Category: ASEAN

Opponents of military rule in Myanmar have criticized the possibility that Thailand will help conduct a census in preparation for an election that the Myanmar junta has promised but which critics say will be an illegitimate sham. The possibility of Thai support for Myanmar’s Oct. 1-15 census and for an election next year was discussed by the Thai  ambassador, Mongkol Visitstump, and the head of Myanmar’s Election Commission, Ko Ko, and Immigration and Population Minister Myint Kyaing in Myanmar’s capital of Naypyidaw on Aug. 7, junta-backed media reported. Myanmar’s military ousted an elected government led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi in early 2021, jailing her and hundreds of party colleagues and supporters, dissolving her party and banning other parties.  The junta has promised to hold elections but critics say a vote would be meaningless with Suu Kyi and so many pro-democracy politicians and activists in jail. A spokesman for a civilian shadow government largely made up of politicians from Suu Kyi’s party told Radio Free Asia the international community, including Thailand, should focus on restoring human rights and stability, not supporting any “illegitimate” junta plan. “I would request the international community not to support and help this illegitimate Myanmar military junta against the will of the people,” said Kyaw Zaw, spokesperson for the Office of the President of the National Unity Government, or NUG. “This is a time for the international community to support Myanmar people and Myanmar people’s resistance against the fascist military and prepare for the post-military era,” he said.  Thailand’s embassy in Myanmar and its Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not respond to requests for comment.  Thailand has been at the forefront of efforts to press Myanmar’s rivals into resolving their differences peacefully.  RELATED STORIES Myanmar junta orders its workers to pay it part of their Thai wages Thailand should end Myanmar junta’s control over migrants: NUG Thailand’s offer of aid to Myanmar gets mixed reaction It says that it is the country that shares the longest border with Myanmar, and which has for decades served as home for hundreds of thousands refugees fleeing conflict  in Myanmar, it has a particular interest in seeing stability restored. But despite the efforts of Thailand and its neighbors in the Association of South East Asian Nations, fighting has escalated as  junta forces face battlefield setbacks in several parts of the country. ‘Step up attacks’ Kyaw Zaw said the junta had no ability to conduct a “meaningful, useful census,” and that the international community should focus on other human rights and development efforts.  The junta has not set a date for an election but the earliest would be early next year. Under the constitution, an election must be held within six months of a state of emergency being lifted. A state of emergency in effect since the early 2021 coup was extended for another six months on Aug. 1.  The junta chief, Sen. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, has said an election will be held in 2025 but acknowledged that voting in some places may not be possible in the absence of “peace and stability”. Insurgents control 73 towns across the country, according to data from the Myanmar Peace Monitor.  A political observer close to one of Myanmar’s most powerful ethnic minority insurgent groups, the Arakan Army, dismissed the possibility of an effective census and election given the amount of territory the insurgents control, adding that attempts by the junta to organize a vote would likely only exacerbate the fighting. “It is very likely that [they] will step up attacks on the liberated areas, especially targeting the civilians as collective punishment,” said the political observer, who declined to be identified given the sensitivity of the issue. The Arakan Army controls nine townships in Rakhine state in western Myanmar as well as territory in neighboring Chin state. “Neighboring countries should speak out, that the SAC needs to stop attacks on civilians and initiate dialogue and only then can genuine elections come out of these,” he said, referring to the junta, which is officially known at the State Administration Council. Edited by Taejun Kang.

Myanmar junta forces shelled a village in the Sagaing region killing four people, residents said, in the latest attack in an anti-insurgent campaign in which hundreds of homes have been torched and thousands of villagers have been displaced, residents said on Friday. The central Sagaining region, largely populated by members of the majority Burman community, has seen some of the worst of the violence that has engulfed Myanmar since the military overthrew an elected government in early 2021. Outraged by the coup and a subsequent crackdown that shattered hopes for reform, pro-democracy activists from towns and cities, and central rural areas that had been largely peaceful for decades, have taken up arms to fight to end military rule. Sagaing has become a hotbed of dissent and junta forces have responded with full force, including airstrikes and shelling that have killed hundreds of civilians and raids in which villages have been largely destroyed and residents detained and tortured. Residents of the arid heartland region told Radio Free Asia that junta forces shelled Yinmarbin township’s Htan Taw Gyi village, about 125 kilometers (77 miles) west of the city of Mandalay, on Wednesday night for no apparent reason, killing four civilians and wounding six. The fire from the junta camp about eight kilometers (five miles) away hit the eastern part of the village, said one resident, who declined to be identified for security reasons.  “Three people died on the spot. Seven people were wounded but one of them died in the morning, so four people have died in total. There was no battle at that time,” said the resident. RFA telephoned the Sagaing region’s junta spokesperson, Nyunt Win Aung, for comme but he did not answer the phone. Residents identified the four people killed as Myint Than Aung, Phyo Zaya, Pho Thet Wai and Hlwan Moe, all aged between 20 and 40.   The injured were receiving medical care, residents said, without giving details. Junta spokesmen have denied targeting civilians but insurgents say the military has for decades cared little about civilian casualties as it tries to cut rebel forces off from civilian populations that sympathize with the rebels’ cause. Related stories: Thousands flee junta raids in central Myanmar Junta military preparations point to brutal next phase of Myanmar conflict More than 100,000 displaced by Myanmar conflict in two weeks Homes burned Independent verification of accounts related by residents is almost impossible but the evidence suggests junta operations in Sagaing have resulted in widespread dislocation of civilian populations and destruction. Residents of Kanbalu township, to the north of  Yinmarbin, estimated that a junta operation there had forced about 30,000 people from their homes since a July 24 attack by a pro-democracy militia on a junta force post in Kyi Kone village. Fighters armed with homemade or looted weapons in what are known as People’s Defense Forces, or PDFs, regularly raid outposts and ambush forces throughout the country. The July raid by the Kanbalu-based PDF sparked a junta sweep of some 20 villages in which an estimated 400 homes have been torched, residents said.  About 70 soldiers stationed in Bo Te Kone and Min Kone villages had torched numerous homes, said one villager who fled the crackdown. The displaced were struggling to make do outdoors in the rainy season, too fearful to venture back to their villages to see what remained, he said. “The weather is not good so our health is affected. We had no time to carry food or drinks with us when we ran, so we’re having a hard time,” said the villager, who also declined to be identified. Junta forces have burned 95,450 civilian homes across Myanmar since the coup, according to the independent research group Data for Myanmar. Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Kiana Duncan.