Burma

French Energy Giant Halts Myanmar Hydropower Project Over Human Rights Concerns

Anti-coup protesters carried a protester who was wounded during a crackdown by security forces in Yangon. / The Irrawaddy

By THE IRRAWADDY 20 March 2021

French energy giant Électricité de France has suspended a hydropower project worth more than US$1.5 billion (2.11 trillion kyats) in Myanmar’s Shan State over human rights concerns as the military regime continues to use lethal force to crack down on anti-coup protesters across the country.

As of Friday, more than 230 civilians had been killed by the junta’s security forces in their crackdowns on peaceful pro-democracy protesters in the country.

Électricité de France (EDF) notified human rights groups on Friday that it has halted development of the Shweli-3 Project, including the activities of its subcontractors. Led by EDF, the 671 MW project was being jointly developed with Japan’s Marubeni Corporation and locally owned Myanmar Ayeyar Hinthar Company.

The companies received a Notice to Proceed in 2018 under the National League for Democracy (NLD)-led government. It was expected to generate 3 billion kWh of electricity annually for the national grid and supply power to more than 8.5 million residents across the country.

In February, coup leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing said the regime would “continue to implement” existing hydropower projects. Since the Feb. 1 coup, however, human rights concerns among foreign investors have cost Myanmar the opportunity to implement billions of dollars’ worth of projects. In early February, work on a $1-billion modern industrial hub backed by Thailand’s largest industrial estate developer, Amata Corporation, was suspended due to fears that sanctions would be imposed by Western countries.

Japanese beverage giant Kirin also ended its beer business partnership with a Myanmar military-owned conglomerate, Myanma Economic Holdings Public Co. Ltd. (MEHL), following the coup. Moreover, prominent Singaporean businessman Lim Kaling pulled out of a joint venture with ties to MEHL that operated the country’s most popular cigarette business.

EDF said it adheres to fundamental human rights principles and the conventions of the International Labor Organization, as well as the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, in every project in which it takes part. The company said it is following developments in Myanmar in close collaboration with French and European Union authorities.

Human right groups Justice for Myanmar and France-based Info Birmanie welcomed EDF’s decision, saying proceeding with the project would have involved doing business with the military junta, whom they described as criminals and said were deliberately killing peaceful protesters in what amounted to crimes against humanity.

Sophie Brondel, coordinator of Info Birmanie, said EDF’s decision to suspend the Shweli-3 hydropower project is a milestone and indicates the way forward for French companies in Myanmar.

“We especially call on all companies with ties to the junta to cut those ties. Businesses have a responsibility to stand on the side of democracy and to make sure they are not fueling the junta. Status quo is not an option,” Brondel said.

Human rights groups are putting pressure on international businesses to cut ties with the military regime over concerns that their investments would fund the regime’s brutal treatment of its citizens.

Recently, rights groups and the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH), a committed formed by elected lawmakers from the ousted National League for Democracy government, have repeatedly urged major foreign-owned oil and gas companies including France’s Total SE, Malaysia’s Petronas, Thailand’s PTT and South Korea’s POSCO to suspend business ties with the military regime.

France's EDF says Myanmar dam project halted over coup

By AFP

PUBLISHED:  21 March 2021 

NGOs say human rights violations are 'systemic' in the region of the hydropower project

An international consortium has suspended a $1.5-billion hydropower dam project in Myanmar in response to last month's military coup, consortium member Electricite de France, a French utility, said Sunday.

Nearly 250 people are confirmed dead in protests since the February 1 military coup, according to tolls compiled by NGOs, and more than 2,300 others have been arrested.

International condemnation from Washington, Brussels and the United Nations has so far failed to halt the bloodshed.

"The project is suspended," an EDF spokesman told AFP on Sunday of the dam project.

The Shweli-3 671-megawatt project, still at an early planning stage, is run by a consortium of EDF -- which is majority-owned by the French state -- the Japanese Marubeni conglomerate and local company Ayeyar Hinthar.

NGOs welcomed the decision, with Justice for Myanmar calling Shan state, where Shweli-3 is located, a region with "ongoing conflict and systemic grave human rights violations".

In a letter to Justice for Myanmar and published on the NGO's website, EDF said "the respect of fundamental human rights" was a condition for all of its projects.

Several NGOs have also been pushing French energy giant Total to pull out of Myanmar, with Greenpeace accusing the company of being one of the military regime's main financial contributors.

