Burma Coup (I refuse to call it Myanmar)

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Have been watching this over the past couple of weeks. Interesting to see how it plays out.

https://www.irrawaddy.com/opinion/guest-column/revolution-and-the-escalating-collapse-of-myanmars-junta.html

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Mae Sot is probably my favorite place in SEA

Have spent a lot of time up there over the years

Ethnic Myanmar rebels and pro-democracy forces claim capture of key town on Thai border

• In short: Anti-junta forces claim to have taken control of the Myanmar township on the most important Thai-Myanmar border crossing.
• Control of the border crossing could give the rebel forces' finances a big boost while starving the military government of funds.  
• What's next? There are fears the junta could retaliate by attacking the town with air power and artillery causing a humanitarian catastrophe.

Ethnic guerilla fighters and pro-democracy forces have claimed an important victory after reportedly taking control of the major trading town on Myanmar's border with Thailand. 

However, observers are concerned the "humiliating" defeat will prompt a counteroffensive from the military junta that could have devastating consequences for the civilian population.

The Karen National Union (KNU), an ethnic-based group aligned with pro-democracy forces, claimed on Thursday to have eliminated the last remaining battalion of State Administrative Council (SAC) forces in the border township of Myawaddy overnight.

"At this time, all military council camps in Myawaddy have been attacked and occupied," the KNU said in a Facebook post.

"The remaining military council remains will continue to be cleared.

"The public is advised to cooperate without panic."

Around 200 fleeing soldiers were gathered at the border crossing bridge into Thailand, KNU spokesperson Saw Taw Nee told Reuters.

Local news outlet Khit Thit reported Thai authorities were in talks with the soldiers to decide whether to grant them refuge.

Thailand's military has stepped up security on its side of the border, deploying army vehicles equipped with roof-mounted machine guns.

A spokesperson for the Myanmar junta did not respond to Reuter's calls for comment.

At least 2,000 people have already been displaced within Myanmar by the latest round of fighting between the rebels and the military, according to civil society group Karen Peace Support Network.

Border crossings in the area were open for civilians who were arriving in Thailand from Myanmar in large numbers, said police official Borwornphop Soontornlekha, the immigration superintendent in Tak, the province on the Thai side of the border.

"Usually there are about 2,000 people who cross into Mae Sot from Myawaddy each day but the last three days the number was almost 4,000 a day," he told Reuters.

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-04-11/anti-junta-rebels-claim-capture-myanmar-border-crossing-myawaddy/103685700

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Myanmar Burmas's first election in five years begins – but experts warn it's a sham

 

Standing on a stage flanked by his party's signature red and yellow flags, Ko Ko Gyi made his case to a crowd of some 150 supporters.

"In our country, there is a word that many people are afraid to use — the word is 'revolution', he said.

"Many people feel uncomfortable even saying it. But in reality, a revolution simply means making an effort to move from an old situation to a new one."

The crowd, dressed in matching yellow shirts and hats handed out by the People's Party, listened quietly. In a country where revolutions have claimed tens of thousands of lives, the 'R' word caught their attention.

The civil war that won't get enough attention at ASEAN

Instead of talking about Myanmar, the US president and his regional counterparts will be congratulating themselves for helping Thailand and Cambodia strike a peace deal.

But Ko Ko Gyi, 64, is not calling for a revolt on the streets. He's calling on the people of Myanmar to revolt at the ballot box.

Five years after the military toppled a democratically elected government, imprisoned its leaders and triggered a civil war, the country is preparing to hold national elections beginning on December 28.

The junta claims the polls will return the South-East Asian nation to civilian rule, but the election has been widely dismissed by Western governments and civil rights groups as a sham, designed to keep the generals in power through their surrogate political parties.

Calls for a boycott have reverberated throughout the country. But the election has received unexpected support from Ko Ko Gyi, a candidate for the People's Party and one of Myanmar's most respected pro-democracy activists.

"If the people do not vote in the elections, the elections won't stop," he told the ABC, after speaking at a political rally on the outskirts of Myanmar's largest city, Yangon.

"This is not the best choice, but this is the pragmatic way forward," he said.

