Deadliest day since Myanmar military coup as 107 killed with children said to be amongst fatalities

Sunday 28 March 2021


Video report by ITV News Reporter Graham Stothard

A record number of civilians, including children, have been killed in the deadliest day since Myanmar's military coup last month.

An independent researcher in the city of Yangon put the death toll at 107, with the bloodshed having spread over more than two dozen cities and towns.Security forces in the south-east Asian nation have been accused of opening fire on armed civilians, killing dozens of innocent people, including children, in a bloody crackdown on the annual armed forces day

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Children are thought to be amongst the 100 killed in Saturday's protests. Credit: AP

Saturday's death toll surpasses estimates for the previous high on March 14, which ranged from 74 to 90 deaths.

As of Friday, the number of protesters killed since the takeover was 328, said the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, which documents deaths and arrests. This figure does not take into account the deaths which took place on Saturday.

It said its tally only includes verified cases, with the actual number of casualties “likely much higher.” It said eight people were killed on Friday.

CCTV footage from the city of Dawei showed security forces opening fire at point-blank range on three men who rode past their pick-up truck on a motorbike.

Security forces were captured on camera shooting at three men on a motorbike at point-blank range. Credit: AP

Footage showed the bike crashing into a gate and two of the men running off under renewed fire from what appeared to be police officers.

The third man could be seen falling on the ground after being hit, then carried onto one of the security vehicles

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Police fired at two of the men as they fled. Credit: AP

It was later confirmed the third man survived and was being treated in hospital.

Myanmar security forces met renewed anti-coup protests with unsparing violence on Saturday, firing live rounds into crowds across the country and killing scores of people in more than two dozen towns and cities.

While the military celebrated the annual holiday with a parade in the country’s capital, Naypyitaw, people across Myanmar called for bigger demonstrations.

The protesters refer to the holiday by its original name, Resistance Day, which marks the beginning of a revolt against Japanese occupation in World War 2.

In the small town of Launglone, around 3,000 anti-coup protesters took to the streets with no interference from security forces.

It was a rare peaceful demonstration on a day when police and soldiers brutally suppressed opposition to last month's takeover, firing into crowds and killing dozens across the country.

The head of the military Min Aung Hlaing used the country's Armed Forces Day to try to justify the overthrow of Aung San Suu Kyi's elected government on February 1.

Myanmar’s Commander-in-Chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing Credit: AP

In a televised speech before thousands of soldiers at a massive parade ground at the capital Naypyitaw on Saturday, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing referred to “terrorism which can be harmful to state tranquility and social security,” and called it unacceptable.

In his speech, Min Aung Hlaing accused Ms Suu Kyi’s government of failing to investigate irregularities in the last polls, which her National League for Democracy party won in a landslide.

He said his government would hold “a free and fair election”.
   

Military personnel participate in a parade on Armed Forces Day Credit: AP

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the regime had hit a “new low” on Saturday.

“Today’s killing of unarmed civilians, including children, marks a new low," Mr Raab said.

“We will work with our international partners to end this senseless violence, hold those responsible to account, and secure a path back to democracy.”

The slaughter has provoked an international outcry, with the British ambassador among the diplomatic missions raising concerns that children are among the dead.

Dan Chugg, the British ambassador in Yangon, said that the “security forces have disgraced themselves by shooting unarmed civilians”.

“At a time of economic crisis, Covid and a worsening humanitarian situation, today’s military parade and extrajudicial killings speak volumes for the priorities of the military junta,” he said.

The European Union’s delegation to Myanmar said on Twitter: “This 76th Myanmar armed forces day will stay engraved as a day of terror and dishonour. The killing of unarmed civilians, including children, are indefensible acts.”

State television MRTV on Friday night showed an announcement urging young people to learn a lesson from those killed already about the danger of being shot in the head or back.

Police personnel participate in a parade during the national Armed Forces Day Credit: AP

The warning was taken as a threat because many protesters have been shot in the head, suggesting they were deliberately killed.

The announcement suggested some young people were taking part in protesting as if it was a game, and urged their parents and friends to advise them not to participate.

The junta detained Ms Suu Kyi on the day of the takeover. It continues to hold her on minor criminal charges while investigating allegations of corruption against her that her supporters dismiss as politically motivated.


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Myanmar protests continue after more than 100 killed in bloodiest day since coup

Sunday 28 March 2021, 

Video report by ITV News Senior Correspondent Paul Davies

Protesters returned to the streets of Myanmar on Sunday to press their demands for a return to democracy, just a day after security forces killed more than 100 people in the bloodiest day since last month’s military coup.

