Military Junta Completes 5 Months, 800 Killed and 6000 Detained in Myanmar

THE CITIZEN
P.K.BALACHANDRAN 
5 JULY, 2021

On July 1, Myanmar’s military junta completed five months as the ruler of the country after the overthrow of the democratically-elected Aung San Suu Kyi government on February 1.

Over 800 were killed and 6000 detained in crackdowns targeting pro-democracy agitators from February 1 to June 30.

Military action is continuing against ethnic non-Bamar communities and non-Buddhist religious minorities in the North East and North West of the country.

The United Nations and the Western powers led by the United States continue to condemn the forcible take over. The US has imposed a series of new sanctions against the regime, including freezing US$ 1 billion in reserves that Myanmar’s Central Bank was holding at the New York Fed.

Rohingya militancy group ARSA silently gets organized

BLITZ
Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury
July 3, 2021

Over one million Rohingya refugees, who fled extreme persecution in Myanmar may now pose serious threat to regional and international security. According to a vernacular news portal, the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army or ARSA, which was formerly known as Harakahal-Yaqin has already turned into real nightmare to majority of the Rohingyas and Bangladeshi citizen.

Dhaka Post reporters Adnan Rahman and Joshim Uddin in their report said, Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) has already recruited over two thousand members from the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, where it has approximately 150 female jihadists. Majority of the ARSA recruits are based in Kutupalong and Balukhali areas in Cox’s Bazar and Teknaf district.

Myanmar: Roads to a Federal Army Are Twisted

modern diplomacy
M.D. Amin
July 2, 2021

The idea of a Federal Army for Myanmar is as old as the country’s struggle for democracy. The vision is a part of the larger picture of decentralization and democratization of the multiethnic nation of 54 million and was first seriously floated in 1988 as a counterweight to Tatmadaw and to rally the support of ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) during 8888 Uprising. The idea has recently received unprecedented momentum following the ousting of NLD-led civilian government on February 1, 2021. The formation of an EAO-supported People’s Defense Force (PDF) that amalgamates the Bamar youth with anti-junta ethnic rebels has sparked new optimism in this regard. Spontaneous attacks from civilian resistance fighters and other similar groups, such as Taze People’s Comrades, Kalay Civil Army and Chinland Defence Force have also contributed significantly to this growing interest.

Danger Awaited in Myanmar. So He Made a Daring Bid to Stay in Japan.

The New York Times

By Ben Dooley and Hisako Ueno
July 3, 2021

After defying Myanmar’s military rulers at a soccer match, Ko Pyae Lyan Aung decided to seek asylum. But he was being watched.

Ko Pyae Lyan Aung at a practice field in Osaka, Japan.Credit...Shiho Fukada for The New York Times

OSAKA, Japan — The soccer player’s plane was at the gate. Ahead of him stood his last chance at safety.

The athlete, Ko Pyae Lyan Aung, had come to Japan with Myanmar’s national team. On the field, before the first match, he had flashed a gesture of defiance — the three-finger salute made famous by “The Hunger Games” — against the military junta that had ousted his country’s elected government. He was now afraid of what might happen if he returned home.

Activists, Journalists Included in Myanmar Prisoner Release

THE I DIPLOMAT

By Grant Peck

July 01, 2021

The military gave no reason for the sudden release of prisoners, which included many detained since its February coup.

Myanmar’s government began releasing about 2,300 prisoners on Wednesday, including activists who were detained for protesting against the military’s seizure of power in February and journalists who reported on the protests, officials said.

Buses took prisoners out of Yangon’s Insein Prison, where friends and families of detainees had waited since morning for the announced releases. It is standard practice to take freed prisoners to the police stations where they were originally booked to complete the processing for their freedom.

Myanmar diplomats in US and Switzerland refuse to return home after criticising military junta

South China Morning Post

29 Jun, 2021

• Kyaw Moe Tun, Myanmar’s ambassador to the UN, said the 11 diplomats had joined the civil disobedience movement following the Feburary 1 coup
• ‘The military [has] already charged me high treason … So I definitely cannot go back [to Myanmar],’ he said

Anti-coup protesters march in Pabedan township near Yangon. Photo: AP

Eleven Myanmar diplomats in the United States and Switzerland are creating a united front as they seek to remain in their host countries in protest against the country’s military junta, refusing to return home, the country’s ambassador to the United Nations said on Monday.

Myanmar ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun said the 11 are among around 20 diplomats in seven countries who have joined the civil disobedience movement amid the continued use of violence against protesters by Myanmar security forces since the February 1 military coup.

India and Myanmar: A Chequered Relationship through History

MONEY LIFE

Saket Hishikar 

30 June 2021

Personal encounters, at times, have the power to draw one’s attention to events in far-flung lands. The news of a military coup in Myanmar in February this year reignited the memory of my personal encounters and an attempt to make sense of the event and its implications for India.

