Worldly, Charming, and Quietly Equipping a Brutal Military

The New York Times

By Hannah Beech
Dec. 24, 2021

A Burmese-Irish family said all the right things, even as it helped Myanmar’s rulers avoid sanctions scrutiny in buying airplanes, defense radar and more.

Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, Myanmar’s military commander in chief, during a parade for the 76th Armed Forces Day in Naypyidaw, the capital, in March.Credit...EPA, via Shutterstock

Three years ago, the Kyaw Thaung family partied at the Pegu Club. The venerable Burmese-Irish clan had restored the teak-lined establishment to its 19th-century glory, evoking the days when gin-sipping colonialists ruled. The Pegu Club project befitted the family’s East-meets-West positioning and the optimism of a country newly engaging with the world.

Amid periodic power cuts in the rest of Yangon, the Kyaw Thaungs danced and sipped champagne among the new elite, including young entrepreneurs returned from exile, bejeweled daughters of generals, and even former political prisoners suddenly responsible for attracting foreign investment to the latest frontier market.

လိမ္မလိမ္မာပါးနပ်သည်၊ နှစ်လိုခင်မင်ဖွယ်ကောင်းသည်၊ ကြမ်း ကြုတ်သော စစ်တပ်တစ်တပ်ကို တိတ်တဆိတ် လက်နက် တပ်ဆင်ပေးနေသည်။

The New York Times
Hannah Beech
Dec. 24, 2021

ဗမာ-အိုင်ယာလန် ကပြားမိသားစုတစ်စုက ပိတ်ဆို့အရေးယူမှု စစ်ဆေးမှုများကို ရှောင်ကွင်းလျက် မြန်မာ စစ်အ စိုးရအတွက် လေယာဉ်များ၊ ကာကွယ်ရေး ရေဒါ၊ အခြားနည်းပညာနှင့် ကိရိယာများကို ကူညီဝယ်ယူ ပေးနေေ သာ်လည်း အမြဲသူတော်ကောင်းစကားသာ ဆိုကြလေသည်။

ကာကွယ်ရေး ဦးစီးချုပ် ဗိုလ်ချုပ်မှူးကြီး မင်းအောင်လှိုင်၊ မတ်လတွင်နိုင်ငံ့မြို့တော် နေပြည်တော်၌ ၇၆ နှစ်မြောက် တပ်မတော်နေ့ စစ်ရေးပြချီတက်ပွဲတွင် တွေ့ရစဉ်။Credit...Stringer/EPA, via Shutterstock

 

လွန်ခဲ့သည့် သုံးနှစ်က ကျော်သောင်းမိသားစုကို ပဲခူးကလပ်တွင် ပါတီပေးလျက် ပျော်ပါးလျက် တွေ့နိုင်မည် ဖြစ် သည်။ လေးစားကြည်ညိုဖွယ် ဗမာ-အိုင်ယာလန်ကပြား ဤမိသားစုက ကျွန်းသစ်အတိ တန်ဆာဆင် ထား သော ပဲခူးကလပ် အဆောက်အဦးကို မူလ ၁၉ ရာစု ဂုဏ်ကျက်သရေပြန်ရောက်အောင် ပြန်လည် မွမ်းမံခဲ့ပြီး ဂျင်အ ရက် တမြမြနှင့် ကိုလိုနီအရာရှိများ စိုးမိုးခြယ်လှယ်ခဲ့သည့် အငွေ့အသက်ပြန်ရအောင် အသက်သွင်း ထား သကဲ့ သို့ပင်ဖြစ်သည်။ ပဲခူးကလပ် ပြန်လည်ဖွင့်လှစ်ခြင်းသည် ကျော်သောင်းမိသားစု၏ အရှေ့တိုင်းနှင့် အနောက်တိုင်း ရောပြွမ်းပေါင်းစပ်မှုမှ အားယူသော ရပ်တည်ချက်မျိုး၊ ကမ္ဘာ့အသိုင်းအဝိုင်းနှင့် ဆက်ဆံ‌ ပေါင်း စပ်ခါစ နိုင်ငံ တစ် ခု၏ အကောင်းမြင်မှုမျိုးတို့နှင့် အံဝင်ခွင်ကျဖြစ်လှသည်။

Myanmar’s Rohingya Crisis Meets Reality (ဘာသာၿပန္ ေအာက္မွာ ေဖာ္ၿပထားသည္ )

The New York Times
Opinion
By Kevin Rudd
Sept. 21, 2017

Sébastien Thibault

The news coverage of Myanmar over the past several months has led many people to conclude that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the de facto leader of the country, has abandoned her responsibility to protect human rights. Hundreds of thousands of people from the Rohingya ethnic minority are being expelled by the military from lands in western Myanmar, where they have lived for centuries. By any standard, we are witnessing the most fundamental violations of human rights.