Demonstrations were held in Yangon and Mandalay, the country’s two biggest cities, as well as elsewhere. Some protests were again met with police force.

At least 114 people were killed on Saturday as security forces cracked down on protests against the February 1 coup which ousted Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government, according to the online news service Myanmar Now.

Several children under 16 were reported to be among the dead.

Similar death tolls were issued by other Myanmar media and researchers, far exceeding the previous highest on March 14.

Anti-coup protesters gesture with the three-fingers symbol of resistance during a demonstration in Thaketa township in Yangon Credit: AP

The number of killings since the coup is now more than 420, according to multiple counts.

The coup reversed years of progress towards democracy after five decades of military rule and has again made Myanmar the focus of international scrutiny.

Saturday’s killings by police and soldiers took place throughout the country as Myanmar’s military celebrated the annual Armed Forces Day holiday with a parade in the country’s capital, Naypyitaw.

CCTV captures Myanmar security forces firing at point-blank range on passing motorcyclists

The bloodshed quickly drew international condemnation, both from diplomatic missions within Myanmar and from abroad.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was shocked by the killings of civilians, including children.

“The continuing military crackdown is unacceptable and demands a firm, unified & resolute international response,” he wrote on Twitter.

In the United States, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a tweet that his country is “horrified by the bloodshed perpetrated by Burmese security forces, showing that the junta will sacrifice the lives of the people to serve the few”.

The military chiefs of 12 nations issued a joint statement condemning the use of force against unarmed people.

“A professional military follows international standards for conduct and is responsible for protecting – not harming – the people it serves,” it said.

“We urge the Myanmar armed forces to cease violence and work to restore respect and credibility with the people of Myanmar that it has lost through its actions.”

The statement was issued by the defence chiefs of Australia, Canada, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, Denmark, the Netherlands, New Zealand, South Korea, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Human rights group Amnesty International revived criticism that the international community is not doing enough to end the state violence in Myanmar.

Anti-coup protesters prepare makeshift bows and arrows to confront police in Thaketa township in Yangon Credit: AP

“UN Security Council member states’ continued refusal to meaningfully act against this never-ending horror is contemptible,” said Ming Yu Hah, the organisation’s deputy regional director for campaigns.

The Security Council has condemned the violence but not advocated concerted action against the junta, such as a ban on selling it arms.

China and Russia are both major arms suppliers to Myanmar’s military as well as politically sympathetic, and, as members of the council, would almost certainly veto any such move.

In recent days the junta has portrayed the demonstrators as the ones perpetrating violence for their sporadic use of Molotov cocktails.

On Saturday, some protesters in Yangon were seen carrying bows and arrows.

The junta has said its use of force is justified to stop what it has called rioting.

Repression in Myanmar

BY MEL GURTOV 

COUNTERPUNCH

 MARCH 26, 2021

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Democracy in Myanmar suffered a severe setback on February 1 when the Tatmadaw, the country’s military, seized power.  The coup did not come as a complete surprise: the National League for Democracy headed by Aung San Suu Kyi won the general election for the second straight time. Although the military, which until 2012 had ruled Myanmar/Burma for about 50 years, still held the most powerful cabinet seats, it evidently could not tolerate this stinging defeat. It has declared a state of emergency and imposed martial law in large swaths of the country.

The coup was met by an extraordinary outburst of popular protest, reminiscent of the 1988 uprising against military rule that resulted in thousands of deaths.  The military’s response to the peaceful protests this time has been horrific: a violent crackdown, including use of torture and kidnapping; attacks on people’s homes and on hospitals that are treating injured protesters; and “disappearing” people, whose relatives are unable to learn their fate. News reports say the body count is over 200 at this writing, but based on reports from my contact in Myanmar, that figure is a considerable understatement.  (For example, this contact tells me that in one 3-day period in March, in just one district of Yangon, the capital, there were “242 fatalities, 60 arrested and missing, 27 dead bodies missing,” according to a medical team.)

As for the political opposition, Suu Kyi and many members of the NLD have been detained at some unknown location. The New York Times reports that an unofficial opposition group has formed under the leadership of a speaker in parliament before the coup.  The group, calling itself the Committee Representing the Myanmar Parliament, has promised a federal form of government that would give equal rights to Myanmar’s many ethnic groups, some of which remain in active rebellion against the government.  (Nothing was said about justice for the Rohingya Muslims.) This change would be in keeping with the country’s history as a community of ethnic groups that happen to be incorporated in a nation-state.  As Prof. John Badgley, a noted authority on Burma’s history and politics, observes:

Over 40% of [Myanmar’s] citizens are minorities, whereas all of senior military responsible for enforcing law and order, including political transitions, are steeped in [the majority] Burman culture. Their heritage includes sacred language defined by Pali verses taught by monks devoted to anachronistic beliefs. Their family cultures are shaped by Theravada beliefs unique to Burma. As a consequence most Burmese political transitions have been guided by protection of their sacred order, as defined by Tatmadaw.