Supporters of the Union Solidarity and Development Party in Myanmar. (ABC News: Haidarr Jones)

The people of Myanmar 'want freedom'

Ko Ko Gyi's support for the election has surprised and divided the pro-democracy movement. While attending Yangon University, he led the 1988 student uprising against the military dictatorship. Since then, he has been dogged about his activism, spending over 17 years behind bars between 1989 and 2012 after being jailed multiple times.

But following the 2021 coup, he stunned many by publicly engaging with the junta and meeting with the military's Commander-in-Chief, Min Aung Hlaing.

Armed police and military are a common sight in Myanmar. (ABC News: Haidarr Jones)

"We cannot watch our country collapse", he said. "Right now, all the power is in the hands of the commander-in-chief. After the election, at least power will be shared between the legislative, executive and the judiciary branches. Then our elected representatives will have a chance to talk or to complain about the situation."

'This is a trap' 

Ko Ko Gyi described his approach as "pragmatic", but many of his peers in the pro-democracy movement believe it is naive.

Even as the military touts the upcoming polls to foreign governments and journalists, it continues to imprison political leaders from the government it deposed, including Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who led the National League for Democracy (NLD) party.

She is one of around 22,600 political prisoners currently in detention in Myanmar, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.

In August, UN investigators said summary executions and the "systematic torture" of detainees, including burning of genitals, gang-rape, beatings and electrocution, were part of "a pattern of atrocities" across the country.

Naw Susanna Hla Hla Soe says this is a "sham election". (ABC News: Haidarr Jones)

"Everyone knows it — this is a sham election. Don't trick yourself," said Naw Susanna Hla Hla Soe, who was elected to parliament in 2015 and 2020 on the NLD's ticket.

She managed to escape Yangon following the coup as her peers and party leaders were being rounded up by authorities, and now serves as the Minister of Women, Youths and Children Affairs in the National Unity Government (NUG), a government-in-exile formed by ousted lawmakers resisting the 2021 coup.

"The people of Myanmar, they want democracy, they want freedom. They want development and prosperity," she told the ABC.

"This is a trap. It will only pull people into another era of dictatorship," she said.

A political poster in Myanmar promoting the Myanmar Farmers Development Party. (ABC News: Haidarr Jones)

Civil war ongoing

Yet, the most damning indictment of the elections remains the brutal civil war that engulfed much of the country since the military seized power.

Independent conflict monitor, ACLED, estimates that at least 80,000 have been killed in conflict-related violence since 2021. Some 3.6 million people have been displaced from their homes because of relentless air and drone strikes carried out by the junta as it tries to claw back territory from the thousands of ethnic armies and militia groups now fighting across the country.

Soldiers in Myanmar still patrol the streets. (ABC News: Haidarr Jones)

Any hope that the upcoming elections will put an end to the conflict has dissipated with aerial strikes jumping by around 30 per cent compared to last year, according to ACLED.

Just this month, the military's indiscriminate bombardments levelled a 300-bed hospital in Rakhine State, killing at least 30 people, in what the World Heath Organisation estimated is the 67th attack on a health facility in Myanmar this year.

Social media to play a part

Despite the regime's success in blocking social media and stifling the local press, word of the military's brutality has spread to urban centres like Yangon, creating an atmosphere of fear and intimidation ahead of the polls.

The ABC attempted to interview a number of voters on camera about the elections, but most people were too scared to speak publicly.

A young woman who we'll call 'Joy' asked us if she could speak frankly.

"I think I will have to go and vote. I don't think it will be OK not to vote," she said.

The election is of particular importance to the young people of Myanmar. (ABC News: Haidarr Jones)

"I have a younger brother at home whose age is within the age limit for conscription. I'm afraid that something bad might happen if I don't vote."

'Ko Kyaw Swear', not his real name, agreed to speak to us anonymously and only over the phone.

"In the cities and urban areas, it may seem normal in Myanmar. But even in some places in Yangon, they are arresting people at night," he said.

"I think the military is trying to do this election because they want to pretend like they are fair. They are trying to cover up their brutality, and everybody knows this is a sham election."