Anyone familiar with Mumbai suburbs knows about the magnificent Golden Pagoda at Gorai. The local tour guide at the centre informs visitors about the founder of the Vipassana Kendra and his promise to his guru in Myanmar to take back the technique of Vipassana to India as a mark of Myanmar’s gratitude towards India. But the Vipassana founder in his own style paid a tribute to Myanmar for preserving this Indian technique for over 2,000 year by constructing the golden pagodas in the traditional Myanmar interlocking style.

The junta overthrew the government they represented. What happens next for Myanmar's diplomats in limbo?

CNN
Caitlin Hu, Julia Hollingsworth, Eliza Mackintosh and Helen Regan,
June 29, 2021

New York (CNN)In a beige stone townhouse on a leafy New York street, a political coup thousands of miles away has split an office in two.

Downstairs in the dimly lit building, staffers at Myanmar's Permanent Mission to the United Nations receive orders from the military junta, which overthrew the country's elected government on February 1.

Upstairs, charismatic ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun is leading what is effectively an underground diplomatic corps, part of an attempt to wrestle back control of the country. His conference room is decorated with portraits of a long line of his military-aligned predecessors, reminders of what he's up against.

No Country To Call Home

eurasiareview

East-West Center

June 28, 2021 

Displaced Rohingya in Myanmar. Photo Credit: Tasnim News Agency

Across Southeast Asia, millions of people are stateless, either by circumstance or design. Some of those lacking legal national identity are refugees or migrants, but most are minorities in the countries of their birth, many living without adequate access to critical services like health care and education.

Some progress is being made, however. A recent East-West Center analysis examining the status of these populations found that several governments and civil organizations have taken steps in the past decade to address the complex causes of statelessness. “Since the forced mass exodus of Rohingya from Myanmar, many have reached the shores of Malaysia and Indonesia, driving home the implications of unresolved situations of statelessness,” writes researcher Christoph Sperfeldt in Legal Identity and Statelessness in Southeast Asia, part of EWC’s AsiaPacific Issues series of analysis papers. “Policy responses of states in the region have focused on identifying affected persons, improving civil registration, law reforms, facilitating naturalization, and building new digital identification systems.”

Myanmar jade industry becoming 'slush fund' for junta

THE STRAITS TIMES

Maria Siow
Published:  29 Jun, 2021

Myanmar is one of the world's biggest sources of jadeite and the industry is largely driven by insatiable demand for jade from neighbouring China.PHOTO: REUTERS

YANGON (AFP) - Myanmar's multibillion-dollar jade mines risk becoming a "slush fund" for military repression, international watchdog Global Witness said on Tuesday (June 29), urging consumers to boycott buying any jade and gemstones from the coup-racked nation.

The country has been in turmoil since the military toppled the government of elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi, with more than 880 people killed in a junta crackdown on dissent, according to a local monitoring group.

ICC Partners with Free Burma Rangers to Provide Aid and Hope to 1,500 IDPs

PERSECUTION

International Christian Concern
6/28/2021

Myanmar (International Christian Concern) – Since the February 1 military coup that deposed Aung San Suu Kyi’s democratically elected civilian government, infighting between the Burmese military and pro-democracy groups has reached a boiling point. The fighting has forced many Burmese people to flee their villages out of fear for their lives, leading to a significant spike in the number of internally displaced people (IDPs) in the country.

Civilian Militias Flourish as Myanmar’s Post-Coup Turmoil Deepens

THE I DIPLOMAT

Sebastian Strangio
June 28, 2021

Recent months have seen the emergence of a raft of new armed civilian militias, further complicating the country’s political crisis.

Myanmar’s political crisis is entering a new and more complex phase as a raft of new armed militias arise to resist the country’s military junta, according to the latest report from the International Crisis Group (ICG). Since the military’s seizure of power on February 1, the junta’s crackdown on protesters and the broader civilian population has prompted violent resistance, including the formation of civilian militias in several corners of the country.

“The swift emergence of militias, and their capacity to evolve from loosely coordinated groups of local people into more structured, better armed, and sustainably funded forces, likely marks a new phase of Myanmar’s decades-old civil war,” states the ICG report, which was released yesterday.

Urban-Rohingayas: The nexus that needs to be exposed

NEWSROOM POST

Written by Niyati Sharma

June 28, 2021

Urban-Rohingayas are not only anarchist but are intellectual militants of leaning of Marxist-Maoist-Leninist Ideology. They spread terrorist ideas to create anarchy.

Rohingayas is an eco-system where one stream is engaged in the militant-way using terrorist means to overthrow the government and establish their own government. The other stream is their intellectual counterparts, known as the Urban-Rohingayas who give intellectual, moral and ideological support to their movement.

Myanmar Junta Chief Extols Russia Ties, Says US Relations ‘Not Intimate’

The Irrawaddy

26 June 2021

A TV screengrab of Myanmar coup leader Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing (right) after receiving the title of “honorary professor” from the Defense Ministry of Russia on Wednesday.