Though the UN, the US, and some other countries have urged the military to reverse course, only one country—China—has any real influence over the military’s behavior.  But all China has done is urge the military to protect Chinese-run businesses, many of which have been torched, from “terrorism activities.” China has joined in a UN statement of “concern,” but otherwise is perfectly content to see democracy squashed in a neighboring country in which it has significant economic interests. Normalcy to China means a military in control of event.

There is no protection for the protesters, who continue to hold out across the country in the slight hope international intervention will at least bring a halt to the military’s repression. Maybe the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will try to mediate, or international businesses, watching the bottom line take a hit as Myanmar’s economy grinds to a halt, will speak up. The US and the European Union have imposed sanctions on some Tatmadaw officials. But the major US media have been virtually silent on events in Myanmar—a few articles in the New York Times and the Washington Post, for example. The mass demonstrations in Belarus against a dictator got much more attention.

We may ask: Where’s the outrage?

Mel Gurtov is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Portland State University, Editor-in-Chief of Asian Perspective, an international affairs quarterly and blogs at In the Human Interest.

Myanmar protesters nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

Norwegian academic says campaign should 'inspire other non-violent pro-democracy movements'


PUBLISHED : 26 MAR 2021

Local residents cheer on a convoy of motorcyclists preparing to stage a protest ride in Launglone, Dawei on Friday. (Dawei Watch via Reuters)

OSLO: The civil disobedience movement that has sprung up in Myanmar since the military coup has been nominated for the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize, a Norwegian academic said on Friday.

Kristian Stokke, a professor of sociology at the University of Oslo, said the movement represents an exemplary peaceful response to the power grab by the army on Feb 1.

“The civil disobedience movement is an important mass mobilisation for democracy in Myanmar that is taking place, so far, with non-violent means,” he told AFP.

“This pro-democracy movement, especially if successful, can also have consequences outside Myanmar and inspire other non-violent pro-democracy movements elsewhere at a time when democracy is under pressure from authoritarian forces.”

According to the Assistance Association of Political Prisoners (AAPP), a local monitoring group, 320 people have been killed and nearly 3,000 arrested since the coup that ousted Aung San Suu Kyi — who herself received the prestigious award in 1991.

“What is important and gives a glimmer of hope is that what started as a response to a military coup has become a broader alliance across the many differences, especially ethnic ones, within Burmese society,” Stokke said.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee only accepts nominations submitted before the Jan 31 deadline, so the proposal submitted last week by Stokke and five other academics can only be considered for next year’s prize.

Tens of thousands of people, among them parliamentarians and ministers from all countries, former laureates and certain university professors, are eligible to submit a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize.

The committee itself does not disclose who was considered or even nominated other than announcing the winner, though those who submit a nomination can publish it.

The 2021 peace prize winner will be announced on Oct 8. The World Food Programme (WFP) won last year.

Lonely ‘Tatmadaw Day’ for Myanmar’s Unloved Armed Forces

2021-03-26

This photo taken by and received from an anonymous source via Facebook on shows security forces walking on a street in Taunggyi in Myanmar's Shan state, during a crackdown on protests against the military coup, March 25, 2021
AFP

Myanmar’s ruling military will mark Armed Forces Day Saturday, nearly two months after it overthrew the country’s elected government, with seemingly little to celebrate as foreign diplomats and ethnic armies plan to shun the army ceremony to avoid any appearance of lending legitimacy to the junta.

The weeks since the Feb. 1 coup that deposed Aung San Suu Kyi and her newly elected government have shocked the world with daily images of blood flowing in the streets of major cities and soldiers firing weapons indiscriminately. More than 300 civilians have been killed, and 50 journalists are among thousands arrested.

On the eve of the ceremony, the junta broadcast on state-run MRTV News a warning that protesters should learn that they “can be in danger of getting shot in the head and back.”

Adding to the bad look this year for Tatmadaw Day--commemorating the March 27, 1945 start of a rebellion by the Burma National Army that helped defeat the occupying Imperial Japanese Army—is the fact that Aung San Suu Kyi, the daughter of that army’s founder, is under house arrest, and not for the first time.

“This is a day of suffering and mourning for the Burmese people, who have paid for the Tatmadaw’s arrogance and greed with their lives, time and time again,” said Phil Robertson, the deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch.