Total issued a statement Friday in which it said it conducts its activities "in a responsible fashion, with respect for the law and for universal human rights".

"We are concerned by the current situation and we hope that a peaceful resolution, reached through dialogue, will allow the Myanmar people to pursue their quest for peace and prosperity," the statement said.

Burma

Two More Including 16-Year-Old Boy Killed as Myanmar Regime Continues Crackdowns

The security forces who took part in a crackdown on anti-regime protesters in Karen State's Hpa-an on Thursday morning.


By THE IRRAWADDY 25 March 2021

Two more people were killed and several injured in four locations on Wednesday night and Thursday morning as Myanmar’s security forces continued their brutal raids.

The protest-related death toll since the Feb. 1 coup stood at 262 as of Wednesday.

On Wednesday night, police and soldiers opened fire indiscriminately as they raided Aung Pin Lae ward in Mandalay’s Chanmythazi Township.

During the raid, a 16-year-old boy was reportedly killed and three people were injured when regime forces started shooting.

A Mandalay-based charity group told The Irrawaddy it had been unable to retrieve the body of the slain boy or assist the injured, as police and troops opened fire on ambulances on Wednesday night.

Since a confrontation in the area between the regime’s security forces and anti-regime protesters on March 21, police and soldiers have conducted a series of deadly raids targeting not only protesters but also bystanders, pedestrians and residents in Aung Pin Lae, Aung Tharyar and Mya Yi Nandar wards.

The raids have claimed the lives of more than 20 people, including three children aged 6, 15 and 16.

Meanwhile, in Mandalay Region’s Kaukpadaung Township, a 23-year-old man was shot dead and three people were injured at 9 p.m. on Wednesday night during a deadly crackdown by security forces against a nighttime anti-regime protest.

On Thursday morning, several people were injured as security forces opened fire on anti-regime protesters in Shan State’s capital Taunggyi and in the Karen State capital, Hpa-an.

Despite the daily deadly crackdowns, tens of thousands of people across Myanmar continue to take to the streets day and night to show their defiance of military rule.

Myanmar Protest Death Toll Climbs As Regime’s Troops Keep Shooting

Topics: Aung Pin Lae, bystanders, Children, Coup, crackdown, death toll, deaths, injured, killed, Military, Police, protesters, raids, regime, security forces, shootings, soldiers, ward

Guest Column

Thailand Must Be a Friend to the People of Myanmar

Anti-regime protesters confront security forces in Yangon on March 16. / The Irrawaddy

By KASIT PIROMYA 25 March 2021

Ten years ago, when Myanmar’s then-ruling junta initiated a series of reforms to open the country up after decades of military rule, I was Thailand’s foreign minister. I remember well how myself and other ASEAN foreign envoys met regularly with our Myanmar counterpart ahead of Myanmar’s 2010 general election—a heavily flawed vote, but one that would pave the way for some form of democracy in the country.

These meetings were typically informal, taking place over a glass of wine or a cup of coffee, but were important in assisting the Myanmar government in keeping to its plan of moving beyond its isolationist rule, and being accepted into the international fold. Through these meetings, ASEEAN in many ways became the midwife in Myanmar’s reform process.

There were well-documented flaws in the years of quasi-civilian rule that followed, including in the National League for Democracy government, which came to power following the country’s first free and fair election in decades, held in 2015. Yet, there can be little doubt that improved job opportunities and greater freedoms were cause for optimism among much of Myanmar’s population and the regional and international communities.

With the Feb. 1 coup, those gains have been stripped away, and the country’s economy now stands on the brink of collapse, while every day the military commits violence towards unarmed protesters. The current crisis in Myanmar is not good for anyone: not the Myanmar people, not Thailand, not ASEAN.

As a body that played such an important role in helping to initiate the reforms in Myanmar, ASEAN not only has the right, but the responsibility, to act decisively and take concrete actions to ensure that Myanmar’s generals end the violence, reverse their coup, respect the will of the people, and allow democracy to prevail in Myanmar.

Such a move will require leadership from some of ASEAN’s member states. Since the Feb. 1 coup, however, Thailand has not demonstrated this.

Thailand played an important role in the opening of Myanmar 10 years ago, particularly as the ASEAN chair in 2009, encouraging Myanmar to release political prisoners, and to be inclusive of all political parties in the leadup to the 2010 election.

