Reuters photographer Danish Siddiqui captured the people behind the story

bdnews24.com

Reuters
Published: 17 Jul 2021

A woman walks past a painting of Reuters journalist Danish Siddiqui, after he was killed while covering a clash between Afghan security forces and Taliban fighters near a border crossing with Pakistan, outside an art school in Mumbai, India, Jul 16, 2021. REUTERS

Danish Siddiqui, the Reuters journalist killed in crossfire on Friday covering the war in Afghanistan, was a largely self-taught photographer who scaled the heights of his profession while documenting wars, riots and human suffering.

A native of New Delhi, Siddiqui, 38, is survived by his wife Rike and two young children.

The Economic Impact of Myanmar’s Coup

BORGEN

ON JULY 17, 2021

MORRISTOWN, New Jersey — On the morning of February 1, 2021, a military coup in Myanmar ended a four-year experiment in democracy. According to the Council on Foreign Relations, Myanmar’s military history, the militia’s lasting power on Myanmar’s politics and the increasing power of the civilian leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, created the conditions for a coup. To understand the possible economic impact of Myanmar’s coup, it is crucial to understand the country’s political and economic history.

‘We can’t breathe... and the whole world is silent’: Myanmar begs for oxygen as Covid crisis worsens

The Telegraph

ByNicola Smith, and Nandi Theint
ASIA CORRESPONDENT
IN YANGON
16 July 2021

Just like in India, Myanmar's citizens take their desperate pleas for help to social media.

People are lining up across Myanmar to find lifesaving oxygen CREDIT: Ye Aung Thu/AFP

Myanmar’s people were first deprived of their democratic rights, and are now being starved of oxygen itself, by a February coup that has plunged the Southeast Asian nation into a political and medical crisis.

As a deadly wave of Covid-19 fueled by the Delta variant sweeps a country where the healthcare system has virtually collapsed, people have flooded social media with pleas for oxygen supplies and coveted hospital beds as their loved ones suffocate at home.

Why the West won’t recognize Myanmar’s NUG

ASIA TIME
by David Hutt
July 16, 2021

While Western governments universally reject the military coup, they're also wary of the anti-junta National Unity Government's credibility

Protesters hold posters in support of the National Unity Government (NUG) during a demonstration against the military coup on "Global Myanmar Spring Revolution Day" in Taunggyi, Shan state on May 2, 2021. Photo: AFP / Stringer

“Defending Burmese democracy is no longer a progressive, sexy cause.”

That may be at the heart of why Western governments still have not recognized Myanmar’s government-in-opposition that formed months after February’s military coup, according to David Frederic Camroux, an honorary senior research fellow at the Center for International Studies at Sciences Po in Paris.

UN resolution calls for reconciliation in Myanmar

Frontier
MYANMAR
AFP
JULY 13, 2021

The UN Human Rights Council on Monday adopted a resolution condemning human rights violations by Myanmar’s military against the Rohingya and other minorities, and called for a process of reconciliation.

The resolution, brought forward by Pakistan on behalf of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, was approved without a vote in the Geneva-based council.

China, one of the 47 council members, said it could not join the consensus but nonetheless did not insist on bringing the text to a vote.

Torture in Myanmar: Don’t Let the Junta Normalize Cruelty

THE I DIPLOMAT 

By Tomas Max Martin, Ergun Cakal, and Hannah Russell
JULY 13, 2021

Torture – and the fear that it engenders – has been central to the military junta’s efforts to quell popular resistance.

On June 26, CNN reported the story of American-Burmese journalist Nathan Maung, who was released by the Myanmar military after three months of detention, during which time he experienced severe torture. On June 22, Human Rights Watch published the account of a 17-year-old boy, who endured repeated beatings with a bamboo stick filled with cement, blows to the head with the butt of a rifle, and burial up to his neck in a mock execution.

China is not happy about Myanmar’s coup

The Economist

Banyan
Jul 10th 2021

Yet it is betting that the generals will prevail

Almost as soon as the tanks rolled into Naypyidaw, Myanmar’s capital, in February, rumours began circulating on social media about how China would respond. It is a sign of its influence: China is probably the only country that could coax Myanmar’s generals to the negotiating table. The speculation was laid to rest only in June, when the Chinese embassy referred to Min Aung Hlaing, the Burmese commander-in-chief, as Myanmar’s “leader”. The next day, China convened a meeting of foreign ministers from asean, a club of South-East Asian nations, and included the military government’s representative. With their putsch, the generals are trying to wind the clock back to 2010, when they still ran the show. China appears to be adjusting its calendar.

ERASING THE EELAM VICTORY Part 21 A

Lankaweb
KAMALIKA PIERIS
July 8th, 2021

The word genocide” was first coined by Polish lawyer Raphäel Lemkin in 1944 for the killing of Jews in World War II. Genocide was first recognized as a crime under international law in 1946 by the United Nations General Assembly (A/RES/96-I). It was codified as an independent crime in the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide 1948. Sri Lanka signed the Convention in 1950. .The International Criminal Court (est. 2002) which is specifically mandated to judge crimes of Genocide uses the definition given in the UN Convention.

The international legal definition of the crime of Genocide is found in Articles II and III of the 1948 Convention. There must be a proven intent on the part of perpetrators to physically destroy a national, ethnical, racial or religious group. Also action must be taken to carry out the intent. A crime must include elements, intent and action, to be called “genocide.” If the government is to be blamed, it must be a part of state policy.

Analysis: Myanmar turmoil deepens as clashes spread

REUTERS
July 7, 2021

  

July 7 (Reuters) - The farming town of Depayin joined Myanmar's list of shattered communities when the army moved in to crush a local anti-junta militia armed with makeshift weapons.

When army trucks arrived at Depayin around dawn last Friday, local youths assembled to fight back but were quickly overwhelmed, six residents told Reuters by telephone. Dozens of people were killed afterwards by the soldiers and thousands have since fled with whatever they could carry, the residents said.

Amid Coup Crisis, COVID-19 Hits New Daily Highs in Myanmar

THE I DIPLOMAT

By Sebastian Strangio
July 07, 2021

With health workers on strike and much of the public in open rebellion, a new wave of infections could prove devastating.

The coronavirus is rapidly spreading in crisis-hit Myanmar, with the country recording another record number of daily COVID-19 cases, suggesting that the political situation here is on the verge of being compounded by a grave public health emergency.

The regime’s health ministry reported records of 2,318 cases on Sunday and 2,969 cases on Monday, bringing the total number of infections since the start of the pandemic to 168,374, with 3,461 deaths.

Given the country’s unstable political situation, which has prompted sharp disruptions to COVID-19 testing and containment efforts, it is almost certain that these are underestimates. Yesterday, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported that hundreds of people have died of COVID-19 over the past 30 days in a single township in northwestern Myanmar.

Why Myanmar may be heading for a full-scale civil war

THE WEEK
JOE EVANS
6 JUL 2021

Civilian death toll rises as military battles anti-coup resistance groups

Resistance fighter with improvised weapon in the southern city of Yangon
Stringer/Getty Images

Myanmar’s security forces have killed at least 25 people in clashes with opponents of the military junta in a township in the central Sagaing region.

Local people in Depayin say the violence erupted after “four military trucks dropped soldiers at the village early on Friday”, Reuters reports.

The alleged raid is the latest in a series of clashes as civilians “increasingly take up arms against the generals who seized power in a coup five months ago”, says Al Jazeera.

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.”