Live Conflict Myanmar Civil War

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Around 50 junta soldiers were reportedly killed between Wednesday and Friday in clashes with civilian resistance fighters in Mandalay, Sagaing, Yangon Regions and Kayah State.

People’s Defense Forces (PDF) across the country, with the exception of Rakhine State, have stepped up operations against the Myanmar military since September 7, when the parallel National Unity Government (NUG) declared a nationwide people’s defensive war against the junta.

On early Friday morning, a civilian armed force from Shwe Bo District in Sagaing Region claimed to have killed at least 12 junta soldiers in an ambush.

The group said that they attacked a regime column marching near Mon Taw Village in Khin-U Township with landmines.

Eight junta soldiers were also killed in Khin-U Township on Wednesday when two military vehicles were attacked with landmines near Myakan Village.

Around 10 junta soldiers were reported killed on Thursday afternoon after a combined force of 10 civilian armed groups mined two military vehicles in Myaung Township, Sagaing Region, according to a statement by the Civilian’s Defense and Security Organization of Myaung (CDSOM).

The same morning, two other military vehicles were also attacked with landmines by CDSOM. However, military casualties remain unknown.

Junta forces were also attacked in Natogyi and Kyaukse townships in Mandalay Region. Civilian fighters of the Zero Guerrilla Force raided regime troops deployed at a school in Suuphyukone Village, Natogyi Township on late Thursday night.

During the raid, the junta troops sleeping quarters were hit and at least 12 soldiers died and many others were injured, according to the Zero Guerilla Force.

Another PDF attacked junta troops traveling by train in Palate, Sintgaing Township in Mandalay Region. Some 10 junta soldiers were killed by landmines while they were inspecting the blast-affected train.

“The train is used by the junta for transporting food and supplies. Despite being a passenger train, everyone on the train was a junta soldier. No civilian passengers were on the train,” a resident told The Irrawaddy on Thursday.

One junta soldier was injured on Thursday morning when unknown gunmen opened fire from a vehicle on regime troops performing sentry duty near a bridge in Yangon’s North Okkalapa Township, according to a statement from the NUG’s Defense Ministry.

Three junta soldiers were killed and four injured on Thursday morning in Kayah State, when fighters from the Karenni Nationalities Defense Force (KNDF) ambushed junta troops travelling to raid civilian resistance groups in Demoso Township.

The shootout between the two forces continued into the afternoon, with regime soldiers using heavy weapons and torching homes in nearby villages.

A clash between junta troops and the Karenni Army (KA), the armed wing of the Karenni National Progressive Party, also occurred in Hpasawng Township, Kayah State on Thursday evening, according to the KNDF.

Myanmar’s military has escalated its raids and acts of violence, including burning down villages and bombarding residential areas of towns, in the country’s most restive regions, including Magwe and Sagaing regions and Chin and Kayah States.

As of Thursday, 1,171 people have been slain by junta forces during their raids, crackdowns, arrests, interrogations and arbitrary killings, said the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.

Another 8,981 people, including elected government leaders, have been detained by the junta or face arrest warrants.


Last month, Myanmar soldiers gunned down Cung Biak Hum, a 31-year-old Baptist pastor, while he rushed to help put out a fire caused by military shelling. As his town of Thantlang in Myanmar’s northwestern Chin State went up in flames, soldiers sawed off the pastor’s finger and stole his wedding ring.

“The killing of Cung Biak Hum and mutilation of his finger demonstrate the extent of disrespect and brutality with which [Myanmar military] soldiers are conducting themselves in their ongoing war against the people,” Salai Za Uk Ling, deputy director of the Chin Human Rights Organisation, told Al Jazeera.

The September 19 incident is one of at least 20 cases documented by human rights groups and the media, in which Christian churches, church leaders and volunteers have been targeted or caught in the crossfire of military attacks since a February 1 coup.

The incidents include shelling churches, detaining pastors, and using churches as military bases.

“Churches are now empty and deserted,” said a Catholic church leader in Kayah State who, like several others interviewed for this article, spoke on condition of anonymity due to concerns of reprisals. “Fear is instilled in the hearts of people. Even churches are not safe from attacks,” he said.

Military spokesman Major General Zaw Min Tun did not respond to multiple attempts to reach him for comment on the incidents mentioned in this report, as his phone was switched off.

In May, the military justified its attacks on churches in Kayah, including a Catholic church where artillery fire killed four people, by claiming “local rebels” were hiding there, Radio Free Asia reported.

According to 2014 census figures, which surveyed some 50 million people and excluded roughly 1 million mostly Muslim Rohingya, Myanmar’s population is nearly 90 percent Buddhist.

The predominantly Buddhist ethnic Bamar majority dominates the military and politics, and the military has long promoted Buddhist nationalist organisations. The military-drafted 2008 constitution also recognises the “special position of Buddhism as the faith possessed by the great majority of the citizens”.