Sadly, I have been deeply disappointed by my government’s response—or lack thereof—regarding the violence and chaos that has been unleashed in our neighboring country.

On the day of the coup, Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha described the situation as “an internal affair” for Myanmar, while Thailand’s most recent statement on the crisis, issued on March 11, expressed sadness about the loss of lives and called on “all sides” to exercise restraint and flexibility. This as Myanmar’s security forces have turned their guns on largely peaceful protesters in recent weeks, killing more than 200 people.

It is in Thailand’s best interests to respond effectively. With Myanmar’s economy, and government apparatus, on the brink of collapse, the country is at a tipping point. A further deterioration of conditions in Myanmar would almost certainly lead to a refugee crisis in Thailand, placing greater strain on its resources, while chaos and fighting at the two countries’ borders would risk the proliferation of illicit goods, notably arms and drugs. The risk of the spread of COVID-19 would also increase.

Instead of standing on the sidelines, Thailand should use its relationship with the Myanmar generals to ensure they immediately stop the ongoing bloodshed, and help them realize that they are isolated at home and abroad: The entire nation is uniting against their illicit power grab and the region has had enough of having to defend them in the global arena.

Thailand should publicly and proactively support efforts made by Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia, which have all pushed for the bloc to play a direct role in addressing the disastrous situation in Myanmar. Last week Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo called for a special ASEAN leaders’ summit to discuss the situation in Myanmar.

The meeting should include an invitation to the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Myanmar, Christine Schraner Burgener, to establish a strong and decisive joint response to the ongoing crisis. It would also offer an opportunity to arrange a joint delegation between ASEAN and Schraner Burgener to travel to Myanmar to monitor the situation and help negotiate a democratic solution.

Thailand should support such a meeting, and extend an official invitation to the UN Special Envoy to come to the region. Thailand must also ensure that all those escaping Myanmar are allowed to seek asylum and be granted protection as refugees.

Beyond the special ASEAN Summit on Myanmar, one immediate step the grouping should also consider would be to not extend any invitation to the junta’s officials to attend its meetings as long as the violence against peaceful protesters continues.

Until now, ASEAN has hidden behind its much-criticized “principle of non-interference” as an excuse for not stepping up on the Myanmar issue, yet when member states demonstrate the political will to act, the non-interference principle is effectively ignored. In 2005, for example, ASEAN leaders pressured Myanmar to forfeit its role as the bloc’s chair the following year after the US and EU governments threatened to boycott ASEAN meetings. After the devastation of Cyclone Nargis in 2008, the grouping was also able to engage with Myanmar’s generals, who had rejected international assistance, and played a crucial role in ensuring humanitarian assistance reached affected communities.

The breaking of the non-interference rule has not only occurred in the context of Myanmar. When I was Thailand’s foreign minister, ASEAN intervened to help put an end to a border dispute between ourselves and Cambodia.

So it’s clear that ASEAN could do more; it is just a matter of political leadership and willingness. Thailand should be at the forefront of the group’s response and play the significant role it once had in the region’s foreign policy.

Thailand’s government was a friend to the Myanmar people in the past, assisting in helping to bring an end to decades of military rule. Instead of standing on the side of Myanmar’s generals, who have wrought devastation on the country, it’s time for our government to support the Myanmar people, and be their friend once again during their time of need.

Kasit Piromya is a board member of ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR), and is a former Thai foreign minister.

This article was first published in The Bangkok Post.

Burma

Myanmar Energy and Electricity Staff Pressured to End Strike

Ministry of Electricity and Energy staff on strike. / The Irrawaddy


By THE IRRAWADDY 24 March 2021

Naypyitaw — Striking Ministry of Electricity and Energy staff in Naypyitaw say they are being pressured to return to work.

Around 150 striking Electric Power Generation Enterprise (EPGE) staff said they had received phone calls threatening suspension and prosecution if they fail to return to work. They said they were also told to leave their government accommodation.

However, staff remain in their quarters because the ministry has issued no official notice on their case.

“If they dismiss us and ask us to leave the staff quarters with an official letter, we will leave. But that still would not comply with rules for civil servants,” said a ministry employee.

Most of those on strike are junior staff and the phone threats were made by managers who chose to work for the military regime, said a striking EPGE employee.

“Some ministries have issued official notices but we have received no notifications, only threats from senior officials,” said the employee.

