Myanmar Junta Expects Asian Nations to Keep Investing After Coup

Bloomberg News
22 March 2021,

Myanmar’s military junta expects investments from Asian countries to continue despite growing condemnation over its coup last month and the violent suppression of ensuing pro-democracy protests.

While the U.S. and its partners are taking actions such as sanctions against the military, and some regional companies have scaled back operations, Asian neighbors largely have refrained from turning away from the country and the current leadership sees long-term regional partners staying engaged.

US must confront the coup in Myanmar

TRIBUNE HERALD

Monday, March 22, 2021

Myanmar emerged from years of military rule to a form of democracy over the last decade.

While generals still held ultimate power, Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy Party led the civilian government and won November’s national election in a landslide. But before Myanmar’s Parliament met on Feb. 1, military rulers seized control in a coup, arresting Suu Kyi and other opposition leaders on flimsy charges as they plunged the country back into authoritarianism.

But apparently the military of Myanmar, also called Burma, didn’t anticipate the depth of citizen opposition. For weeks, throngs from all walks of society have braved security forces in peaceful protests demanding a return to democratic rule.

The regime responded with relative restraint at first but has reverted to brutality. A bloody crackdown has killed at least 126, including 51 shot (many in the head) just this last weekend. More than 2,000 have reportedly been arrested, with many enduring torture.

Burmese supporters in Taiwan denounce coup with songs

TAIPEI TIMES

By Ben Blanchard / Reuters
Mon, Mar 22, 2021

Hundreds of people from Taiwan’s Burmese community yesterday rallied in central Taipei to denounce the coup in Myanmar, singing defiant songs and holding white and red roses in mourning for those who have died protesting the military.

Taiwan is home to about 40,000 people originally from Myanmar, most of whom are ethnic Chinese. Some are descendants of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) troops trapped in Myanmar, then called Burma, at the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949. Others have come more recently, fleeing repression and anti-Chinese sentiment.

Myanmar Coup Is Xi Jinping’s Preliminary Skirmish:Detaining 75-Year-Old Aung San Suu Kyi Is a Human Rights Issue

The Liberty Web

March 16, 2021

 Detaining 75-Year-Old Aung San Suu Kyi Is a Human Rights Issue

One month has already passed since Myanmar’s armed forces, after suffering a landslide defeat in last November’s general election, seized power from the National League for Democracy (NLD) and detained Myanmar’s 75-year-old State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi among other senior leaders of the NLD.

Inside Myanmar's bloodthirsty 'TikTok soldiers' gunning down their peers

The Telegraph
ByNicola Smith, 

ASIA CORRESPONDENT 

Nandi Theint 

YANGON and Verity Bowman

13 March 2021 

Young soldiers take to TikTok in threatening videos

The young soldiers in the video clip line the benches of their truck with machetes tucked under their arms. Some crowd over a single mobile phone, cigarette in hand. Others lean on their hoe. “We don’t hold a gun any more," a line of Burmese script reads underneath, in reference to the blunt farm tools littered on the bed of the vehicle.

The message is clear: we don't just shoot, we bury too.

In another video a young soldier reaches for a machine gun, pulls it towards his face and kisses it before fixing his gaze at his smartphone camera with a tender smile. Meanwhile, a separate clip shows a young soldier drawing his fingers across his throat menacingly for his social media followers.

UN Official Calls For Coordinated International Action To Oust Myanmar Coup Leaders

eurasia review
By Lisa Schlein
By VOA

March 12, 2021 

Myanmar's military junta leader, General Min Aung Hlaing. Photo Credit: Mil.ru

A United Nations investigator is accusing Myanmar’s military junta of likely crimes against humanity and is urging international coordinated action to isolate and get rid of the regime. The report is under review by the U.N. Human Rights Council.

Special raporteur Thomas Andrews says that since Myanmar’s military seized power from the elected government February 1, security forces have murdered at least 70 people and arbitrarily arrested more than 2,000.

He says there is video evidence of security forces viciously beating protestors, destroying property, looting shops, and firing indiscriminately into people’s homes. He says the junta has been systematically destroying legal protections and crushing freedom of expression and assembly.

U.S. Offers Protected Status For People From Myanmar As Coup Leaders Crack Down

npr

MICHELE KELEMEN

March 12, 2021

Security forces stand guard on a road as people are arrested, next to dismantled barricades that were set up by protesters demonstrating against the military coup, in Yangon, Myanmar, on Friday.AFP via Getty Images

Updated at 6:20 p.m.

The United States will offer temporary protected status to people from Myanmar who fear returning home, the Biden administration said Friday, as it tries to ratchet up pressure on military coup leaders in the Southeast Asian country, and provide protection to some of those criticizing it.

Myanmar Coup: Asean, once again, don’t look away

The Daily Star

Raudah Yunus , Gideon Lasco

March 11, 2021

Anti-coup demonstrators spray fire extinguishers over a barricade during a protest in Yangon, Myanmar, on March 9, 2021. Photo: Reuters/Stringer

The military coup in Myanmar that overturned its election results and put the country's leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, in house arrest is a shocking, if unsurprising, reminder that even as the Covid-19 pandemic rages, political strife continues around the world and the pandemic itself is used to enact and perpetuate authoritarianism. As the harrowing scenes unfold, we can only express outrage over this turn of events: No country deserves to be ruled by force, and no country deserves to be deprived of their elected leaders.