Christians, meanwhile, make up just six percent of Myanmar’s population and are mostly from ethnic minorities concentrated along the country’s borders, where their experiences of marginalisation and forced assimilation have contributed to decades-long armed struggles for self-determination.

According to Benedict Rogers, senior analyst for East Asia at the human rights organisation Christian Solidarity Worldwide and author of three books on Myanmar, the military has always had a “deep-seated hostility” towards non-Buddhist religious minorities.

“[The military] have often used religion as a tool of repression. They have sowed religious nationalism, and that has been the case for decades,” he said, adding that since the coup, these patterns have only intensified. “Christians have certainly been targeted, both for their religion and their ethnicity,” he told Al Jazeera.

Chin, Kayah and Kachin State have the country’s largest concentration of Christians, according to the census.

Some 85 percent of the 478,000 residents of Chin State, located on Myanmar’s northwestern border with India, identified as Christian, while in Kayah, which borders Thailand in Myanmar’s southeast, 46 percent of its 286,000 people said they were Christian.

In Kachin State, in Myanmar’s far north on the border with China, 34 percent of 1.6 million people surveyed identified as Christian; the census excluded about 46,000 people living in areas under the control of the Kachin Independence Organisation.

“[The central government] set the mark of their ownership on Kachin lands, building their pagodas wherever there is a hill,” said Layang Seng Ja, head of research and publications and a professor at the Kachin Theological College and Seminary. “Our beautiful hills, valleys, plains and mountains have the symbols of their domination.”

Crackdown on resistance​

Military violence towards Christians since the coup comes amid a broader crackdown on the resistance movement which has swept the country.

Security forces have killed more than 1,100 unarmed civilians, according to rights groups, mostly during street demonstrations, and as people have increasingly taken up arms, the military has indiscriminately attacked entire civilian populations, following a ‘four cuts’ strategy it has applied for decades in ethnic areas.

In Kayah and southern Shan State, more than 100,000 people have fled their homes since an intense military offensive began in May.

At least five churches have been damaged in artillery fire, including the Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic church in Kayah’s Loikaw township where four civilians were killed.

About 300 people from the township’s South Kayantharyar village sought shelter in the church grounds on May 22, hiding in two cathedrals and the priests’ residence. “It seemed like the war was closing in on us, and we thought that the church would be safe,” said Khu Reh, a farmer. Al Jazeera has used a pseudonym for the 56-year-old.

The villagers raised white flags around the compound’s perimeter as a gesture of peace. They also disposed of kitchen knives and other items that could be mistaken for weapons, said Khu Reh.

According to his account, soldiers arrived the next day, searching the church grounds and questioning the villagers. “They warned us not to leave the church, and said that if they saw anyone coming out, they would shoot,” he said.

That night, he and a handful of villagers stood guard at the church gates.

One of them, he said, was shot in the leg at about 9pm local time (14:30 GMT). Artillery fire began falling on the village and two nearby villages at 1am (18:30 GMT), and when it stopped two hours later, Khu Reh and the other guards opened the doors to the new cathedral to a billow of smoke. Three elderly women and an elderly man lay dead and eight people were injured.

When Khu Reh returned the next day, he found the church ransacked and looted. “After that, whenever [soldiers] came to our village, they always stationed at our church,” said Khu Reh, who along with others from his village has since been living in a displacement camp.

The Catholic church leader interviewed by Al Jazeera said that soldiers have also stationed themselves at the Doumyalay Parish Church in Loikaw township, and on May 29 entered the compound of St. Peter’s seminary – also in Loikaw township – where 1,300 people had taken shelter, and shot a volunteer dead.

On Wednesday, a Catholic church in Kayah State’s Hpruso township was damaged by artillery fire; the clashes are ongoing, said the Catholic church leader.

He added that soldiers have confiscated medicine and food supplies which church groups had collected for displaced people, following patterns of aid obstruction which media and rights groups have documented across the country.

Although he risks his life to do so, the church leader says he remains committed to protecting and helping civilians in need.

“Humanitarian concern, human dignity and value, and compassionate hearts make us see [all civilians] as our brothers and sisters in need,” he said. “We must be with them in their fear and protect them. The suffering of our people is our suffering. The cries of our people are our pain.”

Military suspicions​

In Chin State, where nearly 12,000 people remain displaced by military attacks that began when armed resistance groups emerged in April, the Chin Human Rights Organisation has collected reports of three churches which were occupied by soldiers and four which were hit by artillery fire, as well as the arbitrary detention of a pastor from Matupi township, who has been in custody without charge since August 23.

In August, soldiers passed through the Taal Baptist Church in Falam township and left Bibles and hymn books strewn outside the church amid piles of rubbish, according to photos seen by Al Jazeera.

And on October 3, local media outlet Zalen reported that soldiers entered a Catholic church in Magway region where displaced villagers from Mindat township had taken shelter. Soldiers interrogated them and checked their phones for evidence of ties to armed resistance, according to the report. Zalen also reported on Wednesday that soldiers had set a church in Chin State’s Falam township on fire as it burned and looted a small village. Al Jazeera was unable to independently verify these reports.

