and second poets were killed, the third poet wrote a poem.

The truth behind the northern Rakhine issue

The Global New Light of Myanmar
Khin Maung Myint
October 06, 2017

• 
  
  The following is the truest and most comprehensive account of the presence the self-identified race in northern-Rakhine in Myanmar. I claimed thus, because it was written without any prejudice or bias toward any race or religion. Also, it was written based on the personal experiences of a person, who had an in depth knowledge of the history of the emergence of the self-identified term and not from hearsays from either sides of the conflicts or from the lobbyists, NGOs and various envoys, rapporteurs, who are mostly biased. That person is me
  

Key Myanmar Pro-Democracy Parties Refuse to Meet With Regime's Election Body

THE IRRAWADDY 

20 May 2021

An anti-regime protest in Yangon on Feb.14. / The Irrawaddy

While many of Myanmar’s key pro-democracy political parties have rejected an invitation from the regime’s election body to a meeting on Friday, others have decided to attend it, risking public outrage.

Donor pledges for the Rohingya not enough

The Daily Star
May 20, 2021

EDITORIAL

A Rohingya refugee girl walks next to a pond at the Balukhali refugee camp near Cox's Bazar, on January 10, 2018. Photo: Tyrone Siu/Reuters

International community must show more solidarity towards refugees

The February military coup in Myanmar has plunged our neighbouring country into unrest and brought its uncertain journey towards democracy to a grinding halt. As the military junta continues to brutally suppress pro-democracy protests and wage war against ethnic armed organisations, driving thousands of its own people into refugee camps, the situation of the Rohingya refugees stranded in Bangladesh has become even more precarious, with mounting uncertainty over their repatriation.

Beyond the Coup in Myanmar: The Need for an Inclusive Accountability

JUSTICE SECURITY
by Carmen Cheung
May 20, 2021

(Editor’s Note: This article is part of a Just Security series on the Feb. 1, 2021 coup in Myanmar. The series brings together expert local and international voices on the coup and its broader context. The series is a collaboration between Just Security and the International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School).

If the current crisis in Myanmar is one “born of impunity”, any response that is rooted in accountability needs to acknowledge that the Myanmar military’s crimes span decades and across its ethnic regions. Some in the international community may have first learned about “clearance operations” in the context of the devastating attacks in recent years that have destroyed Rohingya villages and forced an exodus into neighboring Bangladesh. For almost sixty years, however, Myanmar’s military has engaged in forced displacement, sexual violence, torture, and extrajudicial killings against civilian populations as part of its ongoing conflict against armed groups in the country’s ethnic regions. A proper accounting in Myanmar must be inclusive of crimes committed against all its people, and inclusive of all the communities who have suffered at the hands of its military.

'A dream come true': Rohingya group buys community center on Milwaukee's south side

ISABEL KOYAMA , SARAH VOLPENHEIN 

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

A south side church is being converted into a community center for Rohingya refugees in Milwaukee, believed to be home to one of the largest populations of Rohingya in the U.S. after they fled decades of systemic repression in their native Myanmar.

On Friday, the nonprofit Burmese Rohingya Community of Wisconsin bought a church building in Clarke Square. Founder Anuwar Kasim hopes it will be a place for his people to gather, practice Islam and get help with everything from English language learning to housing and food.

"There is a lot of needs for my community," Kasim said. "This community center can assist them."

Beyond the Coup in Myanmar: A Crisis Born from Impunity

JUST SECURITY
Grant Shubin and Akila Radhakrishnan

May 18, 2021

(Editor’s Note: This article is part of a Just Security series on the Feb. 1, 2021 coup in Myanmar. The series brings together expert local and international voices on the coup and its broader context. The series is a collaboration between Just Security and the International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School).

In his first speech since illegally attempting a coup d’etat, Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing told the people of Myanmar that, “no one is above the law.” He went on, “no one or no organization is above the national interest in state-building and nation-building.” But in reality, Min Aung Hlaing and indeed all of the military (Tatmadaw) are very much above the law in Myanmar.