Most of the ministry’s projects have stalled because of the civil disobedience movement against the regime which started in early February.

The Ministry of Transport and Communications, Myanma Railways and other government departments have dismissed hundreds of striking staff and are evicting them from their accommodation.

Government employees went on strike against the military in 1988, after which many were dismissed, demoted or transferred to remote areas.

Burma

Nation of Ghost Towns Defies Myanmar Junta With ‘Silent Strike’

A deserted neighborhood in downtown Yangon on Wednesday. / The Irrawaddy

“I have never experienced that kind of silence in my life, not even during the COIVD,”  said a city resident.

By THE IRRAWADDY 24 March 2021

Myanmar was a nation of ghost towns Wednesday as opponents of the military regime collectively shamed the junta’s recent claims of “normalcy” in the country by staying home and shutting down their businesses in city after city.

People across the country were on “Silent Strike” as part of their ongoing opposition against the military regime that grabbed power from Myanmar’s democratically elected government on Feb. 1 by staging a coup.

Since mid-February, major cities across the country have been reeling from chaos caused by violence and deadly crackdowns by soldiers and police on anti-regime protesters. Shops and markets have cut their business hours short due to frequent and fatal confrontations between security forces and protesters on the streets. Many closed their businesses entirely out of fear. Roads that used to be crowded with traffic are now blocked by barricades set up by protesters to deter the advancement of troops.

Beginning last week, the regime launched a serious effort to reopen businesses by force and clear roadblocks with the occasional use of forced labor, grabbing anyone they saw on the road or from their homes.

Then they trumpeted on state-owned and military-controlled media that “markets and malls at some townships in Yangon (Myanmar’s business hub) have reopened as situations returned to normalcy.”

In response to the regime’s claim of normalcy, people campaigned online to launch a one-day silent strike partly to prove that the claim was wrong and also to demonstrate another form of defiance against the junta.

On Wednesday, roads in major cities like Yangon, Mandalay, Naypyitaw, Monywa and others were mostly deserted.

A nearly empty road in Yangon as the people of Myanmar

 observed “Silent Strike” against the regime on Wednesday. 

/The Irrawaddy

Major businesses like the country’s biggest retail malls like City Mart, Ocean announced they were closed. Taxi and delivery service Grab suspended its service. Local wet markets turned dry as they only opened a few hours in the morning to let people buy necessities. Even corner stores like ABC and City Express were closed. Wholesale markets were no exception. Even protesters took a day off.

With a handful of cars on the road and few people out to shop for necessities, downtown Yangon on Wednesday was reminiscent of the COVID lockdown period that the city underwent nearly one year ago. On some shady roads of the city, stray dogs napped safely under the hot mid-day sun as there was no vehicle traffic to interrupt their freedom.

Myanmar second biggest city, Mandalay, totally plunged into silence after 8 a.m. Wednesday. The city’s busiest area near Zay Cho market was totally deserted, according to witnesses. Buddhist monks who normally went around the city in the morning to receive food and other offerings broke their ritual on Wednesday.

“I have never experienced that kind of silence in my life, not even during the COIVD,” said U Kyaw Thiha, a city resident.

The 40-year-old added that the strike on Wednesday was a testament of the people’s unity when it came to saying no to the junta.

“We have no leader telling us what to do. People just join together out of their conscience to oppose the dictatorship,” he said.

LIKE GHOULS FROM PRECINCT 13

Burma
Myanmar Security Forces Snatch the Bodies of Those They Have Slain

The funeral ceremony of 16-year-old teashop waiter is seen before the dead body was taken by force by the military regime.

By THE IRRAWADDY 24 March 2021

Security forces of Myanmar’s military regime are trying to seize the bodies of those they killed when they fired on anti-regime protesters, bystanders and pedestrians in Mandalay, the country’s second-biggest city.

A Mandalay-based charity group assisting wounded people and providing funeral services to those killed by security forces told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday that since March 5 they have had to conduct four funeral ceremonies without bodies because those killed had been cremated by the security forces themselves.

The group also said that the number of bodies taken might be higher because many of the dead and wounded were taken away by security forces after a series of recent shootings in the city.

Security forces conducted a series of raids in several wards in Chanmyathazi Township including Aung Pin Lae, Aung Tharyar and Mya Yi Nandar over three days after a confrontation between them and peaceful anti-regime protesters on March 21.

