‘They have lists of everyone’s names’: Myanmar conscription law unleashes wave of fear

GENOCIDE WATCH
By Rebecca Ratcliffe and Aung Naing Soe
Date : 11th March'2025 

Potential conscripts fear they could be forced to carry out atrocities or be used as human shields by the military 

Military officers on Armed Forces Day in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, 27 March 2023. Many in Myanmar have expressed alarm at the conscription law. Photograph: Aung Shine Oo/AP

 

Passport offices and embassies in Myanmar have been flooded with applications, with a queue of more than a thousand people on a single day trying to secure a visa for neighbouring Thailand. Helplines offering advice on ways to leave the country – how to manage checkpoints, what documents are needed – have been inundated.

Thailand donates $28,000 for Rohingyas

Dhaka Tribune
Tribune Report
Publish : 20 Sep 2023 

Thailand Ambassador Makawadee Sumitmor hands over the donation to WFP Resident Representative and Country Director Domenico Scalpelli on Wednesday, September 20, 2023 in Cox’s Bazar. Photo: Courtesy

The Thai government has made a donation of 1 million baht (3,085,467.45 taka) or around $28,000 for the Rohingya refugees in Cox's Bazaar.

The assistance will enable World Food Program (WFP) to allocate food to 3,500 displaced persons for one month, the Thai embassy on Wednesday said.

Six Rohingya children flee Phatthalung shelter

BANGKOK POST
WRITER: Assawin Pakkawan
PUBLISHED : 22 Jul 2023

Police gather information from local residents and officials about the escape of six Rohingya children from a shelter in Muang district of Phatthalung on Friday night. A search has so far failed to find them. (Photo: Assawin Pakkawan)

PHATTHALUNG: Six Royingya children escaped from a government-operated shelter in Muang district of this southern province on Friday night.

Police and officials from the Phatthalung Shelter for Children and Families began the search after being alerted by shelter staff at around 9pm, said Pol Lt Col Sombat Muksikim, chief inspector at the Cha-ngai police station in Muang district.

ASEAN's deepening fissures over Myanmar test Indonesia's resolve

NIKKEI ASIA
GWEN ROBINSON,
Nikkei Asia editor-at-large
April 18, 2023 

ASEAN leaders including Myanmar's top general, Min Aung Hlaing, agreed in April 2021 on five steps toward resolving the crisis in the war-torn member state. Only one has been accomplished, and the bloc's unity and credibility are on the line. © Nikkei montage/Source photo by Reuters

Asia In

2023 chair works quietly to overcome two years of Five Point Consensus failure

PHNOM PENH -- Two years after they gathered in Jakarta to forge a consensus on the Myanmar crisis, Association of Southeast Asian Nations leaders have rarely faced such disunity as they prepare for an uneasy summit in Indonesia from May 6 to 10.

In what one regional diplomat described as a "tail wagging the dog" dynamic, the spiraling violence in Myanmar under a savage military regime and determined resistance forces has opened diplomatic and political fault lines while undermining the 10-member group's international image. Other differences -- over attitudes to China and the U.S., or issues such as refugees and human rights -- are also threatening ASEAN unity like never before.

Broker for Israeli Arms to Myanmar Arrested in Thailand for Drug Dealing, Money Laundering

HAARETZ
Oded Yaron
Oct 27, 2022

Documents reveal that a corporation implicated in corruption, served as a middleman between IAI, Elbit, and Israel Shipyards and Myanmar's brutal junta, despite international sanctions over the Rohingya genocide.

A Myanmar military officer at an Israeli arms fair in 2019Moti Milrod

A corporation in Myanmar implicated in crime and corruption – whose top executives were arrested in Thailand on drug and money laundering charges – served as a middleman between Israeli arms exporters and the brutal military junta ruling the country, according to documents unveiled by the Justice for Myanmar organization. The corporation's senior executives maintain business and family ties with senior junta and Myanmar military figures. Britain imposed sanctions on the corporation, Star Sapphire Trading, for its ties to the Myanmar army during the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya.

The documents leaked to the organization are the subject of a letter sent by Israeli attorney Eitay Mack to Attorney Genera

Tak border crossing shut after Myanmar clash

Bangkok Post
published : 25 Mar 2023 

Thai injured in fresh clashes between Myanmar regime and rebels not far from Mae Sot

Migrant workers pass the Thai-Myanmar border in an official service truck as they leave Thailand in Mae Sot district of Tak province. (File photo: AFP) 

 

Thai authorities on Saturday temporarily closed a border checkpoint between Mae Sot district of Tak province and Myawaddy in Myanmar, following clashes between the Myanmar military and opponents of the the junta.

48 Rohingya migrants nabbed by highway police

Bangkok Post

7 DEC 2022

The 48 Rohingya migrants who were caught travelling on a bus by highway police in Pak Tho district, Ratchaburi, on Wednesday morning. They had entered the country illegally in Tak province and were heading for Malaysia. (Photo supplied)

RATCHABURI: Highway police arrested 48 Rohingya migrants boarding a chartered bus in Pak Tho district early Wednesday morning. Acting on a tip-off that a number of illegal migrant workers were being transported to the lower South, officers intercepted the bus for a search on Phetkasem highway in tambon Wang Manao, Pol Col Vachira Yaothaisong, commander of Highway Police Subdivision 2, said on Wednesday.