Biden Sanctions Myanmar Coup Leader’s Children, Their Businesses

Bloomberg News 

11 March 2021 

Min Aung Hlaing, Photographer, Ye Aung Thu/AFP/Getty Image

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The U.S. sanctioned the adult children of Myanmar coup leader Min Aung Hlaing along with their business holdings, saying they “have directly benefited from their father’s position and malign influence.”-

The U.S. Treasury Department put the children -- Aung Pyae Sone, 36, and Khin Thiri Thet Mon, 39 -- on a list that prohibits American citizens from doing business with them or their six businesses. Their operations include a restaurant, gyms, a gallery and a media production business.-

After Coup in Myanmar, a Career Diplomat Takes a Stand

The New York Times

By Hannah Beech 

March 6, 2021 

At the United Nations, U Kyaw Moe Tun declared his new military masters illegitimate. They fired him, but he has no intention of leaving.

“I wanted to do something with maximum impact,” U Kyaw Moe Tun said of his Feb. 26 speech at the United Nations, where he denounced the generals now ruling Myanmar.Credit...Celeste Sloman for The New York Times

He knew his voice was quavering. But U Kyaw Moe Tun, Myanmar’s top envoy at the United Nations, kept going. The military rulers who had overthrown Myanmar’s elected government and gunned down peaceful protesters were illegitimate, he said. 

The words stumbled out, both a bit too high and a bit too low. “We will continue to fight,” he said, “for a government which is of the people, by the people, for the people.” 

Mr. Kyaw Moe Tun, a 51-year-old diplomat in a somber suit and tie, raised his hand in the three-finger salute of defiance from the “Hunger Games” films, which has come to symbolize Myanmar’s millions-strong protest movement against the coup-makers. The United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York resounded with applause. 

The Myanmar 2021 Coup And Aung San Suu Kyi – OpEd

eurasiareview

Shwe Lu Maung
March 5, 2021

Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi. Photo by Claude TRUONG-NGOC, Wikipedia Commons.

Prologue

This article is written to mark the 2nd March 1962, the day the Myanmar Armed Forces seized power and enslaved the peoples under the military colonialism. On that very night, a meeting of the Rangoon University Students Union was held. About 300 students attended the meeting. Some 50 of them pledged to oppose and fight the junta. I was one of them. Now, after 59 years, I am the only one surviving and talking. With this humble article, I honor my comrades who sacrificed their lives in our fight for freedom from the military colonialism. You can find the brief account of the student meeting in my book (http://www.shwelumaung.org/BNI) Burma: Nationalism and Ideology, University Press Ltd., Dhaka, 1989, page 45, Note 1.

Where is Myanmar and what is happening with the military coup there?

INDEPENDENT

Matt Mathers@MattEm90

05 FEB 2021

 

Tens of thousands protest in Myanmar against military takeover

At least 38 people were killed during anti-coup protests in Myanmar on Wednesday - more than a month after the military seized power from the nation's elected leader, Aung San Suu Kyi of the National League for Democracy Party (NLD).

The United Nations (UN) described the bloodshed as the "darkest day" since Ms Suu Kyi and members of her party were rounded up and detained under the orders of military commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing, who is now in control of Myanmar's levers of power.

Inclusion of minorities can strengthen the movement

The Daily Star
Opinion A Closer Look

Tasneem Tayeb
March 04, 2021

Tear gas and fire extinguisher gas float around demonstrators during a protest against the military coup in Yangon, Myanmar, on March 2, 2021. Photo: Reuters/Stringer

Myanmar is burning: with rage, with demonstrations, with the fierce determination of the civilians to end the newly imposed military rule. From peaceful demonstrations the protests have taken a bloody turn, with pro-democracy protesters refusing to leave the streets and the military using live ammunition to disperse them. On February 28, at least 18 people were killed in what has come to be known as the bloodiest day of the protests. And just yesterday, March 3, at least nine people were killed as security forces fired on protesters.

China worries over rare-earth supply disruption from Myanmar coup

NIKKEI ASIA

KENJI KAWASE, Nikkei Asia chief business news correspondent
March 4, 2021 

Decade after drastic cut in exports to Japan, Beijing sees the tables turned

China heavily relies on imports of rare-earth minerals, mainly from the U.S. and Myanmar. (Source photos by Reuters)

HONG KONG -- While China reigns as the largest producer of rare-earth elements, the recent military coup in Myanmar has reminded Beijing of its reliance on and vulnerability to its Southeast Asian neighbor.

China owns the largest reserves of these strategic minerals, which are indispensable in churning out a wide variety of tech products, from smartphones to electric vehicles, wind power generators and missile defense systems, but it also heavily relies on imports, mainly from the U.S. and Myanmar.

