UNHRC adopts resolution emphasising justice and repatriation of Rohingyas back to Myanmar

The Daily Star

Star Digital Report
Mon Jul 12, 2021

UN Human Rights Council unanimously adopted a resolution on the "Human Rights Situation of Rohingya Muslims and other Minorities in Myanmar" today, calling on the international community to continue providing humanitarian assistance until they return to Myanmar.

The resolution also emphasized bringing all responsible for torture, crimes against humanity, and war crimes against Rohingyas to justice, while also acknowledging the ongoing criminal proceedings in the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice.

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.

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.

UN rights expert urges sanctions on Myanmar's oil, gas sectors

REUTERS
July 7, 2021

Summary:

• UN rights expert calls for sanctions on oil and gas sector
• Bachelet urges ASEAN to foster dialogue to resolve crisis
• Nearly 900 killed since Feb. 1 coup, 5,200 detained

GENEVA, July 7 (Reuters) - A United Nations human rights investigator called on countries on Wednesday to impose economic sanctions on Myanmar's oil and gas sector to cripple the junta that took power five months ago.

Myanmar has been in crisis since the military ousted Aung San Suu Kyi's elected government on Feb. 1, unleashing nationwide anger that quickly turned into protests and strikes brutally suppressed by security forces, with nearly 900 killed.

WFP, Korea working together to help Rohingyas in Myanmar, Bangladesh

Dhaka Tribune

Tribune Desk
July 7th, 2021

File photo of a Rohingya refugee camp in Cox's Bazar Syed Zakir Hossain/Dhaka Tribune

Korean contribution to help WFP provide assistance for over 860,000 Rohingyas living at Cox’s Bazar camps

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has received a contribution of $800,000 from the government of the Republic of Korea to support operations in Myanmar and Bangladesh.

Inside the Myanmar mountain camp where rebels train to fight for freedom from the junta

CNN
Exclusive by Sam Kiley,
July 8, 2021

Camp Victoria, Myanmar (CNN)Full-throated they belt out songs of victory, their boots adding the drumbeat as ranks of new recruits jog in formation through their jungle training camp.

There's no doubting the shining eyes of these young people united by an ideal -- freedom from the junta that's smothered democracy in Myanmar.

Nor, perhaps, hiding from the dark tragedy that may await them.

In Myanmar, the military declares war on medical workers

Los Angeles Times

KRISTEN GELINEAU AND VICTORIA MILKO

ASSOCIATED PRESS

JULY 7, 2021

JAKARTA, Indonesia —

In this Feb. 28 image from video provided by Dakkhina Insight, medics attend to a man who appears to have a chest wound in Dawei, Myanmar.

(Dakkhina Insight via Associated Press)

The clandestine clinic was under fire, and the medics inside were in tears.

Hidden away in a Myanmar monastery, this haven had sprung up for those injured while protesting the military’s overthrow of the government. But now security forces had discovered its location.

A bullet struck a young man in the throat as he defended the door, and the medical staff tried frantically to stop the hemorrhaging. The floor was slick with blood.

In Myanmar, the military has declared war on healthcare — and on doctors themselves, who were early and fierce opponents of the takeover in February. Security forces are arresting, attacking and killing medical workers, dubbing them enemies of the state. With medics driven underground amid a global pandemic, the country’s already fragile healthcare system is crumbling.

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.

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.

Norway's Telenor planning to exit Myanmar

TRT WORLD
02 July 2021


The telecom giant has booked massive financial losses in a country marred by a military coup and street protests.

Telenor is one of the largest telecom operators in Myanmar that has seen a flight foreign investment this year. (AP Archive)

Norway's Telenor, a major telecom operator in Myanmar, is weighing its future in the country after booking losses following a military coup and subsequent crackdown.

The company issued a statement on Friday it following reports that it was considering the sale of its unit in the country, Telenor Myanmar.

Telenor was pushed into deep losses in the first quarter after it was forced to write down all of its assets in Myanmar, taking their value from $769 million to zero.

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.

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.