Dhaka seeks proactive role from Thailand, Asean to repatriate Rohingya

Dhaka Tribune

UNB
October 30, 2022

Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen with Permanent Secretary-designate of Thailand Sarun Charoensuwan UNB

Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen on Sunday sought a pro-active role from Thailand in particular, and from the Asean in general, for ensuring an expeditious and sustainable repatriation of the Rohingya people to their homeland in Myanmar.

Momen also requested participation of the Thai foreign minister and deputy prime minister at the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) Ministerial meeting in Dhaka next month.

Bangladesh seeks proactive role from Thailand, ASEAN

NEWAGE

United News of Bangladesh .
Dhaka | Published: Oct 31,2022

Foreign minister AK Abdul Momen on Sunday sought a pro-active role from Thailand in particular, and from the ASEAN in general, for ensuring an expeditious and sustainable repatriation of the Rohingya people to their homeland in Myanmar.

Momen also requested participation of the Thai foreign minister and deputy prime minister at the Indian Ocean Rim Association Ministerial meeting in Dhaka next month.

The issues were discussed when visiting permanent secretary-designate of Thailand Sarun Charoensuwan met Momen at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Sunday.

During the meeting, they exchanged warm greetings on the occasion of the 50 years of diplomatic ties between Bangladesh and Thailand, which is being celebrated on both sides with fervour and enthusiasm.

Timeline: Thailand’s coups

 FINANCIAL TIMES

 May 23 2014

( For Reference Only )

 

Thailand’s army staged a coup on Thursday, the 12th since the establishment of a constitutional monarchy in 1932. General Prayuth Chan-ocha, Thai army chief and head of the new ruling junta, has suspended the constitution, rounded up politicians and flushed protesters off the streets.

1932 Promoters Revolution King Prajadhipok (Rama VII) overthrown in a bloodless coup by a military junta led by educated radicals know as the “promoters”– most notably Pridi Phanomyang, Maj. Phibun Songkhram and Col Phahon Phonphayuhasena. The coup ended almost seven centuries of absolute monarchy.

Supporting stranded Rohingya in Thailand

EUROPEAN COMMISSION

EUROPEAN CIVIL PROTECTION AND HUMANITARIAN AID OPERATIONS
Source : ECHO
10th August 2021

© IOM Thailand

Despite early success in controlling the pandemic in 2020, Thailand has been gripped by rapidly rising COVID-19 cases and deaths in 2021, driven by the more virulent Delta variant. This has significantly impacted on health and the economy – especially among the vulnerable.

The pandemic has extended to Thailand’s refugees, migrants and asylum-seekers, who face compounded burdens. Migrant and mobile populations have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19 as they are unable to implement prevention measures, such as physical distancing, adequate sanitation, accessing medical care and access to personal protective equipment (PPE).

20 Myanmar migrants arrested in Hat Yai

Bangkok Post
ASSAWIN PAKKAWAN
6 JUN 2021

Twenty Myanmar nationals illegally entering Ranong from Kawthaung are arrested in Hat Yai district of Songkhla on Saturday. (Photo by Assawin Pakkawan)

SONGKHLA: Twenty Myanmar migrants were arrested in Hat Yai district on Saturday night, local media reported.

The arrests were made by a combined force of soldiers from the 5th Infantry Regiment, provincial and immigration police and administrative officials of Hat Yai district.

At about 8pm on Saturday, authorities searched a Bangkok-registered articulated lorry which stopped near Ban Rai village on Kanchanawanich road in tambon Ban Phru of Hat Yai district to pick up two Myanmar migrants. They found two other Myanmar migrants already in the lorry.

Myanmar: Journalists who fled coup face Thailand deportation

B B C  

Analysis

Johnathan Head

11 May 2021

Many journalists who have been covering protests in Myanmar have been arrested

Three journalists and two activists who fled from Myanmar are set to go on trial in Thailand on charges of illegally entering the country.

If found guilty they are likely to be deported back to Myanmar, where they say their lives would be in danger.

The trial was to begin on Tuesday in Chiang Mai but was postponed for another six days.

Since the military coup on 1 February, dozens of journalists have been arrested and charged in Myanmar.

Myanmar’s Brutal Military Was Once a Force for Freedom – but it’s been Waging Civil War for Decades

INTERNATIONAL POLICY DIGEST

Tharaphi Than

APRIL 5, 2021

With great fanfare – but few guests – Myanmar’s armed forces recently celebrated their 76th anniversary in the nation’s capital of Naypyitaw.

Only Russia, China, Thailand, and a handful of other Asian countries sent representatives to attend the March 27th parade showing off Myanmar’s modern war machines – mostly imported from Russia and China over the past decade, to the tune of $2.4 billion.