“The tragedy of Myanmar’s modern history can be largely laid at the door of successive military strongmen who have inflicted rights abuses, looted the economy, and divided the country in a perpetual civil war that shows no sign of ending,” he said.

Myanmar endured harsh military rule from 1962 to 2011, last month’s coup is the second time the Tatmadaw nullified the results of an election swept by Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy. The first time, in 1990, the junta held Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest for 15 years between 1989 and 2010.

Sources in diplomatic circles told RFA that most Western countries are unlikely to send their military attachés to the ceremony Saturday.

“U.S. defense attachés received an invitation to attend the Armed Forces Day ceremony in Naypyidaw this year. But the U.S. embassy will not attend,” said Aryani Manring, a U.S. embassy spokesperson in Yangon.

“The United States is one of the many countries that strongly condemn the coup and military’s subsequent actions, including unlawful detention and widespread violence against the peaceful demonstrators. So we will not be attending,” Manring added.

Myanmar soldiers march in formation during a military parade to mark the 73rd Armed Forces Day, in Naypyidaw, March 27, 2018. Credit: AFP

‘Acutely felt and widely noticed’

Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi has confirmed Tokyo will not send any delegates, including a military attaché, to the Armed Forces Day ceremony.

RFA received no reply by Friday to questions about attendance plans sent to the embassies of China, Russia and India. Beijing and Moscow have shielded the junta from criticism at the United Nations.

“I expect the majority will boycott,” said John Blaxland, a former Australian defense attaché to Myanmar and Thailand, who has attended March 27 ceremonies in the past.

“This parade has always featured defense attaches and diplomats being given prime vantage points from which to watch. Their absence will be acutely felt and widely noticed,” he said.

But Blaxland added that “it appears the Tatmadaw, and Min Aung Hlaing in particular, have hardened to the entreaties of foreign counterparts. It seems their approval or implicit support matters less now than simply holding onto power.”

Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing has since 2019 been sanctioned by the U.S. and faced the threat of referral to the International Criminal Court in The Hague and for genocide for his role in a 2017 army campaign that killed thousands of Rohingya and drove more 740,000 of the Muslim ethnic minority into Bangladesh.

The junta has shrugged off international criticism throughout the nearly two months since the coup, implicitly reminding critics that it is no stranger to pariah status.

Posters featuring military chief General Min Aung Hlaing are placed on the road during a demonstration in Yangon against the military coup, March 9, 2021. Credit AFP

Ethnic armies to skip parade

Bangkok-based military analyst Anthony Davis told RFA that Myanmar’s junta “is ultimately not that concerned by international opinion.”

With widespread rejection of the coup persisting despite brutal repression, “in the domestic conflict inside Myanmar it will certainly exploit to the full anything and everything that appears to reflect international recognition of its legitimacy.” he added.

One of the sharpest snubs ahead of Saturday came from inside the country, when the Karen National Union, an ethnic armed group that had been part of a six-year-old peace process with the military and previous governments, tweeted that it “will only attend ceremonies that reflect dignity, humanity, justice, and freedom for all.”

Other ethnic armed groups who are part of a 2016 ceasefire agreement with the military confirmed they would shun the ceremony, which they usually attend.

Still other ethnic armies, some embroiled in conflicts with the Myanmar military that dare back to the then Burma’s independence from Britain in 1948, have supported the nationwide Civil Disobedience Movement and offered haven to activists and workers fleeing arrest or violence from military authorities.

In a sign that Western countries are not going to stop at criticizing the junta, the U.S. and Britain on Thursday levelled economic sanctions on two Myanmar military holding companies, a move Secretary of State Antony Blinken called “the most significant action to date to impose costs on the military regime.”

U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said it had designated the Myanma Economic Holdings Public Company Limited (MEHL) and Myanmar Economic Corporation Limited (MEC), for sanctions including asset freezes and curbs on doing business with U.S. entities.

“By designating MEC and MEHL, Treasury is targeting the Burmese military’s control of significant segments of the Burmese economy, which is a vital financial lifeline for the military junta,” said OFAC Director Andrea Gacki.

This photo taken and received from an anonymous source via Facebook shows protesters carrying signs during a demonstration against the military coup in Yangon, March 26, 2021. Credit: AFP

Oil and gas revenues

Pressure is building from within Myanmar as well as from the human rights community is to cut off oil and gas revenues to the junta, exports worth about $1 billion a year that flow directly to the junta since the military takeover.

“This is the single largest source of revenue flowing into the hands of this criminal enterprise. So I think it's critical that we that we cut it off,” Tom Andrews, UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, told a U.S. Senate hearing Thursday.

“United States can apply these sanctions in such a way, using the Treasury Department's licensing power to make sure that the gas continues to flow, but that the revenue stream from the oil and gas to the junta stops,” he said.