During the deadly raids, at least 20 people were killed and about a hundred were injured, according to residents and charity groups.

On Monday, security forces, claiming they need to conduct an autopsy, interrupted a funeral ceremony in Chanayethazan Township. They took the body of a 16-year-old teashop waiter slain in a Sunday night raid by force.

A video from Mandalay also shows a man who appears to be dead being loaded onto a prisoner transport vehicle by the security forces and people in plainclothes.

On March 4, security forces in Mandalay exhumed the body of a 19-year-old woman who was shot dead by soldiers and police on March 3 in a crackdown against anti-regime protest.

The next day, Myanmar’s military regime refused to admit responsibility for killing the woman, saying the lead in her skull did not match police riot-control rounds. However, media members witnessed security forces also using deadly air-guns firing lead pellets during the crackdown.

Military forces in Mandalay also refused to admit the killing of a 26-year-old man, who died at a military hospital after not getting proper treatment for wounds to his head and his leg received when security forces fired live rounds on Feb.20. Instead, the military insisted the man died of COVID-19.

Charity groups providing funeral services for those killed said that earlier in the conflict between protesters and security forces the military would transfer the bodies of those who were killed to the families after performing an autopsy.

However, they later stopped transferring the bodies back to families.

Mandalay residents believe that military forces want to avoid responsibility for their killing and reduce the death toll by manipulating autopsies.

The elder sister of a 6-year-old girl named Ma Khin Myo Chit, who was shot dead by the security forces on Tuesday afternoon, told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday that they held a funeral ceremony for the girl secretly because security forces are searching them.

The girl was shot to death at close-range during a house raid at Aung Pin Lae in Chanmyathazi Township. The frightened girl was slain while being hugged by her father.

(Initial reports were that Ma Khin Myo Chit was 7 years old. The family now confirms that she was 6.

)

The funeral of a 6-year-old girl named Ma Khin Myo Chit is held by the family in Mandalay secretly.

During the raid, a 19-old-man, the girl’s brother, was also beaten and taken away by security forces.

The family member said that security forces also searched their house again last night while they all were away from home. Now, they are hiding at another location in the city, the victim’s sister said.

“Their brutal behavior is beyond tolerance. There is no word to describe their actions,” said the elder sister of the 6-year-old girl.

Also, family members of another victim — Ko Chan Thar Htwe, 21, who was shot dead by the security forces on Tuesday’s morning — left their home in Aung Thayar ward in Chanmyathazi Township on Wednesday after security forces began enquiring in the neighborhood about their location.

At a time when there were no protests in the street, Ko Chan Thar Htwe was deliberately shot in the head by security forces from long range while he was in front of his house and attempting to get inside on Tuesday morning.

Ko Than Niang Htun, brother of the victim, told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday that security forces arrived near their home on Tuesday afternoon while they were sending his brother’s dead body to the hospital.

He said that they held the funeral ceremony for his younger brother secretly on Tuesday after moving to two locations.

“Even after my brother has been killed, all our family members had to run away of them,” said Ko Than Naing Htun.

On Tuesday, two more people aged in 36 and 27 were also killed by police and soldiers during raids against the residents at Aung Pin Lae ward in Chanmyathazi Townsip.

During the recent deadly crackdowns in several Yangon’s townships, Bago, Pyay and Mandalay, bodies of victims have been taken away by security forces.

Amid the deadly crackdowns, tens of thousands of people across the country have taken to the streets to defy the military rules.

As of Tuesday, about 260 people have been killed by the security forces of military junta during their shooting against the anti-regime protesters, bystanders, pedestrians and residents.

  

John Carpenter's low, low budget ($100,000) thriller about a gun-happy attack on a police station was inspired in equal parts by Rio Bravo and Night of the Living Dead. After a lackluster stateside release the film gained traction in Europe and its cult status was set in stone by the early eighties (thanks in no small part to Carpenter's 1978 blockbuster, Halloween). Carpenter, whose original screenplay was titled The Anderson Alamo, was chief cook and bottle washer on the 1976 film, not only directing, writing and editing but composing its score as well (which was recorded in one day).

Neil Marshall on ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13

Burma

Myanmar Junta Fires Striking Ministry of Foreign Affairs Staff

Anti-regime protesters urge civil servants to join the civil disobedience movement. / The Irrawaddy

By THE IRRAWADDY 23 March 2021

Myanmar’s military regime has dismissed a total of 56 staff from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) who have gone on strike in protest against military rule and the junta’s Feb.1 coup.