A representative from the Chin Baptist Convention, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Al Jazeera that soldiers also destroyed Bibles while occupying the Grace Baptist Church in Mindat township in August. “The coup has affected our ability to safely and freely worship,” he said. “People worry that they will be attacked or bombed while they are praying.”

The violence, arrests and other forms of persecution which Christian churches across Myanmar have faced since the coup were already being acutely felt in the country’s far north, where a ceasefire between the Kachin Independence Organization and the military collapsed in 2011.

In 2015, two volunteer teachers from the Kachin Baptist Convention were raped and murdered near a military encampment in northern Shan State, in a case which was never brought to justice.

And in 2017, two Baptist leaders were jailed on charges of defamation and supporting the KIO after they took journalists to a church which had been damaged by military airstrikes.

The military also threatened defamation charges against Kachin Baptist Convention president Hkalam Samson in 2019, after he told Donald Trump during a religious freedom event at the Oval Office that Christians in Myanmar had been “oppressed and tortured” by the military and lacked religious freedom.

Kachin churches have been integral in the humanitarian response to armed conflict, but have faced ongoing scrutiny for their humanitarian work, especially in KIO-controlled areas, where international aid access has effectively been blocked since 2016.

In 2018, the Kachin Baptist Convention had to temporarily suspend humanitarian operations in these areas after the military accused it of supporting the KIO because of its work.

Since the coup, fighting has increased between the KIO and military, and at least 14,000 people have been displaced, in addition to more than 100,000, who were already living in camps.

A Catholic church leader in Bhamo district, which has seen some of the most intense fighting, told Al Jazeera that the church’s humanitarian volunteers are regularly stopped at checkpoints, while in May, a Catholic priest was detained for four days while travelling from Bhamo to the state capital.

“[Soldiers] doubt us when we transport humanitarian aid, and we cannot transport it to displaced people when they need it,” said the church leader, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

It is among numerous ways that Kachin churches have been caught up in the post-coup crisis.

On March 8, a Catholic nun in the Kachin State capital knelt in front of police and soldiers and begged them to show mercy towards a group of protesters who had gathered in front of her church; she also served as a first responder that day when security forces opened fire, killing two.

In March and April, four Kachin churches were raided. At one of them, a Baptist church in northern Shan State, 30 soldiers entered, firing gunshots and detaining 10 people, including four ministers, for two days, according to local media reports.

The Kachin Theological College and Seminary in the state capital was also raided on March 13. According to Layang Seng Ja, a convoy of 15 military vehicles surrounded the campus and soldiers searched the grounds and dormitories. The school has since sent its students home, she said.

“If [soldiers] see people gathering, they will think somehow they are planning to do an uprising,” said the professor at the college, who herself fled to the KIO headquarters due to fear of arrest. “I want to go back to the classroom and teach my students about Jesus’ peace and justice, love and compassion, but I cannot do so now,” she added.

The military has also kept a close watch on Kachins’ prayer services. Three pastors in the state’s Nawngmun township have been in detention since June 14, under charges of incitement for allegedly using the phrase “ending military dictatorship” during a prayer for peace.

And on August 26, plainclothes police searched the Kachin Baptist Convention headquarters, alleging that the church’s secretary signed off on a COVID-19 prayer statement which used the phrase “terrorist junta”; The church claims the phrase was mistranslated from Kachin to Burmese.

“[The military] check the contents of our prayers,” said Seng Ja. “We cannot practice freedom of religion in our own land; we cannot talk about peace [or] justice.”

“We are in a living hell caused by this military junta and their mentality,” she added.

 

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BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Oct 16 (Reuters) - Southeast Asian countries will invite a non-political representative from Myanmar to a regional summit this month, delivering an unprecedented snub to the military leader who led a coup against an elected civilian government in February.

The decision taken by foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) at an emergency meeting on Friday night, marks a rare bold step for the consensus-driven bloc, which has traditionally favoured a policy of engagement and non-interference.

Singapore's foreign ministry said on Saturday the move to exclude junta chief Min Aung Hlaing was a "difficult but necessary decision to uphold ASEAN’s credibility".

The statement went on to cite the lack of progress made on a roadmap to restore peace in Myanmar that the junta had agreed to with ASEAN in April.

More than 1,000 civilians have been killed by Myanmar security forces and thousands arrested, according to the United Nations, amid a crackdown on strikes and protests which has derailed the country's tentative democracy and prompted international condemnation.

The junta says those estimates of the death toll are exaggerated.

ASEAN's current chair Brunei said a non-political figure from Myanmar would be invited to the Oct. 26-28 summit, after no consensus was reached for a political representative to attend.