Myanmar coup leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing lauded Russia as Myanmar’s “friend forever” while stating that the US is “not very intimate” compared with neighboring China and India due to its “far distance”, in an interview with Russian media during his visit to Moscow.

“The USA is also Myanmar’s friend but it is in some far distance. But, our neighboring China and India are our close friends,” he told Fedor Lukyanov, anchorperson of the “International Review” program on Russia 24, on Tuesday, adding that “we have to take relations with the neighboring countries seriously.”

Myanmar’s Democratic Vision Depends on Including Rohingya, Other Ethnic Minorities “We will never be free until all of us are free.”

THE I DIPLOMAT

Wai Wai Nu
June 25, 2021

“We will never be free until all of us are free.”

Since the February 1 coup in Myanmar, the military has unfurled a brutal nationwide crackdown targeting protesters and civilians who oppose their unlawful rule. Indeed, last week’s stinging rebuke of the military coup by the United Nations General Assembly — only the fourth such resolution since the end of the Cold War — offers a stark reminder of what’s at stake.

Challenging Rakhine, military narratives

NEWAGE

Habib Siddiqui
Jun 26,2021

Warpait village, Rakhine, October 14, 2016… The Myanmar military’s campaign against the Rohingyas left hundreds of villages a smouldering pile of debris. — The Conversation/Ye Aung

OPPRESSION, marginalisation, violence and propaganda — none of it is new. What is new however is the mere scale, frequency and omnipresence of disinformation, especially when it is propagated by a powerful group that runs at the state level with the goal to eliminate a small minority that is different from the dominant group’s identity by race, ethnicity, language, religion, customs and culture. Nowhere in our time is this issue perhaps more acute than in Myanmar where the Rohingyas are victims of a carefully crafted genocidal programme that has become a national project there, enjoying full support from top to bottom of every rung and corner of the Buddhist society — from a military man in uniform to a monk in a saffron robe, from a peasant in the paddy field to a politician wearing a longyi.

Amid This ‘Great Depression’, Myanmar’s People Will Never Give Up

The Irrawaddy

NAING KHIT 

26 June 2021

Anti-coup graffiti in downtown Yangon in February. / The Irrawaddy

Myanmar has entered a Great Depression. It must be spelled with a capital G and D, reflecting the real mood of the people of this country.

This Great Depression began with the coup staged by Senior General Min Aung Hlaing on Feb. 1, which in turn triggered political, social and economic upheavals that continue to this day. This Myanmar version of the Great Depression differs from the severe worldwide economic depression of the 1930s, though.

Australian Parliamentary Committee Urges Harder Line on Myanmar Junta

THE I DIPLOMAT

By Sebastian Strangio

June 25, 2021

The cross-party committee called for the government to consider harsher sanctions, and a pathway to residency for Myanmar citizens in Australia.

Australian lawmakers have pressed their government to step up its pressure against Myanmar’s military government, by considering the imposition of fresh sanctions on leading commanders and military enterprises.

The report by the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade, which includes members of Australia’s two major parties, also called on the government to explore how it could offer permanent residency to Myanmar citizens living in Australia who fear returning home.

Facebook Tried to Ban Myanmar’s Military. But Its Own Algorithm Kept Promoting Pages Supporting Them, Report Says

TIMES

BY BILLY PERRIGO
JUNE 24, 2021 

YANGON, MYANMAR - 2021/03/06: Myanmar military with military trucks seen during a demonstration against the military coup. Myanmar police attacked protesters with rubber bullets, live ammunition, tear gas and stun bombs in response to anti military coup protesters on Saturday. Myanmar's military detained State Counsellor of Myanmar Aung San Suu Kyi on February 01, 2021 and declared a state of emergency while seizing the power in the country for a year after losing the election against the National League for Democracy (NLD). (Photo by Santosh Krl/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

SOPA Images/LightRocket via Gett—© 2021 SOPA Images

Facebook promoted pages that shared pro-military propaganda in Myanmar, even after it banned accounts linked to the military from the platform due to human rights abuses and the risk of violence, according to a report by the human rights group Global Witness.

Myanmar’s armed forces, known as the Tatmadaw, overthrew the country’s civilian government in February, claiming that elections in November 2020 had been rigged. Later that month, Facebook said it had decided to ban the Tatmadaw from its platform, citing the military’s history of human rights abuses, record of spreading misinformation and the increased risk of violence after the coup.

Confident in Its Impunity, the Myanmar Junta Ignores Diplomacy

The New York Times
By Richard C. Paddock and Rick Gladstone
June 24, 2021

The generals who seized power five months ago have shown no inclination to heed international pleas to reverse themselves, even as Myanmar slides into a failed state.

Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, the commander of Myanmar’s military, during a parade on Armed Forces Day in Naypyidaw, the capital, in March.Credit...EPA, via Shutterstock

Western powers have imposed sanctions. Neighboring countries have implored the military to restore democracy. More than 200 human rights groups have called for an arms embargo. And last week, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a blunt rebuke aimed at isolating the generals.

The diplomatic pressure has done little to change the situation in Myanmar.