“That's what we want. That could happen. And more importantly that's what the people of Myanmar are demanding, including the elected leaders of Myanmar,” Andrews told the panel.

Activists are calling for more protests across the nation of 54 million people Saturday despite the shooting warnings issued Friday night.

Earlier in the day, police opened fire on a crowd of protesters in the southern coastal city of Myeik, killing six, while photos on social media showed police and soldiers shooting at protesters from the inside of an ambulance they had commandeered.

The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, an NGO based in Thailand, reported that at least 328 people have been killed in the crackdown as of Friday, while an RFA tally has counted 270.

“Only with the final deconstruction of the Tatmadaw and the prosecution of its commanders in international courts of law will the Burmese people be free of this continuous nightmare of military misrule,” said Robertson of Human Rights Watch.

Reported by RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Ye Kaung Myint Maung. Written in English by Paul Eckert.

OPINION

Myanmar's national disgrace is the Tatmadaw

PUBLISHED : 27 MAR 2021 
NEWSPAPER SECTION: OPED
WRITER: MARK ADAMS

Today is a national holiday in Myanmar called Armed Forces Day. It is intended to honour that country's military and, as such, it is a fitting time to reflect on what exactly is worth celebrating.

Known within the country as the Tatmadaw, it justified its Feb 1 coup by reverting to painfully well-trodden messaging. The generals argued their forceful political intervention, ousting an elected government at gunpoint, was necessary to protect the country from destabilising democratic processes. Alleging corruption in recent elections, the generals disregarded the observations of both domestic and international election observers that despite some issues the election certainly produced legitimate, free and fair results.

In the weeks since the coup, the country has increasingly descended into widespread public protests, mass desertions of the civil service, and the collapse of the economy. In response the junta has instructed security forces, the police and military, to steadily respond through beatings, terrorisation and outright mass murder. As the violence escalated, Singapore's foreign minister aptly declared the junta's actions against peaceful protesters a "national disgrace".

The wider truth is ever more evident: the Tatmadaw is and has been Myanmar's national disgrace for over 60 years. The military long justified its role in Myanmar's politics, economics and society because of the "disunity" and prospects for "disintegration" among its diverse peoples. This self-fulfilling prophecy has been sustained more by the Tatmadaw than any other actor. Many ethnically and religiously diverse countries are developed and stable.

More than any other stakeholder, the Tatmadaw deserves responsibility for the country's ethnic divides, civil war, political repression and impoverishment. For decades the Tatmadaw has applied barbaric counter-insurgency methods that target civilian populations with violence and deprivation. It used extreme violence to crush the 1988 uprising as well as 2007's "Saffron Revolution". The Tatmadaw is now capping off its decrepit history of division and violence by the genocide of Rohingya in 2017 and savagely trying to repress a country near universally erupting against it in revolt.

'Day of shame'
Myanmar protesters nominated for Nobel Peace Prize
Small Thai firms struggle in Myanmar

As Myanmar's people brace for what comes next, the only national cause remaining for Myanmar is overcoming its tortured history of military dictatorship. The unfolding resistance to Min Aung Hlaing's junta is an opportunity to rectify the mistakes of independence and the decades since. Independence was done in unfortunate haste and incomplete through the assassination of its founding father Aung San and the failure to see through compromises ensuring equity and equality via federalism. Ever since 1948 Myanmar has had a fractured political settlement. The bane of its existence has been a military that has long designated itself the country's keeper, manipulating its politics and diversity for its own benefit.

The current circumstances necessitate that Myanmar's people unite and fight for a future freed from the Tatmadaw in its current form. In important ways, the current period is potentially more significant to nation- and state-building than either the coups of 1962 and 1988, and in some ways even more so than independence. It is a historic opportunity to redo things for the better. Myanmar's people suffered under military rule for over five decades. The last decade was a heavily conditioned attempt at power sharing between the military and an elected civilian government. In the end, the military could not abide by the rules of the game that they themselves established in writing the country's 2008 constitution. Myanmar's people deserve to be free of military rule once and for all.

The question now facing Myanmar's people is how the junta can be defeated. For this there is a necessary but painful point to be made: pleas for international assistance will not be answered in any meaningful way. Most obviously because there will be no response to directly prevent violence by the junta's security forces. There will be no UN peacekeepers or US air raids targeting the Tatmadaw. The only countries that will undertake significant measures -- the support of weaponry, financing and political cover -- are those willing to benefit the junta. Russia and China's support is evident for the junta. The hard truth is that should the junta win and suppress the protesters, the world will simply re-engage with whatever government the junta forms.