"As there had been insufficient progress... as well as concerns over Myanmar’s commitment, in particular on establishing constructive dialogue among all concerned parties, some ASEAN Member States recommended that ASEAN give space to Myanmar to restore its internal affairs and return to normalcy," Brunei said in a statement.

It did not mention Min Aung Hlaing or name who would be invited in his stead.

Brunei said some member states had received requests from Myanmar's National Unity Government, formed by opponents of the junta, to attend the summit.

'JUSTIFIED DOWNGRADE'

ASEAN has faced increasing international pressure to take a tougher stand against Myanmar, having been criticised in the past for its ineffectiveness in dealing with leaders accused of rights abuses, subverting democracy and intimidating political opponents.

A U.S. State Department official told reporters on Friday that it was "perfectly appropriate and in fact completely justified" for ASEAN to downgrade Myanmar's participation at the coming summit.

Singapore in its statement urged Myanmar to cooperate with ASEAN's envoy, Brunei's second foreign affairs minister Erywan Yusof.

Erywan has delayed a long-planned visit to the country in recent weeks and has asked to meet all parties in Myanmar, including deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who was detained in the coup.

Junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun said this week Erywan would be welcome in Myanmar, but would not be allowed to meet Suu Kyi because she is charged with crimes.


More than 760 junta soldiers and police plan to join the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) defying military rule since the declaration of a “people’s war” against the regime by the civilian National Unity Government (NUG) on Sept. 7.

In his speech on Sept. 7, the NUG’s acting president, Duwa Lashi La, urged anyone serving the regime, including soldiers and police, to leave their jobs, while calling on all citizens to revolt against military rule.

The NUG’s defense ministry said between Sept. 7 and Oct. 7, 429 regime soldiers and 334 police contacted People’s Embrace, a group formed by defectors helping personnel to abandon their posts, to join the CDM. But the ministry did not reveal how many have defected so far.

Former army captain Nyi Thuta of the People’s Soldier group, which helps military personnel to defect, recently told The Irrawaddy that large numbers of soldiers would defect in the face of determined resistance from the People Defense Forces (PDF).

Many soldiers and police are defecting each day by contacting the PDFs in their area.

Since Sept. 7, 21 police officers and nine soldiers in Chin State have joined the CDM through the Chinland Defense Force, according to the group.

A total of 350 police and 21 soldiers have now gone on strike against military rule in Chin State since the Feb. 1 coup.

High numbers of defections are also reported in Sagaing Region and Chin and Kayah states.

Around 320 police officers who defected from the junta’s Ministry of Home Affairs after the coup have formed a militia working with anti-regime groups in Kayah State.

Between February to August, around 2,000 soldiers and police officers have joined the CDM, said People’s Embrace.

Police Captain Khun Aung Ko Ko, who defected after the coup and has been helping other officers defect, recently told Radio Free Asia that around 6,000 police have defected since February.


 

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The United States said Friday it will send a delegation made up of officials from the State Department and its international development and other agencies to Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia next week as part of efforts to address the crisis in Myanmar triggered by a military coup in February.

The delegation led by State Department Counselor Derek Chollet, who serves as a policy adviser to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, will also make a stop in Japan on its way home to discuss Myanmar and challenges related to the Indo-Pacific, senior State Department officials said, adding that the details are yet to be decided.

During the trip to Southeast Asia, which will take place from Sunday to next Friday, the officials will seek to expand cooperation with U.S. allies and partners as well as to reinforce the role that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations plays in regional stability, the State Department said in a press release.

On the situation in Myanmar, they will reiterate the U.S. commitment to the people there and underscore that the international community, including neighboring countries, has an "urgent responsibility" to pressure the military regime to cease violence, release political prisoners and restore Myanmar to the path of democracy, it said.

In Thailand, Chollet and the team will also discuss cooperation on cross-border humanitarian aid for Myanmar.

The delegation's planned trip comes as ASEAN foreign ministers are making final arrangements not to invite Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, who led the coup that ousted Myanmar's elected government under civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, to the regional group's summit meeting later this month.

The decision to exclude Myanmar's military leader marks a historic shift for 10-member ASEAN from its principle of noninterference in the domestic affairs of member countries.

One of the senior State Department officials said Friday it "seems perfectly appropriate and, in fact, completely justified" for ASEAN to downgrade Myanmar's participation in upcoming meetings as the military junta "has so far been completely unwilling to productively engage with ASEAN to respond to the crisis."

"And so we are supporting all efforts to promote a just and peaceful resolution to the crisis, the restoration of democratic institutions, and we fully respect ASEAN's decisions there," the official said.


 

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Myanmar junta to free over 5,600 protesters to end turmoil after coup​

BY FRENCH PRESS AGENCY - AFP​

YANGON ASIA PACIFIC
OCT 18, 2021 8:55 AM GMT+3
Protesters run from tear gas fired by security forces, as some demonstrators also let off fire extinguishers, next to a barricade set up during the demonstration against the military coup in Mandalay, Myanmar, March 15, 2021. (AFP Photo )
Protesters run from tear gas fired by security forces, as some demonstrators also let off fire extinguishers, next to a barricade set up during the demonstration against the military coup in Mandalay, Myanmar, March 15, 2021. (AFP Photo )



Myanmar will release more than 5,000 people jailed for protesting against a February coup that ousted the civilian government, the country's junta chief said Monday.