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.

In Myanmar, Health Care’s Collapse Takes Its Own Toll

The New York Times

Richard C. Paddock
June 12, 2021

Two days after Myanmar’s military seized power in February, doctors at North Okkalapa General Hospital in Yangon wore red ribbons to signal their opposition to the coup.Credit...The New York Times

Since the February coup, many physicians have refused to work at state-run hospitals. “I will never blame the doctors,” said a patient whose treatment stopped.

U Hla Min, a rice farmer in central Myanmar, was getting regular radiation therapy for cancer when the military seized power on Feb. 1. Initially expected to survive, he lasted less than three months.

His treatment ended when doctors at Mandalay General Hospital walked off the job to protest the coup. Soldiers soon occupied the hospital and others across Myanmar, using them as bases for their bloody crackdown on resistance to their rule. Many medical workers and would-be patients, fearing arrest or worse, stayed away.

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.

Three Months After Coup, Myanmar Returns to the ‘Bad Old Days’

The New York Times

By Hannah Beech
May 6, 2021
阅读简体中文版閱讀繁體中文版

Police are now stopping random people on the streets. A group of secret informers has reappeared. The killings continue, but so does the resistance.

Protesters running as security forces arrive during a crackdown, in Ahlone township, in April.Credit...The New York Times

Every night at 8, the stern-faced newscaster on Myanmar military TV announces the day’s hunted. The mug shots of those charged with political crimes appear onscreen. Among them are doctors, students, beauty queens, actors, reporters, even a pair of makeup bloggers.

Some of the faces look puffy and bruised, the likely result of interrogations. They are a warning not to oppose the military junta that seized power in a Feb. 1 coup and imprisoned the country’s civilian leaders.

As the midnight insects trill, the hunt intensifies. Military censors sever the internet across most of Myanmar, matching the darkness outside with an information blackout. Soldiers sweep through the cities, arresting, abducting and assaulting with slingshots and rifles.

Myanmar Coup Puts the Seal on Autocracy’s Rise in Southeast Asia

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Hannah Beech
April 13, 2021, 
阅读简体中文版閱讀繁體中文版

A protest this month in Yangon, Myanmar, against the military’s ouster of the civilian government.Credit...The New York Times

Not long ago, democracy seemed to be surging in the region. But in Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines and elsewhere, it is in trouble.

Late last month, foreign officials in army regalia toasted their hosts in Naypyidaw, the bunkered capital built by Myanmar’s military. Ice clinked in frosted glasses. A lavish spread had been laid out for the foreign dignitaries in honor of Myanmar’s Armed Forces Day.

မောက်မာ၊အမြင်ကျဉ်းသည့် အလိမ်အညာစစ်ခေါင်း ဆောင် တွေ ပြည်သူ့အင်အားကို လျှော့တွက်မိပြီ(CNN သတင်း ထောက်၏ သတင်းဆောင်းပါး)

CNN
ဧပြီ ၁၀၊ ၂၀၂၁
M-Media 

-တိုင်းပြည်အခြေအနေ တိုးတက်နေတယ်။ လုံခြုံရေးတပ်ဖွဲ့တွေက အစွမ်းကုန် ထိန်းသိမ်း ဆောင်ရွက်နေ တယ်။ မင်းမဲ့စရိုက်ဆန်တဲ့ အကြမ်းဖက်လူအုပ်ကြောင့် လက်ရှိမှာ အကြမ်းဖက်မှုတွေ ဖြစ်နေပြီး ဒါကို ဖြို ခွင်း ရမယ်လို့ မြန်မာစစ်ကောင်စီက လူတွေကို ယုံကြည်စေချင်နေတယ်။ နိုင်ငံရေးလမ်းပြမြေပုံကို ချမှတ်ရေးဆွဲ ထားပြီး လွတ် လပ်မျှတတဲ့ ရွေးကောက်ပွဲ ၂ နှစ်အတွင်း လုပ်ပေးမယ်ဆိုတဲ့ စကားကိုလည်း လူတွေကို နား ထောင်စေချင်ပါ တယ်။

Myanmar Soldiers, Aiming to Silence Protests, Target Journalists

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Richard C. Paddock
April 2, 2021

Covering a protest battle in Yangon, Myanmar, on Sunday. Three photojournalists have been shot and wounded while taking photographs of the anti-coup demonstrations.Credit...The New York Times

Ten days after seizing power in Myanmar, the generals issued their first command to journalists: Stop using the words “coup,” “regime” and “junta” to describe the military’s takeover of the government. Few reporters heeded the Orwellian directive, and the junta embraced a new goal — crushing all free expression.