The regime’s foreign affairs ministry notified the civil servants of their dismissal last week, claiming that they had breached the civil service code of conduct, according to leaked documents. The staff fired range from assistant directors to clerks who are refusing to work for the regime’s cabinet.

Thousands of civil servants across the country have joined the civil disobedience movement (CDM) in protest at the junta’s overthrowing of the democratically-elected civilian government.

On Monday Myanmar coup leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing urged civil servants to return to work saying that despite their different opinions, they need to serve dutifully no matter what government takes office.

Senior General Min Aung Hlaing said that civil servants must follow civil service rules and codes of conduct.

He warned that civil servants will have to sign confessions the first time they fail to go to work. For any subsequent violations, action will be taken against them in accordance with civil service rules.

Other MOFA staff, including over two dozen Myanmar diplomats in foreign missions, have been on strike since early March in protest at the security forces increasingly lethal crackdown on peaceful anti-regime protesters.

The junta has also recalled at least 100 staff from overseas missions in at least 19 countries, including the US and UK, after Myanmar’s United Nations (UN) envoy U Kyaw Moe Tun broke ranks with the regime to condemn their coup in front of the UN General Assembly in New York and pleaded for the international community’s help in restoring democracy to Myanmar.

In late February, nine MOFA staff in Myanmar’s capital Naypyitaw were arrested and charged for refusing to work for the military regime.

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Topics: CDM, civil disobedience movement, Coup, junta, military regime, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, MOFA, Naypyitaw, Senior General Ming Aung Hlaing, U Kyaw Moe Tun, UN, United Nations

The Irrawaddy

Burma

Made Homeless by Junta, Myanmar Govt Workers Vow to Continue Strike Till Regime Falls

Hospital staff at Mandalay General Hospital vacated their government housing on March 20 rather than abandon the CDM and go back to work under the military regime.

By THE IRRAWADDY 23 March 2021

In its latest attempt to stifle workers’ protests, the military regime has given striking workers in several cities an ultimatum: return to work or face eviction from their state-provided housing.

On Saturday, the regime issued a letter warning striking railway workers in the country’s second-biggest city, Mandalay, that they would have to move out of their government housing within five days unless they resumed work on Monday.

Unbowed, thousands of railway workers moved out of their homes rather than give up their protest against the regime.

Railway employees and their families in Mandalay Region vacated their government housing on March 20 rather than abandon the CDM and go back to work under the military regime./ CJ

Myanmar government employees—including doctors, nurses, teachers, railway workers, engineers, garbage collectors, electricity workers, administrative staff, bankers and employees of a range of government ministries—have been taking part in the civil disobedience movement (CDM), a widespread protest movement against the regime, since a few days after the Feb. 1 coup, refusing to work under the men in uniform in an effort to make the country impossible for them to govern.

Furious at the collective resistance that has paralyzed the government mechanism for over a month, the regime has attempted to intimidate striking workers by, among other things, firing weapons during nighttime patrols of residential areas, arresting people, and dismissing or suspending workers from their positions. However, the eviction warnings and other threats have failed to deter the protesting workers.

“We were in tears as we left our homes. Not because we are sad or scared of them. But because we are indignant at being bullied and abused by those armed with weapons,” a 50-year-old woman said. Her family moved out of the largest railway staff housing complex in Mandalay Region, where they lived for more than 10 years, on Sunday.

“We have nothing to fight back with—not even a toothpick. But we will fight [the junta] with the CDM until they fall,” she said.

Around 450 households in the housing complex—more than 1,000 people—moved out over the weekend. Other housing centers for railway workers in Mandalay also saw striking workers leave to continue their protest.

Railway employees and their families in the Mon State capital Mawlamyine left their government housing on March 23 rather than abandon the CDM and go back to work under the military regime./ Mawlamyine’s Voice

“All of us are poor. But we don’t care, even if we don’t have any place to relocate to, or face hunger. No matter what, we will continue the strike.”

For her, the fight against the junta is a fight for the future of her young son. She said she doesn’t want him to experience a repeat of the suffering she faced under the previous military dictatorship after the coup in 1988.

Mandalay residents and charity groups helped the workers move out, carrying furniture and other household items and providing free trucks, vans, pickup trucks, meals and temporary shelter.