Rohingya genocide case at ICJ: Myanmar military regime organises new legal team

The Daily Star

Digital Report
June 26, 2021

Armed police confront protesters on the streets of Naypyitaw, Myanmar’s capital, on Monday, February 8. Photo: AP

The Myanmar military regime has organised a new legal team led by its foreign minister, U Wunna Maung Lwin, to present the defense in the Rohingya genocide case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

The regime's order restructuring the committee, which was previously led by detained State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi, was announced in a bulletin published by the Myanmar Gazette on Thursday.

One on One - Myanmar's UN Ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun

TRT WORLD
Jun 26, 2021

The United Nations General Assembly has called for an arms embargo on Myanmar in response to the February coup by the military junta. In a rare act of defiance, Myanmar's UN ambassador also condemned the coup. TRT World's Frank Ucciardo sat down with Kyaw Moe Tun to talk about Myanmar's future and whether his county will ever return to democracy.

#Myanmar #UN #KyawMoeTun

Link : Here

Could Japan draw Myanmar's military junta chief to a UN peace initiative?

THE HILL

BY CHARLES CRABTREE,
OPINION CONTRIBUTOR
06/24/21

THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY CONTRIBUTORS ARE THEIR OWN AND NOT THE VIEW OF THE HILL

© Getty Images

What should the Japanese government do about Myanmar? Since the military junta under commander in chief Min Aung Hlaing ousted democratically-elected government leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Feb. 1, violence has erupted across the Southeast Asian nation. The new Tatmadaw regime has killed over 800 people, reportedly arrested more than 80 journalists, and detained thousands more politicians, pro-democracy protesters and human rights defenders without due process. In response to this and other abuses, mass protests have erupted across the country, often inciting further violence by state security forces.

Armed rebels have declared war on the Myanmar junta, and the country is gearing up for all-out urban warfare

INSIDER

Cheryl Teh
Jun 23, 2021,

A man holds a torch as he stands behind a barricade during a protest against the military coup, in Yangon, Myanmar March 28, 2021. Stringer/Reuters

• A Myanmar militia declared war on the military junta, pushing the country closer to war.
• Firefights between junta soldiers and the People's Defense Force broke out on the streets of Mandalay.
• This is the first time gunfights between rebels and troops broke out in Myanmar's cities since the February 1 coup.
• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

A formal declaration of war has been made on Myanmar's military junta by an armed militia group.

United Nations calls for halt of weapons to Myanmar

ABS-CBN NEWS
Michelle Nichols, Reuters
Jun 23 2021

Russia's Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Myanmar's Commander in-Chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing walk past the honor guard prior to their talks in Moscow, Russia on June 22, 2021. Vadim Savitskiy/Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation/Handout via Reuters

NEW YORK - The United Nations General Assembly on Friday called for a stop to the flow of arms to Myanmar and urged the military to respect November election results and release political detainees, including leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The General Assembly adopted a resolution with the support of 119 countries several months after the military overthrew Aung San Suu Kyi's elected government in a Feb. 1 coup. Belarus requested the text be put to a vote and was the only country to oppose it, while 36 abstained, including China and Russia.

Russia and Myanmar junta leader commit to boosting ties at Moscow meeting

REUTERS
June 21, 2021

Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev attends a World War Two Victory Day anniversary parade in Red Square in Moscow, Russia, June 24, 2020. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov/File Photo

MOSCOW, June 21 (Reuters) - Nikolai Patrushev, the secretary of Russia's Security Council, and Myanmar's junta leader committed to further strengthening security and other ties between the two countries at a Moscow meeting on Monday.

Myanmar's junta leader, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, flew to the Russian capital on Sunday to attend a security conference this week. read more Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov earlier on Monday said President Vladimir Putin would not be meeting Min Aung Hlaing, Interfax reported.

Rights activists have accused Moscow of legitimising Myanmar’s military junta, which came to power in a Feb. 1 coup. by continuing bilateral visits and arms deals.

Russia says it has a long-standing relationship with Myanmar and said in March it was deeply concerned by the rising number of civilian deaths in Myanmar.