Since then, the regime has arrested at least 56 journalists, outlawed online news outlets known for hard-edge reporting and crippled communications by cutting off mobile data service. Three photojournalists have been shot and wounded while taking photographs of the anti-coup demonstrations.

Days of Killings and Defiance in Myanmar, With Neither Side Relenting

The New York Times

By Richard C. Paddock
March 14, 2021

At least 51 people were fatally shot over the weekend, but the nationwide protest movement shows no sign of waning.

Seeking help for a wounded man in the Hlaingthaya district of Yangon, Myanmar, where several dozen people were killed by security forces on Sunday.Credit...The New York Times

Soldiers and police officers shot and killed at least 51 people in Myanmar over the weekend, as they pressed their campaign of attrition against protesters who have defied them in cities and towns across the country.

Despite weeks of killings by the security forces, a nationwide civil disobedience movement — which has paralyzed much of the economy as well as the government’s operations — shows no sign of waning, a month and a half after the Feb. 1 military coup that ousted the civilian leadership.

“We must fight until we win,” said Mr. Tin Tun, 46. “The regime must step down. There is no place for any dictator here in Myanmar.”

Late Sunday afternoon, another wave of killing began in the Hlaingthaya district of Yangon, which is heavily populated by factory workers and where the protests against military rule have been among the most aggressive. A large force of soldiers and police officers was deployed to the township and fatally shot at least 31 protesters, according to a doctor at Hlaingthaya General Hospital. It was the highest daily death toll in one location since the coup.

On Sunday evening, the ruling junta declared martial law in the district — the first such declaration since the takeover — allowing the military to assume all authority in the township from the police.

Myanmar’s Defiant Garment Workers Demand That Fashion Pay Attention

The New York Times

By Elizabeth Paton
March 12, 2021

Female garment industry union leaders are emerging at the forefront of the deadly anti-military protests, and asking global brands to take their side.

Members of the Federation of Garment Workers Myanmar — most of them women — have been prominent in the protest movement since the country’s military coup on Feb. 1.Credit...FGWM

Ma Moe Sandar Myint is the leader of one of Myanmar’s largest garment worker unions. Until recently, the 37-year-old mother of three and former sewing machine operator would spend her days representing workers with labor complaints and helping members of the Federation of Garment Workers Myanmar unionize their factories.

A Small Town and a Spray of Bullets in Myanmar

The New York Times
By Hannah Beech
March 13, 2021,

Police officers shot into a cluster of unarmed civilians in a tiny town on Thursday, killing at least eight people and injuring more than 20.

Protesters during confrontations with security forces in Yangon, Myanmar, on Tuesday.Credit...The New York Times

Until Thursday, Myaing, a small town in central Myanmar, was best known for its production of thanaka, a bark that is ground for use as a cooling cosmetic.

But in the late morning of March 11, the town, which can be traversed in 10 minutes, became synonymous with the brutality of the military that seized power last month. Myaing’s rain-slicked streets were mottled with blood as police officers shot into a cluster of unarmed civilians, killing at least eight people and injuring more than 20, according to witnesses and hospital officials.

U Myint Zaw Win was among the crowd that scattered with the bursts of live ammunition in the late morning, outside Myaing’s police station. When he looked back, he saw a body with half its head blown apart, on a street that he has walked all his life. He did not know whose body it was, but he said a mason and a bus driver were among the dead.

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. 

Myanmar Military Fires U.N. Envoy Who Spoke Against Its Coup

The New York Times

By Richard C. Paddock
Feb. 27, 2021

The regime fired the ambassador, U Kyaw Moe Tun, who called for international help in restoring demo
cracy and gave the three-finger salute of the protest movement.



An image released by the United Nations shows U Kyaw Moe Tun, Myanmar’s ambassador to the U.N., pleading for international action in overturning the military coup in the country.Credit...United Nations Tv, via Reuters

BANGKOK — Myanmar’s month-old military regime fired the country’s ambassador to the United Nations on Saturday, a day after he gave an impassioned speech to the U.N. General Assembly in New York, pleading for international help in restoring democracy to his homeland.

The ambassador, U Kyaw Moe Tun, ended his speech with a three-finger salute, a gesture from the “Hunger Games” films that has become a symbol of pro-democratic defiance for protesters in Myanmar and, before that, in neighboring Thailand.