A volunteer group assisting the workers said support will be required to meet the evicted workers’ basic needs, including shelter and food supplies, in the long term, adding that it is important that all who need such assistance receive it.

The evictions compound the hardship for the striking workers, who have already forgone their salaries.

A son of a 59-year-old railway worker at the Mahlwagone Railway station in Yangon Region said many families of station employees who had been evicted from staff housing were struggling to find shelter and feed themselves.

Around 1,000 workers and their families living at the station’s staff quarters fled their homes on March 10 after security forces raided their neighborhood.

Railway employees and their families at the Mahlwagone Railway Station in Yangon Region fled their government housing on March 10 rather than abandon the CDM and go back to work under the military regime./ The Irrawaddy

The son of the striking railway worker said soldiers and police told the strikers that if they returned to work, they could stay in the housing. However, more than 90 percent of the workers there fled their homes rather than return to work under the military regime.

Given only a few hours to vacate the premises, the workers were each only able to bring a few items of clothing and some food, leaving furniture and household items behind.

“My parents were only able to bring their national registration cards and a few clothes with them when they fled, as I was away at that time. My mom left her medicines behind and many other older people in the quarter did too. But at this time we can’t afford to buy pills and medicines while we are struggling to find food and shelter,” he said.

Railway employees and their families at the Mahlwagone Railway Station in Yangon Region fled their government housing on March 10 rather than abandon the CDM and go back to work under the military regime./ The Irrawaddy

The railway employee’s son added that many striking workers have no idea how to connect with the support groups and lack secure and systematic channels to do so. Regardless of the hardship, the young man believed all the striking workers and their families were determined to continue their strike until the end.

The military regime has issued arrest warrants for several well-known CDM supporters on incitement charges. Leading strike organizers, including several medics who initiated the protest movement among government staff, have also been targeted for arrest.

It is estimated that more than 60 civil servants taking part in the CDM have been arrested and charged since Feb. 1. Doctors, engineers, teachers, railway staff, directors and managers of governmental departments and administrative staff are among those who have been detained.

A doctor from a hospital in Naypyitaw who went into hiding to evade arrest said hundreds of doctors, nurses and healthcare workers now faced financial hardship as many of them are on the run.

: Railway employees and their families in the Mon State capital Mawlamyine left their government housing on March 23 rather than abandon the CDM and go back to work under the military regime./ Mawlamyine’s Voice

More than 400 employees of his hospital had to move out of their staff housing in mid-February to continue the protest, and have been hiding in temporary shelters since then. The number of healthcare workers evicted from government housing in different states and regions has been growing in recent days.

The doctor said the threats had failed to stop the CDM, and in fact it was continuing to grow. He estimated that around 90 percent of government staff across the country were now taking part in the movement.

On Tuesday morning, 140 railway workers in Mawlamyine, Mon State also moved out of their staff housing rather than return to work.

Railway employees and their family members at the Mahlwagone Railway station in Yangon Region fled their government housing on March 10 rather than abandon the CDM and go back to work under the military regime./ The Irrawaddy

Acknowledging the power of the CDM, the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, Thomas H. Andrews, said, “The junta knows how to fight weapons of war, but it is ill equipped to fight weapons of peace, which is what the CDM [is].”

“The CDM—and the broader opposition to the junta—will be strongest and most effective if it, and its leadership, can resist calls and any impulse to fight violence with violence,” he added.


Topics: CDM, Coup, Doctors, Eviction, government housing, homes, leave, military regime, Protests, Railways, return, strike, ultimatum, work, workers

Burma

Dissidents Fleeing Myanmar Junta Find Shelter and Support with Ethnic Armed Groups

KNU troops during a parade in 2018. / The Irrawaddy


By THE IRRAWADDY 23 March 2021

An increasing number of activists, dissidents and politicians have sought refuge in Myanmar’s eastern borderlands with ethnic armed groups, in particular the Karen National Union (KNU). But this situation is not new for the ethnic armed groups. In 1988, thousands of students and activists fled to the Thai-Myanmar border and the border with India to seek shelter and to take up the armed struggle against the then junta. Those areas were known as “liberated areas.”

Now hundreds of newly-arrived activists (including journalists fleeing the military regime) have taken refuge in insurgent-controlled areas in Karen, Kayah, Mon and Shan States along Myanmar’s eastern border with Thailand.