Regardless, the reality is that Myanmar's people don't need international saviours for the junta to fail. Myanmar's people have the heart and bravery to do what is needed for themselves. That has become increasingly clear since Feb 1. There is now a historic moment building to rectify the mistakes of the past through solidarity and commitment to a shared future free of the military. The country's political settlement can be rebuilt on sincere notions of equality and equity manifest in the form of a democratic federal union. Uniting in the common cause of deposing the curse that is Myanmar's national disgrace of a military once and for all is necessary for the country to finally rectify the sins and mistakes of its earliest years.

The Tatmadaw's perpetual claims of superiority, patriotism and national duty, framed around twisted notions about the rule of law and need for stability, only ever served to justify repression, division, violence and theft. Myanmar's people deserve to be free of tyrannical military rule once and for all. Only Myanmar's people can decide the appropriate means necessary to achieve it. If disillusionment sets in, some groups will simply stop protesting, others will retreat into their mountainous citadels, while others will be left in the junta's prisons. Unity must come from the solidarity of persevering against a common national enemy, the Tatmadaw, and fundamentally relying on nobody else in what is a fight for a future worth having.

Mark Adams is a researcher focused on Southeast Asian politics and economics. An earlier version of this article appeared in Oxford Tea Circles.

Myanmar's armed ethnic factions will not stand by if more killed, says one group

General Yawd Serk, chair of the Restoration Council of Shan State/Shan State Army, one of the ethnic armed groups to have denounced the coup.PHOTO: REUTERS

PUBLISHED MAR 27, 2021,

CHIANG MAI, THAILAND (REUTERS) - Myanmar's ethnic armed factions will not stand by and do nothing if the military junta's forces continue to kill protesters, the leader of one of the main armed groups said on Saturday (March 27).

At least 16 protesters were killed by security forces across Myanmar on Saturday, according to local media and witnesses, as the junta celebrated the annual Armed Forces Day.

"The Myanmar Armed Forces Day isn't an armed forces day, it's more like the day they killed people," General Yawd Serk, chair of the Restoration Council of Shan State/Shan State Army - South (RCSS), told Reuters.

"It isn't for the protection of democracy as well, it's how they harm democracy," he said.

"If they continue to shoot at protesters and bully the people, I think all the ethnic groups would not just stand by and do nothing."

The RCSS, which operates near the Thai border, is one of several ethnic armed groups to have denounced the coup and vowed to stand with protesters. Myanmar's two dozen or so ethnic armed factions control vast swathes of the country.

Addressing a military parade earlier, junta leader Min Aung Hlaing said the army's job was to protect the people and promote democracy, reiterating his promise of a fresh election made after the army took power on Feb 1.

The junta says a Nov 8 ballot, won in a landslide by Ms Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD), was rigged, forcing the military to take control.

The latest fatalities would bring the total death toll to more than 340 in the army's efforts to stamp out the widespread opposition to the coup.

Many protesters are calling for the formation of a federal army and Gen Yawd Serk said he supported that.

"The ethnic armed groups now have a similar enemy and we need to join hands and hurt those that are hurting the people.

We need to join together," he said.

Myanmar army launches air strikes in Karen state, group says


(Reuters) - Myanmar army fighter jets launched air strikes on Saturday on a village near the Thai border in territory controlled by an armed ethnic group, the group said, as fears grow of civil war following last month’s military coup.

The Karen National Union (KNU), the armed ethnic group that controls the southeastern region, said fighter jets attacked Day Pu No in Papun district, an area held by its Brigade 5 forces, at around 8 p.m., forcing villagers to flee.

“They bombed the area... The villagers from that area said two dead and two injured,” a spokesperson for civil society group Karen Peace Support Network said, adding that communication was difficult in the remote region and there could be more casualties.

A spokesman for the junta did not answer phone calls seeking comment.

The reported air assault is the most significant attack for years in the region. The KNU had signed a ceasefire agreement in 2015 but tensions surged after the military overthrew Aung San Suu Kyi’s civilian government on Feb.1.

Earlier on Saturday, the KNU said Brigade 5 forces overran an army base, killing 10 soldiers including a lieutenant-colonel, as the junta celebrated its annual Armed Forces Day with a parade in the capital, Naypyitaw.

The KNU says it has been sheltering hundreds of people who have fled central Myanmar amid mounting violence in recent weeks. The junta’s troops killed dozens of people on Saturday, including children, in one of the bloodiest days of protests since the coup, news reports and witnesses said.

