Headlines Burma ( yes Aung san says you can say Burma)

Yeah, that place out 'there'. Anything not really Cambodia related should go here.
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phuketrichard
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Re: Headlines Burma ( yes Aung san says you can say Burma)

Post by phuketrichard »

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Killings, abductions, imprisonment still going on;;

Two good reads:

Myanmar refugees in Thailand endure resettlement wait
Refugees who fled a military crackdown in Myanmar face a precarious situation in Thailand as they wait for resettlement in a third country.
............
Unable to safely go back to Myanmar or to stay legally in Thailand, which does not recognise refugees living outside of camps, they are among 288 refugees from Myanmar who were referred by the UNHCR in Thailand to the governments of third countries for resettlement consideration since the beginning of 2021, according to the UNHCR’s online database. This number may also include refugees who crossed into Thailand before the coup, having fled former waves of persecution and violence.

The resettlement screening process has no fixed timeline, and some of the families with whom Al Jazeera spoke said that they began the process more than a year ago. While they wait, they rarely venture beyond the perimeter of their compound due to their undocumented status.
.....Nearly 800,000 people have fled their homes since the coup, according to a UN monthly humanitarian update published in June, which identifies 758,000 people displaced within Myanmar and 40,000 who crossed into India.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/7/8 ... ement-wait

Myanmar, Thai militaries in cahoots
The recent incursion by a Myanmar MiG-29 fighter jet into Thai airspace is par for the course in the intimate ties between the militaries of both countries. Myanmar's military, also known as the Tatmadaw, in fact wants to be more like its Thai counterpart. The Royal Thai Armed Forces, on the other hand, may end up later having to be more like the Tatmadaw to maintain its role and rule in politics. These two militaries together pose a litmus test for states and societies everywhere. If the popular will and public interest can be systematically stolen and subverted in this corner of the globe, it can happen anywhere.

.......
As prime minister and defence minister, Gen Prayut cannot avoid scrutiny and responsibility. His rule since seizing power eight years ago was supposed to prioritise security over prosperity and open society. If he can't even keep Thais safe from foreign forces, what's he good for?

Second, apart from allowing Thailand's sovereignty and territorial integrity to be compromised, the Thai government became complicit in helping the Tatmadaw terrorise its own people. It is common knowledge that Myanmar is gripped by a nasty and brutal civil war where a civilian-led nationwide uprising and the parallel National Unity Government are standing up and putting their lives on the line against Myanmar's military and the SAC. If Thailand wants to be neutral and impartial in its next-door neighbour's internal fight to the death, we should not be assisting and abetting the Tatmadaw's military offensives in any shape or form. Letting Myanmar's air force attack an opposition group from Thai territory is indefensible, putting Thailand in a tight diplomatic spot.

Third, the humanitarian ramifications are far-reaching. The more than 2,400 kilometres of porous border between Thailand and Myanmar is the last refuge for Myanmar people fleeing from violence and gun battles. If the Tatmadaw can use Thai air space along the border for bombing runs and ground attacks, there will be nowhere to seek safety for adversely affected innocent civilians. As a safe-haven country for internal conflicts next door in recent decades, Thailand has earned diplomatic capital and a favourable international reputation as a result. The military-military ties with the Tatmadaw therefore undermine Thailand's international standing.

Finally, there is more to this incursion than meets the eye. The cooperation between the Tatmadaw and the Thai military has political consequences. The military-backed. Prayut-led Thai government's support for Snr Gen Min Aung Hlaing and the SAC goes against the sanctions and preferences of the international community and Asean's own efforts to find a peaceful way out of the Myanmar morass through mediation and dialogue. The Thai military also gains more authoritarian momentum and justification if it is not the only regime in the neighbourhood to subvert popular legitimacy.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opi ... in-cahoots
In a nation run by swine, all pigs are upward-mobile and the rest of us are fucked until we can put our acts together: not necessarily to win, but mainly to keep from losing completely. HST
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Re: Headlines Burma ( yes Aung san says you can say Burma)

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An American artist David Richards who spent most of his last 10 years in Myanmar, witnessing the transition to democracy and then the coup that ended it, has returned to Phnom Penh, where he lived previously, and spoke with The Diplomat’s Luke Hunt about life in Myanmar post-coup, the tragedies of the military takeover, and the difficulties confronting ordinary people when the tanks rolled onto the streets of Yangon more than a year ago.

Click on the audio file just under the headline and byline to listen to the 34-minute long interview.

An American Artist Who Stayed Behind in Myanmar
A conversation with David Richards about life under the junta

https://thediplomat.com/2022/07/an-amer ... n-myanmar/
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Re: Headlines Burma ( yes Aung san says you can say Burma)

Post by Anchor Moy »

The deaths of four pro-democracy activists were announced on Monday, after they were executed in secret. Their families were not informed that the executions were imminent.

Myanmar junta executes democracy activists in first such killings in decades
Democracy figures, including a former lawmaker in Aung San Suu Kyi’s party, executed after being accused of carrying out ‘terror acts’
Rebecca Ratcliffe and Maung Moe
Mon 25 Jul 2022 05.35 BST

Myanmar’s junta has executed four prisoners, including a former lawmaker from Aung San Suu Kyi’s party, according to state media, in the country’s first use of capital punishment in decades.

The four men, including former legislator Phyo Zeya Thaw and prominent democracy activist Kyaw Min Yu, known as Jimmy, had been sentenced to death in January in closed trials.

On Monday, the junta-controlled Global New Light of Myanmar said that the sentences had been carried out. The men had been accused of conspiring to commit terror acts, it said. Local media reported that the families of the men had travelled to Insein Prison, in Yangon, demanding to see their loved one’s bodies.