A total of 5,636 prisoners will be freed to mark the Thadingyut festival later in October, Min Aung Hlaing said, days after he was excluded from a regional summit over his government's failure to defuse the bloody crisis.

Myanmar has been mired in chaos since the coup, with more than 1,100 civilians killed in a bloody crackdown on dissent and more than 8,000 arrested according to a local monitoring group.

More than 7,300 are currently behind bars across the country, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP).

The junta chief gave no details on who would be included in the list and prison authorities did not respond to Agence France-Presse (AFP) requests for comment.

Myanmar authorities released more than 2,000 anti-coup protesters from prisons across the country in July, including journalists critical of the military government.
Those still in custody include the American journalist Danny Fenster, who has been held since being arrested on May 24.

Junta shunned

The announcement of the amnesty comes after the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on Friday decided to exclude Min Aung Hlaing from an upcoming summit over the military government's handling of the crisis.

Foreign ministers of the bloc agreed that a "non-political representative" for Myanmar would be invited to the Oct. 26-28 summit instead.

The bloc, widely criticized as a toothless organization, took a strong stand after the junta rebuffed requests that a special envoy meet with "all stakeholders" in Myanmar – a phrase seen to include ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The statement noted "insufficient progress" in the implementation of a five-point plan agreed by ASEAN leaders in April to end turmoil following the coup.

The junta slammed the decision, accusing ASEAN of breaching its policy of noninterference in the domestic affairs of member states.

Myanmar, mostly ruled by the military since a 1962 coup, has been a thorn in ASEAN's side since it joined in 1997.

Min Aung Hlaing's administration has justified its power grab citing alleged vote rigging in last year's elections, which Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party won convincingly.

The coup snuffed out Myanmar's short-lived dalliance with democracy and 76-year-old Suu Kyi now faces a raft of charges in a junta court that could see her jailed for decades.

Last week her chief lawyer said he had been banned by the junta from speaking to journalists, diplomats or international organizations.

Nobel laureate Suu Kyi, who has spent much of her life resisting Myanmar's generals, is scheduled to testify in court for the first time later this month.

 

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A raid on a military outpost in Mandalay Region’s Natogyi Township last week left 11 soldiers dead and three others wounded, according to the group that carried out the attack.

The outpost, located at a school in the village of Su Phyu Kone and manned by 20 soldiers, came under attack by a group calling itself the Zero Guerrilla Force late last Friday.

Using handmade mortars and small arms, the group raided the outpost at around 10pm that night and killed an army captain and 10 others stationed there, the group’s leader told Myanmar Now.

The bodies of the casualties, including Capt Tun Tun Aung from Light Infantry Battalion 113, based in Meiktila, were collected by the military the next morning, he added.

A Facebook post that reported the incident the day after it occurred was later deleted after military supporters commented that the casualty figures were inaccurate.

“We later managed to get the exact number of casualties,” said the Zero Guerrilla Force leader, who asked not to be identified by name.

He added that the group has been carefully observing troop movements in the area amid a recent buildup of military forces.

“We have taken note of all the geographical information, all the entrances and exits, and we are watching their movements,” he said, noting that there are currently around 350 junta soldiers deployed around the village.

Local sources say that a number of arrests have been made since the raid, but the junta has yet to make a statement on the attack or its response.

Natogyi Township has seen a number of serious clashes in recent weeks. In late September, four members of a family living in the village of Shaw Hpyu, including an 18-month-old child, were killed by army shelling.

In addition to direct engagements with military forces in the area, the Zero Guerilla Force has also targeted suspected junta informants and communications towers operated by Mytel, a telecoms company partly owned by the Myanmar military.


 

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Myanmar’s military regime has ordered its troops to wipe out armed civilian resistance groups, at whose hands the junta’s forces have sustained considerable casualties, sources familiar with security affairs in Naypyitaw said.

The Irrawaddy has learned that the junta’s second most influential figure, Vice Senior General Soe Win, on Oct. 13 instructed commanders and all forces to annihilate the insurgent People’s Defense Forces (PDFs)—guerrilla-style resistance groups that have been active locally across the country with the common aim of toppling the regime.

Along with the annihilation order, Vice Snr-Gen Soe Win issued an order prohibiting villagers from having any contact with the PDFs, and for his troops “to inflict severe punishment to them if they don’t obey.”

The general, who is commander-in-chief of infantry forces and deputy to coup leader Min Aung Hlaing, told his subordinates to “find out and take action against the insurgents and PDF immediately” and “arrest all the people from their hideouts in villages.”