The latest annual report by the U.S. Geological Survey states that China produced 140,000 tons of rare-earth oxide equivalent in 2020, almost 60% of the global total. Its reserves were 44 million tons, double those of Vietnam, which are the second-largest in the world.

'You Always Keep Worrying': Rohingya Refugee In Milwaukee Says About His Family In Myanmar

WUWM ( nrp)

By SIMONE CAZARES & JACK HURBANIS • 

MAR 1, 2021

Anuwar Kasim and his three children in their Milwaukee home.

EMILY FILES / WUWM

WUWM's Simone Cazares speaks with Anuwar Kasim, the president of the Burmese Rohingya Community in Wisconsin about the coup in Myanmar.

On Feb 1., the democratically-elected government of Myanmar was taken over in a military coup. The southeastern Asian country, also known as Burma, has dealt with political instability since 1948, when it declared independence from British rule.

This is the same military which for decades has been persecuting a Muslim ethnic minority in the country who call themselves Rohingya. Since the 1990s, over a million Rohingya have fled the country and become refugees around the world.

Photos From Myanmar: A Street-Level View of Coup Protests

The New York Times
By Richard C. Paddock
Photographs by The New York Times
March 1, 2021

Family and relatives mourning the death of Ma Daisy Kyaw Win, 32, on Monday in Mandalay, Myanmar. She was shot in the head when security forces opened fire on a crowd a day earlier.

As a civil disobedience movement entered its second month, the military rulers added charges against Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.

Her death came without warning. The single mother, Mah Daisy Kyaw Win, went to buy snacks for her 6-year-old son in Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-largest city, and stopped to watch anti-military protesters fleeing from the police.

As she stood there, a bullet struck her in the head, and she dropped dead on the spot. Ms. Daisy Kyaw Win, a 32-year-old hotel cleaner, was buried on Monday, a day after her death, in keeping with Muslim tradition. 

China role in Myanmar coup under scanner

THE FREE PRESS

By Agencies
Monday, March 1, 2021,

Different charges claim that Chinese soldiers were being transported into the country on flights, or that ‘Chinese-looking’ troops have been spotted around Myanmar's cities

A policeman points his weapon at people in Taunggyi, a city in Shan State, on February 28, 2021, as security forces continue to crackdown on demonstrations by protesters against the military coup. AFP

Naypyitaw: With most nations condemning military takeover in Myanmar and arrest of elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi, there have been reports that China has been supporting the coup.

Different charges claim that Chinese soldiers were being transported into the country on flights, or that "Chinese-looking" troops have been spotted around Myanmar's cities, The Taiwan Times reported.

Milk Tea Alliance' activists across Asia hold rallies against Myanmar coup

REUTERS

By Fanny Potkin, Patpicha Tanakasempipat
FEBRUARY 28, 2021

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Activists across Asia held rallies on Sunday to support protesters in Myanmar fighting against a military coup, showing the growing influence of cross-border youth movements pushing for democracy with the rallying cry “Milk Tea Alliance”.

Myanmar citizens shout as they join a Thai an anti-government protest in Bangkok, Thailand February 28, 2021. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun

Following a call for help from Myanmar pro-democracy campaigners, around 200 people in Taipei and dozens in Bangkok, Melbourne and Hong Kong took to the streets waving #MilkTeaAlliance signs and flags.

The hashtag, which originated as a protest against online attacks from nationalists in China, was used millions of times on Sunday. Its name originates from the shared passion for the milky drink in Thailand, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.[L4N2FJ12F]

Anti-coup crackdown takes fatal turn

Bangkok Post

LARRY JAGAN
A SPECIALIST ON MYANMAR
PUBLISHED : 1 MAR 2021
NEWSPAPER SECTION: NEWS

Protesters run to contain tear gas fired by security forces in an attempt to disperse them during a demonstration against the military coup in Yangon yesterday. AFP

Myanmar's security forces have unleashed a concerted crackdown on the country's peaceful protesters leaving 23 dead and thousands injured throughout the country in the last two days. In planned pre-emptive strikes, the police moved ruthlessly to disperse and arrest protestors preparing to join yesterday general strike. "They used teargas, stun grenades and fired live ammunition indiscriminately into the crowds," said Soe Soe, a young university student at a protest site told the Bangkok Post.

Coup chaos in Myanmar leaves employers fretting over paying staff

REUTERS
By Reuters Staff
APAC
FEBRUARY 25, 2021

(Reuters) - The day the military seized power in Myanmar three weeks ago, Phyu delved into her company’s emergency funds and gave her staff a one-month advance on their salaries.

Factory workers hold placards and shout slogans as they rally against the military coup in Yangon, Myanmar, February 25, 2021. REUTERS/Stringer

Phyu, who runs a market research firm, saw trouble ahead then, but isn’t sure how she’ll pay her three staff next month.

Ahead of payday on Friday, the first since the Feb. 1 coup, a cloud is hanging over Myanmar’s fragile economy.

Its kyat currency is depreciating, businesses are paralysed and banks are in disarray, and for all the support for street protests and strikes against the junta, the disruption is nudging the economy closer to a breakdown.