The Myanmar military has been terrorizing civilians since a coup two months earlier. On the day of the parade, soldiers killed over 90 people for protesting military rule, including a 5-year-old boy and three teenagers. An estimated 564 people have been killed in Myanmar since the Feb. 1 coup.

Thailand unlikely to join ASEAN in pressuring Myanmar junta to stop bloodshed

Thaiger

Ann Carter

Monday, April 5, 2021

Thailand’s government is unlikely to join other members of ASEAN in calling for Myanmar’s junta to stop the bloodshed. Fears over receiving a flood of refugees across the Burmese border and damages to its military ties may be of more importance to the Kingdom, despite the government’s recent claims that it is “gravely concerned” over the situation in Myanmar.

If Thailand refuses to join increasing calls for Myanmar’s junta to step down, it could, however, place it in a unique position as a mediator. Political scientist, Panitan Wattanayagorn, at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University, told Reuters that Thailand may be in a unique position to act as a mediator if it doesn’t join sides with the ASEAN community.

Desperate Burmese refugees flee to Thailand and India to escape crisis

The Guardian

Amrit Dhillon in New Delhi and Emma Graham-Harrison
Sat 3 Apr 2021 

Tensions rise on borders as thousands seek safe haven from military crackdown

Karen villagers being carried by refugees and Thai paramilitaries after crossing border at a Thai-Myanmar border in Mae Hong Son province. Photograph: Royal Thai Army Handout/EPA

Myanmar’s escalating crisis is spilling across its borders, as thousands of refugees seek safe haven in India and Thailand in the wake of the military coup and bloody crackdowns on anti-coup protesters.

Authorities in both countries have tried to block new arrivals, fearing that a steady flow may become a flood, if unrest spreading through Myanmar worsens. A top UN official warned last week that the country is “on the verge of spiralling into a failed state” if action is not taken soon to stem the bloodshed.

The catastrophic human costs of the regime’s brutal policies is visible in crowded refugee camps in Bangladesh where hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees are living. Most fled after a military campaign that began in 2017, and have lived in limbo ever since.

Analysis: Myanmar's neighbour Thailand unlikely to toughen stance on coup

REUTERS

Kay Johnson, Panarat Thepgumpanat
APAC
APRIL 2, 2021

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand has slightly hardened its language on Myanmar by saying it is “gravely concerned” about escalating bloodshed since a Feb. 1 coup, but close military ties and fears of a flood of refugees mean it is unlikely to go further, analysts say.

FILE PHOTO: People who are fleeing the violence in Myanmar sit in a boat as they approach a Thai soldier at the border village of Mae Sam Laep, Mae Hong Son province, Thailand March 30, 2021. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun/File Photo

That leaves Thailand out of step with some members of the 10-strong Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), as they seek to ramp up pressure on the junta, but could also position it as a possible mediator.

“(Thailand’s position) is difficult, but I think there is an opportunity because we’ve become an important partner,” Panitan Wattanayagorn, a political scientist at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University, told Reuters.

Thailand braces for refugees as thousands flee Myanmar airstrikes

THE HILL

JUSTINE COLEMAN - 

03/29/21

Thailand is bracing itself for thousands of refugees who are fleeing Myanmar after its military launched several airstrikes near its border in recent days, further escalating the military crackdown after the coup.

Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-ocha said on Monday that his government is getting ready for a potential flood of refugees amid the recent strike attacks, The Associated Press reported.

“We don’t want to have mass migration into our territory, but we will consider human rights, too,” Prayut said.

Myanmar: Airstrikes force villagers into jungle as 3,000 flee to Thailand

Sky News

David Mercer
News reporter @DavidMercerSky
Monday 29 March 2021

A luxury military party was reportedly held in Myanmar's capital on the deadliest day since last month's coup.

 
Man injured after Myanmar rickshaw grenade blast

Airstrikes that sent villagers fleeing into the jungle show the situation in Myanmar is "much worse", a humanitarian worker has told Sky News, as military leaders reportedly partied on the deadliest day of violence since last month's coup.

More gunfire has been reported today as people gathered for the funeral of one of at least 114 people said to have been killed by Myanmar security forces yesterday, including a five-year-old boy and a 13-year-old girl.

AFP photo of detained Thai protesters in 2004 recirculates in misleading posts about 'Myanmar Muslims'

AFP Fact Check

Wasi Anjum Mirza, AFP Pakistan
Published on Friday 19 February 2021

Copyright AFP 2017-2020. All rights reserved.

Some of the 300 demonstrators arrested by policemen and soldiers lie on a pavement at Tak Bai police station in Narathiwat outhern Thailand, 25 October 2004. (AFP / Str)

A photo of a group of people surrounded by men wearing military fatigues has been shared tens of thousands of times on Facebook since January 2020 in posts that call for readers to pray for the safety of Muslims in Myanmar. The photo has continued to circulate online alongside a similar claim following a military coup in Myanmar in February 2021. The photo, however, has been shared in a misleading context: it actually shows protesters arrested by police in southern Thailand in 2004.