The junta has suffered an increasing number of attacks from the PDFs across Myanmar, especially since the country’s parallel National Unity Government (NUG) declared war on the regime early last month.

In recent months, Myanmar’s military has suffered considerable casualties when facing amateur PDF forces who are largely equipped with improvised weapons in Sagaing and Magwe regions, and Chin and Kayah states. The NUG’s Defense Ministry said there were 65 shootouts between the PDFs and regime forces in September. The ministry claimed 768 regime soldiers were killed while 164 civilians, including PDF members, lost their lives. The Irrawaddy has not been able to independently verify the numbers.

The military commanders are now applying the infamous “four cuts” strategy they used in ethnic states in the past. The strategy is to restrict access to food, funds, intelligence and recruits.

Analysts said the regime is facing a new kind of armed conflict that the military is not prepared to counter, and that the junta is incapable of containing the growing insurgency and resistance.

Since September, the military has deployed at least four battalions of reinforcements—around 3,000 soldiers—to Sagaing, the country’s most restive region, to conduct clearance operations against civilian resistance forces, according to local civilian armed groups.

In March and April, when the country saw protests in Yangon, Mandalay and Bago, security forces on the ground were instructed to wipe out anti-regime protesters wherever they encountered them, according to internal memos issued by the top military command in the country’s capital Naypyitaw and whose contents were divulged to The Irrawaddy.

“You must annihilate them when you face them,” reads an instruction dated April 11, because “rioters [the military’s euphemism for anti-regime protesters] have gone from peaceful demonstration to the level of armed conflict.”

That order was also issued by Vice Snr-Gen Soe Win, who is becoming an increasingly key figure in managing security forces in coordination with Bureau of Special Operations (BSO) chiefs across the country.


The Myanmar regime will not be invited to attend the upcoming G7-ASEAN foreign ministers meeting in person, the UK said on Tuesday. The UK is serving as the G7’s host nation this year.

It’s the second time the country’s military rulers have been shunned by the international community.

Last week the regime’s leader Min Aung Hlaing was excluded from the invitation list for a forthcoming summit organized by ASEAN, the Southeast Asian regional bloc of which Myanmar is a member, over the regime’s failure to implement steps agreed with the group in an effort to resolve the political crisis sparked by the military’s takeover in February.

In the British Parliament this week, Amanda Milling MP, the Foreign Office’s minister of state for Asia, replied to another lawmaker’s question as to whether the foreign minister of Myanmar will be attending the G7 ASEAN Foreign Ministers 2021 meeting.

Milling said the UK has invited ASEAN to the G7 Foreign and Development Ministerial Meeting in Liverpool in December as “a demonstration of our commitment to ASEAN and the Indo Pacific region.”

“The UK has been clear that the military regime in Myanmar is not welcome to attend in person. We note ASEAN’s decision not to invite Senior General Min Aung Hlaing to attend the ASEAN Leaders’ Summit,” she said.

The MP said the UK government condemned the military coup in Myanmar, the regime’s violence against its people and the detention of members of the civilian government and civil society, including State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and President U Win Myint.

“The UK will continue to work closely with ASEAN on our shared ambition of ending the crisis in Myanmar,” she added.

ASEAN has tried to mediate Myanmar’s bloody post-coup political crisis by appointing a special envoy for the country. But the regime has refused to collaborate with him, rejecting his request to meet with all of the key stakeholders in the country, including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.

Burma Campaign UK welcomed the British government’s statement on not inviting the junta to the meeting but expressed concern that this still leaves open the possibility that the military could attend via video call.

The British government has acted positively in its response to the coup by identifying and sanctioning sources of revenue to the military, and encouraging more countries to introduce arms embargos. The UK has brought in more rounds of targeted sanctions than any other country.

Anna Roberts, executive director of Burma Campaign UK, said not being invited to the G7 ASEAN summit in the UK was another blow to the efforts of the Myanmar military to gain international legitimacy following the coup.

“We urge them not to allow the military to take part via video link either. The military have no legitimacy as the representative of Burma [Myanmar] and should have no place at international diplomatic meetings,” she said.


The United States said it has reached a turning point in reaching its objectives to handle the crisis resulting from the Myanmar military’s Feb. 1 coup and pledged its continuous support to the Myanmar people through cooperation with regional countries.

During a trip this week to Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia, US State Department Counselor Derek Chollet, who led an interagency delegation, said Myanmar’s deteriorating situation has been the main focus of the team’s meetings with ASEAN partners at each stop.

The trip followed ASEAN’s decision last week not to invite the junta leader to its summit next week—a decision the US counselor said was “an example of how international pressure can make a difference.”

The counselor said the US and ASEAN countries agreed on the overall objectives of pushing the regime to put Myanmar back on the path to democracy, to cease the violence, and to release all those unjustly detained, and to adhere to ASEAN’s Five-Point Consensus set out in April.