Reporting by Poppy McPherson; Additional reporting by Panu Wongcha-um; Editing by Alex Richardson and Frances Kerry

Myanmar security forces kill over 100 protesters in 'horrifying' day of bloodshed

By Reuters Staff

(Reuters) -Myanmar security forces killed 114 people, including some children, in a brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protesters on Saturday, the bloodiest day of violence since last month’s military coup, news reports and witnesses said.

The killings, which took place on Armed Forces Day, drew strong renewed criticism from Western countries. British Ambassador Dan Chugg said the security forces had “disgraced themselves” and the U.S. envoy called the violence horrifying.

Military jets also launched air strikes on a village in territory controlled by an armed group from the Karen ethnic minority and at least two people were killed, a civil society group said.

Earlier, the Karen National Union said it had overrun an army post near the Thai border, killing 10 people - including a lieutenant colonel - and losing one of its own fighters as tensions with the military surged after years of relative peace.

Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, the junta leader, said during a parade to mark Armed Forces Day that the military would protect the people and strive for democracy.

Demonstrators turned out on Saturday in Yangon, Mandalay and other towns, as they have done almost daily since the Feb. 1 coup that ousted elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The Myanmar Now news portal said 114 people were killed across the country in crackdowns on the protests.

At least 40 people, including a 13-year-old girl, were killed in Mandalay, and at least 27 people were killed in Yangon, Myanmar Now said. A boy as young as five was earlier reported among the dead in Mandalay but there were conflicting reports later that he may have survived. Another 13-year-old was among the dead in the central Sagaing region.

“Today is a day of shame for the armed forces,” Dr. Sasa, a spokesman for CRPH, an anti-junta group set up by deposed lawmakers, told an online forum.

A military spokesman did not respond to calls seeking comment on the killings by security forces, the air strikes or the insurgent attack on its post.

“They are killing us like birds or chickens, even in our homes,” said Thu Ya Zaw in the central town of Myingyan, where at least two protesters were killed. “We will keep protesting regardless... We must fight until the junta falls.”

The deaths on Saturday would take the number of civilians reported killed since the coup to over 440.

‘TERROR AND DISHONOUR’

U.S. Ambassador Thomas Vajda said on social media: “This bloodshed is horrifying,” adding “Myanmar’s people have spoken clearly: they do not want to live under military rule”.

British foreign minister Dominic Raab said the killing of unarmed civilians and children marked a new low, while the EU delegation to Myanmar said Saturday would “forever stay engraved as a day of terror and dishonour.”

News reports said there were deaths in Sagaing, Lashio in the east, in the Bago region, near Yangon, and elsewhere. A one-year-old baby was hit in the eye with a rubber bullet.

Min Aung Hlaing, speaking at the parade in the capital Naypyitaw, reiterated a promise to hold elections, without giving any time-frame.

“The army seeks to join hands with the entire nation to safeguard democracy,” he said in a live broadcast on state television. “Violent acts that affect stability and security in order to make demands are inappropriate.”

The military has said it took power because November elections won by Suu Kyi’s party were fraudulent, an assertion dismissed by the country’s election commission. Suu Kyi remains in detention at an undisclosed location and many other figures in her party are also in custody.

RUSSIA ‘A TRUE FRIEND’

New U.S. and European sanctions this week increased external pressure on the junta, but the condemnation is not universal.

Russia’s deputy defence minister Alexander Fomin attended the parade in Naypyitaw, having met senior junta leaders a day earlier.

“Russia is a true friend,” Min Aung Hlaing said.

Diplomats said eight countries - Russia, China, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand - sent representatives, but Russia was the only one to send a minister to the parade on Armed Forces Day, which commemorates the start of the resistance to Japanese occupation in 1945.

Support from Russia and China, which has also refrained from criticism, is important for the junta as those two countries are permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and can block potential U.N. actions.

In a warning on Friday evening, state television said protesters were “in danger of getting shot to the head and back”. It did not specifically say security forces had been given shoot-to-kill orders and the junta has previously suggested some fatal shootings have come from within the crowds.

Gunshots hit the U.S. cultural centre in Yangon on Saturday, but nobody was hurt and the incident was being investigated, U.S. Embassy spokesperson Aryani Manring said.

Author and historian Thant Myint-U wrote on Twitter: “Even after weeks of appalling violence, today’s killing of civilians is shocking both in nature and scale, with again children amongst the dead, and deserves the world’s concerted attention and help.”


Reporting by Reuters staff;Writing by Raju GopalakrishnanEditing by Simon Cameron-Moore, Michael Perry and Frances Kerry

THAILAND
Charges against pro-democracy protesters: an updated list

By Erich Parpart
March 26, 2021

After eight months of protests, more than 400 people are being prosecuted for alleged violations ranging from littering and obstruction of traffic to sedition and lese-majeste.