Of the coup’s many potential causes, perhaps the most overt is that military leadership thought they could get away with it. The military’s constitutional insulation from civilian oversight and control, the failure thus far to hold them accountable for human rights abuses and international crimes, and even periodic cheerleading from the international community for a “democratic transition” emboldened the military into thinking that subverting the will of the people could be done without major consequence. To quote the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights, “This crisis was born of impunity.”

The NUG must commit to human rights for all Myanmar’s people

Frontier Myanmar

By LAETITIA VAN DEN ASSUM and SEAN BAIN | FRONTIER
MAY 18, 2021

The mass street protests of February featured regular displays of inter-ethnic solidarity, but making space for more marginalised groups like the Rohingya will require a greater political transformation. Here, the flags of various ethnic groups are help up at an anti-coup demonstration in Yangon on February 18. (AFP)

To secure international support and an inclusive future, the National Unity Government must pledge to defend the rights of everyone in the country – including the Rohingya.

Myanmar’s struggle for democracy is underpinned by a common aspiration for a different future – one free of military rule and the crimes, plunder and discrimination that comes with it. But it is not year clear whether this future includes all of Myanmar’s people.

အာဏာသိမ်း စစ်ခေါင်းဆောင်များ၏ အဓိကပစ်မှတ်

ဧရာဝတီ

April 23, 2021

အရာခပ်သိမ်းသည် ခေါင်းဆောင်နှင့် ခေါင်းဆောင်မှုပေါ်တွင်မူတည်သည် မှန်လျှင် မြန်မာ့ နွေဦးတော်လှန်  ရေး ၏ အောင်မြင်ခြင်း မအောင်မြင်ခြင်းသည်လည်း ဦးဆောင်သည့် ခေါင်းဆောင်များ နှင့် ခေါင်းဆောင်မှု ပေါ်တွင် မူတည်လျှက်ရှိသည်ဟု ကောက်ချက်ချရမည်။ ယင်းကို အကြမ်းဖက် အာဏာသိမ်းစစ်အုပ်စုက သိမြင်သုံးသပ် ထားဟန်တူသည်။ ထို့ကြောင့် နွေဦးတော်လှန်ရေး၏ ခေါင်းဆောင်များသည် အာဏာသိမ်း အကြမ်းဖက် စစ် အုပ်စု၏ အဓိကပစ်မှတ် ဖြစ်လာကြသည်။
                                                                                

Lines, tokens, and money brokers: Myanmar's crumbling economy runs low on cash

Rappler

REUTERS

MAY 16, 2021 

The cash crisis is one of the most pressing problems for the people of Myanmar after the February 1 military coup

If you need cash in Myanmar, you have to get up early. Queues start forming outside banks at 4 am, where the first 15 or 30 customers are given a plastic token that will allow them to enter the bank when it opens at 9:30 am and withdraw cash, according to more than a dozen people who spoke to Reuters.

If you do not get a token, you either have to queue for hours for the few functioning cash dispensing machines outside or go to black-market brokers who charge big commissions.

The cash crisis is one of the most pressing problems for the people of Myanmar after the February 1 military coup. The central bank, now run by a junta appointee, has not returned some of the reserves it holds for private banks, without giving any reason, leaving the banks short of cash.

Myanmar’s coup is uniting a country riven by ethnic divisions. Will it last?

Vox

Jen Kirbyjen.kirby@vox.com 

 May 12, 2021, 

Protesters and activists faced a reckoning about Myanmar’s past decade of civilian rule. Now they say they are fighting for a real federal democracy.

Protesters make the three-finger salute during a demonstration against the military coup in downtown Yangon on May 6. STR/AFP via Getty Images

Su Thit has a table in a corner by the window in her home. She no longer sits there at night. “You never know when the bullets will fly,” she says.

She fears the Myanmar military might shoot at random. At 8 pm, when people still bang pots and pans in protest, security forces will sometimes fire at the sounds — with slingshots, stones, bullets.