Aung Myo Min, human rights minister of the National Unity Government (NUG), which was formed by elected lawmakers, ethnic minority representatives and activists, said he was extremely saddened to hear of the executions. “What else do we need to prove how cruel the murderous Myanmar’s military is?”, he said.

Many in Myanmar turned their social media profile pictures black and red, in a show of mourning.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/ ... tate-media
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Re: Headlines Burma ( yes Aung san says you can say Burma)

Post by phuketrichard »

the 4
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"Promises were supposedly made these executions - which could constitute a war crime and crime against humanity - would not take place."

"Junta leaders are again telling the world they refuse dialogue"
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People protest in the wake of executions in Yangon on Monday in this screen grab obtained from a social media video. (Lu Nge Khit via Reuters photo)
WASHINGTON: The United States on Monday said there can be no "business as usual" with Myanmar's ruling military following its execution of four democracy activists, adding that all options were on the table as it considered further measures to punish the junta.

Speaking at a regular press briefing, US State Department spokesperson Ned Price called on countries to ban sales of military equipment to Myanmar and refrain from any action that would lend the junta any international credibility.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/23 ... ycBLqfwBHU

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stay strong
In a nation run by swine, all pigs are upward-mobile and the rest of us are fucked until we can put our acts together: not necessarily to win, but mainly to keep from losing completely. HST
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phuketrichard
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Re: Headlines Burma ( yes Aung san says you can say Burma)

Post by phuketrichard »

this will only inflame the locals> i expect more protests to follow
https://www.bangkokpost.com/vdo/world/2 ... M-D79hhHZU
In a nation run by swine, all pigs are upward-mobile and the rest of us are fucked until we can put our acts together: not necessarily to win, but mainly to keep from losing completely. HST
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Re: Headlines Burma ( yes Aung san says you can say Burma)

Post by phuketrichard »

from June when it was first announced they would invoke the death penalty
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Four deaths may seem like just a drop in the junta’s bucket of blood but let us not forget there are over 70 people on death row, including two under the age of 18, and thousands in custody. If the military were to go through with four executions there would be nothing stopping it from killing the rest, or from doling out death sentences to other political prisoners.

Using the death penalty is also symbolically provocative on a number of levels. For starters, it’s a violation of Buddhism’s first precept to refrain from killing. Of the seven majority Buddhist countries, Cambodia, Bhutan and Mongolia have banned capital punishment, while Sri Lanka and Laos have it on the books but haven’t used it in decades. Myanmar also belongs to this latter category, with the last confirmed judicial execution taking place in 1977, although it is believed others were carried out in the 1980s. Resuming capital punishment would violate what has essentially become a national taboo, showing a disregard for both the religion and the culture the military purports to protect.
https://www.frontiermyanmar.net/en/edit ... ns-itself/
In a nation run by swine, all pigs are upward-mobile and the rest of us are fucked until we can put our acts together: not necessarily to win, but mainly to keep from losing completely. HST
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Re: Headlines Burma ( yes Aung san says you can say Burma)

Post by Bongmab69 »

I got a couple of days ago from a myanmar travel agent, that "probably" the indian border could open before december, thai side is open already, then i could be having a drink in phnom penh at X-mas day, and some guys told me last year they would buy me a beer if i dropped in some local riverside-watering-hole, with my belgian car. But this is bad news for my overland-trip. Anyway,i will leave my country in 5 weeks !! Who nows where i will be next X-mas !! ?? SJookaamooi !!
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Re: Headlines Burma ( yes Aung san says you can say Burma)

Post by phuketrichard »

Bongmab69 wrote: Tue Jul 26, 2022 3:54 pm I got a couple of days ago from a myanmar travel agent, that "probably" the indian border could open before december, thai side is open already, then i could be having a drink in phnom penh at X-mas day, and some guys told me last year they would buy me a beer if i dropped in some local riverside-watering-hole, with my belgian car. But this is bad news for my overland-trip. Anyway,i will leave my country in 5 weeks !! Who nows where i will be next X-mas !! ?? SJookaamooi !!
Dont know where you got ur news but
Thai/Burmese land borders are NOT open to anyone except Thais & Burmese
and with what just happened ( see above) cant see them opening anytime soon
In a nation run by swine, all pigs are upward-mobile and the rest of us are fucked until we can put our acts together: not necessarily to win, but mainly to keep from losing completely. HST
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Misreading the room: Why HE is failing on Myanmar

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Did He accomplish anything as head of ASEAN?
When Cambodian Prime Minister HE became the first head of state to visit Myanmar since the military seized power in a coup last year, he seemed to think he would be able to bring the generals back into the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) despite the country’s worsening humanitarian crisis.

“I am thinking whether we should keep ASEAN nine or ASEAN 10, because, in the recent ASEAN Summit, we have only nine, this is a problem,” he said ahead of the January trip.

In an unprecedented move, the group excluded Myanmar’s coup leaders from its annual summit and a special summit with China in 2021, because they failed to make progress on an ASEAN-brokered peace plan, which included an end to violence and negotiations with all parties.
Many feared HE would try to rehabilitate the military and its leader, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing – his visit was met with protests and statements of condemnation – but he came away empty-handed.

In February, a frustrated HE said there were only 10 and a half months left of his 12-month tenure as ASEAN chairman, and suggested the next chair, Indonesia, should solve the crisis.

“I’m in a situation where I’m damned if I do and damned if I don’t, so just let it be,” he complained.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/3/3 ... on-myanmar
In a nation run by swine, all pigs are upward-mobile and the rest of us are fucked until we can put our acts together: not necessarily to win, but mainly to keep from losing completely. HST
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Re: Misreading the room: Why HE is failing on Myanmar

Post by John Bingham »

Yes, I'm really surprised he couldn't sort out the civil war that's been going on since 1948.
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