Weighing the potential leverage offered by an array of economic, political and diplomatic tools, the counselor said, “We are at an inflection point on how to reach these objectives in Burma,” referring to the country by its former name.

“We are committed to the Burmese people for the long haul, both because it’s the right thing to do and because it is in our strategic interest. Working with our partners in ASEAN and the region must be at the center of our strategy,” he added.

“We do need to be realistic about the limited tools we have to influence the regime, but there are tools we have at our disposal, especially diplomatic pressure, that have helped us make some progress.”

The US is also “committed to staying deeply engaged” in resolving the Myanmar crisis as best it can and as long as it persists, Chollet told The Irrawaddy during a telephone press conference on Thursday.

The US is “in lockstep with our ASEAN partners” to provide humanitarian assistance to Myanmar’s people, as the humanitarian situation in Myanmar “is deteriorating rapidly,” he said.

The US and Thailand on Tuesday discussed providing critical humanitarian aid to the Myanmar people though the Thai-Myanmar border, while the US and Singapore discussed finding ways to limit the regime’s overseas financial assets on Wednesday.

“The confluence of the regime’s violent repression, the widespread prevalence of COVID-19, and a collapsing economy have really devastated the Burmese people and have put us at risk of seeing a failed state in the heart of Asia,” he said.

The US is consulting with its ASEAN partners to identify the potential impacts of using the tools at its disposal, the counselor said, adding that the US’s partnerships with ASEAN at the center will be critical to making progress in the restoration of democracy and freedom in Myanmar.

Kin Moy, principal deputy assistant secretary in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs at the US Department of State, said the US won’t pull the trigger “unilaterally”, adding that the delegation had held very close consultations and developed a list of tools during its trip.

He added, “it was very effective, wherever we seemed to go, there was quite a lot of interest in searching for tools that would have an impact.”

From February to date, the Myanmar junta has killed at least 1,183 civilians during lethal crackdowns against peaceful anti-regime protests and arrested more than 9,000 people, according to the advocacy group Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.

On Monday, junta chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing pardoned more than 5,600 political detainees, but at least 110 were rearrested within hours and days.

The US is also closely monitoring the detainees’ releases. The counselor said, “We’re skeptical that this is necessarily genuine and we’re also watching very carefully that this is just not an empty gesture that then is quickly reversed on the ground.”

The US also repeated its call for the release of the American journalist Danny Fenster, 37, who has been detained unjustly since May.

Chollet stressed that the international community has an “urgent responsibility” to pressure the military regime to cease violence, to release those unjustly detained and to respect the will of the Burmese people, who are demanding a return to democracy.

On its engagement with the parallel civilian National Unity Government (NUG), the US said it is “very supportive” of the efforts of the pro-democracy movement, including the NUG and others working to “peacefully restore Myanmar’s path to inclusive democracy.”


Numerous Myanmar junta soldiers have reportedly been killed or wounded in civilian resistance ambushes in Bago and Mandalay regions and Kayah State on Thursday.

At least three shootouts between regime troops and the combined Karenni Nationalities Defense Force (KNDF) and Karenni Army, the armed wing of the Karenni National Progressive Party, broke out in Bawlakhe and Hpruso townships in Kayah State on Thursday.

Some military vehicles were damaged by Karenni landmines, according to the KNDF. It said there were many military casualties and no injuries for Karenni forces.

On Thursday afternoon, two junta soldiers were killed in a blast near the university in Kayah State’s capital, Loikaw.

The KNDF’s Battalion 19 raided junta soldiers deployed at a monastery near a police station in Demoso on Thursday evening.

The KNDF said there were many junta casualties while its forces were unhurt.

It said junta troops randomly used artillery on surrounding villages.

More than 10 junta soldiers were reportedly killed or wounded in a People’s Defense Force (PDF) raid in Sintgaing Township, Mandalay Region, on Thursday morning.

The Kyaukse PDF used bombs against junta troops deployed at a hall in Ywarbo village in the township.

A resident told The Irrawaddy that more than 10 killed or injured soldiers were driven out of the village.

Residents said around 70 junta soldiers have been stationed at the village hall for two months.

At least five junta soldiers were reportedly killed after the Pyay Underground Force, a civilian resistance group, bombed a military checkpoint at a battalion headquarters in Pyay Township, Bago Region, on Thursday night.

With exception of Rakhine State, PDFs across the country continue to step up operations against the regime and junta-run businesses, including Mytel telecoms masts, factories and military products.

The regime is also facing fierce attacks by ethnic armed forces, including the Kachin Independence Army, Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army and the armed wing of the Karen National Union.

The junta’s deputy, Vice Senior General Soe Win, on Oct. 13 instructed the military to annihilate the PDFs and other guerrilla resistance groups.


Myanmar’s military regime may soon find it more difficult to access its financial assets in Singapore, following discussions between authorities there and US officials on how to partner effectively to wield the city state’s financial leverage over the junta.