State television announced his firing, saying he had “betrayed the country and spoken for an unofficial organization which doesn’t represent the country and had abused the power and responsibilities of an ambassador.”

Facebook Takes a Side, Barring Myanmar Military After Coup

The New Your Times

By Paul Mozur, Mike Isaac, David E. Sanger and Richard C. Paddock
Feb. 24, 2021

The move puts the social network squarely on the side of Myanmar’s pro-democracy movement after years of criticism over how the military has used the site.


Soldiers set up barricades in Yangon, Myanmar, this month as tens of thousands gathered to protest the coup that ousted the civilian government.Credit... The New York Times 

Facebook said on Wednesday that it had barred Myanmar’s military from its platforms, weeks after the country’s fragile democratic government was overthrown in a military coup.

The move, which also bars military-owned businesses from advertising on Facebook, plunged the social network more directly into Myanmar’s post-coup politics. The decision left little question that the company was taking the side of a pro-democracy movement against a military government that had abruptly seized power.

Myanmar’s Protests Are Growing, Defying Threats and Snipers

The New York Times
Hannah Beech
Published Feb. 22, 2021

A general strike on Monday made clear that the fatal shooting of two protesters over the weekend, and the fear of a further bloody crackdown, would not halt opposition to the return of military rule.

Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city, on Monday. A general strike proceeded peacefully in hundreds of cities and towns.Credit...The New York Times

The strikers poured onto the streets of Myanmar on Monday knowing that they might die. But they gathered by the millions anyway, in the largest rallies since a military coup three weeks ago. Their only protection came from hard hats, holy amulets and the collective power of a newly called general strike.

The generals had tried to halt Monday’s dissent with barricades and fleets of vehicles parked in strategic urban locations. Armored vehicles patrolled, while snipers took their stations on rooftops. An ominous warning had been issued hours before on state television: “Protesters are now inciting people, especially emotional teenagers and youth, toward a path of confrontation where they will suffer a loss of life.”

Myanmar Security Forces Open Fire on Protesters, Killing 2

The New York Times

Richard C. Paddock
Feb. 20, 2021

Myanmar Security Forces Crack Down on Protesters

Security forces on Saturday opened fire on protesters in Mandalay, Myanmar, according to witnesses, killing two people and wounding dozens. Demonstrators have been rallying for weeks against the Feb. 1 military coup.

Security forces on Saturday opened fire on protesters in Mandalay, Myanmar, according to witnesses, killing two people and wounding dozens. Demonstrators have been rallying for weeks against the Feb. 1 military coup.CreditCredit...Aso/Associated Press

 

Security forces in Myanmar opened fire on protesters in the city of Mandalay on Saturday, killing two people and wounding dozens, according to witnesses.

The shootings occurred as the authorities were trying to force workers back to their jobs at a local shipyard. They were among hundreds of thousands of workers across Myanmar who have walked off their jobs to protest the military’s Feb. 1 coup and its ouster of elected civilian leaders.

More than 1,000 demonstrators gathered at the shipyard to block the police, leading to a tense standoff that lasted much of Saturday afternoon. The authorities used water cannons, rubber bullets, tear gas, slingshots and ultimately live ammunition to break up the crowd, witnesses said.

Who Was Most Opposed to Freeing 2 Reporters in Myanmar? Aung San Suu Kyi

The New York Times
By Richard C. Paddock, Saw Nang and Edward Wong
May 10, 2019

The freed Reuters reporters, U Wa Lone, left, and U Kyaw Soe Oo, in Yangon, Myanmar, on Tuesday.CreditCreditPool photo 

BANGKOK — The biggest obstacle to releasing two imprisoned Reuters reporters in Myanmar was not the country’s military, diplomats and others say, but its de facto civilian leader: Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel laureate and former political prisoner herself who once declared, “Please use your liberty to promote ours.”

American Arrested Over 20-Acre Cannabis Plantation in Myanmar

The New York Times 
By Tiffany May and Saw Nang
April 25, 2019

Cannabis plants in Ngazun township near Mandalay, Myanmar, on Wednesday.CreditCreditAgence France-Presse — Getty Images

The 20-acre cannabis plantation was no secret.

The farm, near Mandalay in central Myanmar, had been praised on Facebook by a group calling itself the Mahar Legalization Movement Myanmar, which wants the Burmese government to ease the heavy penalties it imposes on cannabis production and use.

The group approvingly posted photos of what it called an “industrial hemp plantation” run by foreigners — just the sort of agriculture it said the country needed. The post was viewed thousands of times on Facebook.