Of those, 77 have been charged with violation of Section 112 of the Criminal Code, one of the world’s strictest lese-majeste laws, which carries a jail sentence of three to 15 years.

Nineteen people are incarcerated awaiting trial with their bail requests repeatedly denied. Most of those are protest leaders charged with sedition and lese-majeste.

Lese-majeste

In June, King Maha Vajiralongkorn told Prime Minister Prayut Chan-ocha not to use 112 to prosecute civilians.

In November, Prayut said he will use all laws necessary to suppress the pro-democracy protestors, in remarks widely reported as meaning Section 112 was back in force.

Of the 77 lese-majeste cases since then, six are against people younger than 18.

Their cases ranged from putting up signs and posting online messages that the plaintiffs believed insulted the royal institution to making political speeches.

In the lese-majeste cases, 28 were brought by civilian plaintiffs, six by the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society, and the rest were filed by the police.

Many of the protest leaders are facing multiple charges.

Parit “Penguin” Chiwarak, now on his 12th day of hunger strike for his right to bail, faces 20 counts of lese-majeste.

Arnon Numpa, who has been in the same jail for more than a month, is facing 12 counts, while Panusaya “Rung” Sithijirawattanakul and Panupong “Mike Rayong” Jardnok are facing nine and eight, respectively.

Six others protest leaders are also facing three or four separate charges each.

Incarceration

Of the 19 people in prison awaiting trial, 13 are facing lese-majeste charges.

Here is the list of the detained.
Name Charge Detention date
Parit “Penguin” Chiwarak Lese-majeste February 9
Arnon Numpa Lese-majeste February 9
Somyot Pruksakasemsuk Lese-majeste February 9
Patiwat “Morlum Bank” Saraiyaem Lese-majeste February 9
Nattanon Chaiyamahabutr Damage to police property February 24
Tawat Sukprasert Damage to police property February 24
Sakchai Tangjitsadudee Damage to police property February 24
Chaluay Ekkasak Damage to police property February 24
Somkid Tosoi Damage to police property February 24
Chai-amorn “Ammy The Bottom Blues” Kaewwiboonpan Arson and lese-majeste March 3
Parinya “Port Fai Yen” Cheewinkulpathom Lese-majeste March 6
Panusaya “Rung” Sithijirawattanakul Lese-majeste March 8
Jatupat “Pai Dao Din” Boonpattararaksa Lese-majeste March 8
Panupong “Mike Rayong” Jardnok Lese-majeste March 8
Piyarat “Toto” Chongthep Criminal association March 8
Supakorn (last name omitted) Lese-majeste March 10
Pornchai (last name omitted) Lese-majeste March 11
Phromsorn “Fah” Weerathamjaree Lese-majeste March 17
Chukiat “Justin” Sawangwong Lese-majeste March 23

THAILAND
Foreign Ministry denies policy to detain pro-democracy dissidents from Myanmar


ByCod Satrusayang

March 27, 2021

AUDIO
https://www.thaienquirer.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/amazon_polly_25816.mp3?version=1616820717

Thailand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs denied on Saturday news reports that the Thai government would detain and extradite back to Myanmar several leaders of the pro-democracy movement.

Viral posts on social media and Myanmar-language news reports purportedly showed posters at a refugee camp on the border, written in Thai, of six Myanmar protest leaders who “might use Thailand as a base to conduct operations against the Myanmar government.”

The six people are Min Ko Naing and Ko Jimmy of the 8888 uprising, Kyaw Moe Tun who is the Myanmar representative to the UN, Maung Maung who is the leader of the CTUM, Kyaw Thu who is the founder of the FFSS, and rock star Lynn Lynn.

According to Tanee Sangrat, the spokesman for the foreign ministry, Thailand “has no policy” on apprehending or sending back Myanmar dissidents.

“I can confirm that such information has no official status or basis in any policy whatsoever,” he told Thai Enquirer.

It is unclear who put up the poster in question. Calls to the Royal Thai Army which administers and guards the borders were not returned. Calls to the border police also went unanswered.

It is the second time in as many weeks where the Thai government has been questioned over alleged support to the Myanmar regime.

Earlier in March, a Reuters report found that the Thai army had been supplying rice to the Myanmar army units along the border. The Thai army has since denied these reports and said it was part of regular trade.

Ongoing crackdowns by the Myanmar junta has left scores of people dead. Three people were allegedly shot dead by security forces on Saturday in Yangon ahead of planned anti-coup protests.

The Myanmar military took power in a February 1 coup under the pretense of restoring democracy and getting rid of the Aung San Suu Kyi government which it said participated in widespread electoral fraud last year.