Derek Chollet, counselor of the US Department of State, who was in Southeast Asia this week to work with regional countries to help restore democracy in Myanmar, had a meeting with the Monetary Authority of Singapore on Wednesday to discuss ways to limit the Myanmar military regime’s access to overseas financial assets. The counselor tweeted that the meeting was productive.

He said on Thursday that the city state has significant financial leverage over the regime, and this has to be a very important part of efforts to try to bring about greater pressure on the junta.

“We had very good discussions with our partners there about the way ahead and the way that we’re going to continue to work together as we seek to wield whatever leverage we can over the regime to put Burma back on the course of democracy,” he said during a telephone press briefing from Jakarta.

Singapore is the largest foreign investor in Myanmar and has become a preferred destination for Myanmar’s military rulers and their associates, who make periodic visits for medical trips, recreation or to squirrel their money away in various accounts under different names. Furthermore, some companies there have commercial ties with the Myanmar military junta and its conglomerates.

Since the coup in February, the Myanmar regime has been under international sanctions for overthrowing the country’s democratically elected government, killing more than 1,000 people and arresting thousands for opposing military rule in the country.

The US and other Western democracies have pressured the regime by singling out certain key individuals as well as entities to make it harder for them to transact business in the international community, forcing the regime to struggle with a hard currency shortage.

As a result, some Singaporean companies have become a lifeline for the junta by channeling money to it.

In February, for example, Justice For Myanmar reported that Singapore Stock Exchange (SGX)-listed Emerging Towns & Cities Singapore (ETC) made payments worth millions of dollars to the regime as the developer of the Golden City complex in Yangon. The land is owned by the military and ETC has a build-operate-transfer agreement with the Myanmar Army’s Quartermaster General’s Office.

According to ETC’s 2017 annual report, the Golden City deal with the military involves a “land use premium” payment of US$6.3 million, plus annual payments of $2.8 million, with exemptions on lease payments from 2013-16.

The total in payments to the military over the maximum 70-year term amounts to US$191.1 million.

As of Dec. 31, 2019, ETC had accrued US$32.185 million for land lease payments to the Myanmar army, the report says.

On Wednesday, Justice For Myanmar said a legal memorandum has found that international law and guidance places due diligence obligations on the SGX, and possible liability on the Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Singapore government, in relation to companies like ETC doing business with the Myanmar military.

The legal memo also raised the possibility of reputational and sanctions risks for the SGX, its regulator the Monetary Authority of Singapore, and by extension, the Singapore government, should it not prevent continued payments from ETC to the Myanmar army.

On Thursday, Chollet didn’t provide details when asked about the outcomes of his meeting with the Monetary Authority of Singapore on how to limit the junta’s access to overseas assets.

But he said, “Singapore has a very, very important role to play”, adding that they had very good discussions there on how to wield whatever leverage they could over the regime.



Advancing junta troops stopped in Chin

October 22, 2021

Civilian resistance fighters blew up a bridge on Hakha-Thantlang Road in Chin State on Thursday, blocking junta reinforcements advancing from Hakha to Thantlang. Junta troops are reportedly using civilians as human shields as they march to attack resistance bases in Chin State.

 
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Two army trucks were hit by landmines in Sagaing Region’s Htigyaing Township on Tuesday, resulting in multiple casualties, according to the Htigyaing People’s Defence Force (PDF).

The two trucks were travelling on the Htigyaing-Indaw road when the incident occurred a few miles from the town of Htigyaing at around 3pm, a spokesperson for the group said.

“One of the trucks was badly damaged. Many soldiers were injured and were sent to two hospitals in Htigyaing,” the spokesperson told Myanmar Now.

The number of casualties was unclear, he said, but added that as many as 20 soldiers may have been killed in the attack.

Although this figure could not be confirmed, hospital sources said that several soldiers receiving treatment at the Htigyaing Public Hospital and another 50-bed hospital located just outside of the town have died of their injuries.

Other sources in the area said that soldiers who survived the attack opened fire on the village of Sardwin as they retreated.

According to the sources, shots were fired at homes and a local monastery and community hall, and an artillery shell landed near the village school. It was unknown at the time of reporting if there were any civilian casualties.

The military has not released a statement on the attack, and the junta’s information officer has not responded to Myanmar Now’s efforts to reach him for comment.

Meanwhile, the Htyigyaing PDF claims that it also carried out an attack on an army fuel truck at around 3am on Wednesday. Myanmar Now has been unable to independently confirm this information.

On September 24, the Htigyaing PDF released a statement warning civilians not to use roads passing through the area after 8pm, as the group planned to escalate its attacks on regime forces.

On Sunday, three soldiers, including a major, were killed by landmine while travelling through Htyigyaing Township in civilian vehicles.

It has also been reported that regime forces have arrested at least 20 local people, including members of the ousted ruling party, the National League for Democracy, in recent days.



A soldier killed and another soldier confirmed severely injured in Sanchaung Vakra Chauk, North Dagon and South Dagon.

 
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