On Monday, military-owned Myawaddy Television announced that the regime was looking into reports that many NLD members and supporters had fled to KNU-controlled areas in the country’s southeast.

Military information team leader Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun said during a press conference on Tuesday that more than 1,000 people had fled to border areas in the country’s southeast to evade arrest.

Known as ethnic armed organizations (EAOs), the ethnic groups have publicly denounced the junta’s Feb.1 coup and the rule of the military’s State Administration Council (SAC). Karen insurgents in Karen State deployed troops to protect peaceful anti-regime protesters.

The Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS) has stated publicly that it will shelter and support any victims of the SAC and the military.

Several ethnic groups, with the notable exception of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), in the north of Myanmar along the border with China are supportive of the coup and will likely focus more on signing ceasefire agreements with the military.

Most notably, a parallel government – the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH) – has formed in the areas under the control of the EAOs. The CRPH is made up of elected lawmakers from the ousted National League for Democracy-led (NLD) government.

The same thing happened in 1990 after the then military regime refused to hand over power to the elected representatives of the NLD following its 1990 election victory. Then, many MPs fled to the eastern borderlands to escape imprisonment and the junta’s crackdown. Those MPs formed the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma (NCGUB). That government in exile was known to be ineffective but received backing from the US and the West. The exiled government was dissolved in September 2012.

Talks between the CRPH and several ethnic groups in the south are ongoing. Sources said that without military representatives sitting in the meetings, there is a free flow of discussion between the CRPH and EAOs without fear.

There has been some talk on social media about the idea of creating a “federal army”. Just like in 1988, some young activists who have fled to areas controlled by the EAOs now want to receive military training from those ethnic armies. But it is not known how and where they will find support and resources.

A number of new EAOs, such as the Arakan Army and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) have emerged in the last 10 years, but initially they received assistance and backing from the KIA and, subsequently, from other powerful ethnic armies along the Chinese border. They have been allowed to open offices and to run businesses in China.

The SAC has warned ethnic groups not to establish contact with the CRPH. But a member of the Peace Process Steering Team along the Thai-Myanmar border said that the two sides continue to hold talks. Last week, the CRPH removed all EAOs in Myanmar from the terrorist and unlawful associations list. Several ethnic armies have had unstable relationships with the NLD government in the past.

The junta has now invited EAOs to attend the upcoming Armed Forces Day on the 27thof March in Myanmar’s capital Naypyitaw. Many have declined the invitation.


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Topics: 1988, Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, Coup, CPRH, EAOs, ethnic armed organizations, junta, Kachin Independence Army (KIA), Karen National Union, KNU, military regime, SAC, State Administration Council

Environmental groups: Discarded masks, gloves creating pollution problem

BY ZACK BUDRYK - 03/24/21 THE HILL

© getty

Discarded face masks and gloves during the coronavirus pandemic has led to a sharp increase in pollution, particularly in coastal areas, environmental groups warn.

Discarded personal protective equipment (PPE) has been on the rise on beaches, according to the Pacific Beach Coalition, which conducts cleanups near Pacifica, Calif., according to The Associated Press.

This is a marked difference from the past 25 years, when the group said the most common litter was cigarette butts and food wrappers.

“What are we going to do? We got masks. We got gloves. We got all those hand wipes, the sani wipes. They’re everywhere. They’re in my neighborhood, in my streets. What can we do?” Lynn Adams, the coalition's president, told the AP.

The materials in question pose an environmental risk associated with plastic litter in general, such as the danger of being eaten by animals and upsetting the ocean’s ecological balance.

“Obviously, PPE is critical right now, but we know that with increased amounts of plastic and a lot of this stuff getting out into the ocean, it can be a really big threat to marine mammals and all marine life,” Adam Ratner, conservation educator for the Marine Mammal Center, told the AP.

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He added that there are steps people can take to mitigate environmental harm, such as cutting mask loops before discarding them.

Advocacy organization OceansAsia said in a 2020 report that nearly 1.6 billion masks likely ended up in the oceans over the course of the year.

“The 1.56 billion face masks that will likely enter our oceans in 2020 are just the tip of the iceberg,” says Teale Phelps Bondaroff, director of research for OceanAsia said in a statement. “The 4,680 to 6,240 metric tonnes of face masks are just a small fraction of the estimated 8 to 12 million metric tonnes of plastic that enter our oceans each year.”